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When I first opened this thread, I had my first experience with Tampa. To me it felt 'southern' I don't know why Bartonizer and others are trying super hard, there are clearly a mix of people in the area. In some areas of the metro there are a lot of transplants from the north and even there they tend to isolate (east coasters in one neighborhood, midwesterners in another). Ok.
As I'm writing this I have more experience with Southern Florida, since my fiancee lives in Jupiter. I dragged myself to areas I normally wouldn't go (Jupiter, Boca Raton, Palm Beach) and I can honestly say that south Florida feels southern to me too. At least in Jupiter (which I now have too much experience with) the people at Greenwise are all too happy to smile at you and make chit chat, pace of life is obnoxiously slow, and people are lackadaisical about everything.
So in places like Jupiter I don't hear very many "southern accents" (though I do from time to time), more new england or new yorker. But go just a bit west, or north around lake Okeechobee it's southern drawl all day and night long.
So the point of bringing Southern Florida into this is simple. Florida was more heavily populated in the north, as you went south you came into further isolation from the mainland, swamps, malaria and what not. South Florida was the least populated. North Florida the most. Central Florida (Orlando-Tampa) in the middle.
So if Southern culture survives here in South Florida you can bet it's even stronger in the Tampa Bay area. In fact the brother of my fiancee road-tripped to Tampa for some EDM music festival over Memorial Day Weekend and all he could comment was if you thought there was too many rednecks here, it's outrageous up north. And yeah, what are rednecks in the south but southerners in their purest form?
What is the requirement to be southern culturally for you guys .
I feel like I'm being rude all the time. So I feel out of place.
Nope, just on C-D I'm kidding. Look, you posted on the topic, and I disagree with your premise. And you seem to do it with a jab. To be honest, I get a little tired of some of the Californians on message boards. They tend to refer to everything but NYC (and in your case, Miami) in a slightly derogatory manner or at least an overly broad brush (which I realize I'm doing as I'm writing this). And you've probably noticed by now that CA folks get the most resistance and vitriol on these threads from others, though I acknowledge that much of it is unfounded.
Anyway, as someone else pointed out, I think you're under the impression that rednecks are endemic to the region. Yet you would find the same exact same type of people in Ohio or PA or even CO or WA, just living in a different climate. Though I'm not into them, NASCAR, country music and Mountain Dew are a nationwide draw.
To answer your question about requirements of a Southerner- as I've told you before, Southerners self-identify as southerners. A drawl is a certain noticeable characteristic, as is IMHO a pride in the region for heritage and roots in the area. There is an extra emphasis on family, commonalities in food, and a collective defense/perspective on history and the role of the South in the history of the country. A huge chunk of the historical south lived in poor, somewhat uneducated communities where manufacturing or self-sufficiency paid the bills, and there is still a connection to those times. Further, there is the complex emotion and justification that goes along with trying to move ahead and modernize with the rest of the country (to many, until rather recently the South has long felt isolated or shunned from much of the country) while at the same time reconciling the huge scars, anger, and shame created by the obvious practices of the past.
I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. My experience living in NC for 15 years (including degrees in history and sociology) certainly attest to the interest I had in the subject. Again, I agree that there are some crossover interests, but I can confidently say that very few people that grew up in urban Florida had much of a common heritage, mindset, or self-identification as a typical Southerner. Further, most Floridians do not have any street creds as Southerners to anyone else in the region, despite enclaves that are quite Southern in nature. Anyone from Florida knows that if they've ever moved just about anywhere else below the Mason-Dixon line.
Anyway, I hope that this helps people understand the resistance displayed by many Floridians or ex-Floridians when labeled as Southerners. It's because're not.
Last edited by bartonizer; 06-16-2015 at 05:50 PM..
Orlando? It's panhandle over to Jax. Everything below is yankee-infested Hades.
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I'm kidding. Look, you posted on the topic, and I disagree with your premise. And you seem to do it with a jab. To be honest, I get a little tired of some of the Californians on message boards. They tend to refer to everything but NYC (and in your case, Miami) in a slightly derogatory manner or at least an overly broad brush (which I realize I'm doing as I'm writing this). And you've probably noticed by now that CA folks get the most resistance and vitriol on these threads from others, though I acknowledge that much of it is unfounded. 
