When many people think of the South, the mental image they see is a caricature. They see racists, rednecks, trailer park trash, and ignorance. Now, most of us native born Southerners will own up to being rednecks. But we resent in the strongest terms being caricatured as unintelligent. (The rest of you are just jealous of our beautiful, slower way of speaking!) The South is a unique cultural region whose society is an intricate tapestry of education, intellect, faith, progress, resilience, shame, and heartache.
We Southerners are proud of our heritage. We have no need of your pity, your scorn, your condescension, or your moralizing. We are aware of our peculiar history with its great moral stain. But that history is more than just its stain. And history is more than the propaganda of 143 years. Mr. Lincoln’s War changed America forever, and in many ways for the worse. Even the freeing of the blacks was not fully realized until a century after his death. In his war, we lost our unique republic and it was replaced by an ideology of empire. And you cannot blame that on the South.
One of the best articles I’ve read recently about the South is on Newsweek’s website. I offer it for your enjoyment. Read Southern Discomfort by Christopher Dickey.
