Response to Southern Beauty: Alexis Noel

It is true that the south is becoming more and more industrialized and city-like. In North Carolina, highways are popping up all over, trees are being mowed down for apartment complexes and old schools and brick building are being demolished for new mall outlets. What is happening to our southern history and beauty with all this new development?

Take for example Durham, North Carolina. Durham is home to many things, such as Duke University, Research Triangle Park, Bull Durham (the movie) and many other things [1]. However, if you were to take a walk down downtown, you would find yourself surrounded by tall, brick tobacco factories (long shut down), an art school and cute little motif shops, all surrounded by lush greenery from Duke forest. That is what I consider southern beauty: Durham is a place. Durham has history (many civil rights monuments around town). It contains a people proud to live in Durham. It has local artists, college students and small, individually owned shops. Duke gardens, well known across the state, is home to acres of beautiful flowers and decorative scenery.
The sad part about Durham is that it is slowly being consumed by the need for consumers. The tobacco factories are being demolished for a new outlet mall. New Targets, Walmarts and TJ Maxx's are being put up as I speak.
While "Gone With the Wind" images may be long gone, a new southern beauty is being shown through cities rich with history. Let's hope we can still maintain that history without the world being overrun with consumerism.

Southern beauty: Is it even there anymore?

I am from India, lived there all my life and now am here in a Southern state studying in a southern school amidst people who have so much more idea about the southern culture than I do. Everybody has a different perception of the South, even people based in different regions of the same country. I myself gained all the information or may I call it my understanding of the south from the movies that I watched, from the music I heard and the news that I watched on my television back home. I remember sitting at home watching movies like Gone With the Wind and thinking if that's how beautiful that place really is. I got to see Georgia from that perspective of a movie. But then I came over here and living here in the middle of the city I was disappointed. Disappointed at how my thoughts and all my dreams were overshadowed with Atlanta's skyline. Where are those beautiful houses with the lush green lawns in the front. Where are the beautiful crystal clear streams flowing on the side of the roads? Years of movies such as O Brother Where Art Thou, Forrest Gump and Green Mile were being questioned by my mind. If really there was the southern beauty, where is it now? Some of my fellow peers here, lucky enough to have been living here have talked about how they have still encountered the true "southern beauty". But how much of that is in areas that you would want to live today? Would it even be possible to live in a beautiful house in the suburbs at the cost of you not being able to get a job? I feel that the whole beauty of the south has been crushed by the industrialization. The south has truly progressed but i must say at a loss of it's known identity for beauty.

I grew up in Marietta Georgia which is the site of a few Civil War battles. We have a state park just outside “downtown” Marietta called the Kennesaw Battlefields. There are a couple historic streets in Marietta that have existed since the 1800s. Whitlock road is probably the main street. It’s a busy street now but they refuse to expand it beyond 2 lanes because of the history that surrounds it. As you drive down Whitlock you are surrounded by homes that were built in the 1800s. One of the most famous is a large house that was once a civil war hospital. The architecture of these buildings is both astonishing and beautiful.

I agree that the overarching “redneck” perception of the south is a negative one and it really overshadows that old south beauty that still exists within certain parts of the world. I’m not sure if all the homes off of West Paces Ferry were built in the civil war era or if they were built afterwards to model that but these homes are excellent examples of the Tara-esque architecture.

Response: Southern Depictions

To be completely honest, growing up in Florida, and one of the major cities in Florida, I can't exactly claim to have grown up in the South, culturally, at any rate. But having owned property on the Suwanee River in a county with less than 13,000 people for the last fifteen years or so, I suppose I can claim a bit to that.

To start off with, I've found that a good number of rednecks don't laugh hardest at redneck jokes because of how untrue they are, but because they are thinking about someone they know who's done something like that, or would in that particular situation. A good portion of those jokes aren't made up, just to state. At least, not the iconic 'You might be a redneck if...' jokes.

