Cultural Cleansing of Southerners

LRC ^ | June 23, 2003 | Gail Jarvis

[stainlessbanner]

I was recently reminded of the classic Washington Irving story, Rip Van Winkle. Rip, as you may recall, spent his days loafing and tippling in the taverns near his village in the Hudson Valley. One day, July 3, 1766, Rip climbed high into the mountains to escape his belligerent wife. As the day wore on, he became so inebriated that he fell into a deep sleep. The unfortunate man slept for twenty years finally awakening on July 5, 1786. As Rip slowly made his way home, he was baffled by the changes he saw around him. He had slept through the Revolutionary War! He had fallen asleep in a British colony and awakened in the United States of America.

What if a contemporary Rip Van Winkle had fallen asleep in 1953 and not awakened until 2003? At first, he would be bewildered by the alterations to the infrastructure and the technological advances that had occurred during the last half century. But as he became aware of changes in mores; speech, behavior and the entertainment field - popular songs, movies and TV programs - he would probably be astounded.

Can you imagine his reaction to the vast increase in the size of government and its intrusions into the daily lives of citizens? Would he be able to comprehend quotas; set-asides, and other racial preferences? Would he believe that employees were actually being forced to attend "sensitivity training" classes? Most likely, when he finally realized how seriously our society has been vitiated by political correctness, the poor man might literally become unhinged. I suspect he would wonder why Americans allowed this counterproductive social experiment to progress so far without stopping it. Especially after the lessons learned from other social experiments such as Radical Reconstruction and Prohibition. He might even suppose that, like himself, a large segment of society had also been asleep for the past 50 years.

And, in essence, his reasoning wouldn't be entirely wrong. In fact, Rip Van Winkle might be the perfect metaphor for America during the last half of the twentieth century. Posterity might even refer back to this generation as The Rip Van Winkle Generation; the masses slept while militant elitists and grievance groups eviscerated their culture.

The detrimental effects of political correctness are evident in all aspects of American society today. Almost every day we learn of a newer and more ridiculous assault on our traditions and values. Although all PC "cultural cleansing" angers me, I'm especially outraged by the ongoing campaign to eradicate Southern heritage. You are familiar with the attacks on Southern heritage, so I won't catalog them for you. However, I want to make note of some recent ones to indicate how ludicrous they have become.

The annual conferences of the 4th Judicial Circuit (judges and lawyers from Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina) always includes an "Old Fashioned Sing-Along." Traditional songs such as "Home on the Range," "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Dixie," and others are in the repertoire. At this year's conference, the song "Dixie" was permanently eliminated from the list based on the request of some members.

The Radisson hotel in James City, VA, capitulated to complaints from some conference attendees and covered up its wall murals of Civil War battle scenes for the duration of the conference. These attendees claimed to be offended because some of the paintings depicted soldiers carrying the Confederate flag.

Vice-President Dick Cheney refused to attend the funeral of South Carolina's long-time Congressman Floyd Spence unless the family agreed that the Confederate flag would not displayed and that "Dixie" would not be sung. To Mr. Cheney, avoiding possible political repercussions took precedence over paying homage to the dead.

Finally, the latest asininity in cultural cleansing comes from the University of Mississippi. School officials have decided that "Colonel Reb," the old Southern gentleman who served for years as the Ole Miss Rebels' sports mascot, is no longer politically correct. The University's associate vice chancellor for communications said of Colonel Reb: "Logos and images like that get old, outdated and stale."

But, of course, "outdated and stale" is not the problem. Uncle Sam is not considered "outdated and stale" nor are the images Washington and Jefferson that appear on our paper currency and coins. The problem, as everyone knows, is that some politically correct bureaucrats decided that Colonel Reb had to go because his "Southern plantation-look" might be perceived as being racially insensitive. Idiotically, the Athletic Director attempted to disguise the school's true motive with the disingenuous claim that Colonel Reb was just "an old man with a cane" and "didn't look athletic."

