Am I allowed to say I get really tired of South bashing?

[bamademo]

I lived up North for a while. I couldn't wait to move back to Huntsville, Al. Yes. I said Alabama.
There are some ignorant folks here. There are some ignorant folks in the North also.

I have a degree. We wear shoes. We don't all work at Walmart. I don't hunt. I work for the D.O.D and there are a lot of Northern people where I work. Some of them are more racist than the KKK. I'm just really tired of people who haven't ever been here trashing my region.

[Kalidurga]

1. Yes, you can say that

I am a northerner I will probably always be a northerner. But, I don't south bash.

[hrmjustin]

2. Yes you are allowed.

[juxtaposed]

3. i live here and feel we need more

[Scootaloo]

4. Sure, it's been at least a few days since the last person did n/t

[McCamy Taylor]

5. Depends. Are they bashing the rural south or the urban south?

Austin, NOLA, Houston, Atlanta are all examples of what is good about the south. Huntsville is a University city with NASA contractors---hardly typical of the south. I lived there in the mid 1960s and the community did not embrace George Wallace and his "segregation forever" values.

However, I stay out of small southern towns. They still live in another century.

[bamademo]

8. I cringe every time I drive out of Madison County. However, there are small Southern towns...

that are progressive. And I bash Mississippi.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

13. Same could be said for rural New England, New York and California.

There is racism and ignorance everywhere from Boston to San Francisco. It may look different in the cities, but it's still there.

[DeadLetterOffice]

28. Upstate NY is as red a place as I've ever lived.

People hear "New York" and just think of the cities. But in the 20+ years I've lived here, I've only had a Democratic congress-critter for the few short years before Gillibrand moved to the Senate. A lot of folks around here are just as closed-minded and 'conservative' as those where I lived in rural Virginia.

[brush]

79. You're so right

The Catskills in upstate New York is just and extension of the Appalachians.

[distantearlywarning]

44. I just moved away from Pennsylvania after a decade of living there

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are very blue and progressive. The rural regions of PA are as un-progressive as it gets. People in the cities mockingly call the area between P-Burgh and Philly "Pennsyltucky".

There are a lot of places up north that are just as ignorant, racist, and right-wing as the stereotypes of the south. Personally, I think urban vs. rural almost matters more than North vs. South.

[BeyondGeography]

54. Most counties are red, 82% in the last election

Higher than in a presidential year, but the pattern holds. We win in metro areas and lose rural/small towns. Most everywhere, not just the South.

[Brett Fitz]

6. There's Racism In All 50 States!

From Mississippi to Massachusetts.

[JonLP24]

39. Yes

[Hekate]

7. Yes you are, and good luck with DUers who broad-brush

Every region has its drawbacks.

[Behind the Aegis]

9. Regionalism is a seemingly acceptable form of bigotry.

However, I remember the screams and shouts of discrimination during the Kerry campaign when he and his supporters were considered "elitist East Coasters." Of course, then the bigotry was being spewed from the Republicans in an effort to make it seem that supporters of Kerry (and Kerry) were "out of touch" with the "little person". Some revel in the nasty remarks made against the South and anyone from there. Of course, we always can expect the typical caveats; "I am originally from the South, so it is OK if I say it (agree with what was said)." "Sure, there are exceptions, but they should move." "Of course, not all Southerners are stupid, uneducated bigots, but they have more than their fair share."

I from the South. I am not ashamed of it. I also now live in another maligned state, one of the "fly over" states, which is another region that gets a fair amount of bashing and generalizations.

[Warpy]

10. Well, it might help if you stopped voting for assholes

I knew people in NC who voted on the basis of who'd piss off New Yorkers the most, if you want to talk about regionalism, voting for assholes who'd stab them in the back because they didn't think they liked New York or anybody who lived there.

I can understand that people steeped in southern culture are horribly uncomfortable outside the south, it's a very distinct and very separate culture.

