From another board re: The South

[danwxman]

"I don't care how inaccurate a generalization this may be, the fact remains: I hate southerners.
I moved north and have not once run into the same attitude that I saw in the south; that attitude that makes you feel you need to take a shower, get fresh air...the feeling that things are just wrong. Poisonous. Sickly. That feeling you get watching the family in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The south is utterly filthy. I can't imagine going back.
I heard my entire life down there about how rude Yankees were, how cold, etc...but, frankly, after spending 5 plus years up here I can honestly say that I have not run into a single situation where a set of people came anywhere close to the broad, sweeping ignorance and lack of manners and outright rudeness that I saw everywhere in the south.
I'm dead serious about that.
I lived in Decatur, Alpharetta, Jasper and Adairsville while I lived in Georgia. That's a fairly good representation of poor, rich, mountainous/rural, flat/rural, urban, etc.
Everywhere I lived the people were far an away more unpleasant than the people I see daily up here and have for the past 5 years.
There is an infinite difference.

Since moving up here, I have traveled extensively between Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, MA and CT.
I lived in Ohio for a while, east of Cleveland in Painesville...
Yet I've never met the same attitude or level of ignorance I saw in the south.
This is not subjective. The fact is, if you're not exactly what you're expected to be in the south, then you're not wanted.
There is infinitely more racism down there...and even tho I am white, just its presence is enough to ruin the area.

And...if the people like you, the only thing you get in return is to hear stories about domestic abuse, complaints about money, etc.

BTW, of all the areas I lived, Adairsville, where the football team put a big D on their jersey's for "'dairsville"...that was rock bottom.
I saw more public domestic abuse there than anywhere else in the south.
Nearly weekly I saw guys screaming at their wives in parking lots. We actually called the cops in one specific instance.
Jasper was pretty bad, as well.
Alpharetta was probably the best, then again both Decatur and Alpharetta had more transplants from the north than natives.
Except that during 9th grade, my highschool(Milton High School) had to be shut down for near a week because of conflicts between students that were in the KKK and black students.
Keep in mind that that school was in one of the richest, most advanced sections of the south, northern Fulton County.

Since moving up here, I have not once, not a single freaking time, seen an instance of public domestic abuse. Once or twice I've seen people scream too loudly at their children...but not to the degree I did down there.
Down there it was common to see some overweight mother driving an absolutely worthless old SUV, with doors that barely shut, sometimes duct taped closed, dragging around 5 children barely dressed...and screaming her head off at them for no real discernable reason.

And in this image, I'm not judging her, I'm highlighting the hopelessness down there, where those people have no ambition. It's the collection of individuals brought together that make the place the cess pool it is.

My mother volunteered in Augusta at a women's refuge, ie where beaten women go. She actually transferred there after she got out of law school in Boston...and she's told me that she never saw the level of problems in Boston that she would see almost daily in Georgia. "

[John Dibble]

I don't know what Georgia he lived in, but he's either lying, exaggerating, or had bad taste in neighborhoods and lucked out moving to the north. I've never had any of the problems he's described, and I have lived here my entire life.

[DaleC76]

Yeah, Georgia's Hell On Earth.  I can smell it from here. j/k

Love them Falcons, though....

[John Dibble]

Love them Falcons, though....

Yeah. We do too...but only when they're winning.

I don't really give a damn about football or sports in general. Kinda boring just to watch, playing can be fun though. I much prefer games of the mental variety, like chess or something.

[??????????]

Probably another Harriet Beecher Stowe type. Live in the south for 2 years and have ALL the knowledge about the south and how we are. I have no doubt this person is an elitist and truly an idiot.

[danwxman]

Probably another Harriet Beecher Stowe type. Live in the south for 2 years and have ALL the knowledge about the south and how we are. I have no doubt this person is an elitist and truly an idiot.

Good job fitting the stereotype to a tea.

[??????????]

Probably another Harriet Beecher Stowe type. Live in the south for 2 years and have ALL the knowledge about the south and how we are. I have no doubt this person is an elitist and truly an idiot.

Good job fitting the stereotype to a tea.

Why can't you just live your life in PA and leave us alone? Why does it HAVE to be your business and your peoples business for the past few hundred years to continue to hound us and disrespect us? What is the point? Why do you hate your fellow countryment so much? You people need to look at yourselfs and all the problems your cities have before you can even dare to criticize what we do or how we live. You wonder why the election map is so divided. Its because you people can't mind your business and live your life and let us live ours. Until you people get that things will never change.

[Hatman 🍁]

I spent a week in rural Virginia. There are a lot of differences from here, but overall the people are very friendly and did not make me want to hate them.  Once you bring politics into something, divisions are created and I think that's why a lot of northerners hate the south.  You have to remember that if you put politics a side they are nice people.