I will agree, however, that for the most part the South is overall depicted as a redneck/hillbilly society. The movie Deliverance plays a huge role in how people view backwoods parts of the United States, but the South in particular. Nowadays, you'd be hard pressed to find an area of the United States that was a backwards as the area in Deliverance that you could get away with the things they did, but the stigma still holds. Other than that, with my mom being from Texas and my dad from Alabama, I was taught growing up to be polite and civil with everyone, and for the most part every Southern I have met has been brought up the same way.

Southern Beauty

If you haven’t noticed so far this semester, most people relate southern identity to being ignorant rednecks. Don’t get me wrong; rednecks laugh the hardest at redneck jokes. But I wish more people saw the beauty, hospitality, and charm that the South and southern culture have to offer. I’ve always been curious about how people truly saw southern culture from the outside. Considering how and where you were raised, what were you taught about the South and southern culture? Did you make your own observations and opinions, did media persuade you to believe certain stereotypes, or did your family interpret it for you?

I’ve lived in the middle of nowhere in the South my whole life and have seen first hand the glamour it presents. I’ll admit I’m kind of stuck in a Gone With the Wind fairytale land that I wish the South really was. I am fascinated with big, beautiful plantation homes, farmlands, barns, etc. Have you seen communities or homes that are Gone With the Wind Tara-esque and weren’t destroyed by the Civil War? Have you seen buildings, homes, etc. that try to bring back that southern plantation feel and design, and why do you think the designers chose to make it that way?

I found this website for Tara- A Country Inn in Pennsylvania. I thought it was strange but also interesting that there is such an extravagant “country inn” mirroring the Tara Plantation with “an embodiment of the Old South” located in the North. If you look around the site, they show their different room styles available, each cleverly named after something very southern or from Gone With the Wind.

Response to Food Blog: Alexis Noel

Food! What a wonderful, delicious topic that is! If the south knows one thing, it's definitely food. I live on the edge of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, right in-between the college town of UNC and the true country living of Chatham County. Right in that area can be found some wonderful, true southern restaurants.

For example, if you were to visit the campus of UNC, you could stop by a little place called 'Breadmans'. I have been going to this restaurant since I could first walk. As soon as you step into this restaurant, you are bombarded with UNC memorabilia, UNC flags, UNC everything. College students seat you to a table and you glance at a menu where you can order breakfast for dinner: fried eggs, hash browns, heaps of grits. However, I prefer to order my favorite steak sandwich with coleslaw on the side.

A few miles away from the campus, in the true 'farmville' of North Carolina, you can find a little shack called 'Allen and Son Barbecue'. Introduced on Food Network a few years ago, it still holds as one of the best barbecue joints in the entire state. You drive a few miles past some fields, country houses (and my home) and right on the side of the road sits this goldmine for barbecue lovers. You enter the shack and sit down at a table covered in a plastic UNC tablecloth. The waitress hands you a menu, which basically says "are you having barbecue, or are you having barbecue?" You order barbecue with a sweet tea, and in a few moments she hands you a steaming plate of barbecue on two buns. Absolutely delicious!

Southern Food

Like almost everything else that is American, southern food is definitely a mix of many other cultures. It’s really amazing to think that all of these different countries came together here in the South to blend their cultures to make our own unique culture. I feel that food really defines southern culture. Growing up in the South, you start to realize that everything revolves around food. And Akshay’s article was spot on describing what Southerners’ favorite foods are.

To show the importance of food in the South, or how important it is to my community, I’d like to introduce you all to a little thing called the Big Pig Jig. This BBQ festival in Vienna, Georgia, is one of the top 10 world’s best BBQ contests, not to mention one of the biggest parties in southern Georgia. If you ever get brave enough to travel this far south, I would suggest going and trying as many different kinds of pork as you can.

