Explaining The Southern USA To NonSoutherners

[Peanut2]

I've lived in the Midwest and the South (one state, but traveled a lot) and found the Midwest (lived in three different states there) to be much, much, much more racially segregated and racist than the South. Also found small town Midwestern towns to be totally socially isolated, haircuts from the early 80s, and hostile to strangers. People were either totally disinterested in me or even mean in what I assume is a hostile-to-outsiders kind of thing. I've found most Southern places to be exceedingly friendly, including to strangers and outsiders.

I was born in the Midwest and have a ton of family there. It wasn't everyone, and in urban or even suburban areas people were better. But small Southern towns are lovely and the Midwestern ones, well...

The other thing is that what Northerners and other assorted Americans consider to be "Southern": religion, Republicanism, red-neck truck driving folks, and so on. Well, I saw that all in many places in the Midwest, and not quite as much in the South. The religion part was especially surprising. I lived in the Bible Belt, am not Christian (as in, wasn't born one, do not come from a white Christian background), and people were okay with it. Sure, they like it when people have religion, but it's doesn't have to be Christianity. In the MW (and I'm talking small/medium city and small college town) not belonging to a church made it pretty impossible to meet people, and the folks we did meet could not wrap their minds around us not celebrating Christmas, Easter, etc. There were a ton of churches and tons of billboards against abortion and about Jesus. I'd never seen that in the South, not where I lived, and not when driving to other states, even though I know at least some of my neighbors were quite conservative.

Obviously each region is diverse and your experiences may vary, but I found the Midwest, outside of Chicago and its suburbs, to be super narrow-minded. And I love the South. I find people there are pretty friendly and welcoming, including to other religions and ethnic groups. If anything, the rednecks I met in the South were kind of like Bill Clinton: well educated and well traveled. The ones I met in the midwest looked like they'd never heard of a dentist and drove pick-ups stuffed with junk. Comparable middle class incomes in many instances, too (except for the teeth thing, that was shocking!)

[laura oz]

As a South Carolinian born and raised, I can totally attest to the freakish nature of the Clemson-Carolina rivalry. People get crazy. My step brother and ex were on Carolina's team and my cousin played for Clemson and family viewings of the game were intense.

[Peas n carrots]

College football isn't just a southern thing. Try visiting Lincoln, Nebraska for a game day. I'm sure it rivals Baton Rouge or Tuscaloosa. Only difference is our team hasn't been as good as theirs in 15 years :(

I can speak a bit to Missouri since I have a lot of family down there. There is "Missouri" and "Missour-uh.". Missouri is the northern part of the state with somewhere between Columbia and Jefferson City being the dividing line from Missour-uh. Missouri is culturally midwestern, and Missour-uh is culturally southern. Much of my maternal Grandma's family came from the Ozarks and there are a lot of similarities to Appalachia...in fact before migrating to MO they came bt way of eastern KY/TN.

I spend a lot if time in Texas and I tend to think of it as its own entity...to me it has a bit of several influences including Southern, Western, Mexican, German, and Midwestern.

[OneQuill]

I agree with you on TX. I had the worst time of my life when we lived there. The only good thing to come out of it was my son. Fortunately, he was very very small and has absolutely no memory of it.

TX is like a totally different country.

[cenarose]

I agree with you on TX. I had the worst time of my life when we lived there. The only good thing to come out of it was my son. Fortunately, he was very very small and has absolutely no memory of it.

TX is like a totally different country.

It really depends on what part of TX. It is such a big place with so many subcultures that it's hard to make any blanket statements. Like I said, I grew up in a small town that had a gay mayor and among the pillars of the community were a Muslim family and two gay couples. And Austin is a haven of all things liberal and hippie. East Texas is much more Deep-South in accent and culture than West Texas; each city has its own subculture (Austin is liberal, San Antonio not so much); and rural vs. urban or suburban makes a big difference, as well. There are towns that are mostly German and towns that are mostly Hispanic and towns that are mostly redneck. There are small towns like mine that somehow end up weirdly progressive. Seriously, it is a HUGE place. I'm sorry for your bad experience and glad that you found a place that was a better fit for you; but I think it's possible your experience might have been different in a different part of Texas.

