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
Let's see. I was born and raised in Jackson, MS. I went to private h.s. in Jackson with numerous (Eastern) Inidans and Asians. One of my best friends from h.s. is a self-proclaimed 'redneck' Taiwanese surgeon, and I went to prom with another Taiwanese girl (whom my parents adored).
So, in my experience white Southerners readily accept these lawful immigrants without the slightest hint of hostility or suspicion. Of course, part of the reason for this is that these immigrants show no hostility or suspicion to Southern culture in return and assimilate fairly quickly.
This makes a powerful contrast to many of the Northerners who move here and bring with them generations of prejudice towards the region and its people.
That depends on if'n you want to be welcomed, Yank.
hehehehheh....another thin skinned one....LOL.
"Sound like a deal? Great! Say hello to your new fellow-citizens in New Brunswick for us."
I'll be headin' up to the Canadian maritimes in a few weeks on a motorcycle tour. It's actually quite nice up there.
Take a few deep breaths and pry that hair off that's laying across yer a$$.
LOL
"That's why the mere presence of Bush in the Oval Office drives so many of those people crazy"
I imagine after Carter and Bubba an uninformed northerner might be suspicious of a president with a southern accent.
"That's why the mere presence of Bush in the Oval Office drives so many of those people crazy"
Not really, I'm proud that GWB was born in CT.
;)
"And if southerners are so nice and friendly, why are there so many southern posts on this thread bashing northerners for no other reason than we talk funny?"
Yea, you're right. I tell southerners their pizza sucks, they need drivers ed....and the humidity is off the scale and they come unglued. Well, in fairness...there does seem to be a few "nice ones" here on this thread. ;)
That's why you get a lot of Canadians and Midwesterners reading the news all over the country. Flat, indistinguishable accents are the way to go in the news media.
Oh, but they were good Southerners. They overcame their racist, NASCAR-loving, Confederate flag-waving, barbecue-sauce-eating, trailer-park-living backgrounds to adopt progressive social views and fully fund NPR. ;)
American by birth, Southerner by the Grace of God Bump!
Crime stats are what they are. Nobody is engaging in some conspiracy to make Atlanta's crime numbers look bad.
According to these statistics, the ten lowest-crime metro areas in the US are all in the Northeast or California. Of the ten metro areas with the highest crime rates, 6 are in the South and none are in the Northeast.
Some educational stats are purely objective- SAT numbers for incoming Freshmen. Others, such as reputation, are based on surveys of academics all over the country, including the South. Other than a few places like Duke or U of Virginia, the best American schools are in the Northeast, California and the Midwest.
And as to city crime, such comparison is almost always about offenses known to the police.
What's your point? If people tend to generally underreport crimes, what makes you think that Southerners are any less likely to do the same thing? In any event, crimes like murder don't really get underreported. Compare NYC to Atlanta or New Orleans and get back to us.
If Kitty Genovese didn't teach you that nobody reports a thing to NYC's cops, I'm wasting my time posting to you.
You obviously have no conception what NYC is like these days. If crime is as bad as you say it is, why are yuppies of all races moving to Harlem these days?
We don't depend on the mythical small family farmer for much of anything these days. Our food comes from giant agro-corporations.
In a general system breakdown, the little boys inside the beltway will be fighting to the death over the last edible rat's posterior; while we're still able to feed and protect our families. That, kiddo, is the bottom line of making it.
Fine, go back to your fallout shelter and wait for the apocalypse. I'll be over at the Palm having a ribeye.
Anyway, my family owns a farm out in the Shenandoah, too.
I've always been more worried for my safety on a lonely stretch of highway in New Mexico than in "bad neighborhoods" like Harlem or certain parts of DC.
Or who immigrated in the 1870's with the intention of stripping the South naked and seizing the fruits of the land, enjoying them in adverse possession to the interest of its People, and of organizing emancipated slaves into a (possibly murderously) hostile political adversary force whose assigned mission was to be a political "hold down" operation against the South, while the 'baggers pillaged her?
Lot of history there, amigo, and a lot of ugly imagery that Southerners can't forget. And shouldn't.
Bad blood.
" Or who immigrated in the 1870's with the intention of stripping the South naked and seizing the fruits of the land, enjoying them in adverse possession to the interest of its People, and of organizing emancipated slaves into a (possibly murderously) hostile political adversary force whose assigned mission was to be a political "hold down" operation against the South, while the 'baggers pillaged her?
Lot of history there, amigo, and a lot of ugly imagery that Southerners can't forget. And shouldn't.
Bad blood."
Wow. I feel for ya! That's sure a lot of baggage to haul around. How the heck do you get out of bed each morning.
;)
You should learn from the past....but don't live in it FRiend.
I would also add William & Mary, Vanderbilt, Emery, Wake Forest, Dickson, UNC Chapel Hill, Tulane, Georgia Tech, and Rice. Although I may have missed one or two other top schools, most of the remaining Southern colleges and universities are pretty mediocre or worse. And as you have pointed out, the rankings from US News, Barons, Princeton Review, Peterson's, Kaplan's, etc., are not only based upon objective statistics like SAT scores, graduation rates, high school class rankings, and student/faculty ratios, but also upon subjective input from college administrators, faculty, and students from all regions of the country -- including the South.
From a personal standpoint, I transferred out of a southern college after one year because of the weak academic programs. For example, the required freshmen math class covered stuff I learned in 10th and 11th grade in high school and the required freshmen writing program was remedial course teaching kids what they should have learned by the 8th grade.
It's that pink Volvo with all the bumper stickers:
HONK IF YOU'RE GAY
GUN CONTROL, STUPID
HILLARY!
SINGLE PAYER
It Takes a Village
You might start with the car.
You may also add to your list of execlent southern schools: Baylor, Rice, SMU, TCU... a few of the nations finest medical schools.
Either sue for reparations or get over it.
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