Also, if you’re interested in having some real southern food here in Atlanta, I suggest going to Mary Mac’s and Williamson Brothers BBQ. I’m sure some of you have heard about or been to one of these restaurants, but, if you haven’t, you should really try it out. Mary Mac’s has every southern vegetable you can think of. It reminds me of Sunday dinners that my grandma cooks back home. (And, yes, dinner is lunch. Supper is what you eat at night.) Williamson Brothers has some of the best BBQ I’ve ever eaten, and, trust me, i know good BBQ.

Southern Food

I completely agree, southern cuisine is a huge mixture of a number of different cultures and not traceable to any single culture. As I was reading this article, I noticed that a lot of southern cooking wasn't based so much on the what foods each culture used in their cooking, but how they cooked whatever type of food they could find. Multiple cultures, such as French, Indian, African, and Spanish, all cooked the same types of food in different manners, due to a lack of variety in ingredients. And depending on where you were in the South, the ratio of the cultures in that area could drastically change the style in which the same foods were cooked. I had always known that this was true to some extent, but I found it interesting to what extend these different cultural ratios could actually play a role in the style of food.

Response to History of Southern Foods

The interesting thing about American food lies in the fact that there are very few things are actually American in origin. Whether it be southern food or just food in general very few things are truely American in nature. This is because American from the beginning was a "melting pot" of cultures that joined together to create America. So where "southern cooking" comes into play is in the way the food is prepared. Sure none of the food was invented here in the south but we changed the process of preparing the food. Thats where the southern flare comes into play and thats what makes soutern food what it is in my opinion.

History of southern foods

I am a big fan of Southern food. I mean who can refuse a good barbecue place. In fact one of the first things i did on reaching Georgia Tech was go to the 'Ribs and Blues' restaurant at Tech Square.
Because of this interest in southern food, i always wondered about the history, about how it came into existence, was it actually started here or was it a mix of all the different recipes of the different cultural people who lived here. That's when i read this article about southern food and it's origins.
It contains not only the origins but also gives out some good recipes.
I wanted to share this to get an idea on how even "southern food" like southern culture is not actually southern but a mix of all other cultures.

Response to The Understudy

Being born and raised in the Deep South, this short story by David Sedaris came as no surprise to me. Although I didn’t live in a “big” city like Raleigh, my hometown has women just like the babysitters depicted in the story. He described the stereotypes of “poor white trash” and “grateful old black woman” very well. My family had two black maids when I was growing up. And I didn’t know many families that didn’t. Just to clarify, they were not slaves and no slavery was involved. It was their jobs to clean houses, keep children, etc. Sedaris’ illustration of the black babysitters was very close to true. I was raised by black women just like them.

As for the poor white trash, Sedaris couldn’t have given a more perfect representation. Not only were women like Mrs. Peacock around during his childhood, but also I unfortunately have to go home to a town full of them every couple of weekends. They behave, live, dress, and treat other people just like Mrs. Peacock did in the story. Spitting image pretty much. And the southern accents used are more than spot on. The only difference is, where I live, that accent is shared by poor white trash, middle class, blacks, everyone. I really enjoyed the short story. It’s always nice to read about something you can kind of relate to.

A Bit of Sanity?

As Akshay said, the story hit on every single stereotype society has a white trash and it created a perfect image of what that would be like. For me though, the most interesting part of the short story came when they went to Mrs. Peacock’s house. Despite all the terrible things Mrs. Peacock made the children do and despite how uncivilized she seemed, her half of the house was somewhat humane. When the narrator was describing the back yard and garden it actually sounded like something that was relatively civilized and sane. That was the biggest surprise for me was that after all Mrs. Peacock did and after all the horrific things she did to the children, we got to see that she has a somewhat compassionate side.

The narrator also spoke briefly on the baby dolls that Mrs. Peacock had all over her room. Again, I feel like this is an attempt by the author to make her seem a little less cruel but at the same time she is depicted as insane due to the volume of dolls. The narrator also notes that Mrs. Peacock calls the “doll babies” which I suspect was an attempt by the author to bring her back down to her white trash level before she started torturing the children again. Overall the visit to Mrs. Peacock’s house was extremely interesting for me, I was a short break from her shell, eventually however, it lead back into the same old lazy poor white trash ways.

