Guilty of Being Southern

National Review Online ^ | July 2 | Lee Habeeb

[Hojczyk]

Let’s start with Paula Deen, who admitted to having used the “n” word — 30 years ago. If it had been, let’s say, Alec Baldwin instead, the media would have quickly given him a pass, because, after all, he’s one of them. Alec is a media guy. He’s smart and talented and thinks what they think about life. He’s also a northerner. He was born on Long Island! And my God, there’s no racism there.

Racism is a disease people catch when they cross the Mason-Dixon line.

Paula is from Georgia, and from that one slip, which she admitted and for which she apologized, was imputed all kinds of guilt. She was guilty of being born Southern, plain and simple. And the punishment she’s facing is so disproportionate to her three-decade-old lapse that it cries for someone in the media to defend her. No one has. No one will.

The Food Network will soon learn that their knee-jerk decision to fire her without any proof of discrimination, any proof of a racist past or present, will backfire. And fans who know she was fired, and canned by sponsors, for being born in the South, and for being proud of it — they’ll be waiting for her return, and will reward the network that hires her.

And it wasn’t just white folks heading South. The nation’s African-American population grew 1.7 million over the past decade — and 75 percent of that growth occurred in the South. The percentage of the nation’s African-American population living in the South hit its highest point in half a century, as more black people moved out of declining cities in the Midwest and Northeast.

If the South is such a racially backward place, Justice Breyer, why are so many African Americans moving here?

[LeoWindhorse]

“Well, I’m a good ol’ Rebel...”
I’m the son of a son of a son of a Confederate soldier .
My only regret is that they did not win .
Many of us are willing to give it another go .
What’dya say ?

[Little Pig]

Apart from homemade, the best “restaurant” grits I’ve had were from the Southern waffle/breakfast chain “Huddle House”.

[RedMonqey]

NASCAR...I just don't get it!

'NASCAR' hasn't been NASCAR ever since it essentially spread out of the South and became "popular"

Frankly I stopped watching when Richard Petty retired, 'NASCAR' banned the rebel Battle Flag and dropped Tobacco sponsers.

And replaced them with hauircare products, household cleaners, women racers and restricter plates.

I'd rather go to dirt tracks and see amatuer backyard racers than these tempermental, metrosexual wannabees. .

[representativerepublic]

When Dee Brown got drafted by the Boston Celtics, all his teammates/ friends said, I paraphrase, “oh, you going up south, huh?”

[Liberty Wins]

Every pile of grits needs a fried egg cut up in it.

[Yosemitest]

Most of the younger people today, don't know that two of the three civil rights workers killed in Mississippi were white.
They weren't taught the truth.
All they know is Medgar W. Evers , which is of little importance to those who lived through the tribulations of the 60s and 70s.
I had a older friend who worked for a well know house trailer dealer out of Meridian MS during that time, that was part of that situation on the old pond south of Philadelphia MS, and talked about the situation getting "out of control".
Her said they were just trying to scare the three out of the state, when a drunk pulled the trigger.

I was at Volk Field, Wisconsin, doing a summer camp with the Air National Guard in 76 and we well out the west gate to a burger joint and sat down on a picnic table to eat.
A black man pulled up in a Lincoln two door car in his late 60s and started talking to us when he heard our southern accent.
He told us of the hard times he'd had in the north, and was surprised we'd even talk to him, judging from our accent.
Needless to say, he said the prejudice he'd experienced in the north was far worse than what he'd seen down south, as a traveling salesman.

[Conserev1]

Willie Smith:

I’ve tried to keep quiet about the Paula Deen situation, but I’ve seen so much “dirt” being tossed around, I figured I might as well shed a little light.

I’ve worked at Ms. Deen’s restaurant for close to nine years and I’m as “BLACK” as they come. I was never forced to enter through the back door. It’s a rule that ALL employees enter through the back door so we don’t disturb guest while they’re eating. I’m currently a waiter there, which is about as front house as you can get. I didn’t have to beg to be a waiter. In fact, I was ASKED to be one. Many of her staff in the front house are black. Young black kids in college. Bathroom usage is for ALL employees, but we(ALL EMPLOYEES) only use the back of the house restrooms during service so that we don’t disturb guest. One of Paula’s longest working employees, an elderly BLACK woman, was invited to be a guest at Paula’s house after this lady had surgery. Paula looked out for her. The restaurant looks out for ALL OF US by providing health and dental insurance and 401 K plans. Not too many restaurants doing that. We’re also allowed paid vacation. As a BLACK man who has been with the company for some time now, I’m simply saying don’t believe all accusations you’re hearing....cause they’re just that. Accusations. And no, I’m not just saying this to brown nose my employers. I’m saying this as someone who doesn’t believe in casting stones at an individual for making a mistake.

Signed,
A happily employed and thankful young man.

[Yosemitest]

Check it out.

[RedMonqey]

I’d like to know what she did to p!ss off the media?

The media is a hungry pack of hyena like beasts. "The Pack" loves to feast on controversy and nothing is more controversial than race, or even the hint of racism and their favorite hunting grounds is all things Southern preferably "white'(especially conservative) male, and Christian.

