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
Northern inner-city "magnet" schools. "Magnet", because they have big magnets at the entrances to detect pistols being carried in.
The People resigned the war and went home. If one guy takes French leave, that's desertion. When the People in arms do it, that's going home, period. You still haven't read that Scarry law article yet, have you?
"If your tales be true...." -- that what you call my quoting seven pages of history? And rustbucket's links to his 2003 posted quotations and epitomes?
"If you can read," you might take a look yourself.
Yeah, love your yacht and your mansion.
Or could it be that the Republican platform supported the ridiculous (to the southerners) idea that 'all men are created equal'? Or perhaps it was the plank that said it was the rights of states to control their own institutions? Or the plank against the expansion of slavery or the one against the reintroduction of slave trading? Or perhaps it was the lack of a plank advocating the conquest of Cuba? I can't imagine southern Democrats signing on to any of that.
Hyuk, yuk, yuk, you're posts are always soooo funny. But if you're suggesting that stand waite is the product of a Northern school then I think that he would consider that an insult.
When I was in the military the technical term for that was 'desertion in the face of the enemy'. You know, cowardice.
Wrong direction -- it was the Republicans and Abolitionists who did that with their anti-slavery agitation and their moral crusade against slavery. The Republican platform confined itself to agitation against slavery in the territories, but everyone knew what the payload was, especially anyone who'd read Lincoln's speeches.
The Republicans were the ones who used the wedge issue of slavery to divide the agrarians and install a machine-political apparatus at the national level to serve the industrial and business interests exclusively.
It was called "the Gilded Age," and the South didn't do that. The Republicans did, all the way. It was the master strategy, and it worked. Just like in the Federalist period, the very determined and clever business class won, and the People got screwed. In addition, the People in the South ate dirt on their bellies for 50 years, and they still aren't first-class citizens yet. The Southern States still can't hold an election unless the Justice Department says so.
Would you like to come down here and say that, Chicago boy?
Sure. I'll give you a call when I get there.
Read my post above, before you embarrass yourself.
AMERICAN BY BIRTH. SOUTHERN BY THE GRACE OF GOD!
Bears repeating...
often.
i "adopted" the spelling from his newsletter, as it illustrates how POOR today's "publick screwls" are at TEACHING!
free dixie,sw
[You]Sure. I'll give you a call when I get there.
Good, I'll set up a promotion for it and rent you a P.A. system -- a real boomer -- and we'll get a permit for a public park in the middle of Vidor, Texas. You can stand there with a nice, hot bratwurst in your hand and a Chicago Bears cap on and tell everyone how cowardly you think Southern men are, and especially Texans. Don't leave anything out, speak as long as you like, and then we'll poll the crowd.
Depends on your point of view. Rush is from Cape Girardau, Missouri. That's southern, I guess.
I read it. Too late, you were embarassing enough for the both of us.
If I bought the brats then you pagans would probably put ketchup on them.
i didn't know RL was from MO. since he is, we'll claim HIM!
as i've said before, you are the ONLY DAMNyankee on FR who has BOTH a BRAIN AND an EDUCATION.
free dixie,sw
Please refrain from cussing, cursing and otherwise foul language. There are young children that enjoy these threads, not to mention it being offensive.
[You, being silly and disingenuous -- but I repeat myself] I read it. Too late, you were embarassing enough for the both of us.
I mean my post at #587, the last seven grafs.
The part about the problems the North had with "equality", except for forcing it on the South as sociopolitical degradation.
That part.
If you'd really read it, you wouldn't have posted in reply as you did.
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