The emasculated Ole Miss administrators have already forbidden the singing of "Dixie" as well as the display of the "Confederate flag" at athletic or other university functions. Incredibly, their actions were based on a study of school symbols conducted by a New York firm in 1997. Now another New York firm has been hired, at a cost of $30,000, to study Colonel Reb and other school logos. The gullibility of the Ole Miss officers probably has the owners of these New York firms laughing all the way to the bank.

So, now that Colonel Reb has been trashed, the school must find a new mascot. However, it must be one that is so bland and innocuous that no group or individual could possibly perceive anything insensitive about it. Possible choices for the new mascot might include a bird, a vegetable or maybe a tree. And, after the mascot selection is made, the nickname "Ole Miss Rebels" has got to go: how about the "Ole Miss Sissies?"

[TedsGarage]

After 50 years, would he believe that black people could actually vote, and sit next to him on the bus? What an insult to traditional Southern values.

[annyokie]

Thanks for the post! Ping!

[Sam Cree]

The Left and the politically correct are also doing their best to trash such symbols of American culture as our founding fathers. I guess you have no problem with that either.

[Sam Cree]

IMO, if he had read 1984, he would not be surprised, nor astounded.

[AlexW]

Well, they have pretty much cleaned this old southern boy out of the US.
After spending my 58 years in Tennessee, I have now spent 6 out of the last 12 months in central Europe.
I expect by next year it will be 12 out of 12.

PC has destroyed our culture and heritage in the US, and it will never return.
I just don't feel like I am part of a country anymore, much less a region.
By the way, Uncle Sam was a great great uncle of mine.
I am sure the PC crowd will kill him off as being too white.

[stainlessbanner]

"They're destroying my culture" -- who's that?

American culture and history; the author specifically cites examples in his article about Southern symbols including songs, mascots, paintaings, and flags.

[LibKill]

Today you are happy that southern culture is being destroyed.

When they get around to your cultural group I expect you will whine loudly.

[stainlessbanner]

paintaings = paintings

[blam]

"The Left and the politically correct are also doing their best to trash such symbols of American culture as our founding fathers.

Just dead white guys, right?

I'm reminded of my sister's son, after his first year at Baylor he said he wanted to transfer to the University of Indiana because it was more diverse. He said Baylor was just a bunch of rich white kids. When my sister told me that, I said, he is a rich white kid, what's wrong with him?
He visited here once with real long (blonde) dreadlocks. LOL. Strange world these days.

[tallhappy]

When they get around to your cultural group I expect you will whine loudly.

So you admit you are a whining victim just like all the other victims who need help and are oppressed.

To show you my "cultural group" (you idiot liberal freak) I'll sing a song off the top of my head:

My Dixie darling
listen to this song I sing
beneath the silver moon
with the banjo right in tune
my heart is ever true
I love no one but you
My Dixie darling
My Dixie Queen

[Sam Cree]

#5 is a non-sequitur.

Justify that, please.

As to kinship with Jesse and the PC crowd, it is you who is siding with them here.

[Sam Cree]

is = are. sheesh.

[tallhappy]

American culture and history; the author specifically cites examples in his article about Southern symbols including songs, mascots, paintaings, and flags.

I think there are a lot of things being lost that are sad to see go.

At the same time, will they really ever go?

And the point is, these guys just want to cry about it and blame oppression like all the liberals who are ostensibly doing the cultural cleansing.

[dennisw]

Stupid cruel and asinine. And I've lived in the North 90% of my life.

[jnarcus]

When I did a driving tour of the southern part of our country I stayed in a number of small towns. One of the most frightening things I encountered was in South Carolina (Columbia to be exact and yeah it ain't a small town). I could here the bar noise in the room I had and as the night wore on, the raucous drunks started singing Dixie and the volume and nasty tone got to the point where it may as well been a German beerhall gathering. If the rebel flag is your culture then perhaps like modern day Germans you should rethink your history. I do not want to expunge history but I see NO point in glorifying that which was in fact evil

[wimpycat]

I see what you're saying. It would be sorta like gays claiming they're being "oppressed" because they can't march in the St. Patrick's Day parade.

