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The majority of people in Metro Atlanta originate from out-of-state. I don't have any problems with Yankees here; they are for the most part polite and respectful. It's the ones that have never been here that hold those biased view and attitudes about the South. If my only exposure to the South was via TV and movies, (Beverly Hillbillies, Gone With The Wind, The Dukes of Hazard, etc), I might hold those views myself. But anyone who thinks Hollywood has pigeonholed the South has not been down here. I can't speak for rural areas, as I have always lived near Atlanta, but most of the Southerners that I know are educated, speak with little or no accent, and are as cultured as anyone else. Maybe you could have made this argument 100 years ago, when Southern education was laughably substandard. But we're talking about 2002, not 1880. Any non-Southerner who does not take all the info about the present-day South into account is just as brainless as any Southern stereotype he has in mind. But I really don't worry about such attitudes. Like I said, if they really think this way, it is them, not us, who are ignorant, and that to the Nth degree.....

I can remember way back when I went into service as my boot camp company was formed up I was the only Southerner among a group or New Englanders and Long Islanders. I was treated at first as a virtual Gomer Pile. And it didn't end there either. In every command I'd go aboard, "Oh we got a Grit. I bet he don't know about indoor plumbing." I'd have to prove this ole Southern didn't fall of the melon cart every time .

I'm through provin' now.

I can't speak for rural areas, as I have always lived near Atlanta, but most of the Southerners that I know are educated, speak with little or no accent, and are as cultured as anyone else.

About the accent...you don't get up to North Forsyth much, do you? :-)