While traveling this summer, I met many people from all over the place. One thing I was remind of is how much people don’t know about the South.
Even when I was in the city of Asheville, N.C., I ran into a few ignorant people. Although a Southern state, many of these people had never traveled further south than Charlotte and were completely blown away when I opened my mouth to speak. I even had the chance to meet an intelligent girl who, after asking me where I was from, proceeded to tell me she thinks Mississippi isn’t a Southern state-it is Midwestern.
I continued traveling after this, now interested in finding people with whom to have geographical conversations. I continued to get comments such as, “So I bet your family is real good with that Cajun cooking,” “Is it true elementary schools offer a cotton-picking course?” and “Huh, I didn’t even know there was cotton in Mississippi.”
This made me think of the stereotypes that we, as Southerners, are given. We are often portrayed as idiots on television shows, but in reality, maybe it’s just Americans in general who are uneducated. I thought I could specifically blame someone, but these comments came from people in New York, Chicago, Colorado and Idaho. Plus, these people were in different age groups.
Although we might be seen as unintelligent, we are no doubt seen as attractive, hence the term “Southern belle,” meaning a refined and beautiful woman. Not to say that Northern women are not attractive, by any means, there are just differences in physical appearance, just as there are in European women and American women. We send out a long list of talented and successful people including Oprah, Morgan Freeman, Taylor Hicks, Courtney Cox, Elvis and Outkast.
Sometimes I wonder if there is still a “Civil War” between Southerners and Northerners. In fact, some people I met this summer used the South’s defeat in a war that happened 150 years ago as an insult. It would be easy to think that we are still divided because there are so many differences between the two areas, but I have yet to figure out what makes some people in the South hate the North and vice versa.
And with many students at Mississippi State who aren’t from the South, which to most Southerners is only as far west as Louisiana and as far north as Kentucky, adjustment to the area can be difficult. Kevin Smith, MSU student and Michigan native, said: “It was a huge culture shock to come down here, from the way people dress to the way they talk. If I needed help finding something, people wouldn’t just point: they would take the time to walk with me to my destination. It surprised me that everyone was so nice; it’s not like that up North.”
Although I have pointed out all the good aspects of the South, it would be foolish to say there are no downsides to it. Some say there might be heavy amounts of racism in the South, but to my knowledge there is no such place as a racism-free area.
And yes, we do have high teen-pregnancy rates and obesity rates, but other sections of the country have their own problems, including AIDS and high crime rates.
So before you have any derogatory statements of the South, maybe you should take a look at your home state or other areas of the country.