I'm the other way, I can't stand living in the south. NM has been a pretty good fit, so the west is OK. So were both urban and rural New England. Just don't even ask me to move back to Dixie.

So I'm delighted you've moved back home. I will just never be joining you there.

[bamademo]

14. Jeebuss. I hate Alabama politicians more than anyone. They all get indicted sooner or later.

I'm not steeped in Southern culture. I like the weather better here including the tornadoes. You're a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

And please stay away with your attitude.

[Warpy]

18. And your attitude is why I never will go back.

It seems like you have work to do there to convince people to vote according to their own needs instead of according to who's gonna piss off the yankees the most.

Besides, I'm spoiled by living in the desert now. This thin, dry stuff we call air is great.

[jobycom]

24. We can't all vote for smart people the way Wisconsin and Indiana does.

[distantearlywarning]

45. And don't forget that Pennsylvania had Rick Santorum for a long time

We eventually came to our senses, but, wow....Rick Santorum! That's an embarrassing blot.

[yardwork]

55. Hell, Massachusetts had Romney and NJ has Christie.

I've lived in the north and the south. Some of the most racist people I know we're born and raised in northern California.

However, there is a greater density of morans in much of the south.

[Adrahil]

67. Bash a away on Indiana all you like!

I live here... Bash on!

Indiana has it's own long tortured racial history. Rad about the KKK in Indiana in the 1920's.

[raccoon]

43. ITA many people in the South vote for assholes. I don't. I believe

a great many people in all states vote Republican just because they are racist.

I vote but have absolutely no control over who or what other people vote for.

[yardwork]

56. I agree with you that many people vote R because they are racists.

It's our country's biggest problem. Racism is the reason so many people vote against their own interests.

[Warpy]

82. I know how you feel

Boston went crazy after busing in 1976 brought all the jackasses out and a few politicians got elected at lower levels on the basis of bigotry. However, it all blew over within 10 years.

I didn't know how anybody could vote for that doddering old fool Reagan and his plan to destroy the US economy. They did and he and his henchmen followed through.

However, politics in the south are different in a few ways. One is their obvious longing for the scrapping of the constitution and the return of the Articles of Confederation, something that hadn't worked for anyone but the south and not very well for them. That's what the howling over "states' rights" really means.

Another way is spitefulness over being forced to treat their former property as legal citizens with legal rights equal to those of their former masters. It's an example of how they find the constitutional government an overbearing one and why they haven't moved on, 50 years later.

Even at that, they still managed to send educated and cultured men to Washington until the Civil Rights Act. Since then, they've sent assholes who have stabbed them in the back, like Jesse Helms, Pete Sessions, Jim DeMint, and the list goes on, all of them Federalists first, Americans last.

I have no idea what it will take to get the south to move on. I only know the south will rise again, but only when they stop fighting the rest of the country.

[TexasProgresive]

48. Thatnks for that broad brush.

We don't vote for assholes, assholes vote for assholes.

[valerief]

11. We get really, really, REALLY tired of southern s/elected officials.

REALLY tired.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

16. Yep.

Those assholes like Peter King, Darrell Issa, Michelle Bachmann, can't stand em.

[valerief]

17. Assholes are everywhere, but the South has cornered the market on them. nt

[carolinayellowdog]

40. only one state has cornered the market on the word "asshole"

Look, I love Massachusetts, have had wonderful times there, have a brother in Boston, never been treated badly there. But this "us" vs. "them" business re "assholes" is downright ridiculous in light of the fact that there are "Massholes," as all residents of neighboring states seem to agree, whereas we eminently polite and respectful Virginians have never been stuck with the appellation "Vasshole."

Yet-- while for years I've considered Mass. drivers the meanest and craziest of the 41 states I've visited, I've been recently impressed that you have the lowest highway death rate of all. So mean and crazy doesn't necessarily equate to dangerous!

