LG, that was really well stated. Glad you saw where I was coming from, and I now get what you mean by the "heritage" thing. I always laugh when I see that bumper sticker with the stars and bars that says "heritage, not hate."
I think "OK, well then heritage has a lot to answer for, what with the lynchings and all."

I agree that this bullshit is nationwide, and I might even argue that the South has had to deal with race issues long enough that it's a little more out in the open down here. I knew plenty of people growing up who used all sorts of racial epithets. When I asked them how they felt about hanging out with dude x on the baseball team, or whatever, I would get the age old
"oh, he's one-a the good ones."
There was a lot of racist talk, but being in heavily integrated schools also eased things. That didn't seem to be the case up North.

When I came across racism up North, it seemed a lot more secretive and mysterious, and therefore evil.
The race thing might be one of the few examples of the "honest asshole" being in the South.
I spent my summers up North and was asked *many* times if I had any black friends. I said of course, a third of my school was black. MANY times it was answered with "wow, what are they like?"
Mind you, this wasn't in any city.

The old lady across the street from me refered to the guy who cut her lawn as her "darky man" but she left him a lot of money when she died. It took me awhile, but at some point I realized that, while I don't like terms like that, intent is everything. Some crap just has to die out over time. It seems like this has taken a long time though. I have seen things change quite a lot in the 32 years I've lived down here.

I, too, had a lot of "move back up north" interactions, but they seemed less aggressive than yours (then again, you're in TEXAS, man).
It took awhile for me to learn all the "yes ma'am" business as a kid, even though I was really polite, and it was always met with "you need to learn how we do it down he-ah."

Ever since I understood the concept of over-compensating, I've considered the South full of that. Now that air-conditioning has made it habitable, it's no longer just dirt farms, and it seems to be the President Factory, I wonder how things will change.
We're already seeing a cockiness emerge that's very different from how it used to be.

I live in a liberal, Yankee infested enclave, and that's no accident.

-A

steve wrote:collards

The collards I love, especially with lots of pepper vinegar.
It's the unspeakably cruel collard farts that I can do without.

When people talk about the harsh living conditions in Civil War camps, this is probably what they mean.

-A

alex maiolo wrote:I live in a liberal, Yankee infested enclave, and that's no accident.

Salut, you lucky man! I live between a guy with a big ass truck with glass packs, and another who sometimes does donuts in his back yard on his 4-wheeler.

I don't want to come off playing the race card. Race has something to do with this "Southern heritage" thing, certainly, but I think now it's as much or maybe even more a result of self-contempt for past transgressions than hatred for blacks, as blacks, or anyone else, as whatever they may be.

Remember the Alamo!

I am extremely skeptical of any claim that the south is currently somehow more racist than the north, east coast, west coast, or whatever. I'd be interested in seeing some form of objective measure. So far as I know Chicago remains one of the most segregated big cities in America. (And it hurts me to say that about my home town).

racism is everywhere. it expresses itself in different ways.

American south: Sacred Harp... oh and the Baptist Generals...


British south: may as well be a crater for all I care... hold on, my brother is studying down south...

It's not so much the level of or "objective measure" of racism that I was referring to, but more the historical institutionalization of it that matters.

Lemuel Gulliver wrote:It's not so much the level of or "objective measure" of racism that I was referring to, but more the historical institutionalization of it that matters.

Racism minus people doesn't leave much.

True. The difference is that places like Connecticut didn't have separate fountains and bathrooms, as did the good people of TX and GA. I think you missed my point on the previous page. The South compensates for its history with "heritage"--wholesale hootin' and a' hollerin'.

For I, The Dandy, do believe that how we are remembered here after we are gone could very well be how we earn our hereafter. In essence, the truest sense of Dandyism is that how we're remembered is the most important thing there is, and our memories of them are all wonderful. They might be gone, but they will always be with us. God bless them, to forever be remembered. For in death do we truly begin to live, this do sayeth The Dandy, theirs and yours completely.

Sincerely,

Dandyism.