<p>Shrinkrap, I agree with your point, but my point is that people are able to let it slide unlike similar comments about race or gender. We should be a little more aware of the messsage it sends the younger generation when we do move on without comment. I’m not saying that every little slight deserves a full out war, but let’s at least make it so that people do not feel quite so comfortable that those view are acceptable for expression here. I’m not talking about the fun ribbing that goes on between regions. Without that, this forum would be poorer.</p>
<p>I was born in California, live in Texas, have lived in Australia, and have travelled the world. We’re all goombas. We’re all fascinating. </p>
<p>ag54 - I don’t have much of an accent either, but how does anyone get by without “ya’ll”!!!</p>
<p>Regarding the South as being the most racist part of the country as post #23 asserts, we have lived all over and have not seen this to be true. In fact, I remember when we moved to California, we were desperately trying to find a home we could afford. I remember driving past one neighborhood and saying, hey this looks good, let’s drive through there. The real estate agent said, “Uh no. You wouldn’t want to live here.” We kept pushing and asking why until after a lot of hemming and hawing, she said, “Well, Hispanics live there. You don’t want to live there, it would hurt your property values.” This from the same woman who said archly, “Ooohhh… you are from the South, aren’t you? I could never live there where you treat blacks so badly.” Arrrrggghhhh. I <em>never</em> had a real estate agent in the South say something so racist.</p>
<p>We’ve had similar things happen in Germany (where some look down on Turks) or China (where some look down on anyone not Han). Racism is despicable, but no one region has a corner on it - it just looks different because it’s aimed at different groups.</p>
<p>Of course, some of us believe that racism is incredibly stupid because we are all (every race) cousins - God created us all - don’t knock your own family!</p>
<p>Ironically, Jeff Foxworthy has a degree from Ga Tech and worked for IBM for 5 years before going into comedy fulltime. Dumb like a fox, he is (pun intended). I had the pleasure of seeing him at one of our small local comedy clubs when he was just starting out (when he still worked for IBM) many yrs ago. He really is very clever!</p>
<p>I must admit to being one of the guilty parties–I think one of the largest groups of South-bashers are disgruntled teenage Southerners such as myself. And at my school, at least, it’s more of a “I hate living in Tennessee” thing. We tend to regard other Southern states pretty well. I feel that the South is a very diverse region–North Carolina and Texas seem like very different places to me–and think it’s wrong to group all the states together into one category culturally.</p>
<p>Forgot to put in post # 44, the quote to which I was responding
It must be one of those dumb southern mistakes… In all honesty, having lived in both the north and the south, while there may be a higher concentration of academes in certain areas of the north, the quality of life, job opportunities, etc are all far superior in the south. So who is the smarter one???</p>
<p>The one problem I have with this whole thread is that I don’t see any significant level of South-bashing here. Maybe I’m not reading the right forums, but no one on the Parents Forum trashes Vanderbilt, Rice, Duke, Tulane, etc. And just try to say something negative about UNC! There’s also a ton of interest in southern LACs that are not well known up here, like Rhodes, Hendrix, Davidson. So I read the OP’s post and think “Well, there’s someone with a thin skin and a lot of insecurity.”</p>
<p>I note – from where I sit – that lots of people, including many from the South and elsewhere, feel absolutely free to trash where I live. “Harsh”, “dirty”, “Killadelphia” are some of the nicer terms used. I understand what they are reacting to, and why they are doing it, but it doesn’t make me respect them more. The volume of nasty stuff on CC about Penn swamps the volume of nasty stuff about every major southern university combined (except for Duke during the early days of the lacrosse team fiasco). But Philadelphia isn’t a region, and some of the people doing the trash talking live within a 45 minute drive of here, so I’m not going to whine about discrimination.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, if the South feels like attracting students like my children rather than wallowing in resentment, here are some positive steps it could take:</p>
<p>– Lose the Confederate flags. Seriously. It’s not funny anymore. Nothing says “We’re a bunch of ignorant, insensitive buffoons” like a Confederate flag.</p>
<p>– Do something about Southern rock. I know, the talented part of Lynrd Skynrd is dead, and there’s no effective way to get “Sweet Home Alabama” off classic rock radio. But that’s 35 years old, so maybe it doesn’t matter. But when I hear Drive-By Truckers singing “We Ain’t Never Gonna Change,” I tend to think that it’s not a complete fantasy.</p>
<p>– Skinny down the Greek system. The Southern colleges tend to have strong frats and sororities. They’re not unique in that, but there are very few exceptions in the South. Not everyone loves that.</p>
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<p>Is it true that in the South U-Haul trailers are called Y’all-Haul trailers?</p>
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My parents must be the exception that proves the rule, they recently moved from Virginia to New Hampshire. :)</p>
<p>My son said he didn’t want to go to college in red states - but really he just didn’t want hot weather. He much prefers tramping around in the snow with nothing heavier than a fleece. </p>
<p>I spent a year traveling around the country photographing fire stations and living in a van - and I can tell you while there are aspects of southern culture I am not crazy about - southern hospitality is real and was very welcome.</p>
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<p>funny thing about this - we live in PA - a formerly rural but now suburban county. We regularly see pickups with Confederate Flags - yuk.