Mass. also, peculiarly, has a very poor rate of loyalty among Dems in gubernatorial elections, and even with the Senate in the case of Brown. When Virginia elects crazy Republicans, e.g. McDonnell, we Dems can at least be confident that the great majority of the people who voted for them were Republicans. Whereas in well educated, presumably sane Massachusetts, Dem voters will abandon Dem candidates on what seems like a whim. I won't call them assholes, but find it hard to explain.

[Blue_Adept]

47. What?

"Mass. also, peculiarly, has a very poor rate of loyalty among Dems in gubernatorial elections, and even with the Senate in the case of Brown."

The governor side I'll give you, though we often find them neutered in a lot of ways and they tend to be NE republicans, which is a closer sense of normalcy.

But the senate?

C'mon. You can't use the words "poor rate" when it comes to that. How long were Kennedy and Kerry sentaors here? Sixties and Seventies until 2010 when we lost both of them in relatively quick succession?

Of course people are going to try for a little change since we've had one type for so long. But to say there's a poor rate of loyalty because with one senator, in a special election, a Republican one.

[Bluenorthwest]

73. I've done business with all 50 States and many nations. Most polite, New Orleans by far.

Most surly? Boston, by a mile. On the other hand, if I had to live in one place or the other I'd have to pick Boston, cold and mean as it is, because the law there treats me to equal protections in housing and employment and marriage. So there is polite and surly but there is also equal and unequal.
If the South changed a few laws about LGBT people and medical marijuana, I would live there right now. My income is portable, where I reside I pay taxes but take no job, school no children. The weather, too sticky but I hate the cold. In the South I could own a far grander home, have more money to spend and depending on the State, be near people I love.
So please, do not confuse those of us who seek to have access to the entire country by advocating changes to laws in red States as 'bashing' those States. It is, after all and in fact, those States that bash LGBT people. Not all of the 29 States that refuse protections to LGBT in employment and housing are in the South, but every Southern State is among those 29 and there is no other region of the country that is entirely without such civil rights protections.
To say 'stop mistreating my people' is not bashing your State. It is defending myself and my own.

I grew up in CA, my cousins from the South called us the 'land of fruits, flakes and nuts'. West bashing, with homophobia sauce. Our Governor they called 'Moonbeam', ruler of the People's Republic of California. On DU, two different people who identified as Southern have told me that my State is not 'the real America, only the South is the real Plantation America' or that here I am not 'surrounded by real Americans'. That's pretty strong stuff coming from the South toward the West.

It is just not a one way street, and some criticism of various States and regions might actually be valid.

[Warpy]

83. Hey, former Masshole here

I learned how to drive there by riding the bumper cars in Revere Beach late at night when all the cabbies were taking out their frustration there. When I could make it around the track without getting bashed, I was ready to drive.

The key to driving in Mass. is never making eye contact. Somebody knows you see them, they'll cut you off every time. Driving there is the great fake-out. It has to be, all the roads were laid out by cows and drunken sailors.

Driving in Mexico is absurdly similar. You manage to drive in Mass, I think you can drive anywhere.

As for the pols, until very recently, the GOP in New England was very different from the rest of the country. Jim Jeffords was an example of what they were.

[Downwinder]

12. Sure, but you have to admit there is a lot to bash down here.

[AgingAmerican]

15. Explain how they are "more racist than the KKK"

How is that even possible? See, you are now doing what you just complained about 'the North' doing.

Now watch, I can do it too except that I offer evidence...

Alabama Outdoes Arizona with Racist Immigration Law

"Last week, a federal court's decision allowed parts of a law to go into effect that essentially requires police to racially profile people while criminalizing undocumented migrants for being without immigration documents. The law and the decision upholding it shows that Alabama -- in passing the harshest anti-immigration law in the nation -- is still mired in its racist, segregationist past. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-rushing/alabamas-immigration-law_b_992801.html

"Alabama State Flag. Crimson St. Andrew's cross on a white field, patterned after the Confederate Battle Flag, and adopted in 1895"

It's the embedded racism and segregationist mindset that repulses us.

