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I find it a bit offensive being called a "fake" by some posters. I may not have many southern mannerisms (many people assume I am just another child of immigrants), but I was born and raised in Texas, something I am very proud of. I honestly don't have Southern pride specifically, but I was told having Texas pride somehow folds under that.
In my opinion, it doesn't matter where a person was born or raised, much less their ancestors. A person just had to check at least a couple of the following: born in the South, raised in the South, have Southern mannerisms, identify as Southern, and spent at least a certain portion of their life living in the South.
If you were born in the south, but raised in the north, you're a northerner.
If you were born in the south, and raised in the south, you're a southerner.
If you were born outside the south (not necessarily the north, or west coast, but even in another country) but raised in the south, you're a southerner.
Southerners don't have to be rednecks, they don't have to be country.
You can have a goth southerner, a cheerleader southerner, a southerner who is into K-pop, a southerner who is into Italian cuisine, a southerner who is a marine biologist, a southerner who is a veterinarian, a southerner who sits on the front porch strumming a banjo or a bougey southerner who does yoga and only eats gluten free organic non-GMO foods. The south is diverse AF. I'm sick of hearing that "only people who act like XX or are of X or Y ethnicity or who do this or that, or talk like this or that" are southerners. It's very clannish, and the south has a bad history with certain clans. The south was never and will never be monolithic.
Yes, the south is "rooted in tradition" but it's also a place full of individuals of various backgrounds, it has people and places that defy or create new traditions. The north is the same. Lots of traditions up there, but no one ever puts the north into little rigid boxes. No one will deny someone's northerness based on how they act.
If you grow up with little to no snow, and humid ass weather, in the US, you're a southerner lol If you don't feel like a southerner, spend a winter up in Fargo, and you will.
If you were born in the south, but raised in the north, you're a northerner.
If you were born in the south, and raised in the south, you're a southerner.
If you were born outside the south (not necessarily the north, or west coast, but even in another country) but raised in the south, you're a southerner.
Southerners don't have to be rednecks, they don't have to be country.
You can have a goth southerner, a cheerleader southerner, a southerner who is into K-pop, a southerner who is into Italian cuisine, a southerner who is a marine biologist, a southerner who is a veterinarian, a southerner who sits on the front porch strumming a banjo or a bougey southerner who does yoga and only eats gluten free organic non-GMO foods. The south is diverse AF. I'm sick of hearing that "only people who act like XX or are of X or Y ethnicity or who do this or that, or talk like this or that" are southerners. It's very clannish, and the south has a bad history with certain clans. The south was never and will never be monolithic.
Yes, the south is "rooted in tradition" but it's also a place full of individuals of various backgrounds, it has people and places that defy or create new traditions. The north is the same. Lots of traditions up there, but no one ever puts the north into little rigid boxes. No one will deny someone's northerness based on how they act.
If you grow up with little to no snow, and humid ass weather, in the US, you're a southerner lol If you don't feel like a southerner, spend a winter up in Fargo, and you will.
Word.
Southerners on the whole tend to be very accepting of anyone who doesn't go around disparaging the south or constantly comparing it to "how they do it better" somewhere else.
Southerners on the whole tend to be very accepting of anyone who doesn't go around disparaging the south or constantly comparing it to "how they do it better" somewhere else.
What are you talking about? Don't you know that we always ask someone immediately which church they go to!??!?!?!
Hmmmm, ancestors came from Ireland/England to settle as sharecroppers in the south, I was born out west, raised in the midwest, but have spent more than half my life in the south now. I guess that makes me.... southern lite?
I guess I'm a hybrid. Mom was born in the south to a genteel southerner and a Missouri farmer, raised in Chicago. Dad was born and raised Midwestern.
The town of my childhood was located in the south but very cosmopolitan. My adult life has been spent living in very southern Appalachian neighborhoods. No doubt I was different, my neighbors called me a student well past my graduation date. As the years go by I'm better with blending in, but I'm clearly not a "biscuit in the oven" if you get my reference.
The fact that I happened to be born in New England has no impact on my life - except it did get me out of jury duty once.
i agree with that. a lot of people on here seem to want to force people into different boxes based on where they live.
the only legit definitions of southern or southerner is person residing in the south. it is a geographic definition.
Sorry but I disagree. If you follow that statement to it's conclusion there is no difference in living in podunk maine than there is in living in podunk alabama or podunk new mexico. I am mystified as to why you are so dead set against accepting the differences as well as the similarities. I celebrate the different cultures, it's what makes traveling an adventure. Long live grits and zydeco!
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