Is it true that Texans do not like to be referred to as Southerners? (Dallas: transfer, construction)

[miche111e]

If you have a Confederate flag on your car, you're more Southern than Texan.

Texans display our state flag proudly.

[happycrow]

What miche111e said.

Fort Worth is growing by leaps and bounds, and bringing more people from the east side over -- there's less regional distinction now than there was fifteen years ago (by a large margin, as we're apparently soaking up half of CA and MI lately). But for instance, if you follow political news, Dallas has a VERY southern political and social scene -- very similar to Houston -- which would be perfectly at home in Birmingham or Memphis. FW tends not to be that way, and go an hour west past that to Ranger, and you are OUT of any vestige of the old south.

[doctorjef]

Originally Posted by miche111e

If you have a Confederate flag on your car, you're more Southern than Texan.

Texans display our state flag proudly.

I think the Confederate battle flag (Stars and Bars) tends to be a social class and political statement, and one that isn't necessarily contradictory to Texas identity, or any state identity for that matter. Once in a blue moon you are going to see the Stars and Bars on some ratty old pick up here in otherwise nice northern Delaware. The sort of old bomb it's inevitably stuck to tells you everything about the social class and education of the driver of said rust bucket. Even more so, whenever I venture into the less salubrious parts of Maryland's eastern shore, I inevitably see these Confederate flags stuck onto vehicles and flapping around at fly by night businesses. And although I make it a point to avoid driving downstate while our two annual Nascar weekends are going on (serious traffic), I've no doubt that there is an unsually high number of Confederate flags to be found amongst the crowd at that event.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

I think the Confederate battle flag (Stars and Bars)

DocJ, first of all, the "Confederate Battle Flag" (and there were many variations on those as well), is not the Stars and Bars. The "Stars and Bars" was the First National Flag of the Confederacy. Its intentional resemblence to the "Stars and Stripes" of the Old Union, prompted its moniker. The actual "Battle Flag" came about because the smoke and confusion and clutter of the first battle caused many troops on both sides to mistake one for the other. And it was a "square" design.

What is often called the "Rebel" or "Confederate Flag" today -- the rectangular variation -- was not only not ever officially adopted by the Confederate government, it was pretty much only used by the Army of Tennessee and as a Naval Jack. It wasn't the "Stars and Bars".

I "understand" -- in the sense of it being your outlook -- that you have a general revulsion against those who display the Confederate Flag. And the way you present the same revulsion, shows a certain amount of intolerance on your part.

But anyway, at least distinguish between the Stars and Bars and the "Battle Flag"....whichever version you are talking about...

[happycrow]

Either way, I'm a Texan who definitely does *not* want to be called a "southerner." "Texan" works just fine for me.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by miche111e

If you have a Confederate flag on your car, you're more Southern than Texan.

Texans display our state flag proudly.

So what makes you think one can't be proud of both? Whether it be flag or regional self-identication?

Matter of fact? The Confederate battle flags of some Texas units carried a unique design in their own right..that is to say, an enlarged center star. It proudly proclaimed Lone Star Pride...but at the same time, affirmed solidarity with the Southern cause.

https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/treasure...ric-flags.html

Hood's Texas Brigade Association.

Texas Brigade, 1st Texas Infantry,Civil War reenactors

[Nairobi]

Of all of Texas' major cities, some of the strongest southern accents and most down-home attitudes I've experienced were in Fort Worth. Yeah, I know it's "where the 'west' begins", but the southern element there was tangible, to me.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by miche111e

IMO, it depends on the part of Texas. East TX down to Houston would probably identify with being Southern. West Texas would identify more with the Southwest. I'm from central Texas and consider myself a TEXAN. LOL

So do most of us. But how how does that conflict with also considering oneself a Southerner? Can Viriginia or South Carolinian or Louisianan, or whatever, have the same dual identity. If so? Then why can't a Texan?

I have have family in Georgia and South Carolina, and Texas is vastly different in many ways from those states. For one, the lack of Confederate flags. :x
We recently lived in San Antonio--not the South.

By the way, the tourist industry of San Antonio (at least last time I checked) proudly advertised itself being a combination of "Old South and Old Mexico." But anyway...

Uhhhhh, is the premise of your assertion that the measure of "being Southern" is to be measured by that of Georgia or South Carolina? If so, why and how?

Texas is too big to pigeonholed and categorized into one region.
It's just...Texas

Yep, Texas is Texas. And it IS too big to be considered a typical Southern state. However, not on many levels that are not so untypical of just about every state bordering the Deep South, but was still part of the Confederacy...which was the solidifying point as to the original "Southern ethos".

Heck, Louisiana is Louisiana. South Carolina always had a certain seperate identity too. Virginia certainly has. Florida is almost indisputable in that framework...

And by the way (and I will furnish the stats if you want them), a "Southwestern" identity does not necessarily mean that those who identify with the same, will consider themselves part of the same "Southwest.". That is to say, even most in west Texas (as opposed to almost all in NM and AZ), identify more with the South than the West. That is to say, yes, most think of themselves as "Southwestern"...but more in the sense of "western South", not "southern West". Which makes perfectly good historical sense!

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

.......

And by the way (and I will furnish the stats if you want them), a "Southwestern" identity does not necessarily mean that those who identify with the same, will consider themselves part of the same "Southwest.". That is to say, even most in west Texas (as opposed to almost all in NM and AZ), identify more with the South than the West. That is to say, yes, most think of themselves as "Southwestern"...but more in the sense of "western South", not "southern West". Which makes perfectly good historical sense!

Arrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!! *Tears hair out*...

[joqua]

Originally Posted by Musikälskaren

...New Mexico is like West Texas rather than West Texas being like New Mexico.

Just as true Texans do NOT like being called southerners, New Mexicans do NOT like being thought of as Texans. New Mexico is no more like Texas than Texas is like Louisiana (or, god forbid, Oklahoma)!