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
This is likely the most ridiculous remark I've ever encountered by you, and I'm NOT a Southerner. Nor do I have any southern ancestors. Your reputation has dropped a notch in my book!
Rabble from Pennsylvania.
Fire ants invaded Southern soil and I hope they do not continue their march northward :)
"The South didn't invade the North until much later."
Everyone knows it was the heat & humidity which slowed Lee down his real plan on conquering the wild ,untamed north woods of Maine. Look it up, I am not sure where though :)
Post 334 - Wlat....'zat you?
Ridiculous claim, considering how many of our boys from the South are dying in Iraq.
OK, just where is this FACT located?
If today's obsessed neo-Confederates ever actually admitted the real tyrannical modus operandi of Jefferson Davis & his insurrectionist leadership their entire movement to remain locked into attempting to undo the numerous defeats of the 'Old South' would be fully unmasked. For many, their world came crashing down with the forced dismantlement of the South's state mandated system of racial segregation, but none will ever admit it in public.
Returning to the 'real world' there exists a cruel, inhuman enemy out there who does not view Americans as 'Yankees' or 'Confederates', just targets! This enemy's only concern is exterminating all of us - unless we take him out first.
For those under the silly illusion the enemy will restrict his beast like acts of mass murder to only targeted innocent victims on large urban transit systems, think again. There are scores of other 'hits' but it's foolish giving these bastards any other ideas.
He must have crawled over from Jersey through the tunnel. :)
Delis, delis, so many out there.
Years ago I lived very close to the kosher 2nd Avenue Deli right in the heart of the Lower East Side. Further down on the Lower East Side & the Bowery, Katz's Deli is a must.
For the Upper East Side, Lenny's, Siegels Kosher Delicatessen, Pastrami Queen & Hunter Deli among others.
There's the very famous theater district's Carnegie Delicatessen.
Midtown's Wolf & Lamb Delicatessen, also Sarge's Deli & Restaurant & Eisenberg Sandwich Shop, all in various sections of the East Side.
On W.79th, Artie's Delicatessen which is like going back in time.
For baked goods down on the Bowery, Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery . You might see Louie & the Bowery Boys walking around.
In Brooklyn Adelman's Kosher Deli & Landau's Glatt Kosher Deli.
The there are many great Chinatown restaurants and Little Italy's pizza & sub shops. Now I am frigging starving!
Many thanks for the list of delis.
Years ago when we lived in NJ we had season tickets to the Metropolitan Opera and spend the whole day once a month on opera day museum hopping and eating out. My wife's favorite deli on those trips was Orloffs across Broadway from Lincoln Center. I'm not sure it is still there.
We've eaten at Carnegie Deli (great) and hit restaurants in Chinatown as well. I'm archiving your post for my next visit to NYC. Yumm.
Good noshing! :)
More northern boys are dying there.
Every southron fanatic on this site claims more loyalty to state than country.
Your reputation has dropped a notch in my book!
I guess that I will just have to learn to live with the disappointment.
What was good enough for Marse Robert is good enough for me.
I place country above state, and served my country in the military for almost 30 years. By definition, if any of these southron types decided that it was in Virginia's best interest, for example, to deal with the insurgents then they would feel obliged to withold support for the government. I don't see that as patriotic.
I doubt that, since the Army is about 70% Southern, the last I heard.....
While I prefer to share the beliefs of George Washington. To each their own, I guess.
Some supporting evidence would be nice. Because if that claim is true then the Northern soldiers are dying in numbers far out of proportion to their representation in the ranks.
Most of you die-hard Yankees will NEVER understand the concept of loyalty to one's home. It has to do with the attachment to the soil. Working the land with your own hands, etc. The Irish understand the concept better than most. Until you sweat, labor, till and care for the land, you love, you will not understand.
What I will never understand is placing loyalty to my country in second place to anything else.
It has to do with the attachment to the soil. Working the land with your own hands, etc. The Irish understand the concept better than most. Until you sweat, labor, till and care for the land, you love, you will not understand.
Bull. The south has no monopoly on farmers. The history of the North is a history of small farmers, families who built their lives from the land. People who went into the wilderness and sweated and labored and cared for the land every bit as much and as well as southerners did. And who considered themselves Americans, and who placed love of country above all else.
So answer my question. Regardless of how unlikely such a scenario might be, if Texas decided that the war in Iraq was not in that state's best interest and told the federal government that they would no longer be providing National Guard units to support the war, and would discourage all Texans from enlisting in the Armed Forces, then who would you support? Texas or the United States?
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