[notablesquid]

I have a lot of yoopers in my family (ya know...lower Canada, eh?) :)

And Red Green is on PBS in the states on weekends.

And I do own Strange Brew on VHS ANS DVD.

But I think I may be an anomaly ;)

I miss having Canadian public broadcast...when I had cable as a newlywed, we had it.

Now all I get is CBC Radio 1 on Sirius, which I only listen to for the Vinyl Cafe and DNTO

I LOVE the Vinyl Cafe! I've sat in the car many times not wanting to miss the end of one of Stuart's stories, particularly if it's a Dave story where he's trying to fix something before Mary finds out. They also have a lot of music I like - I don't know if I would have ever heard of Danny Michel if not for the show and now he's one of my favorite musicians.

I'm a lifer in Seattle and consider myself a Cascadian before I think of myself as American/United Statesian. I grew up watching SCTV (I can do a mean Edith Prickley imitation and once went as Ed Grimley at Halloween) and doing soccer exchange weekends with teams from BC. We visited Victoria for vacation nearly every summer.

I often watch the Vancouver news and the National on CBC, cause it's good to know what's up with my neighbors. If I ever leave Seattle and move elsewhere, it's to go north to either BC or Alaska.

---

Back to things Southern: I am fascinated by this thread. Aside from our passports, the main thing I have in common with anyone from the South is that I live and die for college football, though not for any southern teams. Although I did have to swallow all pride and root for 'bama in the BCS championship this year because Notre Dame is my #3 most hated team of all time. I work with several Catholics who were all about ND and I kept having to yell 'Roll Tide!' in the weeks leading up to the game - thankfully they did roll.

I love the sounds of the various southern accents, though I do have to work against certain negative stereotypes when I hear a really strong one.

As to Yankee, that word doesn't get used much out here except to talk about a certain baseball team. Since that team is my #1 hated baseball team (yes, sadly I do have lists in every sport of who I love & hate), I would consider it an insult if someone from the US ever called me one. ;) It doesn't bother me when I hear it from someone in or from Europe.

I admit I don't know much about the South so I've enjoyed reading this thread. I would love to visit some of the south someday if I had the time to go slow and really get to explore the region - our cultures are so different yet we are fellow citizens and it fascinates me.

[roddma]

And I say this as a southerner, one who loathes college football but who can't help but absorb what goes on around me. In SC, a state where people really ought to be paying more attention to more important things like primary education and obesity rates, people live for Carolina-Clemson.

Agree with this. The craziness over college football and football period is all over the ocuntry. Yea I like Tennnesse Vols and such but it doesn't' run my life. And many schools are lowering their standards for picking recruits in football.

[Roycroft]

I don't get football factionalism. At all. I wonder if it's something you pick up from family; mine just wasn't interested, and I grew up in the land of Ohio State, so it was definitely all around me as a child. :)

Back on topic: southern Ohio, where I grew up, is a crazy mishmash of south and north. Having traveled quite a bit as an adult, I can see definite southern elements in things like food (fried chicken, fried everything else, grits and sweet tea on the menu in restaurants), and speech (crick, warsh, y'all/you all, etc.). Where I grew up, accent is a class marker; I can imitate the local accent to a T, but my father the lawyer would have definitely said something had I spoken that way around him. Maybe that was just small-town southern Ohio; I don't know. Anyway, I don't hold with prejudging people based on regional accents; I was just mentioning it, and wondering if anyone else noticed anything similar.

Lots of country music, pickup trucks, gun racks, and even some Confederate flags where I grew up, and there was a definite Klan presence back in the 1970s in southern Ohio. My town was very segregated; certain parts of town were for blacks, and that didn't start to change until the 1980s. I never had a black student in school with me until high school, because the elementary schools and junior highs drew from specific parts of town, which effectively segregated the students until they went to the city-wide high school. Again, maybe that's just small-town Ohio, or rural USA in general. I'm certainly not arguing that racism is purely a southern problem. :(