Resistance against "Yankees" (Charleston, North: taxes, law, to move)

[staywarm2]

Originally Posted by spc4422

Just wanted to share my opinion. I don't appreciate, as I imagine most other people from the north don't, being called a Yankee. It has a negative connotation that makes people feel like an unwanted outsider when theyre called that. I think people should be judged on their character and personality rather than where they were born. It makes little sense to me how some posters can preach about southern hospitality, yet are quick to label or judge someone not from their state or region.

For the record, I am a 23 year old recent grad from the Annapolis MD area. I am moving to downtown Charleston in a few weeks with a friend from home who attended CofC and has stayed down there after graduation. I'm very excited for the chance to live in Charleston. I visited once before and loved everything about it. The city is beautiful, the weather is great, and the girls are gorgeous.

One other thing. I attend Church on Sundays, use good manners, come from a middle class, politically conservative family. I also love sports and other outdoor activities such as boating, fishing and skiing. I even say y'all when I talk. I guess I'm stereotyping here but if you didn't know where I was from I'd imagine I'd have a lot in common with the typical kid down in SC. Just something to think about before you call me Yank.

Just my two cents. Feel free to agree or disagree, I'm interested in hearing what everyone else thinks.

Isn't Maryland below the Mason-Dixon line, and therefore the South?

[spc4422]

Originally Posted by staywarm2

Isn't Maryland below the Mason-Dixon line, and therefore the South?

Yes it is, but many people don't understand that (or are interested in hearing it). MD was considered a southern state and would have seceded during the war if not for Lincoln's decision to rush troops to prevent the secession. Having said that, I don't really look at Maryland to be a northern or southern state. It has its own separate mini culture in my opinion. Also, my friend says most southerners consider Marylanders to be Yankees. I'm curious as to what they think of people from Virginia. Northern Virginia is an area with NO southern characteristics and is obviously just across the border from Maryland. The Eastern Shore of MD seems to be much more reflective of southern culture than many places in Virginia.. or North Carolina for that matter.

[Susan2007]

Originally Posted by meks

that was excellent robert... And should be on a pamplet handed to every foreigner thinking about settling down here

and about "seeming dumb", as one of our famous southern leaders during "the war" once said...

"the dumber people think you are the more surprised they'll be when you kill them"

it's a southern thing...

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by spc4422

Yes it is, but many people don't understand that (or are interested in hearing it). MD was considered a southern state and would have seceded during the war if not for Lincoln's decision to rush troops to prevent the secession. Having said that, I don't really look at Maryland to be a northern or southern state. It has its own separate mini culture in my opinion. Also, my friend says most southerners consider Marylanders to be Yankees. I'm curious as to what they think of people from Virginia. Northern Virginia is an area with NO southern characteristics and is obviously just across the border from Maryland. The Eastern Shore of MD seems to be much more reflective of southern culture than many places in Virginia.. or North Carolina for that matter.

I've never known anyone from Maryland who considered themselves as being from "The South."

Also, what are "southern characteristics?" Or "southern culture?"

I see it this way: people are pretty much the same no matter where you go in this country. Generally speaking, urban types usually like the same things. And rural people don't differ much either regardless of where you go. I presently live in Arizona, and Phoenix is really no different than Atlanta. If i go to one of Arizona's smaller towns...say, Pinetop-Lakeside, they're no different than people you'd find in Dalton, Georgia.

My years in Michigan and Ohio reveal the same things. Most small towns in both states are no less conservative and insular than any small town in the southern or western states. My wife is from a small town in Michigan, and if i could physically move her hometown to Alabama, only the accent would give them away as so called "yankees." And believe it or not, most small towns in New York or Maine would be the same way.

I hear words like "southern hospitality," and i laugh my butt off because the whole concept is silly on its face. I lived in Georgia for more than a year and attitudes ran the gamut from extremely rude to overwhelming kindness. Geography NEVER trumps human nature, and it's natural to have about the same ratio of jerks to nice people no matter where you go.

[beth1104]

My daughter is a cashier at a grocery store in Mt. P... during some friendly chit chat, my daughter mentioned being from Indiana. The customer said she didn't want anything to do with people from Indiana, grabbed her groceries, and went to another line.

[spc4422]

i consider southern characteristics as being politically and socially conservative, religious, middle class, etc. Without having lived in the south I'm probably just talking out of my ass though.

