[censusdata]

Miami has more in common with Southern Cuba than the Southern US

[Crazy Virgo Child]

Originally Posted by adam.g.harpool

People who say that Florida is "Southern" generally don't know anything about the state, and are also the types of people who would probably call Maryland Southern just because it is south of some arbitrary line. In any area you choose - accent, ethnic composition, ancestry, religion, politics, cuisine, etc. etc. - nobody with half a brain could seriously consider Florida in the same category as Georgia. I'm a Floridian, but I am certainly not a Southerner.

Like you said, people who live here know the truth, though most of us frankly could care less about how we're labeled by people in the Northeast or West Coast.

^^^

From the outside looking in, as a Midwesterner who lived in FLA for a few years, and now lives in Atlanta- dude both GA and FLA are both southern!!!!! And while FLA isn’t as southern as GA, it’s still southern. FLA has places like Miami and Orlando that are melting pots which most folks think of when that think of FLA, but it also has places like Plant City, Polk County, Panama City (redneck central) and really everything north of Orlando. The time I spent in FLA I noticed that you all are obsessed with not being considered southern or country, when in you alls eyes your not but from someone from the north you’re in the same boat as the rest of the south, just a little bit more polished. But thats FLA overall, the black community in FLA is waaayyyy behind and is very, very southern!!!

[Granny Sue]

Originally Posted by Crazy Virgo Child

^^^

From the outside looking in, as a Midwesterner who lived in FLA for a few years, and now lives in Atlanta- dude both GA and FLA are both southern!!!!! And while FLA isn’t as southern as GA, it’s still southern. FLA has places like Miami and Orlando that are melting pots which most folks think of when that think of FLA, but it also has places like Plant City, Polk County, Panama City (redneck central) and really everything north of Orlando. The time I spent in FLA I noticed that you all are obsessed with not being considered southern or country, when in you alls eyes your not but from someone from the north you’re in the same boat as the rest of the south, just a little bit more polished. But thats FLA overall, the black community in FLA is waaayyyy behind and is very, very southern!!!

Ok before this gets out of hand, everybody knows that you cannot truthfully put Florida in just ONE category. There is has just been WAY too much influence from other parts of the country for this to be true.

And let's not let this thread get infantile by using words like "redneck".

[sweetclimber]

I think a number of people on this site should stop trying to act like Southern is a bad thing. So what if people think Florida is Southern?

[adam.g.harpool]

Originally Posted by Crazy Virgo Child

^^^

From the outside looking in, as a Midwesterner who lived in FLA for a few years, and now lives in Atlanta- dude both GA and FLA are both southern!!!!! And while FLA isn’t as southern as GA, it’s still southern. FLA has places like Miami and Orlando that are melting pots which most folks think of when that think of FLA, but it also has places like Plant City, Polk County, Panama City (redneck central) and really everything north of Orlando. The time I spent in FLA I noticed that you all are obsessed with not being considered southern or country, when in you alls eyes your not but from someone from the north you’re in the same boat as the rest of the south, just a little bit more polished. But thats FLA overall, the black community in FLA is waaayyyy behind and is very, very southern!!!

Yes, Florida has the Panhandle and Polk County, but those regions don't comprise a majority of our population, and they are cultural outliers as far as the state is concerned. I can't understand how people want to marginalize South Florida, Orlando, Tampa, and other similar areas when describing Florida - it's sort of like saying that New York is a bucolic red state if you look at it without New York City, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester. It makes absolutely no sense at all. Miami-Dade County has more people than the entire Panhandle, and yet people want to define Florida based on the Panhandle and other northern, marginal regions of the state.

And I also disagree with the categorization of the black community in Florida. As a black person myself, those comments about "being behind" hinge on racist stupidity. Apart from that, the composition of the black community in Florida is absolutely nothing like what you will find in Georgia or Alabama. A very, very large percentage of the blacks in Florida are from the West Indies - in South Florida, a majority of blacks are. Not in any Southern state is this the case; there, blacks are generally descended from long-established families, not recent immigrants from the Caribbean.

[tahiti]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

Since my home is on the AL/FL state line, I can tell you that the Florida panhandle is very much part of the south. One you get south of Ocala it becomes much less so.

I agree with this. Florida is not an either/or. I spent months there for work, and worked with a lot of guys who absolutely, definitely thought of themselves as Southerners. The further south you go, the more "northern" it becomes.

[miamiman]

Florida is home to almost 18.5 million people. Therefore, I do not think you can classify ALL Floridians as being non-Southerners. Florida is an odd state in that generally the farther north you go the more "Southern" the people are. However, there are many towns in South and Central Florida that are as Southern as towns in North Florida, mainly due to those towns neither seeing a lot of people from other areas moving in, nor many people leaving.

