Number of 'Southerners' declining

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/10/01/vanishing.southerners.ap/index.html

<snip>

A new Vanderbilt University study found that the number of people like Fleming, who are fiercely proud to be called Southerners, is being noticeably diluted by newcomers and those who just plain reject the label.

From 1991 to 2001, the number of people living in the South who identified themselves as "Southerners" declined 7.4 percent, from about 78 percent to 70 percent.

The study found that only Republicans, political conservatives and the wealthy bucked this trend, keeping the same percentage of self-described "Southerners."

"As with other parts of the country, continuing urbanization and immigration have had an impact on the South," said sociology professor Larry Griffin, who headed the study.

[Nottingham]

1. Well the US is changing and so is the south!

:bounce:

[seasat]

2. Well, I guess I'm different.

I like to think I'm part of new breed, a Democrat, liberal, middle class Southerner!:dem:

[SharonAnn]

13. Me too!

Democrat, liberal, middle class Southerner.

[surfermaw]

31. Me & I can say that I am proud...

To be from the south and can run my line back to Va. and beyond,heck I even bear the same name of the man trying for res. That was another day and time...

[Maddy McCall]

3. Southerner here too.

The Southerness of the south is being diluted by migration from other regions.

If I moved to California, I would still call myself a Southerner.

How much money was spent on that STUPID Vandy study??? Perfect common sense would tell you that people from other regions will hold to their previous regional identity....

Until they are amalgamated, and they will be, trust me, they will be. A good dose of blues and gumbo will indoctrinate them!

[yankeeinlouisiana]

9. NO! Not Ever!

They'll never indoctrinate me!!

I'll always be a Yankee! :evilgrin:

And yes, you are right. I'll always hold on to my previous regional identity...regardless of where I live. ;-)

[kskiska]

14. Funny, but the Los Angeles area

calls itself "The Southland."

[goforit]

4. Wow......Maybe they are becoming embarrassed.

Fascinating!!!!

[Syrinx]

5. I'm embarassed for anti-South bigots

Fascinating? No. An insane waste of money, this study? Yes.

[Ripley]

7. Oh goody, another South-bashing thread.

I guess there aren't enough Smirk scandals brewing for this crowd. Gee, I wonder what the gender bashing one will be about?


Hi Sy! :hi:

[Syrinx]

11. Ripley, I have met the enemy, and it is us!

Apparently...

Myself, I feel antipathy toward certain Connecticut yankees, so all northerners must be bad. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Hi Ri! :hi:

(Ri and Sy, sounds like a great team.)

[expatriot]

15. anti-"southerner" is just anti-"confederate..." it is healthy as...

...long as people don't turn it into anti-lower class white.

I think what this country needs to counter the conservative 'southern' culture is a revitalization of "Yankee pride."

To me the 'Confederate' or 'Southerner' ideology epitomizes one of the great lies and crimes of 'conservative' culture... that is the ability of the upper classes and the elites to recruit the lower-class into a backward ideology (to identify with a race, an ethnic group, a theocratic notion of the nation, etc.) and therefore these lower-class conservatives become the henchman of the highest classes.


So when I say I am against 'Southern' ideology, this is what I mean. I am not against grits or mint julips or banjos playing in the bayous, I am against the baggage associated with it.

[chascarrillo]

17. There's an easy solution

Move.

[Syrinx]

20. ?

I LIKE living in the south. I have no reason to move.

[Dufaeth]

6. I was born in Tennessee

I have returned here after graduating from college. My dad is from Ohio and my mom was an army brat so I don't have that much historical Southern background(though my mother's family is traditionally from the south) I've always disliked the idea of being laebeled a Southerner.
I've always been glad that I have no accent. People are often surprised when I tell them I am from Nashville.

While of course Southerners aren't bad as a whole, there is enough of a problem with conservatism, fanatical religious movements and racism that I have no desire to be called a "Southerner."

[Syrinx]

22. this is the 2003

Seems to me there's more "racism" today in Los Angeles and New York, than in Tuscaloosa. I haven't heard of any blacks being gunned down or beaten by the police in Alabama in recent years. I really haven't.

[Kookaburra]

25. North Carolinian

While in college I worked very hard to rid myself of what I considered my greatest liability -- my southern accent. All that trouble only to find when I got into the real world, that far from being a liability, a woman with a soft southern accent and a brain in her head can go far in business.

