Alright, the South bashing has gotten to me. Even as extremist attacks float around the Internet (658 links according to Technorati this morning), others try to intellectualize their prejudices in less offensive terms.
Everbody calm down! I can't stand George Bush either, but don't give up on the South. Home to MLK as well as George Wallace, Molly Ivins as well as Ralph Reed (actually a Californian), the Dixie Chicks as well as Toby Keith.
By the way, for those pondering why Southerners think liberals (and Yankees) are arrogant, just read a little of the South-bashing on the web right now and see if you can't figure it out. We've even got self-hating southerners speaking up. I'm a white, Scotch-Irish Texan (that's Scott Patrick Henson to you) who is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, who works neck deep in the state's civil rights movement, and you know what? I find myself complaining about arrogant Yankee liberals all the time! New Yorkers who hear a Texas accent make a whole range of assumptions, starting with knocking 30 points off your IQ, and leading downhill from there to jokes about marrying one's cousins. Are you really shocked when Southerners announce, "Well, screw you too!"?
By the way, in every southern state, cities are blue, suburbs and rural areas are red, so there's still a lot of friendly folks down this way. Dallas just elected a lesbian, Latina, Democrat sheriff!
That said, the South is grits central, so perhaps I'm biased.
As a yankee from Ohio, I sure hope not to offend. My folks are from West Virginia, which is almost the South, I guess. I do snipe at middle America quite a bit (Ohio included, now that I'm a long time knickerbocker (New Yorker)), which can include south as well as east, north and west.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank the gods from lesbian democratic sheriffs! Woot!
I mean *for* lesbian democratic sheriffs.
ReplyDelete