What springs to mind? I'm currently doing a module at my University on the Deep South USA and the first lecture introduced us to the term "Deep South" and how people react to it.
If I said to someone who wasn't American, "What do you think of Alabama?" they would come back with something like "It's full of Rednecks, guns, Christians and racism".
However if I were to say "What do you think of Florida?" they would say "Sun, sand, Disneyland and fit girls" even though it's the furthest Southern State in the USA.
This map explains what I'm getting at:
Source - Wikipedia
So any input? Just typing my notes up from lectures and thought it was an interesting topic. The same can also be said for "What comes to mind when you think of Europe?" but I'll save that for another time.
Comments
Florida - You missed oil spills. :thumbsup:
I've never been to Alabama, Florida or the US. So I guess I'm not the best judge.
Maybe members from these parts could share their thoughts on the matter.
To be honest, I'm intrigued & curious now.
Mississippi is beautiful. The cost of living is very low for a lot of the state, so you can work a chill blue collar job and still have more than enough money for you and your family. Very nice place.
Louisiana is shit.
Florida has a lot of rednecks in the panhandle, but doesn't have as "southern" a feel. This kind of illustrates it better.
Texas is very southern but a great place. We get a bad name because outside the state the vocal minority is all you ever hear, but most of us are actually decent folks.
Would you say as the older generation dies out, the racist undertones that some associate with the South would disappear? Or would it breed into something more trailer-trash, or completely the opposite - an increase in migration to "the North"?
Somewhat. A large part of it is that for the older generation, that's what they grew up thinking. That was "normal", so it got sort of ingrained into them. Hell, my grandmother still calls people "Negroes". The younger generation looks at that and says "lol damn, that's some silly, outdated shit", so when the older generation passes it will sort of dissolve.
But also if you look at how society is evolving, it's only the backwater areas that continue to really instill these beliefs. Most of it is because you just don't see it happening, so it becomes sort of acceptable in those sort of areas. However, as cities expand and people live in more developed areas, the population becomes more liberal. We'll start to see the rural areas retract and get smaller, and with it will go a lot of unnecessary racism. Not all racism is bad, but 99.999% of it is overblown tripe. Almost every single issue that's a "racial issue" is actually an "socioeconomic class issue".
Back on track: Mississippi is known as "the hospitality state" and it actually rings true for the most part. Louisianna is totally different depending on where you are. New Orleans is a different world than Monroe. I don't frequent the other states.
I think the racism issue will eventually be null but not with the next generation. Not for some time.
Your purdy mouth.
Dude, that is fucking awesome. I'm assuming a statue somewhere? Where?
Oh yeah!!! Doin' the Ned Beatty squeeeeeeel!
squeal like a pig boy! Squeeeeeee
This one?
Or this one?
Speaking from experience I can say....RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT