Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.
-
Upload
homer-dorsey -
Category
Documents
-
view
219 -
download
0
Transcript of Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.
![Page 1: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Dixie Risen?
A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind
![Page 3: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Moving from North Carolina to Kansas revealed my unexplored Southerness
This was not good. Midwesterners had negative feelings about the South, but they liked to hear me say “y’all”
LSU seemed to be the place to explore this, way behind the Magnolia Curtain
Pete Shortridge had conducted a national survey about the Mid-West, I aped that survey with one about the Deep South at LSU
Peter Applebome’s 1996 book, Dixie Rising…spurred the survey and subsequent number crunching at UNCW
![Page 4: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
![Page 5: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
A nation-wide captive audience of freshmen Geography students were shamelessly used
John Shelton Reed, Professor of Sociology at UNC, inveterate South watcher, egged me on
Fred Kniffen, Cultural Geography at LSU, ditto
Colleagues, friends or professors in 37 states who had never heard of me, graciously took class time from their students to answer the survey questions and draw the Deep South on a map
![Page 6: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
![Page 7: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
![Page 8: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Aided and abetted by Harry Smith, UNCW Mathematics, who wrote code so I could analyze the graphic part of the survey, I scanned a sample of the thousands received
![Page 9: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
![Page 10: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
The idea was to make sample composites of the perceived location of the Deep South from other regions
The intriguing thing about Pete’s work was that the Midwest moved, depending on who drew it.
The location of the Deep South was not as hard to pin down as the Midwest had been for Pete, although some students included Southern California and Arizona!
![Page 11: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Two of Pete’s maps
![Page 12: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Nearly universal confusion reigned between the South and the Deep South
The South is Dixie
The Deep South IS the domain of kudzu, cotton, Bubbas, Baptists, and bugs, and is a sub-region of Dixie
The survey respondents perceived the South and the Deep South (basically undifferentiated) as the domain of racists, heat and humidity, obesity, incest, willful ignorance, the radical right, and bugs
![Page 13: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
![Page 14: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
South
Deep South
![Page 15: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Dixie, Wiki
![Page 16: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
![Page 17: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
![Page 18: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
![Page 19: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
![Page 20: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
![Page 21: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Not the best idea I ever had
My image of the South had been mostly positive before moving to Kansas
(Glib photo montage)
![Page 22: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Friendliness
![Page 23: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
![Page 24: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Fashion
![Page 25: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
![Page 26: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Food
![Page 27: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
![Page 28: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
![Page 29: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
World’s largest frying pan, Rose Hill, NC
![Page 30: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Fishing
![Page 31: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Agriculture
![Page 32: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Religion
![Page 33: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
![Page 34: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Lost Cause
![Page 35: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
![Page 36: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Music
![Page 37: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Wilber Zelinsky, John Shelton Reed, and other South watchers had explored the South using digital phone books.
I aped that too
![Page 38: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
![Page 39: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
![Page 40: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
![Page 41: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
There’s a lot of Dixie and a lot of Bubba in Texas, but is it the Deep South?
![Page 42: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
![Page 43: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
Back to the survey
The responses were put into categories:
Nationally, the survey showed…
![Page 44: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
![Page 45: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
Alarmingly, many of the respondents listed negative characteristics
The number one Deep Southern negative characteristic was racism
![Page 46: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
1940s, Tarboro, NC
![Page 47: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
1950s
![Page 48: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
1990s, Knoxville, TN
![Page 49: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/49.jpg)
1991, Charleston, SC
![Page 50: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/50.jpg)
1993, Greensboro, NC
![Page 51: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/51.jpg)
1993, Wilmington, NC
![Page 52: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/52.jpg)
1993, Wilmington, NC
![Page 53: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/53.jpg)
![Page 54: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/54.jpg)
Back to the survey
Although, heat, humidity, bugs appeared nearly as often.
I toyed with names for the article from the responses:
![Page 55: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/55.jpg)
Bubba, Baptists, Bugs, and Bass
Rednecks, White Trash, and Blue Laws
Gump, Grits, and Guns
Hogs, Humidity, Hospitality, and Jesse Helms
There were also a lot of references to ignorance and in-breeding
![Page 56: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/56.jpg)
Poverty, obesity, mosquitoes, cock roaches, pot holes, road kill, okra, and chitlins were also mentioned.
Very few remarked on Applebome’s notion that the South was leading the nation politically, spiritually or economically.
![Page 57: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/57.jpg)
A sample of comments:
The South is backwards, a lot of crazy Republicans and very religious people.
It’s hot and the people are very slow,
physically and mentally.
Not much high culture or value of education.
![Page 58: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/58.jpg)
Narrow mindedness and refusal to accept change.
All that kindness of strangers crap, lots of rebellious bastards still resentful that they lost the Civil War.
Deliverance: My conceptions of the South come mostly from the media. There’s no way in hell I would ever go there.
![Page 59: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/59.jpg)
KEEP PADDLING,
I HEAR BANJOES!
![Page 60: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/60.jpg)
![Page 61: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/61.jpg)
Finally, from Montana:
I lived in Tennessee and Kentucky, so I know. But when the South is brought up, most people think it’s full of rednecks and racists. One asked me if we had cars there, assuming that I rode a horse or tractor to school. They also think people date their relatives. My personal thought is that it’s very scenic and beautiful.
![Page 62: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/62.jpg)
Results and Conclusion:Nothing conclusive
However, perceptions of the South, Deep or extended, are strong. Positive within the region, and usually negative from outside.
And, the South is most interesting to Southerners.
We’re fascinated with us!
![Page 63: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/63.jpg)
I forgot to mention Yankees!
![Page 64: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/64.jpg)
![Page 65: Dixie Risen? A Look Back at the South in the Modern American Mind.](https://reader036.fdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062313/56649cf65503460f949c4ffa/html5/thumbnails/65.jpg)