[dennisw]

Stop trying to trash the South. It's just not right. They have plenty of heritage there. Southerners serve and fight for America so show some respect. Tommy Franks and GW are from Texas just for an example. How about Tom Delay? You have a grudge against him too?

[Sam Cree]

"Dead white males," yeah. There's good and bad in that group, but the good, such as our founders (I think that's who the phrase usually refers to anyway), are very outstanding, among the best ever to walk the face of the earth. Some of them, like Jefferson, started as rich white kids.

Is that in Bloomington? I've never been there, but so far, I have liked everyone I've met from Indiana, gives me a good impression of the Midwest.

Although I wouldn't have picked Indiana as the place for cultural diversity. Maybe some school in NYC, or better yet, Miami, with all the folks from the Southern hemisphere.

[tallhappy]

The emasculated Ole Miss administrators have already forbidden the singing of "Dixie" as well as the display of the "Confederate flag" at athletic or other university functions.

Who are you complaining to? Who's oppressing you?

It's the Dixiecrats themselves, yessirreebob.

Do you want Affirmitive Action? The supreme Court says you can have it.

Ain't enough diversity around, let's put up some quotas for Dixe cats and chicks.

That's how you do it. You and Al and Jessse and Al and all the others all together happy in your sad oppressed state.

[wimpycat]

Ooops! You've stepped in it now, bud.

So, Nazis=Confederates these days, huh?

I've known the words to "Dixie" as long as I can remember (1st verse only). Were my parents eeeeeeeeeevil to teach me that song?

[AlexW]

I think you need a nap :P

[tallhappy]

Stop trying to trash the South.

How did I trash the South?

I am pointing out certain people here are cry baby whiners who play the victim -- in exactly the same way the Sharptons and Jacksons of the world do.

[wimpycat]

In all fairness, I don't think he's trashing the South. I think he's ridiculing the attitude reflected in the article.

[tallhappy]

I think you know I am right.

How do these cry baby compalints differ from what we hear from Maxine Waters, et al.

Victims of oppression all -- destroying my culture -- discriminated againts.

Can't tell which one is who.

[wimpycat]

That guy in #19 is doing the trashing.

[Admin Moderator]

Knock it off.

[tallhappy]

How about Tom Delay? You have a grudge against him too?

Tom Delay is the greatest.

One big difference between him and the writer of this article. DeLay is not a big cry baby victim whining because the big mean people made him feel bad and are destwoying his coshure. sniff, sniff

[Admin Moderator]

I'm not warning you again.

[Sam Cree]

I remember driving into a small town in North Carolina in the late 60's, on the way to Topsail Island to visit my brother. Right up there, along with the the 4H and Rotary Club signs, at the town line, was one that read: "THE KLU KLUX KLAN WELCOMES YOU (to whatever town it was)." That gave me some chills, I can tell you, even though I am white and grew up in rural Virginia.

It's sad to me that these kind of folks appropriated some of the symbols of Southern Heritage and turned them into symbols of their own hate. Because much of Southern Heritage is truly worth preserving.

[LibKill]

So you admit you are a whining victim just like all the other victims who need help and are oppressed.

I admit no such thing.

you idiot liberal freak

And you are a racist pig.

[tallhappy]

There is nothing to know off.

I am not doing anything wrong or participating in ad hominum or insulting behavior.

I am in no manner violating any forum rules or protocol and am making a serious argument in an enjoyable and non-serious non-threatening manner as befits these less serious threads.

The point is that conservatives should not act like victims over percieved slights and insults because they are acting in an exact analogous manner as the liberal victims who essentially base their political philosophy and identity on such a basis.

In compalining about a culture "being destroyed" these folk who ostensibly are conservative, use the same overwrought rhetoric meant to evoke visceral response and instigate a feeling of mutual camaraderie based upon a shared sense of exclusion and oppression.

