Posted on 09/29/2009 5:47:56 AM PDT by Titmouse
I lived in Georgia for most of four decades before moving to the Roaring Fork Valley.
My mother's family was from New Orleans; she was born there, and I attended Tulane University. My children were born in Atlanta, and my grandparents owned a large farm — “plantation,” if you like — outside Thomasville in southwest Georgia.
I know the South pretty well, and I'm familiar with the cultural stereotypes that attach to anybody who has ever lived there.
I guess the “Stars ‘n' Bars” confederate battle flag tops the list. Then there's NASCAR and denim coveralls, banjos, cornbread and grits. Oh, yeah, and those white, Wal-Mart-shopping porkers who drive pickups fitted with gun racks, lust after farm animals (when their sisters are out of town) and hate black folks.
Toss in a jug of moonshine, and we've about picked-clean the stereotypical cotton field.
Then there are those historical “red-state” political associations: Republicans have no use for “people of color.” Pay no attention to the fact that a Republican president emancipated the slaves, and that a greater percentage of Republican legislators supported the Civil Rights Act than their Democrat counterparts.
Democrats founded the Ku Klux Klan, and Democrat governors barred the entrance to schoolhouses to little black girls with pigtails and frilly smocks. The Georgia of my youth featured a Democrat governor and segregationist, Lester Maddox, who waved a pickaxe handle at blacks attempting to enter his restaurant.
(Excerpt) Read more at aspentimes.com ...
You ain't just whistling Dixie.
And it continues today. We live in suburban Indy, and my son’s high school is mostly white but there are a fair number of black students at the school. That doesn’t bother me; my high school in Indy had about the same mix.
Last year some of the black students decided that there was an intersection of two hallways that they wanted as their own. There were fights and intimidation, and white students would not go there. My son told me they called it “42nd & Post” after a street intersection in Indy known for drugs, gangs and violence.
Since I know members of the administration and school board, as well as having some pull with the local constabulary, the problem has been taken care of. But if left alone, you can see what will happen. I am convinced that no significant race problem exists in this country on the part of white people. For those who would say that even the term “42nd & Post” is racist, my reply is “tell me you would go there at night.”
Interesting post. Actually, racism seems to primarily run high in black/hispanic communities - a high percentage of whites have moved on or maintain a live and let live attitude, as least.
Bump to a very good article. I’ve been saying these things for years.
And this person also doesn't know the difference between the Stars and Bars and the CSA Battle Flag.
Probably never liked grits either. Because he couldn't understand why they weren't served with sugar and cream.
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