Southern Heritage: Making Noise just to Make Noise

A Woman doesn’t like "Dixie" on Her License Plate
Report by J.J. Johnson
Published 04. 18. 02 at 21:23 Sierra Time

MONTGOMERY, AL – the next stop in the cultural bigotry and downright lunacy campaign. In this case, Karen Taylor, a criminal justice professor is fighting a ticket she got for covering up part of the "Heart of Dixie" logo on her Alabama license plate. Now, to show you how stupid this story (and this woman) really is. Karen Taylor Lives in Dixie, but doesn't like the State Motto on her license plate

Karen Taylor said she placed a piece of red-and-white tape over the word "Dixie" 10 years ago in protest of what she says is the song's ‘racist’ heritage. She said nobody ever objected until a police officer pulled her over for speeding last month. And thus the point of this story – nobody ever objected about having the words "The Heart of Dixie" (which happens to be the state logo for over a century) on their Alabama license plate. This would include the millions of other Black folks in Alabama who have also received the same license plates.

Keep this is mind: Taylor is a criminal justice professor at the Alabama State University. You would think that a person with such a background would know enough not go 10 mph over the posted speed limit (51 in a 35mph zone), but Taylor should also know that every state has laws against folks covering up any part of their license plate.

Of course, no one in the media bothered to ask Taylor if she had ever shopped at "Winn-Dixie", used Dixie Paper cups, driven on anything called "Dixie Highway" (there’s at least one in every Dixie State), or simply: "What in Sam Hill is she doing in Alabama, anyway?"

So, she pays the $118 fine (admission of guilt), but refused to pay the fine for the other part of her ticket – for covering up her license plate. Taylor's case was originally set to be heard on Wednesday, but it was postponed until August.

To ‘Professor’ Karen Taylor: If the word "Dixie" really offends you, there is a "Dixie" solution.

If you watch that lead foot of yours, you will eventually reach the Ohio River (just past Louisville). At that point, you will no longer be in DIXIE (or take I-10 out of Mobile west to El Paso then take a south turn there for all we care). If you want your license plate changed, change your residency. If that’s not enough, quit making an idiot our of yourself, pay the fine and try obeying the law, Ms. Criminal Justice Professor. Else come August, the traffic judge should throw the book at you for grandstanding and ‘driving while stupid’

I wish I was in the land of cotton,
old times there are not forgotten,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.
In Dixie land where I was born in, early on a frosty mornin',
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.

Chorus: Then I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! Hooray!
In Dixie land I'll take my stand, to live and die in Dixie,
Away, away, away down south in Dixie,
Away, away, away down south in Dixie.

Old Missus marry Will de Weaber, Will-yum was a gay deceaber,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.
But when he put his arm around her,
smiled as fierce as a forty pounder.
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.

(Chorus)

Dars buckwheat cakes an' ingen batter, makes you fat or a little fatter,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land.
Den hoe it down and scratch your grabble to Dixie's land I'm bound to travel,
Look away, look away,

A simple act of civil disobedience.

And thus the point of this story – nobody ever objected about having the words "The Heart of Dixie" (which happens to be the state logo for over a century) on their Alabama license plate. This would include the millions of other Black folks in Alabama who have also received the same license plates.

Who cares? She objects, and wants to make her point. Big deal.

JJ can't be this stupid, can he? Is he suggesting that she was speeding due to a lack of comprehension? Going 10pmh isn't a case of not "knowing enough" to stay within the limit. It's a calculated risk that most Americans take. And 10 over is usually within the lowest bracket. As for the second part, about the covering of her license plate, JJ starts out his rant by saying she covered the slogan "10 years ago in protest of what she says is the song's ‘racist’ heritage". Protest. It is unclear from this article if she was unprepared for any official reaction or penalty. But given that JJs preceding assumption regarding the speeding ticket is so far removed from reality, I can't help but doubt his assumption in this case as well.

Why would they ask? We know she is offended by "Dixie" being used as an official motto. In what way would the above questions add to the discussion? As a lame attempt to catch her in a "gotcha"? Ooooh!

Again, civil disobedience. And she uses this as an opportunity to have a bully pulpit. Makes sense. How many of us manage to get in the papers to be heard? How many of us are willing to get fined in order to do it? Whether or not you agree with her ideas, you have to give her credit for getting her point across. Heck, here we are talking about it.

To ‘Professor’ Karen Taylor: If the word "Dixie" really offends you, there is a "Dixie" solution. It’s called Interstate 65 North.

Right, just leave. Great solution. I guess the Founding Fathers should have just set sail when they didn't like the tax codes in Massachusetts, huh JJ? Just turn your tail and run away.

I tell you what JJ. You made an idiot out of yourself with this assesine little rant of yours.

Someone forgot to tell her that a freed slave wrote "Dixie."

That's incorrect. It was a black face minstrel song written by a Unionist white man.

About Daniel Decatur Emmett

Daniel Decatur Emmett

Daniel Decatur Emmett was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, on October 29, 1815. A self-taught fiddler, he began writing music early on and performed his first original composition, Old Dan Tucker, at an 1830 Fourth of July celebration in his home town. At the age of seventeen, he left Mount Vernon to join the U.S. Army, becoming the lead fifer at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. His military career, however, was terminated abruptly on July 8, 1835, when officials discovered that Emmett had been less than truthful about his age at the time of his enlistment. Undaunted -- and unwilling to return home -- he signed on with several circus bands and continued to perform in public.

The winter of 1842-43 would prove to be a pivotal point in the young musician's life. Emmett joined forces with three other minstrels -- Frank Brower, Billy Whitlock, and Dick Pelham -- to form a group known as "The Original Virginia Minstrels" (Emmett on fiddle, Brower on bones, Whitlock on banjo, Pelham on tambourine). Their public debut came at New York's Bowery Amphitheater on February 6, 1843. Dressed in bizarre outfits, sporting blackface, and performing original songs such as Emmett's Old Dan Tucker, the group's unique musical style and appearance were an immediate hit and were being copied nationwide within a matter of months. Unfortunately, the genre that they spawned lived longer than the group itself. A year later, following a concert tour of Great Britain that brought in next to no money, members of the band went their separate way.s

No stranger to career reversals, Emmett bounced back almost immediately, joining Bryant's Minstrels in New York. It was during his stint with Bryant's in 1859 that he composed Dixie's Land, his most enduring and controversial song. Written as a walkaround (a section of the show during which each performer walked several times around the inside of a semicircle in which his fellow performers were seated and then did his particular specialty in the center of the stage), it was an instant hit on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Once it was played at Jefferson Davis's first inauguration in Montgomery, Alabama, however, it become inextricably identified with the South and was no longer heard in Northern music halls except as an anti-Southern parody. Needless to say, Emmett -- a thoroughgoing Unionist -- was not pleased.

After the war, Dixie's Land regained its old popularity up north, and Emmett resumed performing his signature tune before wildly enthusiastic crowds in the early 1880's with Leavitt's Gigantean Minstrels. Emmett continued to make public appearances until the age of 80; following a final tour through the South with Al Field's troupe, he returned to Mount Vernon, where he died on June 28, 1904.

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