The South

The South

In America's imagination, version of history and popular culture, the South is both the boogeyman and a scapegoat for its worst sins. Because of the ("completely honest and unbiased") U.S. history lessons I received, I grew up terrified of the South, a place where danger was imminent for a Black woman like myself. Famous for the Klan, the Confederacy (and proudly displayed Confederate flags) and explicit racism, I vowed never to set foot in the South out of fear for my life.

Despite this I did eventually end up visiting the South - I have family living in Texas. I have heard second-hand stories about what living with explicit racism is like - some of these stories sound like they are straight out of the Civil Rights era in my U.S. history textbooks. They are shockingly different from the culture I am accustomed to living in on the West Coast, in California no less. When I traveled abroad recently, I met Americans from all of the other regions of the U.S. When some heard that I am from California, they commented on how much better it must be because of the liberal attitude. That is true in some ways, because there is no comparison to living in a Red state with explicit racism, especially as a person of color. However, other people of color and I have noticed that living in blue California with implicit racism is just as harmful albeit in sneakier and more camouflaged ways. 

This state of affairs creates a dichotomy - the good, blue liberal California/West Coast and the bad, red bigoted (and conservative) South. The good, blue liberal label can also apply to the similar cultures of the East Coast. Like all sweeping generalizations, these snapshot labels hide the complexity and nuance of the South (especially POC culture in the South) and the concealed racism and bigotry of blue liberal states such as California or New York. This dichotomy and knowledge is reinforced through U.S. history textbooks, news media outlets and popular culture depictions in film and television. The blue, liberal coasts (East and West) also have a reputation for being more affluent and therefore powerful, which is why U.S. media around the world is dominated by people with a generic American accent (like the California accent that I have). When Southern people/people with Southern accents are portrayed in dominant U.S. media, they are often characterized as less educated, racist/bigoted and working class. 

The few times I have seen films and television set in the South, I have enjoyed the accents, the culture and just seeing a different side of America than the California Hollywood tends to focus on. When I visited my family in Texas, we took a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, a place so rich in culture, with such an incredible night life and delicious food, it is no wonder to me that it is being gentrified by people from the Coasts. I distinctly remember it having a metropolitan air that might come from being a tourist trap, I don't think I can really know just from visiting. But I do remember loving it there. I am currently rewatching True Blood, a show set in a fictional Louisiana town, which reminds me of this. While the show is mainly about mythological creatures living amongst humans in an alternate universe of the South, it simultaneously grapples with the current and historical issues the South is famous for. In an Atlantic article titled, "The Most Important Character on 'True Blood': The South," the author emphasizes how vampires and the political gambit surrounding them in the show serve as a metaphor for the struggle for LGBTQIA rights in the ultra-conservative Bible Belt South. However, like many stories created by white people, True Blood's fictional universe glazes over issues of racism, trivializes slavery and deploys stereotypes (Tara being the "Angry Black Woman.")

The recent election of Trump has brought the South and other red states to the front of political consciousness. In line with the Coastal generalization of the South, the media claimed that Trump was elected by uneducated, working class, bigoted white people living in the South and parts of the Midwest. People that were left behind and hit hard by closing factories and mines and industrialization, and who believed the conservative hype that immigrants were to blame for "stealing their jobs." This may be true, working class white people in red states did help elect Trump. However, wealthy white people in these states (and even blue states) also voted to elect Trump. What worries me about the scapegoating of the working class South for racism, homophobia and other social ills, is that this actually allows these social ills to remain unconfronted while reinforcing classism. In a previous blog post, I wondered why there are more overweight people in the Midwest and the South, before identifying one of the causes as having less access to money and resources that wealthier regions of California typically have. My friend suggested that it is because the South has way better food than we Californians do on average. Regardless, I don't know what it is like to live in the South or any red state as a person of color and I can't begin to imagine. But I do want to revisit someday, and I know that my location limits my knowledge of the region.