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Louisiana has a better national reputation than Alabama does though. I can get over the whole not getting credit for Mardi Gras thing. Mardi Gras is not really a matter of importance to people not from this region, so I shouldn't expect any different. The image that most people have of Alabama is of this monolithic Southern Baptist state, they think of Wallace's stand in the schoolhouse door, and they think it's a bunch of backwoods hicks.

I'm familiar with Louisiana, because honestly, where I'm from, our culture is more akin to Louisiana then it is the state we're in. (Take a wild guess where I'm from). The problem is people like to stereotype large swaths of territory they're unfamiliar with, they accept is as gospel, and when anyone trys to contradict them, it's like their little world falls apart. I grew up with no misconceptions about New Orleans, then again, prior to Katrina, I could get from my house to downtown New Orleans in about 2 and a half hours.

Trust me, I'm fully aware of stereotyping. I always get approached with it when I go out of town on a business trip and start talking about Mardi Gras. These people are shocked to find out that not many people here fit their stereotype of what Alabama was supposed to be. And I've found it odd that it's perfectly o.k to stereotype Southerners, but apparently, no where else in the country really fits into a stereotypical behavior.

AZ5691,

I was born in NOLA and grew up across the lake and have fond memories from childhood making trips into the city when it was safe to go virtually anywhere without fearing for your life. This was during the fifties and sixties.

In the seventies I married and moved into the city a block off of Carrollton Ave. near St. Charles. By that time I had learned that living any further than three blocks from a major thoroughfare your risk to life, limb or property had greatly increased. We moved as soon as we could afford to (late seventies).

The 'burbs afforded a bit more safety, but the city was in
great decline by then.

We left the NO area after my wife had to start hiring armed guards to escort her into certain areas while providing healthcare for residents of gov't provided housing. Haven't regretted a minute since. Except for the food at the neighborhood restaurants that I'm pretty sure have gone the way of my childhood memories.

We've lived in rural WI, semi-rural AR, and now outside of Mobile since then. ALL people and places are stereotyped. Some inhabitants are embarrassed, some embrace and are empowered by those stereotypes. The stereotype can bestow a colloquial, regional, even familiar pride if it is one that can be embraced by self-assured people who have little to be ashamed of.

I love being called a redneck because I know my ancestors' necks were reddened by long hours under the hot Southern sun earning a living however meager. I'm proud to be called a coonass because it ties me to my roots where my ancestors had to eat anything that didn't eat them first just to survive. I'm happy to be called an honorary cheesehead or Arkie because I'm proud to have been accepted by the folks who grew up in those places and are as proud of their heritage as I am of mine.

I used to teach in the Ninth Ward back in the early Seventies and if you got away from Desire and Florida projects,most of the folks in the Ninth were hard working people working the usual array of menial jobs available to blacks at the time who had very little education.
Even Desire had a lot of great kids coming out of it back then.They had it hard but were determined to break the cycle of"Mr. Welfare and Mr. Food Stamp",as they labeled the meager government checks they lived on.Then the crack monster hit and "it was on from dusk till dawn".I came back to The Bay by the late Seventies but I still keep in touch with a few of my old students.Some are doing way better than the expectations both white society and other blacks had of their future.

And I've found it odd that it's perfectly o.k to stereotype Southerners, but apparently, no where else in the country really fits into a stereotypical behavior.

Really?

Ever seen the movie "Fargo" ? ( even though Fargo is in ND, not MN, where the story takes place..)
Even Minnesotans laugh at the "yah, yah shure" conversations, the "Olie Olafson" scandinavian accents, etc...

Having grown up in ND, I'm familiar with people thinking we still deal with Indian ( Native American ) uprisings, and herd sheep and cattle for a living, drive tractors instead of cars, you name it..
Further west, ( Montana, Wyoming ) the cowboy mythos comes out even more.. Gritty, Randolph Scott characters, that punctuate sentences with "Ma'am" or "Pardner"...

Stereotypes are much the matter of perspective..
Try being from California, and saying "Dude" even once..
Note the raised eyebrows, the exchange of knowing glances...
Yo, surfer guy..