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I've never understood why the Southern USA didn't form Its own country. I'm talking in modern times not Civil War Era. Evidently the region is not allowed to.
That's right. States can't secede from the country, and until the past few decades it likely would've been too poor and devoid of major industries to support itself.
I think a Civil War crash course might be in order.
No the course isn't needed. I live down here. I hear about the reasns quite frequently. Though in hearing them, its obvious some natives wish they were separated.
I've never understood why the Southern USA didn't form Its own country. I'm talking in modern times not Civil War Era. Evidently the region is not allowed to. Though I'm sure there have been petitions to do so thru time.
With that said some of the bigger cities, may have lost some of that unique identity. Mainly Miami So Fla region, and coastal SW Fla. Atlanta, Raleigh, Charlotte, Tampa and Orlando are very mixed now. You get outside of those regions its very Southern.
I think the identity of the South will remain, or it would have completely changed by this late date in time.
I do expect in maybe 30 years as the U.S. continues to decline, a serious rise in secessionist movements across the country, particularly at the state level. However, the problem with the entire South (VA to TX) being it's own country is mentioned in your 2nd paragraph -- the South has diversified, particularly in the major cities/metros. How do you get everyone on the same page? That's a huge region, so I just don't see a future "Confederacy" like during the Civil War era. Now on the state level or maybe the combination of two states, that could work (e.g. TX & FL as their own countries; combining LA, MS, & AL as another).
I do expect in maybe 30 years as the U.S. continues to decline, a serious rise in secessionist movements across the country, particularly at the state level. However, the problem with the entire South (VA to TX) being it's own country is mentioned in your 2nd paragraph -- the South has diversified, particularly in the major cities/metros. How do you get everyone on the same page? That's a huge region, so I just don't see a future "Confederacy" like during the Civil War era. Now on the state level or maybe the combination of two states, that could work (e.g. TX & FL as their own countries; combining LA, MS, & AL as another).
There's already a wide variety of regional coordination and cooperation among the states. The Southern United States will never again secede or otherwise form a separate nation, though. No need for that.
And I don't think that the U.S. is going to "continue to decline" for the next 30 years. With any luck and justice, we'll get it straightened out in the next year or two.
What a lot of people try to do today is conflate conservatism with racism. A conservative can be a racist but conservatism isn't about racism.
After he was severely wounded in an assassination attempt which left him paralyzed and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, George Wallace evidently had a come-to-Jesus experience. He became very introspective, and moderated his previously very harsh segregationist views substantially, admitting he had been wrong and apologizing to those whom his actions had hurt. He was a very complex person - I had no use for him whatsoever until his later days, but you have to admire his courage and late-found strength of character and conscience which brought him to such a remarkable change.
This has always been a fascinating topic to me. A little background, I’m from Atlanta and live in Jacksonville, FL now. My parents are Southern as well and all my family has been in the South for centuries, I mean since before America was a country. Being from Atlanta, I’ve had a lot of outside influences due to the cosmopolitan nature of Atlanta now, however I’m still Southern. I have a slight accent just to where you can tell I’m from the South. The culture is fading a lot especially in the accent category particularly in large cities (Atlanta, Charlotte, much of Florida etc). Other aspects of the culture are holding on in Atlanta like saying “y’all”, but mostly only native Southerns use it. Someone mentioned African American culture, which people forget about. African American Southerners are in alot of ways still more Southern than the white population because they tend to be from the South mostly and have been able to hold onto their accents better. I guess in the end, we Southerners will always be here and the transplants will always be coming and going, but the culture won’t ever fade completely.
Since you mentioned Atlanta in particular and that is where I live (as in the city itself, not the metro Atlanta area), I am going to go with a definite NO for this city.
Some of the Southerners who responded early on with statements like, "The South will be the South" are correct. Atlanta, like the two other Southern cities I've lived, has a strong culture which does not readily bend to outside influence.
As a transplant myself I make a habit of asking people here where they are from. There are many, many transplants in Atlanta. However, they are mostly from other Southern states. North Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia, Alabama, etc are heavily represented. So what happens when more Southern people arrive, live, and build families in Atlanta? Not dilution.
As for the other transplants: a lot of NY/NJ, Philly, and some Californians as well. The thing is that after some years, you will see them take on many aspects of Southern culture in order to fit in. Some even speak with Southern accents. So what happens is not that their cultures overrun Atlanta but they lose regional attributes while in Atlanta.
Now where I see any resemblance at all to other regions (mainly the Northeast) is in the North Atlanta suburbs but even that is mild, IMO.
On one hand I'd say yes, but overall I think that identity, especially in America, is an ever-changing concept. That's not to say either that the 'old' necessarily has to be consumed by the 'new', it could mean that the two are fusing, or that the old integrates the new into its existing mores.
I'd imagine the current 'old' culture in the south is not the exact same as the 'old' culture of the south 60 years ago.
I've noticed that in 2018, a lot of people have been starting threads on here about the South losing its unique identity. Here in New Jersey where I live, we've had so many Nor'easters in one winter and I have feelings that has convinced many people to move from the Northeast to the South. Trust me, who the hell would want to live in a place where you have to use so much strength to shovel lots of snow, snow weighs down the power lines, and trees fall and kill people and destroy property. When stuff like this happens, people live an indoorsy lifestyle. Hurricanes in the south sound worse, but I never heard of long term power outages in the South.
These Nor'easters are stressing me out and makes me want to move away from the North. Yes, the South is probably losing its identity, because Northerners want to move down South. They will make the Southern accent disappear and they will bring Northern culture down South.
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My 2 cents
