diversity/southern feel

Flinty
Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:58:59 +0000

So “southern feel” seems to be a phrase connoting bigotry, racism, backwardness, and ignorance? Those things are certainly not limited to the South, and I don’t understand the use of a geographic term to describe any attitude, positive or negative. Southerners will be [are] offended, the same way a Midwesterner would be if someone were to describe evidence of those negative characteristics as a “Midwestern feel.”

I’m torn between advising that the posters with the “southern feel” concerns go to William and Mary in order to expand their horizons or that they stay in the Midwest where they seem more comfortable! (Let me clarify that I understand wanting to be in an atmosphere of openness and acceptance – I object only to the classification of closed-mindedness as a southern trait.)