Why doesn't the South stay Southern but the North Stays Northern? (live in, restaurant)
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I wonder if people were saying the same things in the north when a lot of southerners were migrating there.
from reading here sometimes it almost seems like big cities are anathema to the south.
Big cities are reviled in the most of the South. Look at the Original 13 and you'll see that most of the Southern Colonies are big and mostly rural today. Georgia just has Atlanta (should have Savannah), South Carolina has nobody (should have Charleston), Virginia should have Richmond and the Hampton/VA Beach area. The only Southern states doing it right are TX, NC, and FLA.
Many southern cities specifically sought out investment from companies based outside of the south. They gave away things like tax abatements, sweetheart land or development deals, and legislators implemented policies favorable to the growth of multinational corporations in cities like Charlotte and Atlanta.
As a result of those decisions to intentionally seek outside investment, the outsiders came pouring in, too. You can't really have one without the other.
So if you want an explanation, you'd first need to look at southern development policies.
A big part of it, and I think also, Northern and Western culture dominates the media moreso than Southerners. In fact, the media isn't always too kind to the South (redneck, racist, etc. stereotypes).
I've found areas in the NE and Midwest just as racist as areas in the South.
I certainly wouldn't say the south is any less southern! I've been to Nashville and Atlanta, and both are clearly southern in culture, look, climate, and accent. Also, southern accents aren't fading away, especially not in the rural areas. You can find southern accents and "y'all" as far north as Dayton, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana. The only thing that might be making the south "northern" are huge numbers of northern transplants moving in, and most of them are heading to major cities. The reverse was true in the 20th century here, with large numbers of (mostly black) southerners moving up here for factory jobs. You can still find black people from Detroit and Kalamazoo who say "y'all" and "fixin' ta." It works both ways.
It's strange. I live around Raleigh now, but am originally from the Northeast. A lot of native Southerners associate the newly-built neighborhoods, new shopping centers, new everything with being "Northern." However, coming from the Northeast, these type of new and shiny, dynamic developments remind me of the South. When I think Northern, I think of old, somewhat beat-up buildings and dreary shopping centers.
I think the problem is that people have it too ingrained in their heads that Southern = poor, working-class and Northern = rich, white-collar. Cities like Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta may be getting more Northerners, but they are not becoming like Northern cities, they are a distinctly new creation-- part of the New South, which definitely has a feel to it wholly independent of the North.
I think there is a general universal American culture that virtually all people under 40 now follow. This transition from regional to the dominate American culture happened way long ago in the North, any working-class neighborhoods in Boston, NY, etc. with accents are the exception. No one finds it worthy of reporting that some kid in Newton, Massachusetts doesn't say "pa'k the cah". But, the loss of regional Southern culture to the generic American culture is recent, so people have noticed it. The South isn't becoming more Northern, its just becoming more "American" and less regional.
But its really not soda. Its actually a soft drink. Is there really soda in a coke? I dont think so, lol
But have it your way. Like they do at Burger King, lol
Well, it contains soda water. How soda water got that name I don't know.
In some parts of the north, the usual term is not "soda," but "pop."
Another example from my local turf of how the local customs get watered down into something generically American--or, in this case, at least generically northeastern: The traditional term around the Boston area for a carbonated soft drink is "tonic." I assume that harks back to the time when these beverages were used for supposed medicinal properties. Nowadays, the term "tonic" is heard mostly in the same old blue-collar enclaves where there's still a true Bahstin accent. Throughout most of the metro area, you're more likely to hear a soft drink called "soda." Interesting how there has not been a single term for this that has developed into the usual term nationally, but still a term used widely in the greater Northeast, as well as some other areas outside the South, I believe, has widely replaced a local term traditional in one Northeastern city.
I do not like being referred to that way. I have never understood the stigma attached to the word y’all. It is a contraction of two real words and is gender neutral.
I am the same way. I hate being called a guy, in my day guys were male and that's it! I say y'all, my kids say "you guys" I also call all soft drinks coke but my kids all say soda. I think the media has alot to do with it.
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