Posted on 03/20/2002 8:52:19 AM PST by Vulpes
Los Angeles, Calif. -- The South not only bears the burden of a negative history, but also serves as a foil for the aspiration and image of the American identity, according to a Penn State geographer.
"The South as a geographic idea -- the identity of the South -- typically stands for a set of negative characteristics," says David R. Jansson, graduate student in geography.
These characteristics include racism, violence, poverty and xenophobia. While those outside the South embrace these attributes for the South, the Southern population also adopts this image as its own burden to bear. While there is some truth to this Southern characterization, the rest of America has perhaps perpetrated it more as a way to establish an American identity.
"American national identity is created in part through representing the South as the exclusive location in the U.S. of this set of negative characteristics," Jansson told attendees at the 98th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Los Angeles today (March 20). "By representing the South as backward, racist, violent, intolerant and poor, America comes to know itself as progressive, enlightened, peaceful, tolerant and prosperous." He adds that when an incidence of racism occurs in the North, it is viewed as an aberration, something outside the normal. However, if that same act occurred in a Southern state, it would be no more than the expected status quo. Racism and poverty are not what America is, but it is what the South is perceived to be, according to the Penn State researcher.
Part of this dichotomy occurred when historians wrote slavery out of the history of the North. Once slavery was banned outside the Southern states, it was no longer an element of the Northern psyche. Historians erased Black Northerners from the history books along with the Northern slaves, Jansson says.
"The standard history of American slavery taught in the schools ignores the reliance of the North on Southern slavery," says Jansson. "Thus while the South is burdened with its history, the national story of America is one of steady progress and triumph."
The burden of Southern history is not necessarily a bad thing for the South, as it puts the population on notice that people can do bad things and that historically bad things happened. Unfortunately for the rest of America, when such things as poverty, racism and intolerance are deemed to occur in the South and not the rest of the country, it makes the American public less able to see what is going on in their own backyard, says the Penn State researcher.
"When we spatialize human flaws by claiming that things like racism and poverty are inherently Southern, we erase these problems form the national identity, impairing our ability to recognize their existence outside the South," Jansson says. "Racism and poverty exist everywhere in the U.S., and if we blind ourselves to this reality by assuming these are Southern problems, we help perpetuate injustice rather than stamp it out."
Several Black friends told me that they would much rather deal with a Southerner than a Yankee. The reason all of them gave was that with a Southerner a Black knew where he stood. With a Yankee, they were always wondering where they stood.
Not to mention the reliance of the North on Northern slavery.
Sojourner Truth was born a slave in New York in the 19th century. At the time of the Declaration of Independence, slavery was legal in every state. Slavery was legal and existed in Massachusetts more than 80 years longer than in Georgia. Etc. etc. Et al.
Slavery to the South is as the Scarlet Letter was to Hester Prynn--out in the open for everyone to see. She came to terms with it and insisted that nothing but a scarlet “A” be inscribed on her toombstone.
Slavery to the North is as the Scarlet Letter was to the father of Hester's illegitimate daughter, the puritan minister--worn under his coat where no one could see it. It ate into his heart.
There seems to be a lot of homosexual graffiti in the Bible Belt but not much in California.
Maybe public restroom graffiti reflects frustrations and suppressed impulses in the local population.
I seemed to see an increased amount of wife-swapping graffiti in the restrooms of interstate highways--along with quite a bit of homosexual graffiti.
I'm really not intreagued with graffiti, but it does seem to reveal some things.
Oh, he'll be called a kook for this. The fact that he is right will not stop him from being labeled as a revisionist. His view and the truthful view of US history just doesn't jibe with yankee revisionist history and what's been forcefed to Southerners as true for the past 130 years
Actually, this is wrong. Southrons are a proud people, we do not "stand" for negative characteristics. In fact, one has only to look at the bible belt, our strong sense of family, and reputation for hard work - these are positive characteristics of the South.
However, others may "project" negative characteristics on the South (and indeed they do - look at Hollywood, the liberal news media, and public schools).
Indeed, and he'll probably be labeled a racist, too.
Unreconstructedly yours,
CD
I have never met a damnyankee that I liked.
for dixie,sw
for a free dixie,sw
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