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

[Non-Sequitur]

go argue with klanwatch about where the NATIONAL HQ of the klan-morons is AND with the History Channel.

Klanwatch identified 162 separate chapters of the Klan under several dozen different names througout the U.S., and 101 of chapters are located in the old confederacy. So it appears that the Klan is still strongest in the old south, where it was born.

reference "miles of dead Negroes", go argue with the NY Post of the next day after it HAPPENED.

Where would you be without your mysterious, uncheckable sources?

[Heyworth]

You know that most of the soldiers were just poor farmers, and judging by the man's obviously poor grammar, he probably was!

Hardly. He was a lawyer.

James Innes Randolph, Jr.

(1837-1887) Maryland

"Randolph, Innes, lawyer and poet, was born in Winchester, Va., October 25, 1837, and died in Baltimore, Md., April 29, 1887. He was a man of rare talents, with early predilections for both music and art, but after serving in the Confederate Army he settled in Baltimore for the practice of law and incidentally began to contribute poems and sketches to the newspapers. At length he relinquished the legal profession and became an editorial writer on the Baltimore American, a position which he held for the remainder of his days. Among his best know poems are 'Twilight at Hollywood,' 'The Good Old Rebel,' and an 'Ode to John Marshall.' After his death, a volume of his verse was edited by his son, Professor Harold Randolph."

[Source: Edwin Anderson Alderman & Joel Chandler Harris (eds.), Library of Southern Literature 349 (New Orleans: Martin & Hoyt Co., 1910) (1907) (Vol. 15, Biographical Dictionary of Authors, Lucian Lamar Knight ed.)]

Randolph attended Hobart College in Geneva, New York and was a graduate of the State and National Law School in Poughkeepsie. During the Civil War he was a topographical engineer and held the rank of major. After the Civil War he settled at Richmond where he was worked at the Examiner while pursuing his poetry and other writing. The poetry of this period was collected and published by his son Harold Randolph after his death. It was in 1868 that Randolph moved to Baltimore and took up the pactice of law but he continued his newspaper work with the Baltimore papers.

http://www.wvu.edu/~lawfac/jelkins/lp-2001/randolph.html

[Non-Sequitur]

During the Civil War he was a topographical engineer and held the rank of major.

Oh the humanity, oh the degradation. Next you'll be telling me that he never saw the inside of Point Lookout POW camp.

[4CJ]

Even if you are posting lyrics, please refrain from cussing, cursing and otherwise foul language. Redact it if necessary. There are young children that enjoy these threads, not to mention it being offensive.

[x]

Shouldn't that sentiment be 'Virginian by Birth' or "Georgian by Birth' or something like that?

For that matter, why isn't it "Southern by Birth, and American by Grace of God? Indeed, the South could have ended up something really wretched if some Southern politicians in the last two centuries had gotten their way. Being part of a larger country has helped to prevent the various regions from falling giving into their less worthy characteristics and tendencies.

I have a special affinity to the state and regional culture that I live in and personally think that there's not a better place on Earth to live, but I suspect most other folks feel the same way about their particular state/region/culture/heritage. If they don't, then sad for them.

Maybe they take a more realistic or balanced view of things. If you live in a Northern state you'll have plenty of things to complain about -- weather, potholes, traffic, politicians, taxes -- but you'll also have things you can take pride in.

It looks as though some Southerners have to be the best in everything. Not just now, but also through all time. And anything that gets in the way of that is denied. They play on the whole "red state" "blue state" thing to dismiss some really positive things about the Northeast or the West Coast.

There's nothing wrong with loving one's state or region as it is with all its good and bad qualities, but pretending it's perfect gets people into trouble.

[Heyworth]

Sorry, I missed it. I've contacted that admin mod about editing.

[Admin Moderator]

We can't edit posts, removed 724.

[stainlessbanner]

So it appears that the Klan is still strongest in the old south, where it was born.

Not true.

[Non-Sequitur]

Not true.

Oh yeah?

[M. Espinola]

"Nobody here thinks the war should be refought. I personally debate, because I wish to open minds to the fact that some of what the South fought for WAS noble, and that we ALL lost some freedoms due to that despicable conflict,"

I do not feel you are able to speak for everyone on here, nor can I. At least your honesty allows for saying 'some' and not everything the South fought for.

