Northerners and Southerners are Americans right? (Staunton, Culpeper: racism, educational, best)

[virangos]

Hear Hear carolinajack, on racisim
I grew up in a suburb of Chicago "don't play with those kids, they are Italian and own a bar" "Blacks", we won't even go there.
Thank God I grew up without the same thinking as my grandpa.
As far as southerners, I had a girlfriend in high school who's family was from Alabama. She spent the summer there one year. I had a wedding to go to in Georgia so left a few days early to go visit. I pulled in to the house at 11:30 pm. Her aunt looked at me and said you must be hungry, Let me fix you a snack. Best steak, potatos, gravy, the works I ever had.
If there really is anything to this north south thing, from my experiances as a northerner I'll take the south any day. Nothing but warm helpful folk from what I've seen in 30 years of traveling down there.

[carolinajack]

Me too, I worked for a guy who was in the white citizen council and I am black. He was the most welcoming person to me at the job and even let me house sit for him and have the run of his house.

I have never had that welcoming experience up North in my 17 years up here.

even racists back home are hospitable

[Meandb12]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

I think people are friendly most everywhere....especially if you lead off with a smile and a cheery hello. I do this everywhere and never have any issues with anyone. We were in NYC, Manhattan, to see the Macy's Parade, spent four days there, and I gotta tell you, the New Yorkers are fabulous, and so is their city, we'd go back in a heartbeat.

When I walk into a fast food joint, or anywhere, I start with a smile, a hello, and "how are you" before taking care of business -- you'd be amazed how that changes people for the positive.

99% of this North-South stuff is fluff and meaningless, same for all the sports rivalries, they make the games fun. Forget the few drunks who end up acting badly at games.

s/Mike

I agree absolutely - wish you were still in Va - folks like you make the world a much nicer place. Trust me - out here where I am in Europe, you could lay in the street (I've got proof) before someone pitched in to help - the Sound of Music is just a movie. Sure do appreciate you "strangers" out there who have been so willing to help those of us in transition. Thank you again!

[carolinajack]

admittedly, i do not like Yankees(though I married one) ha ha. I dont like theirs views and values and arrogance and think they can buy anything and anyone at the detriment of the entire country.

I may not like them however, they are Americans and I dont hate them and they are welcomed to my south as long as they are respectful of my values as they would want me to be of theirs if I moved up there.

[tedd]

I Was born and raised in georgia and i think that all northerners should repect southerners. Many great things originated in the south for example Rock'n'Roll
I visited NYC last month and went to a place in harlem that carrys soul food,or southern food and it was pretty good. Almost like american chinese food it tasted some what like the real thing but it was a little yankeefied the cornbread was to dry and the sweet tea well it was not sweet. Oh yea and they had no grits come on if you claim you carry southern food you have to carry grits

[arudd427]

What I've noticed as a native NYer with 5 years in VA...

Southerners can't seem to shut up about being Southern.

I don't refer to myself as "northern" or a "New Yorker" unless people ask me about not wearing a coat when it's 50 degrees.

Maybe I'm the exception to the rule.

[seanpecor]

My mother was born on Burnt Church indian reserve in N.B. Canada, my father was a Vermont farmer of French and Indian descent. I don't feel white, nor do I feel indian. I don't feel particularly northern or southern either.

I was born in CT, grew up in VT, lived in FL for a spell, and have lived in VA since 2004. I'm pretty good fun to be around so I'm treated practically like kin by the folks in my south central Virginia town of Boones Mill, from the local general store merchants to the Garst family at Southern States, and everyone in between. I wonder if it's just the rare uptight jerk - who just happens to be from up north - that becomes the "flag bearer of northern ideology" to a small number of southern folks they rub shoulders with.

