Posted on 07/14/2005 6:10:21 AM PDT by robowombat
Bias against Southerners misses the mark By RICHARD COX Published July 11, 2005
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Does prejudice exist in Pasco County, an area with a very diverse population and seemingly very progressive?
I am certain that African-Americans, Hispanics and people from other countries, the poor and homeless, as well as members of certain religious faiths, experience treatment different from the mainstream populace. However, I am a member of a minority who has experienced attitudes and reactions from many individuals who assume that I am intellectually and socially challenged.
A very large percentage of the population of New Port Richey in particular is from the Northeast. I personally like the outspokenness, mince-no-words attitude, the ability to criticize as well as accept criticism without being offended, that seems to represent the culture in which Northerners grew up.
My family members seem to have the disadvantage of being born and living most of our lives in the South, in our case, Tennessee. I grew up in Knoxville, a city that many people seem to associate only with the fanatical behavior of our college football fans, and my wife is from a small city near Chattanooga.
There still seems to be a stereotype that some people associate with Tennesseans. When those individuals heard the distinct accent of my wife, my stepdaughter, and myself, it seemed to conjure up that redneck image one might associate with the humor of Jeff Foxworthy and other Southern comedians. That image is of a culture of ignorant hillbillies (certainly due to inbreeding!), barefoot, living in a shack with no indoor plumbing (but certainly an outhouse in back), having a dog living under the front porch, and owning an overgrown lawn populated with broken-down, dilapidated automobiles. And, yes, we all chew tobacco and sit on the front porch swing playing the banjo. Everyone also flies a Confederate flag and reminisces about the War Between the States.
I first noticed this attitude when my stepdaughter, an honor student, came home from middle school several days in tears because several other students harassed her daily, calling her an ignorant redneck and hillbilly among other derogatory terms. My wife and I have experienced the sudden change in facial expressions from many when they hear our accent. They seem to associate our accent with ignorance, and speak in simpler terms so that we can understand what they are saying. Telephone conversations often produce the same reaction.
I beg to differ. Tennessee is the home of several major universities, four major metropolitan areas with all the drug and gang problems associated with other large cities, and the most visited national park in the United States. Oak Ridge, in the Knoxville area, probably has as high a percentage of residents with doctorate degrees as any city in the United States. Tennessee has a musical heritage equal to none, and it is not exclusively country or bluegrass genres. Many nationally prominent politicians are from my home state, including three former presidents.
Tennessee has produced many famous musicians, actors, scientists and other intellectual and talented natives.
Well, to set the story straight, rural areas of most states have their own populace and dwellings that approach this stereotype.
My wife and I grew up in your average suburban neighborhoods, we both graduated from major universities and had successful professional careers, and, to risk seeming boastful, are probably as intelligent and knowledgeable, if not more so, than the average American. Believe it or not, East Tennessee, the section of the state we are from, fervently supported the Union during the Civil War.
I have noticed in the Pasco Times notices of meetings for various groups from areas of the Northeast and from other countries. Perhaps Southerners in our area should form a similar group. With apologies to an African-American group with a similar title, we could call our group the NAASF, the National Association for the Advancement of Southern Folks, Pasco County Branch. I hope there are enough local Southern residents available to attract to our organization.
--Richard Cox, a retired middle school science teacher and department head, lives in New Port Richey
Now you find the word "locals" upsetting? Man, you neo-Confeds are sensitive.
There's a special kind of politeness reserved for your type - actually a way of distancing ourselves when we sense what's in hearts like yours.
Speak for youself. These guys seemed pretty cool. Might've been the women we were with, though. Two redheads and a blonde make guys friendlier, I guess.
Beer store? BEER STORE??
A store that sells beer. Not a difficult concept, for most. I guess, for accuracy's sake, I should also mention that they sold various and sundry other items, such as chips and snacks. Some people need to nitpick irrelevant points. Makes them feel smarter.
I doubt you were even in VA.