[stainlessbanner]

Quoting Don Henley on a Conservative Forum....

< stainlessbanner shakes head >

[x]

When the abuses of that era have been cured and Northerners quit exhibiting the sort of bias this thread is about, perhaps so. But more than attitude adjustment, we need some structural reforms to cure the Lincoln-era excesses, and Lincoln's own legislation and executive orders examined for constitutionality and, if doubtful, repealed or rescinded, or declared null and void either by the Congress or by the courts. ... First, the railroad land grants have to be rescinded and the status of corporations (distorted by SCOTUS during the Gilded Age) changed back to what it was before the Civil War... Likewise, the 1965 Voting Rights Act needs to be rewritten or repealed, to remove the encumbrance to the States. ... Furthermore, Texas vs. White needs to be taken down and the sovereignty of the States, even during secession, recognized. The public debts of the States during the Civil War, and of the Confederacy, need to be recognized and assumed by the States involved, and their enactments recognized as legitimate. West Virginia needs to be folded back into Virginia, which was subdivided without its consent by the Lincoln Administration unconstitutionally, and the matter of Nevada statehood reconsidered anew by all the States, Nevada's original admission having been a fraud. ... And finally, the former Confederate States need to be allowed to decided for themselves whether they want to remain in the Union, since their secession conventions were (and need to be recognized as such) completely legal and legitimate expressions of the People's sovereign will, and the 14th Amendment needs to be passed de novo, several ratifications having been obtained illegally or even fraudulently, and some repealers having been declared (by judicial fraud) illegitimate when in fact they were fully legitimate and legally binding.

Okay, but what about the Sudetenland and the Polish corridor?

[Non-Sequitur]

< stainlessbanner shakes head >

I would have quoted Bruce Springsteen but he had nothing appropriate.

[stainlessbanner]

History Channel or PBS did an documentary on the current state of the empire. Splinter groups due to infighting, largest power base in PA. Other northern cities had a considerable support.

The klan is a non-issue on current issues anyway. You are just digging up bones.

[4CJ]

Sir, thank you for our prompt attention. You may repost it, I didn't request it be removed.

your humble servant,

4CJ

[Non-Sequitur]

The klan is a non-issue on current issues anyway. You are just digging up bones.

Perhaps, but it was stand waite who was digging and not me.

[stainlessbanner]

Springsteen? Henley? Gore voters.....no thanky

[Heyworth]

You may repost it, I didn't request it be removed.

I asked if it could be edited, but apparently that's not possible. But here, in a slightly expurgated form, is the lyric, from the Drive-By Truckers "Southern Rock Opera", which I highly recommend for anyone who likes Skynyrd. There's also a song on the album with the Devil welcoming George Wallace to Hell, not for being a racist, but for being a politician who'd do anything for votes.

THE SOUTHERN THING
(Hood / DBT)

Ain't about my pistol
Ain't about my boots
Ain't about no northern drives
Ain't about my southern roots
Ain't about my guitars, ain't about my big old amps
"It ain't rained in weeks, but the weather sure feels damp"
Ain't about excuses or alibis
Ain't about no cotton fields or cotton picking lies
Ain't about the races, the crying shame
To the ****ing rich man all poor people look the same

Don't get me wrong It just ain't right
May not look strong, but I ain't afraid to fight
If you want to live another day
Stay out the way of the southern thing

Ain't about no hatred better raise a glass
It's a little about some rebels but it ain't about the past
Ain't about no foolish pride, Ain't about no flag
Hate's the only thing that my truck would want to drag

You think I'm dumb, maybe not too bright
You wonder how I sleep at night
Proud of the glory, stare down the shame
Duality of the southern thing

My Great Great Granddad had a hole in his side
He used to tell the story to the family Christmas night
Got shot at Shiloh, thought he'd die alone
From a Yankee bullet, less than thirty miles from home
Ain't no plantations in my family tree
Did NOT believe in slavery, thought that all men should be free
"But, who are these soldiers marching through my land?"
His bride could hear the cannons and she worried about her man

I heard the story as it was passed down
About guts and glory and Rebel stands
Four generations, a whole lot has changed
Robert E. Lee
Martin Luther King
We've come a long way rising from the flame
Stay out the way of the southern thing

[M. Espinola]

What's your cause?