I really don't get that there is much of a difference between folks from the north or the south, truly. But I do see that there is more of a difference between city folk and country folk. Which may help explain things, given that 3 out of 4 northerners who move south are probably city folk looking to escape the climate and the taxes. And also in their late 50s or early 60s, which means they're pretty much set in their ways. I grew up in the city of Burlington, Vermont, but as an adult I lived for six years in the small town of Orwell, VT. The farmers and country folks living in Orwell had much more in common with the farmers and country folks living in Boones Mill, Virginia then they had with the city folks in Burlington.

Sean

[ajnucch]

I am finding after 2 yrs. in NC a lot of southerner's are still fighting the Cival War ! Sad....

[SCBeaches]

Some examples of what we deal with in the South - which leaves a bad taste for Northerners in some:

1) I was at the checkout counter at a local grocery store, when a well-dressed family came to wait in line behind me. They had 2 very pretty teenaged-girls and were from somewhere in NY or NJ by the accent. Both girls were on cell phones talking loudly to their friends back home about the "hicks', "backwards people", "trailer trash", "lack of taste in clothes", etc. that they were seeing here. I turned to them and smiled and said to the parents, "It sounds like your girls really miss home". They seemed embarrassed that everyone could hear their rude girls, but did not stop them. It got worse, when I was getting ready to leave and heard one of them say LOUDLY, "...and you should see this kid about to ring us up. I doubt he's EVER seen a dermatologist or dentist in his life!" Then she laughed. It was horrible behavior! As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw them getting into an SUV with New York plates. I rolled down my window, smiled, and said, "Enjoy your trip home."

2) Last week, down at the historic Market area of downtown Charleston, I overheard a couple talking about how people of the South obviously don't know anything about dieting or physical fitness and also how we don't know how to talk here, probably because of the poor quality of education. They laughed at this then commented on how we need some educated Northerners to come down here to shape things up.

3) I took my cousins on a horse and carriage tour of downtown and some tourist from Mass. were also in our carriage. As the tour guide told about the old homes and historical events and people, these people kept arguing with him about how no one wants to hear that stuff anymore because the Civil War is over.....that he should be ashamed that he lives in a city where blacks were sold at auctions and kept as slaves.....that they were so proud to be living in Mass. where there was "NO discrimintation or racism".....etc. There happened to be a black couple in the carriage too, and they asked these people to please be quiet because they paid for a historial tour and that they were ruining it. The loud tourists told the black couple that they were trying to stick up for their rights and that they shouldn't have to listen to this stuff. We also told these people they were ruining our tour and asked why on earth they paid to come on such a tour, knowing it was about the history of Charleston. They said they just wanted to prove a point, then asked to be let off early. The rest of us applauded when they got off.

These examples are just a drop in the bucket of the discrimintation against Southerners I have witnessed in my 26 years here. All Northerners are not like this, but when you see it and hear it on a regular basis, you do tend to get a bit defensive. I do not understand why, for the life of me, that someone would spend their hard-earned money to travel to a place they ridicule, despise, and/or look down upon??? I don't get it.

[South Jersey Styx]

spiritwalker, I have had similar experiences as a Northerner (NJ) visiting and living in the 'South' (VA), although I don't know how "South" VA really is at this point. Anyway, one time while taking a horse carriage tour in Charleston, South Carolina, several people in the wagon whispered "Yankees" (about my family and I) and the tour guide kept talking about "The War of Northern Aggression." My daughter didn't know what they were talking about so I had to explain things.

Similarly, I grew up in South Jersey which many people say . . . is like the South (it is NOT like North or Central Jersey). So I hear the same kind of nonsense in my home state.

To make a long story short, I love living in VA. There are positives and negatives about North and South but one can say that about anywhere. Oh, BTW, I lived in northern VA for many years and do not feel that the suburbs are for me; my family and I are moving west to VA into the Shenandoah Valley. So maybe my South Jersey hick personality will be more suited to the mountain hick life in western VA (just kidding, although I do see myself as part-hick regardless of where I live, how many degrees I have, or how I earn).

This is an interesting question -- thanks for sharing with us.