Bias against Southerners misses the mark

Pasco Times ^ | July 11, 2005 | RICHARD COX

[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

[Wampus SC]

"Nope. That only applies for diagnoses for the purposes of treatment. I can call people "paranoid" and "narcissistic" all day long and I have broken no laws."

We'll see. Count on it.

Later...

[Wampus SC]

"MOST of what i see posted by the damnyankee coven of lunatics, cretins, RACISTS & TWITS on FR is either "wishful thinking", evasions,HATEfulness, STUPIDITY or KNOWING lies."

What do you mean MOST? :) heh heh...

[Windcatcher]

"Yep. I saw this when I left Virginia to do work on my Masters Degree in Geology on a NSF grant. The minute you spoke they treated you as being dumber than Cooter.

Unfortunately, the only exposure most of those Northerners had had to Southerners came from the carriactures of the Beverly Hillbillies and the Dukes of Hazard."

(whispers)

Upstate PA isn't as northern as people think. Just avoid the cities and play possum like everyone else.

[Wampus SC]

"btw, "modernman" said in a post that he doesn't trust anything said by southerners on FR w/o "independent confirmation"."

I wonder if it's all, or just the black ones - since that was what's under discussion. I think the latter, given his post that had to be removed for racist content. And his posts about colonization of the South, where he ended up referencing the "White Man's Burden". (#94, this thread. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=94#94 And we all know what Kipling was talking about in that poem...

Anyway, yeah, I saw. It was his response to an offer to help him get independent confirmation in person. I went thru this 4 times with Non-Sensical on a similar issue. He wanted independent confirmation. I offered repeatedly to pay for his round trip fare and accommodations to where he could meet people who could give him his independent confirmation. Wimped out every time.

Now modernman has done the same, as would be expected from one in that crew. Every time, when you go the extra mile to be helpful and assist them in getting the "independent confirmation" they demand, they refuse to get it. It's behavior that marks a coward who knows he's wrong.

[Wampus SC]

"Stay out of biker bars and strip joints and you'll no doubt be exposed to a better level of humor."

I go to biker bars and strip joints when I want to hang out with people who are of a higher quality than you are.

[Non-Sequitur]

I go to biker bars and strip joints when I want to hang out with people who are of a higher quality than you are.

They just seem to be a higher quality than me, because they're there with you.

[Non-Sequitur]

Wimped out every time.

Actually I was too busy laughing to take it seriously...every time. But maybe you and stand can do it? Y'all seem like a nice couple.

[M. Espinola]

"About those ants - they're just little ants, pantywaist. Kinda figured I was dealing with someone who'd stand on an anthill. And just, uh, stand there. And blame the consequences on the South and Southerners. Looks like I was right again."

Yo Stonewall, have you been drinking your own bathtub brew - again?

[M. Espinola]

"That's gonna be a pretty big book [lol]."

Belleview and other hospitals have already requested to preview the rough draft, coupled with the very strong possibility of also being interested in someone else from S.C. :)

[M. Espinola]

"They must be pretty damned old if they breathed 'FREE dixie air'. And white.

These people are so damned old they are not even cognizant the Civil War ended and their side lost :)

[JABBERBONK]

You missed the mark, you should have settled 4 miles north of New Port Richey, I.E. "Hudson" Florida. I came to live in New Port Richey from N.Y in 1972, then when you called up to order Pizza, and asked for extra "mozzarella" the reply was "mozza-whut"? and when I attended Gulf Comprehensive H.S 1972-75, I had to deal with all the "New Yawk", and "Lownga Island" cracks from my fellow students. Someone needs to toughen up "yer" kid.

[Torie]

You seem to have been busy with the kooks about something. LOL.

"Their East Coast tour includes stops in Burlington, Cambridge, Provincetown and New Haven."

I know what is in Cambridge (Harvard), New Haven (Yale), Provincetown (gays), but what is in Burlington? Jerry's Ice Cream?

[M. Espinola]

Babs & all the the progressive Bay Area performance artists are recommending a special award.

[Wampus SC]

"Naw, we got us a whole buncha other reasons to despise you."

There is only one reason needed to despise you. You exist.

[Wampus SC]

"i think "neo-confeds" are a FIGMENT of your fevered imagination and/OR a "perceived slam" against dixie's liberty-LOVING natives"

It's the liberty loving part they can't stand, because that's what all left/socialist globalists hate the most. That's really what they're attacking, not us Southerners. Southerners are just a symbol to them for the love of the liberty they wish to eradicate from the earth.

[Wampus SC]

"i believe NOW (i didn't used to think so!) that i will, at nearly 60 years old, live to see the founding of a NEW & MUCH improved dixie REPUBLIC. (PLEASE, God, let me live so long!)"

If there's ever an independent Southern nation, I recommend that it adopt the U.S. Constitution. Yeah, I know it's not perfect, but it's better than what we've got now.

"frankly, i don't know WHAT the spark will be that causes us to get our LIBERTY & FREEDOM FROM the arrogant, mean-spirited damnyankees, but it IS going to come & before long. (at one point i believed that it would be MURDERING the UNborn or continued pushing for ending our 2d Amendment rights. at least so far, that has NOT been the spark.)"

Most fires take several sparks to get them started, and I think that would have to be the case too. Once enough sparks hit close enough together - flame. Current candidates include trade agreements like CAFTA/FTAA, once enough people wake up to their effects. Also borders wide open to terrorists entering, and nothing being done about it - by design. Last but far from least, the SCOTUS eminent domain decision. If we keep going like this, sooner or later it will happen.

[Wampus SC]

You gonna do something about it, tough guy? Or just whine some more?

BTW, this is not a debate, so don't call it that. Pay attention.

[Wampus SC]

"They just seem to be a higher quality than me, because they're there with you."

You've got it all backwards and inverted again, as always. I know you can't help it though. That ingrained hatred of truth makes you do that automatically.

So a dog walks into a biker bar and leaves a steaming pile of crap in the middle of the floor. Dog got arrested for unauthorized cloning of Non-Sequitur, wlat, and modernman.

[Wampus SC]

"Yo Stonewall, have you been drinking your own bathtub brew - again?"

You're one of those bot programs, right? Hmmm.. I think I'll feed several hundred of your posts into one of those bot programs, and see if what it comes up with at random looks any different from what you post yourself. Then verify it statistically. Easy, and fun.

Nah --- since you're the guy who reports "experiencing" "vicious ants" .... and.... "half nuked... alligators" -- in a GAS SATION; I already know what I'd find.

[Wampus SC]

"Actually I was too busy laughing to take it seriously...every time. But maybe you and stand can do it? Y'all seem like a nice couple."

Just illustrated my point. Demons like you demand direct proof, saying that you're interested in "truth". When someone offers to help you get the proof firsthand - at no risk or expense to you - you run away from it. Laughing's just a defense mechanism to help you run away from it. You *could* examine evidence in person first, then if you think it's a crock, laugh at it later. But no, pre-judge it out of hand first. As in prejudice. The black people in question say they're well acquainted with your racist attitude.

BTW, on my part, the offer still stands.