[Gabu]

I spent a week in rural Virginia. There are a lot of differences from here, but overall the people are very friendly and did not make me want to hate them.  Once you bring politics into something, divisions are created and I think that's why a lot of northerners hate the south.  You have to remember that if you put politics a side they are nice people.

I think that this is a very good point.  Politics is one of the two things that can really bring out the worst in people when a disagreement is found (the other is religion).  If politics is left out of things, even two very different people, ideologically speaking, can get along quite well.

Myself, I would certainly like to travel to the South some day just to see for myself.  It's actually a dream of mine to travel to two cities (the capital and another one) in every province and state in North America in one huge journey.

[dazzleman]

I think that article shows a great deal of blind prejudice, and is a gross exaggeration.  It's funny how those who preach "tolerance" never seem to find any for those who don't agree with their views.

The types of people described in that article exist in all parts of the country, generally in poor areas.  I have seen a good number of those types in New York and Connecticut, and many of them are minorities, so it shouldn't just be looked at as a white trash southern thing.  And there's plenty of white trash up north, too.

I think it's a gross distortion to claim that these types of problems exist only, or predominantly, in the south.  It's all over, and many of the people who exhibit this type of behavior are......gasp......Democrats.

I find that liberals are very tolerant of this dysfunctional behavior when people who vote for them engage in it.  Only those who engage in this type of behavior, and vote Republican, are worthy of contempt.  Those who vote Democratic are victims of circumstance.

It's amazing how the Democrats, since this past election, have come totally out in the open with the regional bigotry that they have been trying (not too successfully) to hide for so long.

[dazzleman]

Except that during 9th grade, my highschool(Milton High School) had to be shut down for near a week because of conflicts between students that were in the KKK and black students.
Keep in mind that that school was in one of the richest, most advanced sections of the south, northern Fulton County.

This is nothing compared to what happened when forced busing was brought to Boston in the 1970s.

White parents organized a massive boycott of the school system that lasted for months.  Buses bringing black students to schools in white neighborhoods were attacked with rocks and lug nuts.  People tried to run the buses off the roads with their cars.

The schools were closed for almost a month after a riot in South Boston when a fight at the high school, which included a stabbing of a white student by a black student, precipitated a riot in the streets.  Thousands of people surrounded the high school, with the black students trapped inside, screaming "ni**ers eat sh*t" and turned over police cars.  Only by using decoy buses to distract the rioters were police able to get the black children out safely.  The decoy buses were viciously attacked by the rioters and destroyed.

The only thing that brought relative peace (aside from the usual violence in urban schools) back to the schools in Boston is the fact that virtually all the white parents pulled their kids out of the Boston public schools on a permanent basis, and the system became virtually all minorities.  It is now less integrated than it was before busing.

All this took place in the great liberal north, the citadel of liberalism, "liberty's chosen home."  The city of Boston.  So I think we northerners ought to be a little more careful about pointing the finger at the south.

[Akno21]

Probably another Harriet Beecher Stowe type. Live in the south for 2 years and have ALL the knowledge about the south and how we are. I have no doubt this person is an elitist and truly an idiot.

Good job fitting the stereotype to a tea.

Why can't you just live your life in PA and leave us alone? Why does it HAVE to be your business and your peoples business for the past few hundred years to continue to hound us and disrespect us? What is the point? Why do you hate your fellow countryment so much? You people need to look at yourselfs and all the problems your cities have before you can even dare to criticize what we do or how we live. You wonder why the election map is so divided. Its because you people can't mind your business and live your life and let us live ours. Until you people get that things will never change.

The Northeast may hate the south, but if Ohio swung Kerry, I am sure we'd hear the exact same thing, from some guy who hated the rustle and bustle of Manhattan, and came down to a rural place in Georgia about how much better the South is. It's not just the North hating the South. The South hates the North also.

[ilikeverin]

I love Georgia.  Everyone was friendly and, thought it was 'South South', it wasn't 'Deep South' so we could understand each other

[danwxman]

Let me just say:

1. I do NOT hate any of my fellow countrymen.
2. The only reason I dislike the South is from personal experience, I didn't just sit down one day and decide that I didn't like it....I was BORN in the South, and that is something that will always stick in the back of my mind. I always treat people with respect...and while I have met nice people down there I generally have a pretty low regard for most of the South.

By the way, about our cities having "problems"....Where is the highest crime in our country? Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas...all Southern cities.

[John Dibble]

By the way, about our cities having "problems"....Where is the highest crime in our country? Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas...all Southern cities.

Didn't we discuss this already? We pretty much boiled it down to a higher heat climate and minority demographics.

[danwxman]

By the way, about our cities having "problems"....Where is the highest crime in our country? Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas...all Southern cities.

