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

[stand watie]

like i said, virtually every post you make exposes you to PUBLIC RIDICULE as a MORON/FOOL.

don't you get tired of everyone laughing AT you????

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

in other words, you post # 1206 indicates that YOU HAVE NO CLUE about dixie, her continuing struggle for LIBERTY, her people or most anything else.

PITY.

free dixie,sw

[Modernman]

in other words, you post # 1206 indicates that YOU HAVE NO CLUE about dixie, her continuing struggle for LIBERTY, her people or most anything else.

sw, you've already admitted that you and your fellow neo-confederates would kill or expel anyone living in a revived Confederacy who disagreed with your political views.

I think the whole world knows you for what you are.

[M. Espinola]

"like i said, virtually every post you make exposes you to PUBLIC RIDICULE as a MORON/FOOL."

Your broken record on auto pilot raving continues I see, and still unwilling, or incapable, of responding in a normal fashion to any of the questions presented to you. Very typical of those fanatics still defending and attempting to reignite the failed 'lost cause'.

How many Americans, totally opposed to the hate driven agenda of the neo-confeds, will need to be liquidated, tried for "treason" or booted out, so the new version of your "Dixie Republic" can be formed? 10 million? 50 million, 100 million or more?

[stand watie]

did i?? i think NOT.

what i said was: the lot of the traitor is UNPleasant.

i would also suggest, counselor, that you take a course in reading comprhension.

free dixie,swfree dixie,sw

[Modernman]

what i said was: the lot of the traitor is UNPleasant.

Admitting, of course, that you and your neo-Confederate buddies would kill your political opponents if you got your way.

Don't be coy- tell us what you'd do with those so-called traitors after you seceded.

[stand watie]

yet ANOTHER DUMB-bunny post by FR's very own FOOL = "m.eSPINola"!

the question you SHOULD have asked, had you the brains to do so, is:

"How many million people the next time will the HATE-FILLED, arrogant, power-hungry DYs be willing to kill to try & subjugate dixie's FREDDOM-loving people????"

my GUESS is ALL of us southerners, as DYs have always been cruel, ignorant of the bounds of basic human decency, amoral, greedy & vengeful.

free dixie,sw

[Modernman]

the question you SHOULD have asked, had you the brains to do so, is:

Stop avoiding the question. How many "traitors" will you neo-confederates kill after you succesfully secede?

[M. Espinola]

"Stop avoiding the question. How many "traitors" will you neo-confederates kill after you succesfully secede?"

Corporal Dixie recently & vividly issued the loathsome methodology for the neo-confederate's dreamed of domestic "Southern" insurgency, but since repeated asked to clarify the estimated numbers of American "traitors" to be butchered or disposed of 'by other means', the higher ranking rebs must have ordered him to clam up - again.

Corporal Dixie & company are really something else, the county's in a war against madmen who will nuke US if we lower our guard, and these abhorrent rebel rodents are more concerned with a new "Confederate victory". It's really sick.

They hate 'the Union' (The United States) so much, watch when the next monster size hurricane slams into that giant swamp down there, how many of these yahoos will leap to a working phone demanding 'Federal' storm assistance.

[stand watie]

every post you spout exposes you as MORE of a FOOL.

RAVE ON!

every post you make DAMAGES the unionist coven, as it makes ALL of them look stupid, hate-filled & clueless. THAT is a GOOD thing for us southrons.

free dixie,sw

[M. Espinola]

"'E'very post you make DAMAGES the unionist coven, as it makes ALL of them look stupid, hate-filled & clueless. THAT is a GOOD thing for us southron"

A doctor would have to be nice cents short of a dime to take you on a permanent patient.

[stand watie]

you're obviously NOT smart enough to be a FReeper.

head over to DU & join the other EX-freepers of the unionist/lunatic coven of MORONS.

they are there waiting for YOU, with open arms.

free dixie,sw

[M. Espinola]

"you're obviously NOT smart enough to be a FReeper. head over to DU & join the other EX-freepers of the unionist/lunatic coven of MORONS."

It's really time you request a new response script.

Does your ongoing asininity stem from early stages of dementia, or is the expected, daily, double dose of imbecility because you are simply a blithering nincompoop?

