Why I am so occupied with southernness

[nfisher1226]

Someone please explain this to me...

You're not imagining it, although please give some credit that not everybody in this country has a narrow world view. Honestly, some of us who have slightly more open minds get just as annoyed about it as you are.

As for explaining it, I really can't but I can say I don't think it's going to last forever. Our country has been used to being the top dawg for decades, even though we're obviously on a precarious perch and quite likely on our way down already. At some point the collective mindset will begin to reflect some new realities.

[Homer]

Bowyn Aerrow, thank you for that post.
Up until I had to deal with 2 patients with varying degrees of OCD did I realize that it isn't something cut and dry, like what I had learned from textbooks. The term "I am obsessed about..." took on different perspective at a clinical setting where I was. And I was guilty for inadvertently using this expression to describe my 'undesirable' habits at staff meetings a few times. It was and still is a popular expression among the lay people when talking about non clinical issues. But no more will I use this expression after getting raised eye brows from the head psychologist and rest of the clinical staff.
I read my first William Faulkner stories in a university English course which had me interested in the South and its culture. Being in the Pacific Northwest, I had to research about the South in more depth than what I had learn from high school history. A few years ago, I showed 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' to my pupils, and indeed a few asked if "the South is still like that." Like Bowyn said, the images school literature give to high school pupils might be outdated (if only referring to the 'old' South). It may no longer be as 'nice' and 'genteel' as back then. :confused:

[Pix]

I wouldn't consider Houston or Brownsville to be Southern really. Maybe Houston was before the 80s (that is before I was born) but after that the city became way too cosmopolitan with an influx from people not only from all over America but the rest of the world. It's still Texas, mind you, but not the same as Southern culturally speaking.

The only part of Texas that's really Southern is East Texas...the large cities like Dallas excepted (not sure about Tyler).

(That's an observation me and many others have, not an official explanation.)

[Pix]

What I don't get, no matter who does it, is why several Americans are so damn fixated on isolationist views of their country...and this is (as I have perceived, mind you) a particular trait of Southern states, albeit present in other areas

Seriously guys, every country has a degree of sub-cultural divisions, geographical diversity, etc. That's normal.

But I haven't seen "separatist" tendencies and intra-antagonism at this level anywhere else besides former Yugoslavia...and those guys fought each other in 10 years worth of bloody wars to split into different States..

Someone please explain this to me...

I grew up in the South including a town where the schools still taught the Civil War from a Confederate viewpoint and some courthouses waved a Dixie flag. And even raised there I can't explain it exactly. Partially we're raised with it. I think I could explain it (my guess anyway) from a historical perspective and yet these days it's too schizophrenic...on one hand many Southerners like to promote their, um, quasi-national identity (and even say things like "fighting terrorism since 1861") and yet at the same time tend to be uber-patriotic to like the Republic Party, the US military (who technically should be the enemy), etc. It took me years of thinking hard on it to explain to my partner why God & guns were so mixed in the South (so that guns were practically holy like a rosary to a Catholic), though I do strongly suspect the connection between God & guns is very much related to Southern identity. (All generally speaking.)

That's generally speaking, however, plenty of individual exceptions. My cousin is what I call a "Browncoat Southerner" (NOT an official name, this is just my personal vocabulary, and Browncoat refers to the "independents" of the series Firefly which is somewhat "Southern" in flavor, and intentionally so) in that he associates the Confederate flag with personal independence and doesn't share the usual schizophrenic outlook of loving the South and calling the Yankees terrorists while at the same time praising the Yankee military. He's different from the standard in other ways, too, but I don't feel like explaining it.

[Arkansota]

When I was in Portland, Oregon, last month, I liked poking fun that the West Coast doesn't "get" pizza (or "apizza" if it's brick oven and thin-crusted) but we New Englanders don't "get" coffee (seriously, people on my Facebook page sometimes post things like "so happy I got my Dunkin' Donuts coffee this morning!" and I'm like, "for real?" >_< ; )

But seriously, why do you feel the need to assert where your from so much on this board? And who doesn't know Arkansas is in the South? Stupid people who don't have access to a map?