Didn't we discuss this already? We pretty much boiled it down to a higher heat climate and minority demographics.

and segregation

[John Dibble]

By the way, about our cities having "problems"....Where is the highest crime in our country? Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas...all Southern cities.

Didn't we discuss this already? We pretty much boiled it down to a higher heat climate and minority demographics.

and segregation

In case you haven't noticed, that's not a factor anymore.

[danwxman]

By the way, about our cities having "problems"....Where is the highest crime in our country? Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas...all Southern cities.

Didn't we discuss this already? We pretty much boiled it down to a higher heat climate and minority demographics.

and segregation

In case you haven't noticed, that's not a factor anymore.

Take another look..

[John Dibble]

By the way, about our cities having "problems"....Where is the highest crime in our country? Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas...all Southern cities.

Didn't we discuss this already? We pretty much boiled it down to a higher heat climate and minority demographics.

and segregation

In case you haven't noticed, that's not a factor anymore.

Take another look..

Hmmm, lemme see, I work with black people, I go to college with black people, I went to elementary, middle, and high school with quite a number of black people, hell, even my pre-school had black people, and I've never seen a 'No coloreds' sign in my life outside of documentaries and history books. Maybe you're the one who should take another look.

[Storebought]

Probably another Harriet Beecher Stowe type. Live in the south for 2 years and have ALL the knowledge about the south and how we are. I have no doubt this person is an elitist and truly an idiot.

Good job fitting the stereotype to a tea.

Why can't you just live your life in PA and leave us alone? Why does it HAVE to be your business and your peoples business for the past few hundred years to continue to hound us and disrespect us? What is the point? Why do you hate your fellow countryment so much? You people need to look at yourselfs and all the problems your cities have before you can even dare to criticize what we do or how we live. You wonder why the election map is so divided. Its because you people can't mind your business and live your life and let us live ours. Until you people get that things will never change.

Damn straight

[DaleC76]

Although Southern states as a whole tend to have higher crime rates, according to the FBI, those cities aren't really any worse than Northern ones.  Here's a comparison between a few (the numbers are violent crimes per 100 K).

Baltimore         883
Houston           738
Los Angeles     721
Philadelphia     678
Detroit             672
New Orleans    660
Indianapolis     548
San Francisco   537
Atlanta             512


Personally, I don't think there's any great hate between the different regions of the country.  I may be too optimistic here, but I doubt the vast majority of people let politics come between them that much.  With new communication technology, regionalism in this country is probably on the decline.  This message board is a good example.  People from all over the country (or even the world) are able to come together in a way not possible in years past.  For the most part, people get along despite political differences.

[patrick1]

I think that article shows a great deal of blind prejudice, and is a gross exaggeration.  It's funny how those who preach "tolerance" never seem to find any for those who don't agree with their views.

The types of people described in that article exist in all parts of the country, generally in poor areas.  I have seen a good number of those types in New York and Connecticut, and many of them are minorities, so it shouldn't just be looked at as a white trash southern thing.  And there's plenty of white trash up north, too.

I think it's a gross distortion to claim that these types of problems exist only, or predominantly, in the south.  It's all over, and many of the people who exhibit this type of behavior are......gasp......Democrats.

I find that liberals are very tolerant of this dysfunctional behavior when people who vote for them engage in it.  Only those who engage in this type of behavior, and vote Republican, are worthy of contempt.  Those who vote Democratic are victims of circumstance.

It's amazing how the Democrats, since this past election, have come totally out in the open with the regional bigotry that they have been trying (not too successfully) to hide for so long.

Pretty much what I was going to say.  Agree 100%.  There are plenty of degenerates up here also. The person who wrote this clearly has an ax to grind.

[David S]

Wow. I thought the civil war ended 140 years ago. Where is all this North South hate coming from?
By the way here are the 10 cities with the highest murder rates;
City   State   Murder rate
Gary    IN   67.0
New Orleans     LA   57.7
Richmond     VA   46.5
Washington    DC   44.0
Baltimore     MD   41.9
Detroit     MI   39.4
Hartford    CT   35.9
Birmingham    AL   35.4
Atlanta    GA   34.6
Newark     NJ   29.1

[??????????]

By the way, about our cities having "problems"....Where is the highest crime in our country? Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas...all Southern cities.

Didn't we discuss this already? We pretty much boiled it down to a higher heat climate and minority demographics.

and segregation

Sadly that practice, even though not law, still exists in many rich New England communities.

[danwxman]

By the way, about our cities having "problems"....Where is the highest crime in our country? Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas...all Southern cities.

Didn't we discuss this already? We pretty much boiled it down to a higher heat climate and minority demographics.

and segregation

Sadly that practice, even though not law, still exists in many rich New England communities.

Not really, but what you speak of is still VERY prevalent across much of the South. Don't deny it, I've seen it for myself.