Please, Admin, point out which posts I have been personally insulting or gone beyond forum protocol and I will apologize and be careful not to make usch a mistake.

[lilylangtree]

PC crowd (dumbocRATS in nature) is determined to destroy anything and anyone that doesn't conform. PC crowd are socialistic in thought and narrow in focus. Scary crowd for now and the future. What a united effort by the RAT crowd did to Trent Lott was atrocious over a PERCEIVED insult yet this same crowd harbors and supports KKK member Senator Robert "Sheets" Byrd that in March 2001 called blacks "niggers" twice on national tv on Fox News Sunday. Did Sheets apologize? Absolutely not but his office realized his gaffe and called and conveyed apologies. Did NAACP pull its support? Absolutely NOT. In fact NAACP Prez Kweisi Mfume telephoned the AP and said "that Byrd felt 'comfortable enough on nationwide TV to refer to any group in that manner suggests that any progress he has made on race is relative'." One with a perceived threat is almost crucified, and the one with the greater sin is ignored. Politics? Absolutely! God help those who are on the opposite side of the fence from the PC crowd.

[dennisw]

We have kudzu climbing up phone poles and possums doing the same so critics can take a hike. Seriously, the South has a Confederate heritage and so what? They are Americans who fought fair. They fought heroically and valiantly so what's the problem? And now you have the politically correct jackasses who want to eliminate any hint of southern pride and memories.

You really want a state of oblivion?

[DoctorMichael]

Thanks for the request.

Everybody here is entitled to an opinion but 'Tallhappy' at times REALLY seems to overdo the vociferousness (viciousness) of his replies.

[stainlessbanner]

I've been in bars when Irish drinking songs get out of control, but I don't think the folks singing are evil. Care to expound on your post?

[Sam Cree]

You are a bitter guy. But thanks for all the compliments.

[Black Agnes]

ping.

[LibKill]

Please, Admin, point out which posts I have been personally insulting or gone beyond forum protocol and I will apologize and be careful not to make usch a mistake.

Try #13 for starters.

[wimpycat]

Senator Robert "Sheets" Byrd that in March 2001 called blacks "niggers" twice on national tv on Fox News Sunday.

In the interests of accuracy, Byrd didn't call black people anything. He used the term when referring to white people.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I didn't interpret this post as a whine nor as victimhood. Why do you? It seems to me to be an objection to the acquiescing of much of society to the idiotic bullying of the left. From your style, I would think you would recognize such bullying.

[Black Agnes]

Sorry 'bout that Sam. Mashed the wrong key at the wrong time. Ping the other guys :)

[tallhappy]

I see. Sorry for "liberal idiot freak".

I forget people tend to take things very seriously on these threads.

In no way do I think you are a freak. I do stand by my point that your attitude is liberal -- which does not necessarily make you a liberal, which I understand can be an insulting term.

As for idiot, sorry.

[LibKill]

All is forgiven. We are FRiends.

[kittymyrib]

Who rattled your cage?
Personally, I don't think the people of the South have to worry about the government stealing their culture as much as they should worry about all the people from the north moving in and over-running the place. That's what has caused the loss of Southern traditions and culture more than anything else. The South should have kept the da*m Yankees out instead of rolling out the cheap tax rates and incentives for them to flee their socialist hellholes and then head south to foul the air there.

[tallhappy]

I have now apologized for that.

Going back and looking at it, though, I see that in context it was not insulting.

Your comment about "your culture" was much more insulting.

(Liberal idiot freak) was in parenthesis and tongue in cheek.

But, like most victocrats there can be no room for colorful language and give and play.

Please accept my apologies for using that term.

I would next expect you to apologize for the "your culture" remark on your part.

[AlexW]

"I think you know I am right."

No, I don't think so.
You seem to be willing to become a mindnumbed robot, and forget the "real" diversity that made the US what it is.

The left wants to make us all the same. They wish to clean out the history and culture of BOTH black and white.