Would you consider Maryland to be in the south? (Baltimore: live, centers)

[nickisworking]

coming from the south (houston/nashville) maryland definately doesn't feel like the south. there's way to much gravity from cities like philadelphia and new york. i have yet to find decent bar-b-que or mexican food.

[GetatMD]

See, the average person does not see anything in Maryland; just a few communities within a few mile radius or where they live. I on the otherhand have actually been to a few places far spread in Maryland and Maryland is very country. The state of Maryland is bigger then Baltimore/ D.C. and their suburbs. And even the D.C. folk are country. I am from Baltimore and most of the NATIVES here are country.. especially in south Baltimore where the white folk have the southern/ Baltimore accent thing going on. Once you leave the city, most of the suburbs are country in uniform, but outside of the suburbs... absoutely rural.

[GetatMD]

Originally Posted by southboy

Yes. I believe Maryland is 100% southern, and I'm from Georgia.(I had moved to Maryland 1 year ago)

Right, I have a homie from Arkansas and he's shocked over Maryland. He's like.. I didnt think I would travel this far and it would be so similar to back home. THere you have it... after coming up hundreds of years under a cultural-division line(mason-dixon), only so much is gonna change.

[GetatMD]

Originally Posted by Terrapin2212

What bothers me is that years ago, northerners visiting would claim its the South. But now we have people from New Jersey coming here and saying its not so much different from up there. This is what depresses me.

I went to an interview and info session at the Univ of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore yesterday and the curriculum is more geared toward regional licensing requirements and professionally we are in the "Northeast" region. This really bugged mad and a LOT of other people because it would be hard to practice even in Virginia and the DC area straddles the border! Other Northeast states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, etc are all places with zero economic prospects, stagnant or declining populations and economy, unbearable weather, and miserable people.

I don't know why so many people here, especially people with roots in the tri-state area, want to make us northern? Remember we straddle both sides. We can CHOOSE! Especially in this day and age, we should be looking south, not north. The south is where the future is. Sunbelt vs. Rust Belt. Very simple, look at how most cities in the South are booming while most areas in the Northeast are in various rates of decline. SOme areas like Pittsburgh, Buffalo, DETROIT, NEWARK, etc are just in free fall. New Jersey has a serious brain drain to southern and Southwestern states every year.

On the contrare... I went to school with ALOT of people from Jersey and still work with a few, and they all express one of the biggest culture shocks of their lives when they moved to Maryland. THey think we are very southern. I'm southern, I'm not from the deep south, but I'm not from the North neither.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Originally Posted by GetatMD

See, the average person does not see anything in Maryland; just a few communities within a few mile radius or where they live. I on the otherhand have actually been to a few places far spread in Maryland and Maryland is very country. The state of Maryland is bigger then Baltimore/ D.C. and their suburbs. And even the D.C. folk are country. I am from Baltimore and most of the NATIVES here are country.. especially in south Baltimore where the white folk have the southern/ Baltimore accent thing going on. Once you leave the city, most of the suburbs are country in uniform, but outside of the suburbs... absoutely rural.

I have a few friends with a Baltimore accent (white) and I think certain words sound a lot more similar to New Jersey. But I also got friends from Frederick County and Southern Maryland who have "southern" accents (what's the difference between a "country" and "southern" accent anyway, sorry for sounding ignorant. I've met people from central Pennsylvania with a twang, but not anyone from Jersey or New England, not even ppl from the most rural areas from those states.). I know people from Frederick Co. and Charles who fly the Confederate flag and are proud of it.

African Americans I believe tend to sound slightly Southern no matter where they live since the black population's roots are originally in the South, which includes Maryland, a former slave state. I guess for the accents and all we need to judge regional populations as a whole and not any subset. Northern vs. Southern black culture is definitely interesting but I think this thread is about overall differences in mainstream culture and lifestyle in the regions and where Maryland falls. There's this division in other cultural groups too. The commonly Jewish last name "Levin" can be pronounced too ways, one guy has told me there's a New York way and a southern way and he insists on his name being pronounced the southern way because he's proud to be from North Carolina originially and doesn't want to be associated with "Yankees".