When "The Pack"finishes gnawing the old bones of one victims, they're on the prowl for their next victims.


Paula Deen did the worse thing and that was to show her belly and beg forgiveness. When "The Pack"smells blood or senses weakness that's when it is most deadly. They know their victim won't fight and is a easy victim .

She should have turned on her attackers and fight as Rush Limbaugh has done through the years.
Never show the pack your tail, always your teeth, even when you have only one tooth.

Make the pack pay for each bite.

Of course known liberals are exempt because "The Pack" knows once it starts feeding on each other, it only exposes them to "The Truth" and that must be protected from exposure at all costs.

"The Truth" is of course, they are all hypocrites and are guilty of all the sins they accuse of their victims.

[Tau Food]

Okay, I forgive her. ;-)

[BunnySlippers]

Well, look at Anthony Bourdain. I’ve love watching him drink himself comatose in 50 countries.

But he HATES Paula Deen. Because she cooks unhealthy food. [yeah, she does[. So he was livid when she got diabetes. He celebrated and berated her.

What if the tables were turned and Bourdain got liver cancer. Do you thing she would be high giving? He is disgusting individual although I do watch his programs.

[BwanaNdege]

” I think they hate hearing a Southern accent.”

While on Midshipman summer cruise, a buddy from my NROTC unit at Ga Tech had shore leave in NYC. He was with several other middies, some from NYC, who had called several girls they knew to go out with the group of middies.

My buddy, a white Georgia boy, related that he was talking with one of the NYC girls. When she learned that he was from Georgia, she began berating him for the way he & his people would beat up any black person they saw walking down the street.

He protested that was not the case. The girl became even more angry, insisting that she read the newspapers and she KNEW the truth! Finally, she refused to even speak to him.

This was the summer of 1966.

[okie01]

Most of the younger people today, don't know that two of the three civil rights workers killed in Mississippi were white

I recall the occasion. Philadelphia, MS occupies a special place in the Civil Rights story. Oh...and don't forget Violetta Liuzzo, who was killed on the highway north of Selma, AL.

Then, there is Lowndesboro, AL -- the march from Selma to Montgomery passed through there and Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist church bombing case was tried in the Lowndes County courthouse.

I lived in Lowndesboro from 1985 to 1993...and I've never met a finer group of people -- black and white. I knew a gentleman who served on the church bombing jury. He was adamant -- "they didn't prove their case." I believe him.

It's been often said that the North "loves the black race, but hates the individual" while the opposite was true in the South.

In my experience, both sides of that aphorism are largely true. Individual blacks are judged on their merits in the rural South, accepted or dismissed based on their character. Meanwhile, discrimination can run rampant in the North.

[Yosemitest]

During those days in the south, these was little or no money to be had.
People had to work together to get their crops in.
Everybody pitched in to get the job done, and neighbor helped neighbor, both black and white.
When someone's cows got out, everyone helped to get them back into the fenced pasture,
and everyone worked during garden season and hay season.

[Trailerpark Badass]

I went to an elite private boarding school in NJ for my final two years of HS. My classmates loved to joke about the backwards South, even though by that time (early 80's), it was clear that the Sunbelt was experiencing more economic growth and positive migration from the NE and the Rust Belt.

Mostly good-naturedly, but with sincerity, they kidded me about my need to overcome my racist upbringing.

Though these were clearly the children of our country's elite, they apparently didn't notice my complete lack of Southern accent.

I was born in CA, as had been my parents, and had only lived in the ATL area for 4 years.

[Yosemitest]

Birmingham, AL, do you recall the three-day war in downtown?
I had relatives in Bessemer, and was there, and saw the windows broken and the burned out cars and shops.
I was very young , about 7 or 8, but my relatives were very worried and shocked, and I remember.
In Meridian, MS, I was in a Woolsworth at the store diner, and I remember waiting with my mother to get breakfast, when all of a sudden a large crowd of well dress blacks came in and sat down.
The diner manager came over and apologized to my mother and said the diner was now closed and asked us to leave.
So my mother took me out of the store and we went home.
I remember another time in a shopping store when my mother was stopped from going out the door by a large black man, and just outside the door a policeman was bringing down a club upon another man's head.
Had that black man not stopped my mother, my mother's head would have been the one that received that konking blow from the cop's billy-club.
I remember!

[wardaddy]

Just like this forum

Purge America’s politically correct warts on the back of demonizing white southerners and their heritage

Far and away the demographic most likely to be socially conservative..

That flaw amongst conservative elite is what dooms us and does little to distinguish us from foes

Meanwhile Mike Tyson publicly muses he’d like to see Sarah Palin’s vagina ripped apart by a well endowed black stud....

Womb shifting as that ape freak stated

And no recrimination

What a doomed sick nation

[wardaddy]

Grits are like tofu

[wardaddy]

Man

You should come to Wilson county TN

I was just in Oregon

Lots of them there too

[wardaddy]

It ain’t just libs who demonize Dixie

Plenty here