My daughter remarked on her return from Alabama - in the year she spent down there she never saw a pickup with a Confederate flag on it. Not once.
Of course - South Carolina and their flag situation is/was a fiasco. Mostly politics, unfortuately.</p>
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<p>As a Westerner for most of my life, I was largely ignorant about the Confederate flag thing. Interestingly, when I moved to VA, the only Confederate flags I saw were in rural Maryland. Even though I had never seen a real-life display of that flag in my entire life, I had an immediate reflexive negative response to it. Symbols can be very powerful.</p>
<p>I’ve actually never seen a confederate flag fly anywhere in TX where I live.</p>
<p>I’m younger than most people on the forum, but my old school had about 80% black/hispanic/mexican people. Maybe more. The rest were caucasian and literally in a school of 1000+ kids there were maybe 15 asians. And our grade had a lot of them. In the incoming freshman class (to hs) there are 3 although most of the asians seem to be at another school that feeds into our hs (with a lot less of the URM).
At my school now I would say 22% are caucasian and 8% are asian and the rest are black/hispanic/mexican. We are known as the ‘ghetto’ school or something (mainly middle + lower class w/ not as great faculties), and there are a lot of asians in other schools but still.
I will admit though that in my school and everyone I’ve talked to here, there is basically rampant homophobia and people are usually very conservative on every aspect except for Bush. Or apathetic.
(note that usually they are just regurgitating what they hear on media/parents but yeah).
I don’t think people would have a problem moving to TX for college or something though because we basically have no colleges here. I hear that Houston/Austin are very diverse and don’t have problems with an overbearing amount of conservatives. Also, most of the people start making their -own- opinions before they get to college- for example, I had only heard what everyone was talking about when it came to <a href=“edited%20out%20because%20not%20trying%20to%20start%20a%20debate”>a-certain-topic</a> but when I explored more of the facts I changed my position because I had learned things that changed my perspective.</p>
<p>elven_hobbit: “I feel that the South is a very diverse region–North Carolina and Texas seem like very different places to me–and think it’s wrong to group all the states together into one category culturally.”</p>
<p>So true!</p>
<p>OK- In the interest of full disclosure, I just returned from running an errand. Our area is pretty built up but every here and there there are a few houses that are vestiges of the old days-- typically occupied by older residents who didnt want to sell their house/land. Because there happens to be some construction (road widening) near my house, I had to take a slightly different route, which took me by one of those little old houses that I really haven’t paid much attention to. It is surrounded by a chainlink fence with lots of vegitation around it and a “beware of dog” sign on it, so it doesnt appear too welcoming. But today as I drove by, I noticed that the resident was outside. Old, silver-haired gentleman wearing a white undershirt under denim overalls (I kid you not). I looked at him as he was walking in his yard and noticed that there is a lawn jockey :eek: painted red, in his yard. Again, I kid you not. Some stereotypes, sadly, are still alive and well.</p>
<p>Two observations…</p>
<p>Bush, in fact, has the weirdest Texas accent I’ve ever heard. Now I realize East Texas accents differ from Coastal Bend Texas accents which differ from West Texas accents which REALLY differ from Valley accents (where many Anglos speak English with a Spanish inflection, like me 
). But I’m afraid George Bush’s accent just doesn’t seem authentic anywhere in Texas. That’s observation #1.</p>
<p>The other observation is about racism. Many discussions of Southern racism as a shameful part of our history, which is absolutely true; but not much is ever said about racism that is found elsewhere in our country. After all, during the Civil War years, whites lynched blacks in Lower Manhattan too. Not being hypersensitive about it; but it’s curious how many people from other parts of the country seem not familiar with their region’s own sordid past.</p>
<p>OH…and I did endure bias against Texans during my years living in Colorado. But it had nothing to do with Texas bluster and bravado. They just get annoyed that Texans don’t know how to properly disembark from a ski lift. And I must say…Coloradans may be right on that one. We do seem to ‘gum up the works’ on the slopes.</p>
<p>^^^"Bush, in fact, has the weirdest Texas accent I’ve ever heard. "</p>
<p>The Kennedys have an accent all their own as well. No one else in Massachusetts sounds like Ted Kennedy.</p>
<p>Must be a politician thing.</p>
<p>“Old, silver-haired gentleman wearing a white undershirt under denim overalls …”</p>
<p>At the risk of starting another argument, I think it comes down to whether one really likes other people (including those s/he hasn’t met previously) or doesn’t. I’ve traveled to every state in the Union and lived in states both north and south of the Mason-Dixon line, and I can honestly say that the (high) proportion of good-to-evil is roughly the same everywhere. I think virtually everyone loves where they live — even when they move. JMHO.</p>
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I think it’s a class or insular group thing. I know Louis Auchincloss and he sounds exactly like Ted, although not from MA.</p>
<p>I believe the bias exists to a limited degree - of north over south - but the reality seems to me to be quite different. Having spent some time as an instructor of certain stressful things there are regional differences that may be found and exceptions that limit this perception.</p>
<p>Newhope-
Not sue what your point was in quoting the line ablout the guy in the overalls… Can you explain?</p>