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What a nice article. Having been born and raised in Miss'ippi, as were my relatives before me dating back to way before "that recent unpleasantness" (as it was called), I very much understand what he is saying.

"I never heard anyone in our house say "nigger" until I brought the word in from outside one day. In a frightening fury my mother threatened to wash out my mouth with soap if I said it again."

This was my experience, as well, except the threat was a switchin'! I was eight years old...it was time that I learned, even though I didn't know what the word meant. My mother took great pains to explain to me how "that word" caused much hurt and was very disrepectful to others, something I didn't understand before. It's been many years since that day, but I have never used "that word" and I honestly don't believe I could even say it if I wanted to. BTW, she let me know that this applied to other derogatory terms with reference to someone's nationality and/or race.

" My eyes grow moist when I hear the strains of "Dixie," but also when I read the Gettysburg Address. How come? Maybe it is because winners take victory as a given, while losers dwell on their misfortune. The opposing states occupying one psyche may, as I've noted, produce comfort, not discord."

Well said! I am very proud of my Southern heritage, and I love the good ol' USofA.

American by birth...Southern by the grace of God!

The first time my grandmother slapped me across the face was when I was six years old and was reciting the old, Eenie, Meenie, Minee, Mo, catch a nigger by the toe.

And my grandfather was the manager of the Dunleith Plantation. Grannie claimed that any white person with any class at all did not refer to negroes with that term.

There was another poem I never let her hear me recite; "In 1954, my daddy went to war; pulled the trigger, shot a n-gger, in 1954!"