Nowhere in the United States is the struggle between progress and tradition as pronounced as in The South. Despite some successful efforts to stubbornly hold to the old, southern culture is changing. As any nationally relevant group of people move through a given timeline they take with them the input of generations past while accepting influences of today. What results is a richer, and infinitely more complex, society.
This is the evolution of a culture; a sort of evolution one may or may not be able to discuss in the local public schools today.
Faulkner, Twain, and O’ Connor have used seemingly unadvanceable Southern settings to establish their work in syllabi everywhere. References for contemporary Southern culture are considerably more difficult to find.
For many who do not live here, this region is a stereotype of its past. Limited exposure has led them to assumptions of ignorance, racism, and resistance to outsiders. Undeniably, the history of The South does offer some evidence for all these inferences. But this is a very superficial view of yesterday, and an ignorance of the area today.
Acknowledgement of Southern disqualification
My personal history is one of bouncing throughout the United States.
Most recently, I’ve spent six consecutive years in the south. I’ve lived in a few different zip codes, and travelled significantly through what is called “Dixie.”
In a region that still labels non-natives “Yankees,” I will never be completely accepted. Never mind the fact that my home state was an uninvolved western territory during that “war of northern aggression.” In reality, North Dakota saved almost all of its brutality for the Sioux. My ancestors gave little consideration to securing cotton or abolishing slavery. Still, I understand I’m a Yankee if I didn’t pick up the drawl prior to grade school.
Yankee or not, I am one of a growing number of transplants in the old home of the Confederacy.
My nomadic history provides me with a unique foundation to observe the peculiarities of this corner, and grounds for well-informed contrasts with other randomly drawn boxes on the map.
I’ll likely piss someone off. Southerners can be a sensitive lot. Just keep in mind, this column is my point of view. You are always welcome to correct, chastise, or thrash me in the comments section below.
Where does it end?
The greater country often views The South as a cohesive group of Republican evangelicals united against the Yankees’ intrusive science and gay. There is little recognition of the conflicts within this region. In fact, people here can’t even agree on where the hell The South is.
There is often a reference to the Mason-Dixon line. That is hardly an accurate measurement today. This marker is typically cited in the context of the Civil War and slave holdings, but was actually established prior to the Declaration of Independence. It follows the southern border of Pennyslvania and ends near the state’s western line. It officially ceases to the east of most southern states, including Tennessee.
This line puts Maryland and D.C. in the south. If drawn out further west, it would give us parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. It really doesn’t seem relevant to today’s South.
Without a recognized geographic reference, our borders become subjective.
I briefly dated a woman from Huntsville, AL. She insisted Tennessee had no legitimate claim to membership in The South. She went farther and denied the entrance into the club to anything above the Alabama border. If a state did not touch the gulf, it was not southern.
Yeah, she was kind of a crazy chick. And she had herpes.
But her concept of southern borders was not unique. It seems many residents do not consider anything geographically north of their upbringing the true south.
Several Nashville natives don’t give Kentucky credit, even though it’s right fuckin’ there!
South Carolinans are skeptical of North Carolinans.
Missouri occasionally tries to tack itself onto The South, but very few will allow anything above the bottom slice in, and most southerners aren’t even that generous. It’s better off kind of with the Midwest.
Arkansas is debatable. Not only does it seem a bit north for some, it also is too far west for many. Never mind that its western border draws a line about 1,600 miles off the nearest Pacific beach.
But it’s just not where the state plops itself onto the land. Inclusion in The South often depends less on maps and more on cultural differences.
Florida hangs out there like America’s flaccid dick at the bottom of the states. Still, it is seldom given consideration. Sure, that panhandle is all about southern living. There lies the home of Skynyrd, after all. But the penisular (not a typo) parts are too old, or Jewish, or Cuban, or touristy, or swing too much during presidential elections. Very few will grant the entire state entrance into Dixie.
Many journalists and commentators like to give the Bushes credit as Southerners. Texas truly is not the south. It is its own region, bumping up against the south but not entering it. It is simply too different than…well, everywhere else.
The Bushes other home, Maine, is definitely not the south.
Oklahomans will occasionally attempt to put themselves into the south. But, come on, Oklahoma is really just more north Texas.
West Virginia gets the southern label now and then. Any mistaking West Virginia as southern is simple bullshit. It has an impoverished bluegrass heritage, and it does currently compete with southern states in obesity and poor education. But it’s nestled amongst too much of the north to be given real consideration. Do we not get a buffer between New England and The South?
Virginia is also popping up out the geographic and cultural boundaries of The South. Could the Bible Belt truly accept its most esteemed son, Thomas Jefferson, and all of his anti-Christian perceptions as their own? Probably not. Still, Virginia’s heritage does give it a reasonable argument for inclusion. Its current status as a major D.C. suburb works against it, however.
To gather data and make comparisons, I had to define my own idea of today’s south. Numbers are not often drawn down to the county level, so I had to grant inclusion to full states. If a state—through culture or geography—was not primarily southern, it got the ax.
My determinations, made with a reasonable amount of deliberation, left me with the following nine states:
- Alabama (of course)
- Arkansas (give ‘em a break)
- Georgia (even Atlanta and Athens)
- Kentucky (being a little generous, but most of the state is pretty damn southern)
- Louisiana (I don’t care what you think of Cajun culture)
- Mississippi (undeniably)
- North Carolina (growing controversy on this one)
- South Carolina (it says so right in the name)
- Tennessee (you knew it had to make it)
Let me know where you would draw the borders, or give your perspective on any other element of the south in the comments section below. Then check back on the Last Tuesday in July, when the humidity is so high you can swim through the air, for some real observances on the state of southern culture.