[Wampus SC]

I've never really found Southern girls attractive. Too fake and artificial.
modernman, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=93#93

"I might not have had many intimate interactions with gap-toothed white trash girls and/or women related to me (I'm not saying you have either, of course, but I wonder what other type of women you can find in that swamp of yours"
modernman, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=1085#1085

"No, it isn't. It's a simple geographical description. It would be like you saying that you live a mile past the inbred family, next to the house with the 4 cars on blocks in front."
modernman, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=1089#1089

"Ask your doctor about seeking help along the lines of Prozac"
M. Espinola, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=847#847

"This crude, backward element resides in a perpetual state of rebellion & closed minded jealousy to everything not directly interlinked within their unsophisticated, one stoplight town existences."
M. Espinola, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=981#981

"How many of these neo-confederates do you think live in bunkers on their rural compounds and masturbate to the thought of a total breakdown of society? They probably hope that will let them get their slaves back."
Modernman, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=964#964

"Today your screaming & ranting has reached far beyond the the matter-of-course, berserk, buffoonery everyone has annoyingly become accustomed to, however, alarming signs are being displayed heading you right to the nearest loony bin."
M. Espinola, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=1011#1011

"What's the matter Stonewall, did the photo of the mythical 'President' of that invented redneck 'republic' of yours, hatched in your depraved, underhanded mindset, remind you, of you, or the multiplicity of your fellow two-faced, double-dealing, swamp dwellers?"
M. Espinola, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=1165#1165

---

Wanna talk about casting asperisons on parentage, one's region, one's people,; and the womanhood of one's region and people? Just see the above. The above are just a handful of examples of posts by just two of the anti-Southern bigots, M. Espinola and Modernman. They are the mildest examples, and come from only this thread. There are much worse, and much more. Continuous and widespread.

Now, let's talk about you.

"And in this very thread that has been demonstrated again: I may be many things, but intellectually dishonest, and dishonorable, is not one of them."

If that were true, if you were really concerned with keeping the discourse up to some high standard, you would call the anti-Southern bigots on their hate mongering statements. But you never do.

Oh, sure, you have all the words of someone trying to take some kind of high moral ground, but you never apply it even-handedly. You apply it in a partisan and one sided way.

Want to talk about intellectual dishonesty? That's it. You and your high sounding - but fake - stance are nothing but a fraud.

[Wampus SC]

"Perhaps not - and I don't see any here. Southern Americans ARE the core. Limp - wristed liberal lawyers are not."

He might not be a lawyer. What he said was:
"Are you kidding me? I went to law school. Getting dirty is left for people like you"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442661/posts?page=947#947

He's very good at parsing statements, and making statements that need to be parsed. He's very good at saying things that are technically true to create an impression that turns out to be nothing when called on it. Like that White House/Capitol thing. These traits say "lawyer", but the posting history, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=109679, does not. Consistent pattern - Weekdays only, never weekends. Usually starts before 8AM, and knocks off sometime between 3 and 4 PM, very rarely a little later. Sometimes more than 3 dozen posts/day, or close to 4 dozen. Time between posts remarkably consistent. Longer intervals between posts seem to depend on length of post. Break from 60-90 minutes sometime near 11AM. The implication is - business hours.

This pattern indicates several things. For a law firm employee it indicates an employee that isn't given much to do, for whatever reason the boss knows of. Or a shirker. If there are cases to prepare or a client's interests to represent, continuous freeping doesn't do either. A law firm boss who does this shows he doesn't really care about his firm or leading it effectively. There's a remote possibility that it's his job to bait Southerners and spread anti-Southern hatred, but I don't know how likely that would be.

All this leads me to favor the "posting from the library all day" theory.

[Wampus SC]

"You must have a lot of time on your hands. "

"Maybe you should get a job or pick up a hobby."

That's it? LOL. Hey, kinda touchy there, huh guy? It was fiction, right? And nothing in there had anything to do with any freeper, right? Right? At least the time on my hands isn't time I'm supposed to be working. Talk to ya later, depending on my schedule...

[A Jovial Cad]

Ten (10) days since the post you're responding too, and this is the best you can come up? A mewling tu quoque snot-slinging whine?

Instead we get the online equivalent of the third grade recess response, "but he started it!!!! Waaaaahhhh!"

A man steps up to the plate and admits his mistakes, forthrightly, and without equivocation; pardon me for forgetting that I wasn't dealing with one.

[stand watie]

why GM, MORON!

i see you haven't left for your natural home on DU, with the other DUMB-bunnies & arrogant fools, yet.

PITY, as they will LIKE you.

truth be told, you are NOT smart enough to be a FReeper.

most everyone on FR laughs AT you. don't you care that you are constantly ridiculed & made sport of???

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

as they are arrogant,self-serving, ignorant, hate-FILLED, self-righteous,mean-spirited DAMNEDyankees, what else did you expect????

it is their NATURE, just as it is the nature of a serpent to slither.

free dixie,sw

[Wampus SC]

And your #1173 was different from that how, other than I provide documentation? You can be so infinitely presumptuous as to think you can set time limits on everyone, but it doesn't work that way outside your head. I waited a decent interval so that anyone who believed you could take you up on your offer. As you saw, nobody took your offer. It means nobody believed it.

You don't get it, but that wasn't about modernman and espazzola, it was about you. You. Examples of chances you had to show that your rhetoric about the level of discourse here wasn't empty and hypocritical. You passed them up. And you're still behaving the same, showing again that your high sounding words are empty, one sided, partisan propaganda.

In short, you're a fraud. A fraud who continues to commit fraud, and can do nothing but commit more and more fraud.