Transplants: How is life for you in the South?

[triadcat]

No offense, but I get the feeling you don't get out much. You are arguing in the very singleminded way you are saying persists "here". That or you aren't enjoying Durham much and are bitter, probably good that you do return home. Northerners don't call themselves northerners because of very obvious reasons, the same with "Southerners" or any other directional group. Bostonians don't associate or lump themselves together with New Yorkers, upstate NY'ers with the city, NJ with NY, or Providence with Boston, Mainers with almost anyone else, and on and on because people have regional loyalties and awarenesses.

No different in the "south", or anywhere else where human beings reside. Southern GA, for example, has many who do not associate with the ALT area, NC and SC do not like being confused with each other, and have many in-state distinctions as well, Alabama with Mississippi, etc. etc. etc. Many Texans lump the eastern southern states in with yankees. If there is a directional mentality in this country today, it is more Eastern vs. Western, but is still mostly a reaction of the uninformed - people tend to lump others they are not familiar with together in a way similar to how you have. You see the Confederate flag on a lot of bumpers? That would be hard to believe, it is very rare, about as rare as being in the Mafia if you are Italian.

[JDC]

You see the Confederate flag on a lot of bumpers? That would be hard to believe, it is very rare, about as rare as being in the Mafia if you are Italian.

[Pillsbury]

^ Yeah, the bumper stickers are there, though mostly done by young men who want to be rebellious. A friend of mine from New York said that in upstate NY some people had Confederate flags on their trucks, which I always thought was funny.

No different in the "south", or anywhere else where human beings reside. Southern GA, for example, has many who do not associate with the ALT area, NC and SC do not like being confused with each other, and have many in-state distinctions as well, Alabama with Mississippi, etc. etc. etc. Many Texans lump the eastern southern states in with yankees. If there is a directional mentality in this country today, it is more Eastern vs. Western, but is still mostly a reaction of the uninformed - people tend to lump others they are not familiar with together in a way similar to how you have. You see the Confederate flag on a lot of bumpers? That would be hard to believe, it is very rare, about as rare as being in the Mafia if you are Italian.

[nowensone]

^ You bring up an interesting point, it is often other regions lumping "southerners" together in this blanket term, though to be fair, I've heard "southerners" do it as well regarding northerners. This lumping has obvious roots in the division present in the civil war, and now that the country spans the continent uninterrupted, other places have been left out of this now mostly "eastern" rivalry or whatever you want to call it. And that would normally be a segue into my in-jest comment that "can't the original 13 colonies all just get along and make fun of all you other new-comers", but that would just kill the sentiment of all my own arguments.

[davidzLA]

Most people in the South probably identify with one another because of the shared identity. If you're from the South you're branded----no one in California or New York really cares whether you're from NC or GA or Virginia---you're Southern to them. But within the South, there are a lot of distinctions.