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
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.
I have to admit that, as a Southerner, I like those things too. I would also add that I admire and enjoy (at times) the Northern emphasis on speed and efficiency.
ROFLOL! What is so bad is I understand that perfectly. lol!
I'm married to a girl who was born in Brooklyn, but who has learned over the years to appreciate a lot about the South. I have spent a lot of time in New York City and the surrounding area. Much of what I wrote was dripping with sarcasm, which was obviously lost on you.
BTW. Where is Pasco? Is it in "Yankeeland" somewhere?
"A woman with a true southern accent can have a man wrapped around her finger in no time flat, if she wants."
Damn straight.
I once met a girl from up north at a party and we started hitting it off. After about an hour I complimented her, saying that she was a very impressive woman, both beautiful and intelligent.
You would have thought I had told her her mother was a hag and she must be married to Pop Eye. Someone tried to explain it to me as having something to with northern women's perspective of Southern men. Like, because I said what I did there was an implication that women shouldn't be smart or something.
I still don't get it.
Ain't that true.
Allow me to comment. I have been to New Haven, AND the rest of your state, including Groton, where I had the misfortune to spend two years. New Haven is a stinkhole, as far as I am concerned, and your 13 percent tax rate sucks too! If you lived in New London you would DAMN sure have to lock your door. Who gives a rat's *ss about your ethnic foods? Southern Food is some of the best in the world. I would rather eat Crawfish etoufee or Gumbo in New Orleans any day, than the crap they call food in New York.
I have traveled up north and around most of this world, and would rather stay in Texas and the South than anywhere else. If you think the South is so bad, then please explain why all of your Yankee brothers are fighting each other to move down HERE!?
What? The cold isn't bad. I'm out in a T-shirt when it's 50 degrees.
You obviously have never been to NYC. You can buy a house with a yard in several of the Burroughs. Plus, there's always Jersey and the NY and Conn. suburbs if staring at grass and playing a banjo on your porch are your idea of amusement.
He will never meet his neighbors.
I knew all my neighbors in my apartment building in NY.
He will have to wear 25 pounds of clothes 11 months out of the year and wade through a ton of slush just to reach a cab.
As opposed to living in Houston or Atlanta, where he will have to stay inside 11 months out of the year to avoid heatstroke and plagues of mosquitos.
The food in the restaurants will be something he wouldn't slop hogs with back home.
Right. Because there are absolutely no good restaurants in NYC. All of the world-renowned chefs hang out there because they can't afford a bus-ticket to Raleigh.
Though, I guess if your idea of fine dining is deep-fried roadkill and a six-pack of beer, then NYC doesn't have good food.
If he greets someone on the street he will run the risk of being knifed.
Compare crime statistics in NYC with Atlanta, Houston, Birmingham and New Orleans and get back to us.
He will be subjected to an endless barrage of liberal propaganda.
Right. In NYC, Hillary Clinton runs around Times Square espousing her political beliefs. A liberal president would never come from a place like Georgia or Arkansas, after all.
It would take me all of five seconds to decide to stay in the South.
That's okay, you don't sound like you could make it in the big city, anyway.
Yes, Dan, I know. Don't get upset. I was using a little sarcasm to set off those from the far Northeast. I read that during the Civil War the troops from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and other midwestern states didn't like being called "Yankees" by the Confederates.
Please read my post #83.
I've never really found Southern girls attractive. Too fake and artificial.
It's sort of like the White Man's Burden: We feel the need to civilize the savages.
That process started when we whupped you in the Civil War and its coming along nicely now.
Everybody knows you can't swing playing the banjo.
Well, I tried to stay out of this. I grew up near Charlotte, NC. After moving around the country some I wound up living just north of Johnson City, NY. I too really enjoyed the honesty of the people there. I DO have my favorite story about driving in snow to tell.
I was living in temporary quarters (hotel) in April of 1991 in Binghamton, NY. I came out of the hotel to find something white on the ground but the maintenance guy was having trouble keeping the snow blower running through it and I had to break it off the windshield of the car. I recognized that this ICE was the same thing that got called 'snow' in the south so I took it VERY easy driving into the office that day. I realized that Hwy 17 was very slick as I went under the bridge of the Johnson City exit. 10 minutes later, those yankees that can drive in the snow decided to have a 27 car meeting at that point on the highway. I got to work safely however.
The moral to this story is that even southerners can drive in SNOW, but Yankees can't drive in the ice any better than we southerners do.
I'm married to a girl who was born in Brooklyn, but who has learned over the years to appreciate a lot about the South. I have spent a lot of time in New York City and the surrounding area. Much of what I wrote was dripping with sarcasm, which was obviously lost on you.
Yup... but I'm pretty thick skinned. No offense taken. In the end....we're all Americans... that's the only thing that counts FRiend.
Peace.
"I have to admit that, as a Southerner, I like those things too. I would also add that I admire and enjoy (at times) the Northern emphasis on speed and efficiency."
When travelling in the south I have found that some southerners are sometimes put off by my (Yankee) directness and businesslike way of conversing. I'm always quick with a genuine smile and it seems to smooth things out a bit. I've been all over Asia and I have to watch myself there too....
;)
heheheheh... I knew you'd show up here sooner or later. Thanks for watching my back.
:)
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