I'm Asian American and I want to try to sound more Southern and for some reason I'm not very good at it, I just speak standard anywhere English. On AIM I would use stuff like y'all and reckon and ain't but it doesn't come out naturally when I talk, especially with friends and family. And honestly this hurts. Though sometimes when I'm drunk enough people say I sound more southern, especially ones from PA and NJ. I also associate being Southern or "country" with being more authentically American, speaking as the American-born son of (LEGAL) Taiwanese immigrants that is.

[vanyali]

Terrapin, come down South and try to find someone who says "reckin'" and then see if you still feel less American.

There's nothing especially American about the South, just especially insular. There's a particular social phenomena (that probably has a name, but I don't know what it is) where groups can increase their own cohesiveness by going to a lot of trouble to distinguish themselves and exclude other people. This is something that Southerners do a lot. Don't fall for it.

What could really be more American than being the kid of immigrants living in the nation's capital? And what you probably speak is Mid-Atlantic English. That's its own accent, and it's plenty American (it's what I speak too).

[NENC]

Maryland is not the South now if it ever was. I think it was borderline South 150 years ago. Now, there's no question.

Terrapin, why do you want to be Southern so badly? A Southerner is not something you become, it is something you are. This is why you'll find so many Southerners are so tenacious about preserving our culture and why some get so upset with the Northerners overrunning some areas of the South. It necessarily means an end to our culture as we knew it.

There's an old Southern saying:

"If the cat has kittens in the oven, you don't call them biscuits."

Forgive me if I'm making an incorrect assumption but you said that you are Asian and you lived in New Orleans until you were seven. Are your parents native Southerners? If they are not, then you are not a Southerner, at least not in a cultural sense. Being a Southerner is a culture that is learned and passed on from generation to generation. It is just what we are. It's like any other culture. I have lived in the South all of my life with the exception of 8 years I spent in NJ for work. But I never became a "Northerner" just because I was living there for a while. I was always what I am. It's something that is nurtured in a person from their earliest moments.

One of my best friends growing up lived in the South all of his life...born in Arkansas and raised in Memphis and southern Virginia. But both of his parents were from Pittsburgh. I guess he was Southern enough but still somewhat "different" from the rest of our friends who were multigenerational Southerners. He was generally unaware of many Southern customs and traditions that the rest of us practiced. That's because he wasn't nurtured in Southern ways at home and with his family. For example, I wouldn't dream of letting a New Years pass without cooking collard greens and black eyed peas with a little hog jowl thrown in for seasoning. That's just one of many traditions that were passed down from my parents and from their parents before them and their parents before them. My friend thinks that tradition is strange, even though he's lived in the South all of his life.

I could move to Russia and probably learn the language and customs well enough...but I'll never be "Russian" no matter what I do.

It seems as if you are in love with "images" of the South...country music, conservative politics, hospitality. The South is more than that though. It's a culture, a shared history, it is roots stretching for generations, it is a love of and reverence for the land, it is walking the same fields that your great grandparents walked. It is homecomings and family reunions. It is a shared dialect that binds us all in so many ways. It is so much more than CMT videos and rebel flags.

There's nothing wrong with being who you are. I agree with Vanyali. What could be more American and unique than being the child of immigrants living in the nation's capital?

Of course you could go a long way towards making your children Southerners by moving yourself South and marrying a good Southern girl!

[vivo]

didn't even notice before that Jack007 is Terrapin

[Charleston Class]

Having attended school in DC and the Mid-Atlantic Region, I would not call Baltimore or DC southern. To be fair, I would say Maryland has historically functioned as a southern state, but not so much anymore. I'm not sure if time itself changed the state and/or the influx of people from different regions-mainly the northern states that it borders- changed the culture, but it is considerably different from say SC, NC, GA or TN. I'm a native of Charleston,SC-arguably the most "southern" city of them all, and when I lived in College Park and Bethesda, I found nothing reminiscent of home-weather, people, overall culture. All states have regions that vary in culture, so I don't believe the part vs. whole argument works here. Here's an example: Florida is all southern outside of Miami. However, when I visit Tampa or Orlando, I still feel more of a southern vibe when I visit those cities vs. Anytown, MD. One might be hard pressed to find a southerner that may believe otherwise.

[Charleston Class]

Most of my friends that call NYC or New England home normally consider anywhere south and/or west of Jersey to be southern,lol. I would say their opinions are biased.