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And anyone that DISCRIMINATES against Maryland being a Southern State is a complete idiot.....
You are a funny dude...lmao!!
Why do you keep harassing Marylanders about us being southern...NO ONE IN MD AGREES WITH YOU. That civil war period is gone, The mason dixon line is obsolete, being a divider between North and South was NOT its original purpose. So, I ask you, why do you keep harassing us???
Baltimore held on to its original culture more so than any other city on the east coast, Do we act southern to you??
You are funny as hell tho, I'll give you that...lol
You are a funny dude...lmao!!
Why do you keep harassing Marylanders about us being southern...NO ONE IN MD AGREES WITH YOU. That civil war period is gone, The mason dixon line is obsolete, being a divider between North and South was NOT its original purpose. So, I ask you, why do you keep harassing us???
Agreed. I'd also like to point out -- something that many people tend to forget with regard to Maryland -- that it was never even considered a Southern state but a border state; so it's not like it was ever part of the Confederacy despite being below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheWereRabbit
(Okay, I am playing with "south" a geographic direction, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. However, it doesn't change the fact that cultural boundaries are all relative too. DC, and Baltimore, and even Philly, although not "southern", do have many more southern characteristics than Boston.)
Many more Southern characteristics than Boston? The only two things about Philly that could be considered even remotely more "Southern" compared to Boston would be 1.) a much larger African-American population and 2.) a slightly more temperate/Mid-Atlantic climate.
However, even taking those two things into consideration: Boston (and New England in general) seems to be the anomoly with regard to a relative low AA population; most Northern cities/states gained very substantial AA populations during the Great Migration. Also, the climate in Philly is exactly like New York/New Jersey, so, again, not unique within the North. Thus, I'm at a huge loss with that comment.
You are a funny dude...lmao!!
Why do you keep harassing Marylanders about us being southern...NO ONE IN MD AGREES WITH YOU. That civil war period is gone, The mason dixon line is obsolete, being a divider between North and South was NOT its original purpose. So, I ask you, why do you keep harassing us???
Baltimore held on to its original culture more so than any other city on the east coast, Do we act southern to you??
You are funny as hell tho, I'll give you that...lol
What is "act southern" to you? I think that is the bigger question rather than the question of whether Maryland is southern or not. So many people have a distorted and unreasonably negative view of "southern" that they can't actually believe they live in a southern state...because it doesn't fit their stereotype of "southern".
I've known plenty of people from Maryland who identified with the South. Just because there is a majority on city-data who agree with your opinion doesn't mean that it transfers to the real world.
What is "act southern" to you? I think that is the bigger question rather than the question of whether Maryland is southern or not. So many people have a distorted and unreasonably negative view of "southern" that they can't actually believe they live in a southern state...because it doesn't fit their stereotype of "southern".
I've known plenty of people from Maryland who identified with the South. Just because there is a majority on city-data who agree with your opinion doesn't mean that it transfers to the real world.
Actually you are backing in to an idea here. That due to certain factors that give a negative view of the South, many areas along the edge will in words dissaccosiate themselves from having any similarites with the region and say they are completely another regional type (either Midwestern or Northeastern). The problem is there are specific aspets that don't line up with the words in reality, either there are apects that are closer in some way to Southern aspects or are too different to be like the region they say they are in. Though in more than a few cases a particular aspect is different from both or it splits components. One aspect of splitting is maybe the culture is very relgious in nature but not Evangelical Protestant in nature.
I live in the South right now. There's no similarity to Pittsburgh, or I would not have been miserable the first two years I lived here due to culture shock.
Culture Shock? Comparing Pittsburgh to Athens? What kind of culture shock could you have had?
Pittsburgh is much more blue collar than anything Athens is. The people are much more rough on the edges and "less refined" than what you find in Athens and nearby metro Atlanta. It seems odd that you'd say that you experienced "culture shock", and for two years at that, considering the region you came from.