Response to "The Understudy by David Sedaris" - Akshay Saxena

Reading this short story I really marveled on how the writer almost summed up all the stereotypes I've heard of. In the story, the writer pointed out the situation of black folk during the previous century, where they had nothing of their own and all they did was work for the white folks.For instance start with the first babysitter they got, Mrs. Byrd. She almost fainted with joy over the fact that if she worked there, she would be getting stuff that was her own. As if to make this point clearer the writer introduced their next babysitter, Mrs. Robbins, who would be down on her knees and thanking god for giving her "these wonderful white people and all they have given me this fine weekend". The writer also mentioned how both these babysitters were polite and humble all the time and served the children like their own.

But now in the picture comes Mrs. Peacock. The almost perfect, in fact, the perfect example of what can only be defined as "white trash". A woman (NOT a lady) who would not be taking showers, would lie in bed all day, would make other people work for her and would have no respect for the person she's working under. To add to that she is also shown to be always on the phone with people she has all different kinds of businesses with. The writer has so subtly used a child's explanation of this and how it is so difficult for them to even believe that a person like this could be a legitimate female.

He also talked about the house Mrs. Peacock lived in, describing the area to be trashy and filled with small houses. Responding to the question put up by Alexis in her blog, I would say i surely feel that there are many people like Mrs. Peacock still but that number has decreased as the people have started becoming literate now. I feel this image may still be persisting in parts where the people are still living in poverty and minimal education.

The most outrageous part of the whole story was how easily she was able to exploit the children into doing her own work. Also was the fact on how easily their mother did not believe them but believed the babysitter instead. In the writer said how their mother closed the door on their face and started conversing with the babysitter. I felt that this was new to the children, as they must have never seen that happen before with any other black babysitter. I think here also the writer kind of gave a hint of how discrimination over color was prevalent over that time.

Contemporary Southern Writers: Alexis Noel

"David Sedaris is a playwright and a regular commentator for National Public Radio. He is also the author of the bestselling Barrel Fever, Naked, Holidays on Ice, and Me Talk Pretty One Day." [1] Sedaris, a brilliant, humorous writer straight from the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, provides an interesting introspective into southern life through short stories of his life experiences. With his vivid use of imagery, Sedaris paints a picture of "how the south really was, and how it still is".

The best example of southern living and stereotypes can be seen through his short story called "The Understudy" in his book When You Are Engulfed In Flames. Witty and realistic, the story takes place during the childhood of Sedaris, where he relates his experience about a babysitter his parents hired for the week while they were out of town. What could be more transparent than a description by a kid? The hired woman is a stereotypical "trailer trash" southerner, with a thick accent and a desire to make children suffer. What kinds of stereotypes are presented in this short story and what makes the story so outrageous? Do you feel as though you could find this woman in the south today?

"The Understudy":

Religion and Politics - Akshay Saxena

Looking up at all the maps uploaded by my friends here, I think it is already very clear that Religion and Politics have a strong co-relation. They say that most of the religious people go towards being Conservative while the no -religious people tend to be Democratic and I totally agree with it now. But that's after i looked over the surveys myself. I mean however the maps may be like, the co-relation could have just been coincidental.
I researched up a lot of surveys given online which took the opinion of different voting citizens of America. The one I felt the best one was by "Gallup". It took a survey of over 30,000 people and came up with the fact that America's religious intensity still continues to be the major predictor of party identification. According to the survey,Republicans outnumbered the Democrats by 12 percent among Americans who are classified as highly religious, while Democrats outnumber Republicans by 30 percent among those who are religious.
I have also attached the survey with this post for you all to see. It talks not only about the religious voting people but also breaks it down according to the different races.