[alp227]

19. Let's bash the politicians not the region. nt

[AgingAmerican]

23. And the racist laws

nt

[Katashi_itto]

49. Dont forget Mississippi — along with Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina — has no

state minimum wage.

[Logical]

65. Well, and the people who vote for them I assume deserve some bashing? True? nt

[LostOne4Ever]

20. Yes

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]But until our states stop electing the dumbest people on the planet as our politicians....we will not hear the end of it.[/font]

[JaneyVee]

21. Don't take it personal. It's southern politics we dislike.

[Major Hogwash]

22. "We wear shoes."

Well, that settles that!!

[freshwest]

37. Hey, I always wore sandals or went barefoot when I was off work. Too hot! n/t

[freshwest]

25. Well-ah. Native Texan. We grew up lookin' down on All Y'all. Then Karma paid Texas a visit:

So Texas gave the country:

George Bush, Jr.
Dick Cheney
Tom DeLay
Dick Armey
Joe Barton
Rick Perry
John Cornyn
Ted Cruz
Ron Paul
Louis Gohmert
Blake Farenthold
Pete Sessions
Steve Stockman
Alex Jones
John Haggee
David Barton

Actually, too many embarrassments to list. And President Kennedy was killed here. Never forget that. The Right Wing Nuts are proud of it.

Formerly Texas gave the country:

Bill White
Ann Richards
Barbara Jordan

And now:

Sheila Jackson Lee
Lloyd Doggett
Julian Castro
Joaquin Castro

And others, but I don't keep track.

Plus a progressive legacy, a formerly strong school and public service system, and first class medical research and treatment. Not to mention two cases that changed the lives of women and gays for the better (until the GOP took over) NASA and good infrastructure until it was sold off.

Yet as Obama said, 10+ million Texans are Democrats, still part of our party, and need our help. Unfortunately, the Libertarian Langoliers have devoured so much of what was good, Texas is almost unrecognizable to other Democrats around the country. But it shouldn't be if they were thinking about it.

What I remind those who bash the South and Texas, is what has been done to Texas was a well funded, heavily advertised in churches, radio and television, hostile take over, a conservative experiment. The model used to pit former Leftists against Democrats, cause the Right to be genocidally bigoted to Democrats and tbrazenly illegal in their acts, is going nationwide.

No one is safe from what turned Texas from a progressive state into the Libertarian paradise that the GOP wanted. I think some bash certain states because they are scared it can happend to them. In truth, they already know inroads are being made in their states.

It's too bad that Democrats and progressives from the South are dismissed because they are a minority there. The Democratic Party is for underdogs. Y'all are definitely in that group.

And DU has a home for you:

Southern Democrats and Progressives (Group)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1113

Don't take any of this to heart. A lot of days DU is too much to take for those who are having too much to deal with anyway.

[malokvale77]

34. Your last paragraph...

Truth.

[freshwest]

35. Oops, I edited it. I think that one is still there, though. n/t

[eridani]

26. Yes, you are.

I've never lived anywhere south of Carbondale, IL for any length of time, and it seems to me that bashing the south is just an indirect way of blowing off really dealing with racial issues. Not to mention disrespecting all the hard-working progressive there who have an uphill fight as it is.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

27. "We" are being manipulated into bashing on the web

We are played by powerful folks who love seeing the working class tear each other apart. People make fun of Californians for many reasons. Bashing a place and politicians is time honored. Just think about why you are tired of it and why you do it.

Bottom line: We're being divided and conqured by the 1% and lobbyists of the corporate elite. Just save enough energy to bash those who truly deserve it.