The only culture shock that I could see is going from a larger city to a smaller city. However, the northeastern suburbs of Atlanta are only separated by about thirty miles from the western suburbs of Athens, and Atlanta is much larger than Pittsburgh.
Last edited by Stars&StripesForever; 07-23-2010 at 12:25 PM..
everything is relative. To me, Baltimore and DC are southern. So is Philly and NYC.
Canadians sometimes call our whole nation "down south".
To people in Brazil, I would imagine Jacksonville is pretty darn "northern".
(Okay, I am playing with "south" a geographic direction, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. However, it doesn't change the fact that cultural boundaries are all relative too. DC, and Baltimore, and even Philly, although not "southern", do have many more southern characteristics than Boston.)
You're right. People in the areas of DC, Baltimore, and parts of PA and south Jersey don't have the northern speech found in parts of NYC and places northward. They have a more neutral pattern of speech, and sometimes you'll even hear southern inflections in their voices.
Years ago, save fifteen years ago, I lived in a dorm. Those from north Jersey and New York had a much more northern pattern of speech than those from South Jersey and Maryland, many of which had more speech tones and inflections characteristic of southern (granted not necessarily the twang or drawl) speech.
I know some native DC residents who talk about when DC used to be part of the south (they meant within their lifetime, by the way). I don't think DC is Southern these days, but I also don't think anyone is an "idiot" if they feel otherwise. Historically it had close Southern ties and affiliations, and it does, obviously, border VA -- a very Southern state.
I would never consider Baltimore a southern city, though. I think it's definitely solidly in the north.
I don't consider any part of Maryland northern. The people, on average, speak with a neutral accent with southern inflections. Of course, you can find a minority of the population that have moved from more northern locations in their lifetimes and thus have more northern speech.
Colorado here. Technically you could split Colorado between the West and the Midwest. The mountains are in the West and the farmland plains are in the Midwest. Technically speaking, one could say that Denver lies in the Midwest, because Denver lies on the Great Plains. However, Denver is always placed in the West because of the mountain views.
I've also wondered why Oklahoma and Texas are placed as Southwestern states. The Southwest should be Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Nevada, Southern Utah, Southwestern Colorado, Southern California, and Southwestern Texas. I suppose the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma could be in the Southwest too, but honestly, I think most of Texas and Oklahoma is way too green to be "Southwestern."
Of course, my opinion on regions is ENTIRELY geographical, as you can tell.
Denver is at a crossroads, in my opinion. It sits at a boundary between the true west and the midwest. East of Denver is clearly midwestern, in my opinion, while west of Denver is clearly western.
Oklahoma and Texas are south-central states. The vegetation and topography isn't fully that of the plains, though the southern plains do extend down into parts of Oklahoma and Texas. Culturally, both of these states are generally southern, with the exceptions of the far western areas of Texas around El Paso, as well as the far southern areas of the Rio Grande Valley. For Oklahoma, the northwestern quadrant, to the north and west of Oklahoma City is a mixture of southern and midwestern. Both states have areas of forests and grasslands, while Texas also has areas of desert. Texas also has isolated mountain chains with small pockets of sub-Alpine climate, such as in the Guadelupe Mountains.
Oklahoma and Texas are not true southwestern states, they are western south states, or to be more specific, they are in the south-central region of the United States. You are spot on with your assertion of what is truly southwestern. AZ, NM, far west Texas, S. NV, S. CA, S. UT (St. George & Cedar City areas), and perhaps SW CO, though this one is iffy.
Culture Shock? Comparing Pittsburgh to Athens? What kind of culture shock could you have had?
Pittsburgh is much more blue collar than anything Athens is. The people are much more rough on the edges and "less refined" than what you find in Athens and nearby metro Atlanta. It seems odd that you'd say that you experienced "culture shock", and for two years at that, considering the region you came from.
The only culture shock that I could see is going from a larger city to a smaller city. However, the northeastern suburbs of Atlanta are only separated by about thirty miles from the western suburbs of Athens, and Atlanta is much larger than Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh is actually the most white-collar major U.S. metro outside of Washington DC.
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