What do you think of the Southeast US?

[Mad Man]

I don't know, I used to think it meant the southern half of something, but apparently it can go up and around things just to piss me off.

 

[classical_hero]

Southern hospitality.

 

[amadeus]

Blue: North
Red: South

That's all that it's going to come down to with a damn silly debate like this.

 

[Oerdin]

Southerners love their native cuisine. Nobody else does. Fat, sugar, grease, overcooked vegetables. Bland as hell if you don't count New Orleans. I'll pass, thank you.

That's so true. 90% of southern cooking is total rubbish while NOLA is a special case all its own with a mixture of French, Spanish, and American cuisine. NOLA is the star and the rest isn't very exciting unless you like mushy corn grits, waffle house, and Denny's style food.

 

[h4ppy]

The south is too hot to actually live in but I don't really have any problem with southerners.

 

[warpus]

Southeast just means the region(which doesn't include Texas, Oklahoma, Maryland, and Delaware), Southern's the culture.

According to my American roommate (born in Canada but lived all over the U.S., including an extended stay in Los Angeles, claims he's been to every continental state except 1), Texas doesn't qualify as "the south", and people from the "real south" consider Texans "from the west".

And having read a bit more of the thread it seems to me like not even Americans can agree on what exactly "the south" means

Seriously though, when I read "southern U.S." to me that included everything that was in the south. That's why I included Hollywood. If someone on the street asked me that exact question before yesterday, I would have included everything that I associate coming from the southern parts of the U.S., be it in the east or west.

OP should have a bit more clear which exact region he meant, seeing as how many of us are not American, and the Americans can't even agree on what "the south" exactly is.

 

[amadeus]

Wherever the south is, we can all agree that rural Arkansas and Mississippi are in it.

 

[Patroklos]

Why on earth are we defining southern as "rural" now?

Because the some in this tread can't seem to see the irony of claiming bigotry in the South while listing off a litany of steriotypes while at the same time admitting they have never been or barely been to the South.

As has been mentioned rural culture is not Southern. Redneck never was and certainly isn't a Southern thing, just like ghetto culture is not a Northern thing.

 

[Patroklos]

That's so true. 90% of southern cooking is total rubbish while NOLA is a special case all its own with a mixture of French, Spanish, and American cuisine. NOLA is the star and the rest isn't very exciting unless you like mushy corn grits, waffle house, and Denny's style food.

You saying it over and over again does not make it true. I know you think an excellent fish taco is the pinnacle of cuisine instead of easy street fair, but despite what you think Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington, Birmingham and the like are universally acknowledged as foodie meccas. Sorry you tastes are so primative

My three favorite spots in Charleston. Educate yourself

http://www.magnolias-blossom-cypress.com/

 

[Formaldehyde]

Ever been to Central Pennsylvania? But please, continue to provide very loosely connected blog posts about something I didn't even begin to say or imply. You're the one here implying bigotry. Frankly, if you've ever been to the South, you would know that despite some legacy of institutional racism, most Southerners are not prejudiced against other peoples; same with those in rural PA or NJ. But you find them in both places. But there are bigots in those places too. But I would not want to ruin your suburban beauty vision of Pennsylvania.

Why, yes I have. I have also been to "central New Jersey as well, along with 42 of the other states. But please, continue to insinuate that there isn't much bigotry and racism in this country anymore, especially in the South.

As has been mentioned rural culture is not Southern. Redneck never was and certainly isn't a Southern thing, just like ghetto culture is not a Northern thing.

No. But if you map the number of rednecks per square mile, most of the higher densities tend to be in the South in the Bible Belt for some odd reason.

Are there rednecks in California and even Manhattan? You betcha. Are there as many as there are in Alabama and South Carolina? Not even close...

Once again:

LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC – The Lexington County Republican Party has voted 26-7 to condemn, censure and ask for the resignation of state Sen. Jake Knotts over a remark he made toward President Barack Obama and gubernatorial candidate Rep. Nikki Haley…

“We already got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion,” said Knotts in reference to the fellow Lexington Republican’s campaign for governor…

I bet you can't find a local politician making such remarks outside of the South, much less get 7 votes out of 33 to ignore the quite obvious bigotry in that statement.

 

[Antilogic]

EDIT: And we are the only part of the country that knows how to make sweet tea.

Am I the only one who finds sweet tea disgusting? Seriously, I went to Atlanta and ordered a iced tea thinking I'd get unsweetened iced tea like is standard in California but they brought me sweat tea and it was so sugary I nearly gagged. No wonder Southerners are so over weight and have such high incidences of diabetes.

It's effing disgusting. It's way too sweet because it doesn't have any to balance the flavor out like in sodas. And that's coming from somebody who survived for over a decade in Georgia.

The mild winters make up for that

I've always said that you can put on more clothes and be warm, but there is a limit to what you can take off and still be socially acceptable. If I'm forced to take an extreme, give me colder winters than hot summers. Err, I'm sorry. HAWTer summers.

Its significantly less rasist than the north in my experience.

Much less racism, we are far more open about racism than the North.

Went to Atlanta for like 2 days and can't tell anything about it. Except that the entire public transit and the mall/shopping district was entirely blacks when I was there. But that was just 2 days.

