Is Virginia a Northern or Southern state? (Cana: to live, dangerous)

[Scotty011]

Originally Posted by CelticGermanicPride

that is such an outdated way to look at it. it's 2011, not 1960. what is southern culture? what is northern culture? are we going to be ignorant and say in a condescending way that southern "culture" is to be in the middle of nowhere, live in a trailer, spit in a can, and collect shotguns? while northerners lay claim to everything they feel is cosmopolitan and urban enough for their snotty butts to claim?

if we're going to use our ignorance of the south to determine what is northern or southern, then there are "culturally" southern areas in the north like michigan, upstate ny, central pa. so if we're going to use ignorant outdated reasoning, then shouldn't central pa and upstate ny be southern now? we'll give all the cosmopolitan cities to the north and give all the trailer parks to the south to fit everybody's ignorance.

Thank you! Very good post.

[BigCityDreamer]

Originally Posted by DubbleT

For me southern culture is being asked if I want regular or sweet when I order iced tea with my dinner, finding grits and biscuits offered on almost every breakfast menu, hearing people addressed as sir or ma'am as a matter of course, adults being addressed as Miss Firstname or Mr. Firstname, being told to have a blessed day, bless your heart, seeing pictures in the local paper of the seasons debutante cotillion, a proliferation of beauty pageants, and last but not least in my book, a serious lack of cribbage players!

To me, a litmus test for southern culture is also the prevalence of southern accents. If a place has very few if any native people speaking with southern accents, then it cannot be considered part of the American south.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by DubbleT

Why do you feel that "southern culture" is such derogatory phrase. I don't associate it with all the negative stereotypes that you seem to.

For me southern culture is being asked if I want regular or sweet when I order iced tea with my dinner, finding grits and biscuits offered on almost every breakfast menu, hearing people addressed as sir or ma'am as a matter of course, adults being addressed as Miss Firstname or Mr. Firstname, being told to have a blessed day, bless your heart, seeing pictures in the local paper of the seasons debutante cotillion, a proliferation of beauty pageants, and last but not least in my book, a serious lack of cribbage players!
This is obviously a generalization, you may not find all these things everywhere in the south, or you may find some of these things in the north, but overall these things tend to be more typical in the south than they are in the north. I'm not sure why the staunch refusal to allow that there are differences.
If I took a trip from Memphis to Boston to Seattle and found the experiences all to be essentially the same I would be severely disappointed. Personally I like that the the country is not one big homogeneous culture. How boring would that be?

Good post. A few others I can think of is a relatively high Black population in rural areas (outside of the Appalachian South), a prevalence of Baptist churches, and Confederate monuments (typically on the downtown square in smaller towns).

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

To me, a litmus test for southern culture is also the prevalence of southern accents. If a place has very few if any native people speaking with southern accents, then it cannot be considered part of the American south.

Also for me. There was a poster earlier in the thread who claimed MD and DE are southern. You decide:


Andy's Baltimore Accent - YouTube


Scene About Town: Italian Festival - YouTube

[TreasuredJewel]

Yes Virginia is a southern state, can't believe this question is being asked.. Maryland is a southern state as well. What are they teaching in school these days. For the person who said people in MD do not have southern accents is inaccurate.


Big Dave's Roadside BBQ - Deale, Maryland - YouTube


2011 Ford Super Duty in Waldorf Maryland - YouTube


Maintaining the Mason-Dixon: Maryland... - YouTube

Like the guy in this video basically said the South is the South. Whether it be the hills of West VA, the eastern shore of Maryland, Northern VA, or far western TX. Just because someone has a differing opinion on what states are southern doesn't change the fact that these states are southern and will always be. An opposing opinion alone can't change a states geographic location, culture, and history. Sorry!

[WILWRadio]

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

Yes, SOUTHeast.

According to the map that I have it is in the east. It's situated right along the Atlantic coastline, just south of Maryland.

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by TreasuredJewel

Yes Virginia is a southern state, can't believe this question is being asked.. Maryland is a southern state as well. What are they teaching in school these days. For the person who said people in MD do not have southern accents is inaccurate.


Big Dave's Roadside BBQ - Deale, Maryland - YouTube


2011 Ford Super Duty in Waldorf Maryland - YouTube


Maintaining the Mason-Dixon: Maryland... - YouTube

Like the guy in this video basically said the South is the South. Whether it be the hills of West VA, the eastern shore of Maryland, Northern VA, or far western TX. Just because someone has a differing opinion on what states are southern doesn't change the fact that these states are southern and will always be. An opposing opinion alone can't change a states geographic location, culture, and history. Sorry!

The video also seems to suggest that Arizona is part of the south and is being invaded by yankees, lol.

How do you know that first guy is a native Marylander?

[TreasuredJewel]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

The video also seems to suggest that Arizona is part of the south and is being invaded by yankees, lol.

How do you know that first guy is a native Marylander?

May I not totally agree with the imagery in the video, AZ was confederate territory I believe, but that is not the question at hand. Why are you nitpicking? No one asked if the two men that another poster posted if they were actually from Maryland. Just accept the fact that some MDers have southern accents and northern type accents(even though the B-more accent has a very very slight southern undertone to it). A true border state.

[~CountryBoy~]

Depends on what you define as southern or northern. If you're talking about southern as in the Deep South or northern as the Northeast, they've never been. The state is different depending upon where you live or located.There's the northern part of the state which is quite urban and connected to DC, central and western VA is a mixture of rural and urban, and southeastern VA which is very urban and more military with a lot of folks from different places around the country.

[BigCityDreamer]

Originally Posted by TreasuredJewel

May I not totally agree with the imagery in the video, AZ was confederate territory I believe, but that is not the question at hand. Why are you nitpicking? No one asked if the two men that another poster posted if they were actually from Maryland. Just accept the fact that some MDers have southern accents and northern type accents(even though the B-more accent has a very very slight southern undertone to it). A true border state.

Maryland is much more northern than it is southern. Only a small minority of Marylanders speak with southern accents. They are mainly in the southernmost counties.