[carolinayellowdog]

33. only those of "us" who are ignorant or malicious enough to allow it

In some ways I'm barely a southerner-- lifelong Virginian, siblings all in the Northeast or West. Seeing Virginia turning "blue" in presidential elections, the Senate, and now the governor's mansion, has been wonderful in the years since I joined DU. And yet the expressions of hate, categorical sweeping hate, of everyone south of the Potomac here have only increased steadily over those same years. But then expressions of all kinds of other divisiveness and hate have likewise increased.

What I've noticed, though, is that those who are most subject to manipulation by those divisive forces, who can be readily encouraged to two-minute-hatefests against a hundred million fellow Americans based on geography, don't tend to be Northeasterners. Virginia and Maryland were the first two states to formally apologize for slavery-- but the next two were Connecticut and New Jersey. Northeasterners generally understand history in enough depth to refrain from shallow generalizations, in my experience. This "our shit doesn't stink" Othering of the South that I see online tends to come mostly from the West and Midwest. Why? I suspect it's historical ignorance among some Westerners, who may be sincerely unaware that there is any difference between say Virginia and Mississippi. But with the Midwest, say Ohio, Indiana, or Michigan, Illinois or Missouri, I suspect that it's deflection from their own problems that motivates malicious regional antagonism. There is a long history of bias against black AND white migrants from the South, which seems more socially acceptable to express openly in the Midwest than the Northeast. The electorates of those states seem generally more susceptible to divisive manipulation, keeping the working class divided. In my observation, of course, your mileage may vary.

[appalachiablue]

74. There's a difference between Mississippi and Virginia? Who knew? If someone from the

South corresponded or communicated with a person in Maine, and said 'oh, you're from Maine. We went to Atlantic City once!'- or a person from the east or south was in contact with somebody in Oregon and said, 'Sure Oregon. I saw St. Louis once'. Huh? Point being I've talked to and corresponded with Midwest and West people and all regions who have dismal knowledge of US geography. When a sister lived in NYC a guy insisted there was no state of 'west' Virginia. He was an exceptional product of the education system. A person originally from WI, then DC said when I mentioned I was from NoVa- 'Oh, I used to lived in Atlanta'. WTH? It's all the same, Arlington, Va or Atlanta, GA to some. Very weird.

On the subject of shaming- there's region shaming, south shaming but the TV Shaming now is growing, and if you slip up and admit you watch it, look out. You will conform...

[carolinayellowdog]

84. arbitrary boundaries constrain rational thought and encourage scapegoating

The most horror-struck I've ever been at DU was when someone I'd always liked and respected, from NM, started spewing "you people" anti-South invective in the wake of Ted Cruz's antics in 2013. WTF? Here I am in VA 1500 miles away from Texas, yet am to be blamed and scolded by someone in a neighboring state -- because THE SOUTH ?!? Pennsylvania's a whole lot closer, and a whole lot more similar, than Texas-- but no one ever blames Virginians for anything that goes on there, because-- THE MASON DIXON LINE.

The good news though is that in six decades of life, traveling in almost every state and many countries, I've never once encountered any REAL LIFE antagonism against Virginians. It seems to be a phenomenon entirely limited to online warriors looking for someone to feel superior to.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

80. partly, people who hate themselves also hate others

It's temptimg to lash out when you're unhappy with your lot - whatever that may be. And fear of the other is pretty much the FNC reason for being.

Hard to keep all this in mind when an opportunity to strike at "the south" LBJ feared losing shows itself in an open forum.

[carolinayellowdog]

85. stuck people stick people

I am under no illusion that we native Virginians are solely or even primarily responsible for the improvement in the commonwealth's position on the red/blue continuum. We've attracted a high quality of in-migration, well educated professionals, who tend to vote Democratic. And ESPECIALLY (same goes for Florida) there has been a lot of out-migration of black voters from places like IL and MI and OH and those people tend to come to VA, FL, NC, and GA. And these African American migrants tend to be more educated and middle class than those remaining in the Rust Belt. So, our gain is the Midwest's loss-- as parts of the South turn "bluer" and "blacker" the industrial Great Lakes states turn "redder" and "whiter." (What does this augur for red/blue presidential electoral maps fifty years from now?)

