Excellent take, Jessica. It's been a tough week for people who genuinely love the South, regardless of whether they're Southern by birth or by choice.
You hit the nail on the head when you wrote, "Maybe I was just rebelling against the Yankee snarkiness that assumes everyone below the Mason-Dixon line has a double-digit IQ and a fried Twinkie in the glovebox."
Unfortunately, that's a prevalent attitude outside of the South. It's one I encounter repeatedly as I travel the country for work. As someone who is proud to be born and bred in the South, it's an attitude that bristles the hair on the back of my neck.
In truth, the recent debate about the Confederate flag has exposed the festering feelings about the Civil War that remain on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. It has been painful to watch both sides quickly descend into name-calling and convenient stereotypes.
To be clear, the Civil War was about slavery; to suggest anything less would be both disingenuous and a denial of the facts. But while the immorality of slavery is simply unquestionable, complex and varied were the motives of both the people who championed slavery's abolition and those who resisted its demise.
This is what gets people so fired up when the entire conflict is reduced to the Moral North vs. the Racist South, convenient characterizations that refuse an honest dialogue about the past. The Civil War itself itself should stand as a testament to what happens when two sides are no longer willing to listen to the other try explain itself.
Recent Comments
You hit the nail on the head when you wrote, "Maybe I was just rebelling against the Yankee snarkiness that assumes everyone below the Mason-Dixon line has a double-digit IQ and a fried Twinkie in the glovebox."
Unfortunately, that's a prevalent attitude outside of the South. It's one I encounter repeatedly as I travel the country for work. As someone who is proud to be born and bred in the South, it's an attitude that bristles the hair on the back of my neck.
In truth, the recent debate about the Confederate flag has exposed the festering feelings about the Civil War that remain on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. It has been painful to watch both sides quickly descend into name-calling and convenient stereotypes.
To be clear, the Civil War was about slavery; to suggest anything less would be both disingenuous and a denial of the facts. But while the immorality of slavery is simply unquestionable, complex and varied were the motives of both the people who championed slavery's abolition and those who resisted its demise.
This is what gets people so fired up when the entire conflict is reduced to the Moral North vs. the Racist South, convenient characterizations that refuse an honest dialogue about the past. The Civil War itself itself should stand as a testament to what happens when two sides are no longer willing to listen to the other try explain itself.