The reason many towns in metropolitan South Florida (West Palm-Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Fort Myers, Naples) are now classified as being non-Southern is because of significant amounts of migration from other countries and states. However, before sigificant migration took place, many of these areas were dominated by Southerners. Growing in Miami, in the 1960s, there was no question that the city was Southern. Jim Crow laws, southern accents, and southern cuisine were very common. When people started pouring in from other states and countries, the "Southern" nature of all cities in the South Florida began to change.

The exception to this rule is with African-Americans across Florida. Whether you are in Tallahassee, Miami, Daytona Beach, or Fort Myers, there is no doubt that the vast majority of African-Americans in each city are Southerners (exception being black Cubans, Haitians, West Indians). For various reasons, African-Americans have remained a segregated segment of Florida's population, so the migration of millions of others into the state has not diluted the Southerness of most African-Americans communities.

With all that said, Florida is a Southern state. The history of the state is that of a Southern one. The families who have lived in Florida for generations are Southerners.

[Milwaukee City]

The only place that could be "south" the "redneck Rivera" oh I mean the panhandle

Florida should just rename it's self....SOUTH NEW YORK

[Scott Summers]

Originally Posted by johnsonk422

Most Floridians (myself included) believe that Florida is not a part of the South. Our attitudes regarding that region range from indifference at best to embarrassment at the worst. When people from other states (typically not from the South) refer to us as "Southerners", we tend to cringe - not necessarily because we have an anti-Southern bias, but because we know that the "Southern" label doesn't in any way describe our culture, ethnic/religious backgrounds, and ways of living. Sure, northern parts of the state that border on Georgia and Alabama are certainly Southern in culture, but they're a small minority of the state in terms of population.

Since nobody has done a poll like this before on the site, I'd like to see what the general US thinks of Florida. Not in terms of geography, but in terms of culture. Do you think that Florida is a part of the cultural South, or no?

Most of FLA's culture is different from the ideal South (rural, laid-back, small/mid-sized cities, etc). I see where you're coming from with the 'Southern' label because it's usually code word for something negative or 'dumb uncultured' whatever. I defend my city from that image too. FLA does have a lot of built-up areas and it's a vacation/retirement/Caribbean expat state so much of it is a big melting pot. So I'd say that no FLA isn't Southern in culture. I'm very familiar with the Orlando metro area and I never thought about this stuff until I came on City-Data but I doubt people from central Florida are embarrassed to be called Southerners.

[940]

Originally Posted by miamiman

Florida is home to almost 18.5 million people. Therefore, I do not think you can classify ALL Floridians as being non-Southerners. Florida is an odd state in that generally the farther north you go the more "Southern" the people are. However, there are many towns in South and Central Florida that are as Southern as towns in North Florida, mainly due to those towns neither seeing a lot of people from other areas moving in, nor many people leaving.

The reason many towns in metropolitan South Florida (West Palm-Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Fort Myers, Naples) are now classified as being non-Southern is because of significant amounts of migration from other countries and states. However, before sigificant migration took place, many of these areas were dominated by Southerners. Growing in Miami, in the 1960s, there was no question that the city was Southern. Jim Crow laws, southern accents, and southern cuisine were very common. When people started pouring in from other states and countries, the "Southern" nature of all cities in the South Florida began to change.

The exception to this rule is with African-Americans across Florida. Whether you are in Tallahassee, Miami, Daytona Beach, or Fort Myers, there is no doubt that the vast majority of African-Americans in each city are Southerners (exception being black Cubans, Haitians, West Indians). For various reasons, African-Americans have remained a segregated segment of Florida's population, so the migration of millions of others into the state has not diluted the Southerness of most African-Americans communities.

With all that said, Florida is a Southern state. The history of the state is that of a Southern one. The families who have lived in Florida for generations are Southerners.

Great post! I've lived in Florida in the past and I have relatives there. South Florida was considered southern up until about the last 30 years or so when things started to change due to population growth from different areas. Central Florida was predominately southern also until the massive growth started after Disney in 1971. However, one can still find southerners without having to drive to the panhandle...head over to south-central Florida and visit Arcadia or Clewiston or Okeechobee or Lake Placid or Sebring, or numerous other places...all within easy reach of Miami, Ft Lauderdale and West Palm. You'll definitely see that southerners are still in full force in South Florida...they may not be overwhelming in population or numbers but you can't deny that they're there and they've been there for years and years.