And I’ve lived in the south my entire life and have most certainly seen and heard plenty or northerners made fun of. It goes both ways. And southerners do call themselves “Southerners” - they definitely distinguish between themselves and damn Yankees. Though I don’t see as much now as in the '80s and early '90, I also don’t socialize with the same people anymore.
I’m unaware of anyone ever saying racism is exclusive to the south (though undoubtedly, someone out there has been stupid enough to say it). But the south is where it was codified into law and businesses had to be segregated even if they didn’t want to. And where anti-miscegenation laws were last overturned, and that was only by Supreme Court, not will of the people. Look the most recent times a third party has taken states in the Electoral College - pro-segregation candidates taking southern states. 1948, 1960, and 1968. Hell, last year was visiting with family and they said how they were A-Okay with explicitly racist remarks by elected official and laughed and enjoyed reading the old wills of ancestors bequeathing slaves. Never hear that at work, but get with a “safe” group and I hear it (unfortunately, the one I’m most commonly around - once a year or so - is relatives that I don’t see often, but knew when I was <10 and they just think I must think how they do, I guess).
And it’s not just racism, as far as discrimination goes. Look at polls on same-sex marriage. Here’s one, and looks who’s most opposed.
And other science things influenced by Bible when they shouldn’t be - Dixie does poorly on teaching evolution, though certainly not the only area that does. Saw a poll on percentage believing in “created in current form” (not consistent with what scientists in the field say) and the only state with >40% polled that believed it and wasn’t part of Confederacy - West Virginia.
Yes, and the South also gave us Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. The equivocation between the South with white supremacists is itself a byproduct of white supremacy, which discounts the contributions of black Southerners as though they’re irrelevant or other.
I am not saying you’re a white supremacist, obviously–but please be careful the way you talk about the South, please be sure you’re including all southerners, not just racist white southerners, in your judgment.
If you were paying any kind of attention, you may have noticed that I didn’t by barge in here hollering (or start a thread titled)“Why does everybody hate Kansas???”
It’s supposed to be in the 30s-40s this week – and we saw some snowflakes today!!!
The stuff you get in the store doesn’t count. But you can get actual moonshine in the non-south as well. People make it all over the country. My cousin’s father in law knows a guy and they get it from there. (The one time I had it, you’d have sworn you were drinking Kool-Aid, there was absolutely no alcohol taste whatsoever)
Well, we kinda HAD TO, didn’t we? It’s not like the heroes of the southern civil rights activism were going to come out of Vermont.
Also, not sure we deserve credit for creating the heroes of the uprising against the very civil rights abuses that we created in the first place.
(Yes, racism existed outside the south, duh, but it was/is uniquely woven in the sociopolitical and legal fabric of the South. There’s a non-trivial population of Southerners who would cheerfully return to Jim Crow if given the opportunity. I know Northerners who apparently moved to the South for the warm winters and racism).
I can’t say I dislike everything. Fried chicken, for example. Politeness, always saying “sir” and “ma’am”, and “Don’t call me Mister Jones, that’s my daddy!” We owe a lot of our music to the south, the blues is not only a great genre in its own but it gave birth to rock. Not to say I’m a fan of the south, here’s my dislikes:
Right wing politics. There are a ton of single-issue (mostly abortion) voters down there, Republicans exploit the hell out of them in their continuing efforts to make sure that millionaires stop paying taxes.
Weather. I hate heat, I hate summer, I hate humidity, I hate bugs. Down there, they never end.
The SEC. They think they’re all that, but they benefit from having the pollsters in their back pocket plus their penchant for playing cupcake schedules.
Militarism and hyper-patriotism. The south seems disproportionately represented in the military, and there seems to be more soldier worship and thirst for war down there.
Evangelical Christians. They just seem to be more in your face down there and a lot more involved in politics than they should be. Which wouldn’t be nearly so loathsome if they weren’t backing guys like Moore and that sexual predator in the White House.
Red state mooching. They take in more from the feds than they pay for, yet are the first to call for downsizing the government so that “those other people” aren’t getting the help they need.
Who’s “we”? Are you telling me that black Southerners can’t feel pride in Rosa Parks, that the local NAACP chapters and CORE and SCLC folks don’t get to take credit for one of the most successful nonviolent social movements in the history of our species? Or are you saying sure, but they’re not real Southerners? Or are you saying that credit or blame for individuals should be apportioned along racial lines? Or are you saying something else?
From a mile away, what you’re saying looks reasonable; but when you zoom in, I think it betrays exactly the sort of unpleasant assumptions that plague so much analysis of our country, assumptions rooted in a white supremacist narrative.
can we please just “agree to disagree” about this? Every region of this country has some appeal to someone, and this repetitive self-congratulatory “I’m awesome simply because of the patch of dirt I happen to exist on right now” is getting really tiring.
You’ve misrepresented everything I said and shifted the goalposts so fast that there’s nothing stationary to rebut. I don’t care to engage this kind of bad faith.
It’s your mind; you can stuff it with whatever incorrect thoughts you care to invent. I leave you to it.
Politics aside, I kind of like living in a part of the country where the mosquitos, ticks, and other biting critters have to take a three or four month Time Out. Also, I find snapping turtles sufficiently horrific, so I’d rather not live in a place where actual prehistoric lizards could be lurking in the ponds and creeping around the golf courses.
When my family moved to Maryland from Upstate NY in 1972, it certainly felt very Southern. Plus, it’s South of the Mason-Dixon line. I have a feeling that the character of the state may have changed over the past 40 years more than the states of the “Deep South.”
