Quote:
Originally Posted by city_data91
Last time I checked, this is a free country and we can move wherever we want. The people that move to the South from the North might like the South more overall. But that doesn't mean they have to like every aspect of the South. The South will never disappear. All that will disappear is your idea of what the South should be. Think of westward migration. Were all those people invading Oregon? Were the original settlers of America invading the Native Americans' land? I don't understand why people make such a big deal out of moving to the South, but not any other region.
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Well, you make a good and reasonable point in a lot of ways, but I see and understand what the OP is saying. And agree with a lot of it.
I'm a fourth generation Texan of largely Deep South ancestry, so to answer the initial question, my family lines have always been in the South.
But to your points, yes, of course, people have a right to live wherever they choose. But at the same time.....well, let me backtrack just a bit first...
You brought up westward migration, asking if those settlers had "invaded" the said territories. Leaving alone any considerations involving the Native-Americans for the purpose of this topic (too, I am not one of those who goes on a guilt trip about "stealing" land from the Indians), the comparrisons of then and today are different. At
that time, the western territories had yet to have their character developed. It was the settlers who made it so initially.
Texas for instance. Most of the state does not fit at all into the common image of a forested and moonlight and magnolias South. Yet it is essentially a Southern state even today because those who originally settled it were overwhelmingly Southerners and this pattern continued up until relatively recently. Its character became established because of such.
Today though, while I stop short of calling it an "invasion", the migration to parts of the South (Florida, Texas, and Virginia in particular, but ever more North Carolina and Georgia) is by northerners who come down
not to assimilate, but for opportunistic reasons and make no secret of their disdain and contempt for Southern culture, history, mannerisms, folkways, etc, etc.
I hasten to add this is not always the case. Far from it. Some of my very best friends are northerners (hell, my ex, my kids' mother, is from the North), and I have met many who become naturalized Texans/Southerners and, like the old proverbial "new convert", become the fiercest partisans of their new home. They take the "damyankee" kidding in stride, and give as good as they get and no hard feelings on either side. They wanted to fit in...and did. Southern hospitality is out there for the taking. My own experience and observation is that most of those who call it "fake" were never open to recieving it to begin with.
Anyway though, at the same time, the observations the OP made are equally relevant as to a certain type of northerner who move down here with an attitude. Not necessarily the norm...but it is common enough to justify the stereotype of the rude, pushy, yankee and/or those with a savior-complex who take it upon themselves to lecture on how backward we are.
As you say, one doesn't have to like everything about the South. There is nothing wrong with constructive critisism. But sometimes many newcomers do not seem to give a damn that what might be considered admirable frankness up there, is considered tacky rudeness down here. It is like coming in to someone elses home and telling them how the decor really sucks. And either seem to delight in saying so...or feel they need to do so "for (our) own good." This is bound to cause resentment.
Ok..I have rambled on enough! I quit (for now! LOL) Seriously though, I see what you are saying. I just wanted to present the other side.
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