This Done Pissed Me Off, Y'All

I wasn't going to write anything tonight, but this article just got me all up in arms: Southern identity grows less assertive

They only wish it would. Southern culture and the resulting pride it engenders are just about the most fearful aspect of the South to many outsiders. It is also very likely the most misunderstood.

Southern culture is not about slavery or racism or superiority. It is about honor, independence, and trust. The elitists in the world (both Northern and Southern in origin) don't appreciate the rebellious streak in Southerners and spend a great deal of time trying to smear us as exclusive, backwards and slow.

Look at some of the loaded phrases the author uses:

The South -- the home of good ol' boys and pickup trucks, the stereotypical images recently mentioned by Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean; of yellow dogs with grease spots on their backs; of front porch swings ...

"The only thing I can figure is the past traditions," said Raymond Scott, an African-American UPS driver in his hometown of Cleveland, Tenn. "I know years ago in the South, it was known to be racially slow to change..."

"I think that's why some people consider [being Southern] to be degrading," he said. "Other people say Southerners aren't as bright, not as clean..."

"I think a lot of the older folks are dying out, the kind of people who sit down at a [restaurant] and tell racist jokes, you just see a lot less of it,..."

"There are people up here driving down the street with a huge Confederate flag flying behind them...."

...the South's lagging willingness to desegregate haven't helped the image...

Low test scores and near-bottom rankings in national academic achievement tests...

"I feel some embarrassment and shame because of how underfunded our school system is," said Connell. "You've got a lot of older people who want to stick to the old-fashioned way of doing things. You mention any kind of tax [for the schools] and they think it's just terrible."

Staunch in their Southernness were mainline Protestants and those with no church affiliation, political conservatives, Republicans and the most affluent.

There were, of course, no similar statements of why it might not be so shameful to be a proud Southerner. Consistently, anyone who disagreed that it is shameful to be Southern was portrayed as someone ignoring reality.

There was never any discussion about the honesty and integrity that you find among true Southerners. There was never any discussion about the strong sense of right and wrong that leads to an intense code of honor among true Southerners. There was no discussion about Southerners desiring freedom, independence, and self-reliance.

The one insinuation I found most revolting was that old-time Southerners don't value education. That is absolutely untrue.

Old time Southerners do value education. They just don't value the education of the bureaucrats who arrogantly claim to know best. They don't value an education based around "new math" where the answer is unimportant. They don't value an education in which most kids come out of the system illiterate. They don't want to pay more taxes for a system in which kids learn all the history of Africa and Kwanzaa, but know nothing about their own local deep and rich heritage.

And they certainly don't want to give more money to the NEA educrats for their anti-Southern indoctrinations.

Teach the kids how to speak, read, write and to do proper math - the old Southerners will support you. Teach them real history; teach them something about Robert E. Lee besides the fact that was the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia and they'll support you. Teach the kids about the respect and honor of a Lee or a Stonewall Jackson and they'll support you.

Teach them about the greatness of Jesse Jackson and they'll run you out of town on a rail.

Southern culture is not perfect. It never has been, and even as much as some Southerners like to pretend, it probably never will be. But it also is not shameful. The accent, the slower way of life, the reverence of traditions - they don't make a person slow, stupid or ignorant anymore than the Massachusetts accent, faster pace of life and utter disregard for traditions make someone from the Northeast smart or brilliant.

Now this study I think has an interesting, and potentially damaging flaw in it. They surveyed 18,000 people, only 10,000 of which had been born here. That's less than 60% of the respondents. The then tried to make it sound better by saying that all but 1,800 respondents had lived here for at least a decade.

I would like to see the numbers for the 10,000. I'm guessing that more than 70% of the life long residents would describe themselves as Southern. Just because someone lives here does not make them Southern any more than me living in Zimbabwe for a year would make me African. The influx of new residents to the region is certainly diluting the perceived strength of the Southern pride, but just because of New Yorker living in Kentucky thinks it might be shameful to be Southern doesn't really mean that it is.

Show me a real breakdown of the statistics. Give me an article which acknowledges some of the virtues of being Southern. Quit trying to shame me into submitting to some idealized elitist vision of what the South should be like.

But of course that will never happen. And the fact that it will never happen is the very proof that the author of this article, despite his employment with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, hasn't a clue about the South.

Why am I not surprised?