Those states are also declining in relative economic and educational terms, and seem to be hotbeds of discontent and resentment. A recent study found four Ohio cities among the ten "most miserable" places. But apart from these specific elements of regional antagonism, I wonder about individual psychology. Same goes for people who relentlessly insist that they as atheists are superior, because belonging to a superior CATEGORY, to religionists, who belong to an inferior category-- or vice versa. If you didn't have some kind of issue with your own PERSONAL inferiority or superiority, why would you relentlessly obsess online that you belong to one CATEGORY that is superior to another? Seems like people who feel personally and individually STUCK are looking for an Inferior Other to "stick it to" in online abusive discourse.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

86. agreed.

I would like this country to abandon Evangelism. It's divisive, relentless, and judgemental.

FDR spoke of prayer and God, but didn't use them to threaten and divide the way dominionists do.

And he gave us poetry that Norman Rockwell illustrated:

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[lexington filly]

29. Used to love visiting Mobile, vacationing at Gulf Shores and later living

in Atlanta. Good and not so good people everywhere. Your all's state supreme court head judge though, is most definitely bad PR for Alabama. I just laugh off my state's (KY) stereotypes. Some of it's right on about some folks frankly. But like AL, we've all different kinds of subcultures here. Then again, my state elected Rand Paul and re-elected, McConnell.
I've got plenty to be embarrassed about here.

[lovemydog]

30. Yes. I get tired of it too.

Just because the majority in your area don't vote the way we at DU do, no one should trash an entire region. There are many lovely people in the deep south. The ones like you who post here at DU, I consider you wonderful people. And you are correct - there are lousy people everywhere.

[darkangel218]

31. I live in FL and i am perfectly ok with "south bashing"

Reality is reality. Why would you have a problem with that.

[RandiFan1290]

52. Try a thread about Florida bashing

I seriously doubt we'd get the same syrupy sweet sympathy that this thread is getting...

[malokvale77]

32. Yes the whole country sucks...

The South just sucks more.

I live in the South (Texas). Just admit it, the South sucks big time.

[DonCoquixote]

36. yes you can

especially as someone who has lived in both NJ and FL, some of the nastiest "rednecks" were in NJ.

However, there are people here, especially when defending blue dogs like Mary Landrieu, who keeps saying we have to water down the message to please the southern voter..That has resulted in us being lame and flat.

[steve2470]

38. Skinner nailed it here

The fact is that every jurisdiction in this country sometimes passes crappy laws or votes for crappy politicians. Everyone here at DU understands that that does not mean that everyone from those places is responsible.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12592189#post1


I could say more, but that sums it up.

[MinM]

58. Skynyrd nailed it here

[DrDan]

41. absolutely you can say it . . . and please continue to do so

This region-bashing is clearly bigotry - "Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion".

Being called out for that is absolutely appropriate.

Used to be spelled out here in the TOS. Not sure why it was removed, but hate that it was.

[cwydro]

42. I've been on DU a long time.

There are some truly nasty people who enjoy bashing the south.

Not sure why, but I think it makes them feel superior. But I've noticed they are the ones who love to name-call, which is childish at best. Really actually, just sadly pathetic.

I guess they want to call attention away from all the Tea Party asswipes in the north. Shall I name them?

God, I would take myself out of this world if I had to live in a place like New Jersey with that disgusting puke as governor.

This being said, I'm trashing every south bashing thread on DU. I've trashed the ones from last night. No doubt this one will be the same, though I do appreciate your efforts here.

[WilliamPitt]

46. My father was born and raised in Decatur, Alabama

Just across the river from Huntsville. I spent many a happy hour with my grandmother at the Space & Rocket Center.