Um. Okay.
I'm familiar with Lynchburg. Marina, huh?
Reading comprehension is your friend: I wrote that the house was "outside of Lynchburg." I think the town in question was called Lynch Station.
Now you're just entering stand watie delusion land.
My diagnoses are purely that of a layman. But some things are clear even without a medical degree.
in point of fact, i'm CORRECT & your hateFILLED, arrogant damnedyankees are WORSE in some ways than "the sheets & hood" cretins that i used to battle in AL,MS & AR.
the MAJOR difference is that you SHOULD know better, but alas most of you don't.
instead of "hanging your head in shame" (as you manifestly SHOULD!) you tell each other that your SLIGHTLY more sophisticated form of RACISM & ANTI-Semitism is somehow MORE acceptable than that of the KKK & that "the coloureds just don't fit in with our crowd".
one of the many things that "inconvenient" about being both "NON-white" AND "light-skinned" is that you get to hear the casually spoken RACIST comments from others, which if one was dark would be better hidden & perhaps unsaid.
instead, i get to hear all the latest "n!gger jokes", "jew-jokes" & "redskin/blanket@ss jokes", as soon as they hear i'm from the southland. (fwiw, cyborg has the SAME PROBLEM!)
so, fwiw, i'm CORRECT & you're either terminally dumb/ignorant and/or BLIND to what the yankees ARE/say. FACT!
free dixie,sw
Man, you are having reading comprehension problems. Espinola is the one Watie accuses of being a racist, although eventually he gets around to calling everyone who disagrees with him one. As far as the "Yachts Against Subs" thing, it's just the one in a long line of lies that Watie's been busted for around here. First he comes on and says that there's a U-Boat that was captured by Texas privateers during WW2 on display in a Galveston park. Then, then even the Southern partisans say, "uh, no, don't think so," he backpedals and says, that he got it from a book. But there's no such book.
The point is that Watie sputters, lies, fabricates and insults constantly, while contributing nothing that will stand up to the least scrutiny. He's the Reb Who Cried Wolf, Stand Pinocchio, a joke.
FReepers are LOL at you.
don't you care that even most of the damnyankee coven thinks you're a cretin/FOOL???
free dixie,sw
I'm not really sorry I didn't. It might have been fun at the time, but it probably would have been a bad idea in the long run.
keep going and you'll get there.
free dixie,sw
imVho, "modernman" is trying to become KNOWN to be as big a DUNCE as "m.eSPINola".
it's a race to the BOTTOM!
free dixie,sw
No one I know has ever said anything like that.
one of the many things that "inconvenient" about being both "NON-white" AND "light-skinned" is that you get to hear the casually spoken RACIST comments from others, which if one was dark would be better hidden & perhaps unsaid.
I honestly can't remember the last time I heard a racist comment. Maybe you should hang out with a better class of people.
instead, i get to hear all the latest "n!gger jokes", "jew-jokes" & "redskin/blanket@ss jokes", as soon as they hear i'm from the southland.
Sure you do.
so, fwiw, i'm CORRECT & you're either terminally dumb/ignorant and/or BLIND to what the yankees ARE/say. FACT!
Or, as usual, these are more of your delusions.
You've got that market cornered.
They generally are. Government does a lot of pretty whacky things, such as building giant bunkers so that Congress can keep legislating while the rest of us are dead. That doesn't mean the rest of us should buy into that mindset. But, hey, if you want to build a bunker, nobody is stopping you. But I'm still going to call you paranoid.
Oh yeah, noticed more name dropping about your proximity to the White House.
You consider me pointing out that I'm close to ground zero in DC to be name-dropping? Okay......
Perhaps, if you put down the road-kill pie and thought about it, you might actually get what I'm saying: I work close to terrorist targets. If the big one goes up, I'm probably going to be flash-fried. So, all of the survivalist nonsense about building a shelter and stocking up for the apocalype would be pointless for me. So why even bother?
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