The South Falls Again

Solitary said:
The Black belt? No, that is farther south.

I do agree with the article's premise about the educated voters. I was raised in Tuscaloosa. Since a large part of the town is the University of Alabama, there was a higher emphasis on education and respect for the educated. There was a marked difference in the views on racism there.

In smaller towns, even in recent years, those who are not racist did not speak out against those who are. It was the same old fear (or worry about being ostrasized (sp). But in the last year, seeing those Obama signs on the lawns in tiny little towns gave me hope.

I know there is racism all over. But we in the south have been saddled with the reputation for being in-bred klansmen for so long. I was hoping it would stop. But apparently those of us who aren't ready to burn crosses in people's yards, who aren't calling Obama a muslim, and who do not use the "n" word are largely ignored.

Its a shame. I think many of the people who disparage us would find our part of the world a delightful place to be.

Yes, we did give the world the KKK, George Wallace and Lester Maddox. But we also gave the world Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, and Thomas Wolfe.
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Thank you, there are many lovely people who live in the South, my friends, transplants from Alaska! I lived in Kansas, but I never heard nor witnessed my folks treating anyone different for the color of their skin. I was very fortunate. We didn't have a large black population, but we did have Hispanics and my sister married one! A lady made the mistake one morning at McDonald' :cof1: coffee and was talking down about Mexicans. My mother cleared her throat and said, my grandchildren are Mexicans and that was all that needed to be said. The other woman shut her mouth very quickly and mother said she was very careful about showing her prejudice around the coffee ladies, again. She did call the roofing company and tell them not to send over a Mexican crew and my friend from Douglas Roofing sent an ALL hispanic crew and instructed them to act like they couldn't speak English! i wish I would have been there to see that woman's face! I love that story! :pke:
 
froggie said:
Thank you, there are many lovely people who live in the South, my friends, transplants from Alaska! I lived in Kansas, but I never heard nor witnessed my folks treating anyone different for the color of their skin. I was very fortunate. We didn't have a large black population, but we did have Hispanics and my sister married one! A lady made the mistake one morning at McDonald' :cof1: coffee and was talking down about Mexicans. My mother cleared her throat and said, my grandchildren are Mexicans and that was all that needed to be said. The other woman shut her mouth very quickly and mother said she was very careful about showing her prejudice around the coffee ladies, again. She did call the roofing company and tell them not to send over a Mexican crew and my friend from Douglas Roofing sent an ALL hispanic crew and instructed them to act like they couldn't speak English! i wish I would have been there to see that woman's face! I love that story! :pke:
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That would have been worth watching.

When I was managing a hotel many years ago in Tuscaloosa, a guest thanked one of my desk clerks for helping him so that he wouldn't have to deal with that black lady again. He actually whispered the word "black". And made some comment about keeping them in housekeeping. My clerk said he understood, then yelled back to the office for Mary (the black lady in question & my ass't mgr). When she came out the clerk put his arm around her, kissed her on the cheek and said "Honey this man was just telling me what a great job you did and I wanted him to have a chance to tell you himself".

The guest never came back, but they said he stammered something grabbed his receipt and left. I was ready to promote that clerk on the spot.
 
In Mississippi people were definitely more against Obama than Kerry.

White people voted 80% for McCain where they had vote 70% for Kerry. Most Mississippi counties didn't show an increase in turnout for McCain though because the increased black turnout (35% of voters in this election were black) and the slight raise in percentage for the Democrat (95% to 99%) neutralized it. Most other whiter southern states didn't have such a neutralization because they don't have the huge black population of Mississippi. It was definitely the most racially polarized election for Mississippi since the 60's though.
 
It feels a little weird being in Mississippi. I would be centre left person in normal America, but I'm probably in the top 1% of most extreme white liberals in Mississippi.
 
Maybe watching the Obamas be themselves for 8 years will teach this section of the electorate a few things?
 
Watermark said:
It feels a little weird being in Mississippi. I would be centre left person in normal America, but I'm probably in the top 1% of most extreme white liberals in Mississippi.
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I was born in Kansas an the best thing my parents ever did for me was to move me to California when I was two. I would have been in agony all my childhood in Kansas.
 
You could honestly tell the race of a family who occupied a house in Mississippi by driving down the street and seeing Obama or McCain signs. All the Obama signs on one neighborhood, then you go to the slightly more affluent neighborhood and it's all McCain.
 
Desh said:
I was born in Kansas an the best thing my parents ever did for me was to move me to California when I was two. I would have been in agony all my childhood in Kansas.
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The people in the south aren't bad even if I disagree with their political tendencies. But it's one reason I try to keep my political talk to the web. I would honestly lose friends if I started talking to them about politics in a serious manner.

You should have seen the pre-election debate we had in my band class. He asked us to split into one side for Obama and one side for McCain. The Obama side was basically me, all the black people, and a few northern immigrants. Then we went to the abortion debate and it was me, the northern immigrants, and a girl who's mother had had an abortion after she was raped at 16 (reality sometimes gets to you).
 
Clearly you have never witnessed the joys of Deep South public schools.

I'm amazed they weren't watching a movie.
 
Epicurus said:
Clearly you have never witnessed the joys of Deep South public schools.

I'm amazed they weren't watching a movie.
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LOLOLOL

Tru dat.

We had just finished marching season and had nothing to do. The band director decided it was a good time to get us politically active before we voted, most of us for the first time.
 
I went to a few different highschools. One was actually #1 public highschool in the nation, but a couple were ghetto as shit.

At one, we actually had this class called Street Law. It was all about what to do if you're arrested and different laws that you can get busted for easily. We talked mostly about drugs, DUIs, search and seizure, Miranda, and shit like that. It was actually an awesome class, but it's hilarious that it was even needed.
 
In AP English IV sometimes we'd spend entire class periods doing nothing but debating politics. Hey, it's better than trying discern (or make up) what Hemingway meant in one of his dumb stories.
 
Yeah in the run up to the '04 election we would basically just learn nothing and debate whether or not Kerry was a traitor.
 
Solitary said:
I had Harper Lee first on my list, but figured someone would point out the racism in the book.

But damn that was a fine piece of literature.
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My very favorite, it changed my life! I became a Democrat. I have always defied reason, I started out as a Republican in high school, mostly because I liked Rip Kessler! What a name! :kiss2::kiss2::kiss2:
 
Desh said:
My father in Law was very near an Atticus.

He was tall, lean and so even tempered you could hardly believe it was real.
He was bright, knew all kinds of unexpected things and always tried to be fair to every person he met. Everyone loved him and I will miss him as long as I breathe.
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Wow, Gregory Peck was perfect, ymmmmmm!
 
Solitary said:
That would have been worth watching.

When I was managing a hotel many years ago in Tuscaloosa, a guest thanked one of my desk clerks for helping him so that he wouldn't have to deal with that black lady again. He actually whispered the word "black". And made some comment about keeping them in housekeeping. My clerk said he understood, then yelled back to the office for Mary (the black lady in question & my ass't mgr). When she came out the clerk put his arm around her, kissed her on the cheek and said "Honey this man was just telling me what a great job you did and I wanted him to have a chance to tell you himself".

The guest never came back, but they said he stammered something grabbed his receipt and left. I was ready to promote that clerk on the spot.
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I love those kind of "gotcha" moments!
 
Desh said:
I was born in Kansas an the best thing my parents ever did for me was to move me to California when I was two. I would have been in agony all my childhood in Kansas.
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I came to Alaska when I was 19. It is conservative, but a different stripe of conservative!
 
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