[schultzee]

8. I am very liberal, in fact almost socialist, and am a southerner

and am a middle class person.

[expatriot]

16. geograhically you are but not ideologically...

you must remember that there were southern unionists, every southern state except for SC had at least one regiment of white 'expats' that formed to fight for the union cause.

That should be the southern heritage to be proud of.

[Romulus]

10. "yankees"

My fiancee (from Philly) always rolls her eyes whenever I dismiss rude people arounds here (DC) or Philly as "typical Yankees." :evilgrin:

Being a Yankee herself, she thinks the term "Yankee" is only used by Confederate nostalgists.

Romulus: born in Brooklyn - but raised, by God, in the South!! :evilgrin:

[Lars39]

12. The ultimate impact of the continuing urbanization and immigration

is that some of the southern towns 'ways of doing things' is being incremently changed. The newcomers don't put up with the oft-time stagnant status quo; they tend to be progressives. I've been seeing this in the town I live in now for at least the past 5 years. The natives are getting dissatisfied with being perceived as backwards and are making progress, albeit slow progress. Education and awareness are still the keys to progress.

[expatriot]

18. I am a Yankee through and through but all my ancestors fought for the Rebs

On my dad's side (the hillbilly side), all of my ancestoral cousins fought barefoot with their muzzle-loaders for Arkansas and there is a branch that were Floridians who fought in the marsh cavalry... my mom side were mostly Virginian aristocrats who led charges against the lead of the industrial revolution on horseback. There is a branch that were Maryland Confederates.

[Cambist]

19. I Am Also A

Proud Liberal Democrat Southerner. :o)

[Evil_Dewers]

21. Southerners is not a dirty word...

<insert tongue-in-cheek>

Anymore than "libruls" is not a dirty word. Southerners get a bad rap because too many of 'em have thirty year old pickups with gun racks and Confederate flag bumper stickers. They also have couches on their front porch and marry they (sic) sisters.

</remove tongue-from-cheek>

[SouthernDaisy]

23. not all of us, sweetpea

the south is changing and thank god it is. i cannot help the fact that i was born there. my brainwashing did not take i suppose 'cause i'm as liberal as they come.

please stop judging all of us.

the one nice thing about the south is that we do tend to be polite........so, get off our f'n back! :)

[Rowdyboy]

24. Personally, driving around Jackson....

I see WAY more Lexus's and SUV's than pick-ups. My partner has a 25 year old toyota pick-up which he treasure (but rarely drives). Sorry, no gun racks or confederate flags.

People should explore the south in person before making broad generalizations. Its 2003, not 1963, or even 1973. SouthernDaisy is right-it really is a new day.

[enki23]

28. sure. no gun racks or confederate flags here in baton rouge

except for confederate flags in two of the neighboring building's windows, the bush cheney sign still tacked on just behind where that truck transmission still sits, the pickup always parked there (with gun racks)...

...and the other neighbors with the confederate flag on the front of their truck (where the other license plates go in less backward states,) and the blue-and-gold confederate flags flown at football games, and bill o'reilly's column in the university's student newspaper, and old folks who treat you all "southern hospitality" nice and before you know it they're telling you about how the "niggers" are fucking everything up, the rednecks in the pickup driving down my street yesterday honking and yelling racial epithets at a young black couple with the temerity to ride their bikes on the opposite side of the street...

nothing to see here, really. it's just "southern culture" and "heritage."

[newyawker99]

29. Hi southernDaisy!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. It's what I've been saying.

They're coming from the north. Imagine the worst of the N.E. mixing with the good ole' boy network in the south. Not a pretty sight.

[dbt]

27. Let them do their little studies and say what they will

Cue the old joke: Have you lived in the South all your life? No, only up til now. Anyone who ever figures out the South, please explain it to me. I'll be listening to Johnny Cash's version of "Southern Accents" and chuckling over the fact that "Dixie" was written by a Yankee.

:smoke:
dbt

[blackcat77]

30. I'm a Hoosier!

We're a breed apart... :)

[tex46]

32. Off the top of my head

Greatness to come from the South:

Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Janis Joplin, Willie Nelson, Friday Night football, Molly Ivins, Ann Richards, Martin Luther King Jr., King of the Hill, Austin, TX, Tom Petty, Jim Hightower, Bull Durham, 30 year old pickup trucks...


Sure we've got our cross-section of assholes here too, but why focus on the negative?