[PhotogGal]

Originally Posted by desertdetroiter

Geography NEVER trumps human nature, and it's natural to have about the same ratio of jerks to nice people no matter where you go.

I loved this statement and heartily agree with you.

And, as a former Midwesterner myself, y'all can call me whatever you want, but I'm not leaving. I LOVE living in South Carolina!

[usc_gal98]

Originally Posted by desertdetroiter

I've never known anyone from Maryland who considered themselves as being from "The South."

Also, what are "southern characteristics?" Or "southern culture?"

I see it this way: people are pretty much the same no matter where you go in this country. Generally speaking, urban types usually like the same things. And rural people don't differ much either regardless of where you go. I presently live in Arizona, and Phoenix is really no different than Atlanta. If i go to one of Arizona's smaller towns...say, Pinetop-Lakeside, they're no different than people you'd find in Dalton, Georgia.

My years in Michigan and Ohio reveal the same things. Most small towns in both states are no less conservative and insular than any small town in the southern or western states. My wife is from a small town in Michigan, and if i could physically move her hometown to Alabama, only the accent would give them away as so called "yankees." And believe it or not, most small towns in New York or Maine would be the same way.

I hear words like "southern hospitality," and i laugh my butt off because the whole concept is silly on its face. I lived in Georgia for more than a year and attitudes ran the gamut from extremely rude to overwhelming kindness. Geography NEVER trumps human nature, and it's natural to have about the same ratio of jerks to nice people no matter where you go.

Laugh all you want, it just shows your ignorance. You will never accept or indentify with what is southern.

Being southern is not a frame of mind. It's a way of life. And those who are not southern will never get it or understand it, but we do.

[Geechie North]

Originally Posted by desertdetroiter

I've never known anyone from Maryland who considered themselves as being from "The South."

Also, what are "southern characteristics?" Or "southern culture?"

I see it this way: people are pretty much the same no matter where you go in this country. Generally speaking, urban types usually like the same things. And rural people don't differ much either regardless of where you go. I presently live in Arizona, and Phoenix is really no different than Atlanta. If i go to one of Arizona's smaller towns...say, Pinetop-Lakeside, they're no different than people you'd find in Dalton, Georgia.

My years in Michigan and Ohio reveal the same things. Most small towns in both states are no less conservative and insular than any small town in the southern or western states. My wife is from a small town in Michigan, and if i could physically move her hometown to Alabama, only the accent would give them away as so called "yankees." And believe it or not, most small towns in New York or Maine would be the same way.

I hear words like "southern hospitality," and i laugh my butt off because the whole concept is silly on its face. I lived in Georgia for more than a year and attitudes ran the gamut from extremely rude to overwhelming kindness. Geography NEVER trumps human nature, and it's natural to have about the same ratio of jerks to nice people no matter where you go.

.

It's not a geography thing (although that influenced it), and it's not a "jerk" thing, as people from nice to jerks are part of it. And while it does in some ways resemble the traditional rural-urban split you see in the North/Midwest/West, it's far deeper than that. Alistair Cooke in his classic "America" spoke of how the south was different from American culture, "That everyone from a Long island potato farmer to a San Diego car salesman operates in." He wrote that in 1975. What's changed culturally since then? Some, but not much.

Southern culture is defined by three basic parts: 1. The War (if you have to ask "What war?", then you aren't Southern.) 2. The legacy of slavery. 3. Homogeneity of ethnicity, compared to other regions. It shows in ways as diverse as voting patterns, religious values, and crime rates.

And fyi, to be a "Yankee" your ancestry didn't haven't be in the North- or even the US- at the time of, "The War of Northern Aggression."

My cousin's wife has a mother from an old Charleston family and a father who was born in France to a Polish father and a Romanian Jewish mother. He immigrated at 7 and lived in upstate NY until he was 22; he's been in Charleston since 1956. If I remember European history correctly, the only wars his ancestors fought were against the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Yet, as his son told him, "Daddy you are a damn Yankee and will always be."
Proving again the dominance of the matriarchical over the patriarchical.

[moneill]

"Being southern is not a frame of mind. It's a way of life. And those who are not southern will never get it or understand it, but we do."

The same can be said about being a 'northerner' or a New Englander.

I love living in the south but I'm proud of my heritage as well. I'm of French-Canadian heritage and have lived in Bermuda, Toronto, ATlanta and eventually Charleston. I think that gives me a unique perspective that someone from the south, north, east and west will never understand. I guess we each have as uniqueness that someone else may not understand.