You'd be surprised. At one point, I got told that Arkansas was in the Midwest like 3 times in one day.

[nfisher1226]

When I made the comments regarding Houston and Brownsville it was relating more to geography than culture.

It bears mention that cultural differences are largely being washed away in the US due to what I think of as the "Big Box Store" effect. The most visited restaurants are chains, the biggest retailer and largest employer are WalMart, local television stations have only a tiny fraction of the viewership compared with national cable networks. Sure there's still some differences, but by and large the US feels like the US from sea to shining sea.

Texans like to lay claim to being the exception, but the younger generations are going to seem considerably less Texan than their parents I imagine.

States like Arkansas that have lower overall levels of education and less economic opportunity actually succumb more to the "lowest common denominator" effect of having their kids raised more by the public school system than by their parents. Which results in a more general "sameness" to successive generations I think.

@Arkansota - try to remember this if it helps you. You're probably over 800 miles from where you grew up. You're pretty damn far from home. Screw the labels, you're nowhere near where you grew up.

[Saint]

Truth. The south Sucks.

I would like to politely disagree and also agree.

I am a born and raised Georgia farm boy. I work in cotton and peanut fields and also like to hunt and fish. I pretty well fit the strongest of the southern stereotype. But, I was raised with manners and respect I do not hate black people or gays (as i'm one myself) or object to any religion. I couldn't imagine not being a southern boy. I love my life.

But I will agree that we do have racism and hatred against gays and religious discrimination. I have even said myself that this is a bad place to be gay. But I haven't been attacked or threatened because of it. I know that there are some crazy folks that are aggressive and all around bad people in the south.

But, it's not every body by a long shot. It's just that the few nut cases tend to get more attention than the overwhelming majority of decent people.

[Drew]

I wouldn't consider Houston or Brownsville to be Southern really. Maybe Houston was before the 80s (that is before I was born) but after that the city became way too cosmopolitan with an influx from people not only from all over America but the rest of the world. It's still Texas, mind you, but not the same as Southern culturally speaking.

The only part of Texas that's really Southern is East Texas...the large cities like Dallas excepted (not sure about Tyler).

(That's an observation me and many others have, not an official explanation.)

What about Austin? I hear that's a pretty good and fun drop of blue in vast sea of red.

[Pix]

Yeah, Austin is weird that way, I'm guessing because the college affects so much there drawing in people who give it that character. It's so ironic to be perhaps the most liberal area of Texas while at the same time the capital of one of the most conservatives states in the US.

What was really funny is that when Texas gained enough signatures to be considered for secession Austin had a counter petition to secede from Texas if Texas seceded from the US...oh the storm THAT would've caused if it both happened.

[starbelly]

When I was in Portland, Oregon, last month, I liked poking fun that the West Coast doesn't "get" pizza (or "apizza" if it's brick oven and thin-crusted) but we New Englanders don't "get" coffee (seriously, people on my Facebook page sometimes post things like "so happy I got my Dunkin' Donuts coffee this morning!" and I'm like, "for real?" >_< ; )

But seriously, why do you feel the need to assert where you're from so much on this board? And who doesn't know Arkansas is in the South? Stupid people who don't have access to a map?

Bahaha, is it true that East Coasters don't "get" coffee? I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon so I've been around coffee and microbrews and all that my whole life. You literally can't turn more than two or three block in this city though without seeing 1-3 coffee shops, Starbucks and all of the above. It's insane. I guess I don't realize how insane it is until I actually sit and think about it. I'm not really a coffee snob per se, but I have had lots of different kinds (and believe it or not am still pretty faithful to Starbucks). Ristretto Roasters in Portland is pretty good though. Very basic, stripped down menu, but the coffee is great.