If you lived in a pre-dominantly white suburb, you might have a different opinion. My old neighbors constantly voted against expanding MARTA (the mass transit "system") because they didn't want negros from the city coming into their suburb. Except they didn't use that n-word, it was a different and more offensive one.

Also, very often, I've heard some pretty terribly racist commentary "white to white". Just because it isn't overt doesn't mean it's not there. I'm far happier up North, although the recent Boston heat wave is reminding me way too much of the South.

Also, my experience might be colored (heh, get it? ) by living near the Confederate fanbois mentioned in the Newsweek New South article. I was looking for it online, but I can't find a copy. In any case, this guy runs a Confederate merchandise store and doesn't speak to you if you are a) not white and b) white, but standing near "other" people.

 

[Patroklos]

No. But if you map the number of rednecks per square mile, most of the higher densities tend to be in the South in the Bible Belt for some odd reason.

Are there rednecks in California and even Manhattan? You betcha. Are there as many as there are in Alabama and South Carolina? Not even close....

Hilarious Forma. Please, pretty please, point us to this "redneck mapping" you have conducted. I am sure you have it hotlinked for easy access to support such inane claims.

Let us have it!

 

[Formaldehyde]

Here you go:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck

The most common American usage, referring to the poor rural white Southerner, is probably derived from individuals having a red neck caused by working outdoors in the hot sun. A citation from 1893 provides a definition as "poorer inhabitants of the rural districts...men who work in the field, as a matter of course, generally have their skin burned red by the sun, and especially is this true of the back of their necks".[4] In recent decades the term expanded its meaning to mean bigoted, loutish and opposed to modern ways, and has often been used to attack Southern conservatives and segregationists. At the same time, many members of the U.S. Southern community have set out to reclaim the word, using it as a self-identifier, and the term has also been claimed by individuals outside of the United States.

 

[MobBoss]

Once again:

I like your logic here....one guy says something, an overwhelming majority condemn the words, and you offer it as proof of a whole lot of rednecks in the South. Got it.

I bet you can't find a local politician making such remarks outside of the South, much less get 7 votes out of 33 to ignore the quite obvious bigotry in that statement.

How about guys like Jeremiah White making similar bigoted comments for a couple of decades with the overwelming support of an entire church network?

What. Not the kind of bigotry your talking about? Oh....

And lol at that map. I guess the sun only shines of field workers in the South, burning their skin red...../rofl.

 

[Cynovolans]

According to my American roommate (born in Canada but lived all over the U.S., including an extended stay in Los Angeles, claims he's been to every continental state except 1), Texas doesn't qualify as "the south", and people from the "real south" consider Texans "from the west".

And having read a bit more of the thread it seems to me like not even Americans can agree on what exactly "the south" means

Maybe not western or southern Texas, but eastern Texas is definitely part of the south. We know where the south is, it's just the yankees are trying to seize Maryland and Delaware(and sadly they're winning).

 

[storealex]

Blue: North
Red: South

That's all that it's going to come down to with a damn silly debate like this.

Isn't that a map showing levels of education in different areas?

 

[kulade]

Isn't that a map showing levels of education in different areas?

...in a way, yes...

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I was born in Atlanta and lived nearby for almost all of my life.

I never noticed any racism when I was growing up (except occasionally from black politicians). My suburb is majority white, but the school district is not. My elementary school was probably around 60% white when I went there, and my middle school around 75% black. My high school was about 65% black, but many of these were immigrants from Africa (especially Eritrea) rather than descendants of slaves. The school has students from 43 foreign countries, which is apparently more than any other school in the county, which apparently had more foreign students than any other country in Georgia, which apparently had the most high school ethnic diversity in any state. There was a redneck clique and the less advanced courses were mostly black, but my classes were always very diverse. I was not very social, but it seemed most social groups were well integrated. Race was rarely an issue, and hardly mentioned except in jest.


The first time I really noticed racism was when I went to the Governor's Honors Program in the summer between junior and senior year of high school. from conversations with students from other regions of the state I got the impression that racism was much more common there. In Atlanta proper (mostly on or around the Georgia Tech campus) I've noticed levels of racism about half way between my home town and that summer program. My freshman year roommate from the south side of Boston often liked to mockingly deride the racism of southerners, but he was significantly more racist than most southerners I've ever met (towards blacks and especially towards Arabs), and much more homophobic too.

The most racism I've personally seen though was during my visit to Philadelphia.

My mother insists that she has never met anyone more racist than those she met in Vermont. (That is from someone who was in 10th grade when public schools were first integrated here.)

 

[Patroklos]

Did anyone else notice Forma post a map of the bible belt, not label it as such, and try and pass it off as his mentioned scientific mapping of rednecks nationwide?

As usual, Forma posts random text that has nothing to do with his position. In this case it disapproved his position, making it clear the term refers to agriculture labor and only bigots like him use it as a Southern label. Bravo!


Moderator Action: Warned for flaming. Please refrain from personal attacks.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Drewcifer]

From the places I have spent time in I can say there are a lot of rednecks in upstate New York, rural Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. They are relatively rare in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, I think it is because of better public schools.