My grandfather was a pediatrician. My grandmother was a schoolteacher for more than 30 years. My father worked every Democratic presidential campaign from Bobby Kennedy to John Kerry, and led the Alabama Democratic Party for a time. He shared the phone that was tapped at the Watergate, so the tapes include my mother and father talking about me, as-yet unborn. While my mom was pregnant, they called me "Benny" for whatever reasons. It's all on the tapes.

Regional stereotypes can kiss my ass.

My Alabama
Monday, 02 May 2011 09:54
By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/853:my-alabama#

[DeSwiss]

50. Nor-Souther here.....

...this too shall pass.

- Love yourself FIRST. That's where it all starts.....

K&R




And not just you, that goes for all of us. It's a struggle. It's THE struggle......

[Chemisse]

51. It's easy for us to bash southerners.

And it's just as unfair as any other broad-brush condemnation of an entire group of people.

Thanks for reminding us of that.

[fadedrose]

53. The north, just like any other part of the country

has ignorant people too. Don't let it bother you. A lot of us northerners have spent time in the south on vacations, during military service, etc., and met a lot of nice people of every race.

Racism is everywhere to some degree, and whites have much to be ashamed of everywhere.

[In_The_Wind]

57. What I miss the most about living in the southeast is the beautiful springtime.

My Aunts and Uncles have all left this earth but not a one of them was ever part of the KKK. They were gentle folks who would be appalled at the racist problems of today.

I wore shoes except when I wanted to feel the green green grass of home. I have a college degree. The only hunting I do is with my camera. Oh, and I would be very happy if I could move back down south where I come from.

[Oilwellian]

72. Lovely words...I live in the Southeast and understand what you mean

I'm looking out of my big picture window and see Red Tips and Dogwood blooms popping on the trees, various bulbs bursting from the ground, and birds mating everywhere. LOL It truly is a lovely time of year and if you add the Blue Ridge mountains into the mix, well, it's my slice of heaven on earth. Thank you for reminding us all that there is beauty in most places as well.

[Tommy2Tone]

59. You defending the South looks a lot like bashing the North

I get it you don't like the north and want to return home but some from the north are more racist than the KKK? Glad you're home but c'mon man.

[Sunlei]

60. why would you, "a DOD Gov. employee" trash a states walmart employees as ignorant?

Last edited Sat Apr 11, 2015, 03:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Wal-Mart employed more than any other company in Alabama.


Alabama
Wal-Mart employed nearly 34,000 Alabama residents as of February 2015, more than any other company in the state. Of the 138 retail stores Wal-Mart operates in Alabama, 99 are supercenters. According to the company, the average wage for full-time hourly associates was $12.57 an hour.

You mentioned you "work for the DOD" who are your employees?, Who fills the DOD contracts in Alabama?

Does Alabama prison slave labor fill all the DOD contracts? This may explain why some of your mentioned "northern DOD co-workers are more racist then the kkk"

IMO, prison labor IS slavery and the management are modern day massas.

[TlalocW]

61. No

Whatcha gonna do? Rise and do it again?

Just kidding.

TlalocW

[merrily]

62. DUers really post that Southerners don't wear shoes, all work at WalMart, are the only racists in

the US, etc.?

I have not seen those posts. I will take you word for it if you say you've seen a lot of them here.

However, I will say that when it comes to things like Jim Crow laws, the Confederate flag, Dixie (the anthem), the South is different. That does not mean everyone in the South today (or ever) is racist and no one else is. It just means there are historical differences.

As for me, I live in Boston, home to not a little de facto segregation and locus of one of the most ugly photos I've ever seen, taken during the forced school busing era.

http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/04/04/a-flag-a-busing-fight-and-a-famous-photograph

So far be it from me to claim there is no racism at all outside the South.

[Logical]

63. You can say it all you want. I live in Kansas and am smart enough to say it is a shit hole of GOP...

idiots.

[A Little Weird]

64. I feel your pain

There are a lot of things that need to be fixed in the south. But many times legitimate criticism of these issues devolves into classist insults very quickly. I am really tired of hearing terms like "trailer trash", "white trash" (I really hate this one), "redneck", and "toothless hillbilly". I have heard these insults my whole life by people slamming the south (some of these are more widely used but they come up a lot in these discussions). Most of these insults come from the fact that our society looks down on poor people. We have a lot of poverty in the south. Even in your defense of the south you diss the poor. There is nothing at all wrong with not having a degree, hunting, or working at Walmart.

"We wear shoes" - in the south, the warm climate allows people to go without shoes a lot more readily than in colder climates. So, especially in the past, poor people might prioritize other things than buying shoes. My grandmother told me that as a kid she and her siblings were not allowed to wear their shoes in the summer (except to church) because they had to make them last as long as possible. She said there were even poorer kids in her school who didn't have shoes at all and had to wrap their feet in old feed sacks during the cold weather. But really, whether someone chooses to go barefoot out of necessity or choice, how does anyone else think that is any of their business? How does it in any way reflect what kind of person they are?

Lift people out of poverty and improve education. Those are the top two things that need to be done to improve things in the south. It's hard to make either of them happen because the people in power (the ones with money) make sure things stay the same.

[Adrahil]

66. Three words. Judge Roy Moore.

But I know there are pockets of progressives all over the place. But Alabama elected Moore as chef justice. Bashing justified.

[treestar]

68. Can I say I am tired of defensive southerners?

So martyred by it all. I've been called a "Yankee" and treated as though I presumed to be superior by some southern martyrs in my time.

And they were always white southerners.

I'm glad you enjoy being in Alabama, but it's a fact it is a very red state.

[Tommy2Tone]

75. Exactly right and I live in Texas

[Puglover]

69. If the state I am from (Minnesota)

ever does as many boneheaded things and elects as many crazy knuckle draggers as Indiana, Alabama, Georgia, Texas etc. etc. do.

Please feel completely free to bash away.

It's a state. Not my Mother.

[kcr]

70. Like it's so easy to talk about the problems in the South

without getting jumped on for "south bashing" No one ever does that, right? But then again I don't care. I've posted about it and read the responses and never once felt like I wasn't allowed. I don't feel like I'm entitled to post things without others disagreeing. I think those who feel so slighted about the opinions of others about the south should step back and ask themselves why they feel that way. Maybe it's the sting of the truth.

[Marr]

71. North and West bashing is deemed acceptable from national politicians.

When was the last time you heard some national politician mock the South? For some reason it's deemed just fine for Southerners and Southern politicians to sneer at 'Taxachusetts' or 'the Left Coast', or use coded phrases like 'San Francisco liberal', but the South must always be respected as the home of 'real Americans', for some reason.

Sure, you can say you get really tired of South bashing. I get really tired of the South's everyone-else bashing, and their tendency to play the victim while going on the attack.

[treestar]

76. If anything, it's the "real America" or "pro-America" now

Right wingers do some California bashing. Yet I've never heard anyone from California complain about that.

[Hoyt]

77. Well, as a Southerner, I think we need and deserve a lot of criticism. Accepting the Southern brand

of racism, is not an option for me.

Yeah, there's a lot of good here, and a lot of liberals, but fact it that the good ole boy racists elect our government officials that pass the crappy laws and budgets we live under. There's a reason these racist, ignorant fools don't expand Medicaid . . . . . . .

By the way, I lived in Huntsville for awhile. It's different from most of Alabama because of the educated populace. But, there's still a lot of racism there.

And I know racism exists everywhere, but there's a special brand in the South that is especially vile.

[brer cat]

78. I get very tired of it too.

It is really an affront to those of us who work hard to make change possible here. Some support would be nice instead of constant bashing. Not to mention the fact that every area of the country has racists and many have elected horrid people to represent them.

[Rex]

81. Of course, why would you think it is against the TOS or CS?

Many people point it out.