Another Response to Religion and Politics: Alexis Noel

If you were to think back to the "Gone with the Wind" era of the South and of the people living in it, what political affiliation would you think to tag on them? My first inclination was to see them as conservative, but why? What makes them seem to have more conservative ideology rather than a democratic mindset? I feel as though it all boils down to religion.

Stereotypically, the more religious you are (more Christian), the more likely you are to be a Republican. This may have sprouted from the environment, where if you lived on a large plantation in the south (where your neighbors were miles away from you), you were more likely to accept the ideologies of your mother and father rather than gathering information from others and formulating your own decision. However, if you were to live in a large, bustling city (such as up north), more ideas would be circulating and people would be more likely to think for themselves and break away from the traditional family ideals. Christian southerners may have thought that only the word of God should be directing them in life, rather than the Government. If a law is to be passed, they will fight their way to keep it from happening (the desire to keep things the same).

In an article comparing religion and politics, Neal Gabler comments on religious conservatives: "The fundamentalist political fanatics will always be more zealous than mainstream conservatives or liberals. They will always be louder, more adamant, more aggrieved, more threatening, more willing to do anything to win. Losing is inconceivable. For them, every battle is a crusade -- or a jihad -- a matter of good and evil." [1] In a way, religion puts the fire behind their beliefs. How could you not be passionate when you believe so deeply in an ideology?

However, times are changing. Not all Republicans are religious, and not all Democrats are unaffiliated. I, for example, believe in many of the conservative viewpoints but am not religious. Due to the explosion of connectivity in every day life (cell phones, internet, television etc.), people are more likely to form their own viewpoints from their own observations than follow old family ideologies.

Religion and Politics

The maps and the survey do give quite an interesting perspective on the potential voting trends, and while I wouldn't argue that they are the deciding factor for someone's vote to be for a conservative or liberal candidate, I believe it does play a major role. With almost three quarters of the population of the United States claiming to be Christian of some denomination, it stands that political view point, if it has any relation with religion, has to be determined by specific denomination and how religious the person is. Including the maps shown by the original poster, this denominational view found here, shows that the Southern Baptist church, which tends to be a more conservative denomination. On the other hand, Catholicism, which as been markedly liberal since Vatican II, and Methodism, which has been a more moderate to liberal denomination for many years as well. This separation, including the maps showing how important religion is to different regions and the voting trends throughout the states, shows that religion does play a role in the way people view the world and this in turn will affect the way they vote, as voting in a democratic nation is our only way of directly influencing how the higher roles of government can shape the world in ways that we prefer.

Response to Religion and Politics

I believe that religion and politics are very related. More religious areas tend to vote more conservative because the core ideas of this political view tie into religious beliefs. For example, it is widely known that conservatives are against gay marriage and abortion. Why? Because those who are very religious believe that marriage is between a man and a woman only. And no one has the right to murder a human being, especially when human life begins at conception.

"The United States has a long tradition of separating church from state, yet a powerful inclination to mix religion and politics." We all know that the government tries to keep religion and politics separate. But, as we've seen throughout our nation's history, the actuality of keeping them separate is irrepressible. We still use God's name on our money, in our pledge, etc. We still use religious institutions to back up the morality of our political views, whether you're conservative or liberal. No matter what we do or say, religion still has a significant effect on politics.

I found a site that breaks down the differences between conservative and liberal and their views on different political issues. Under the topic of religion, it says that conservatives believe government should not interfere with religion. Liberals think religion should not interfere with government. Its obvious that no one wants religion and politics to be related. But, lets face it; they always have been and always will be.

Religion and politics, still bedfellows?

I was going to right about conservative views in the south when I stumbled upon an interesting article. Its relatively short but the authors took a survey to find out which ares of the United States were the most religious. They found that "the map reinforces some of the usual stereotypes about the religiosity of the Deep South and the lack of religiosity in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest." Based on the survey it does seem like the southern states are far more religious than those in the north/west. The interesting thing that the article points out this map and the presidential election map from the 2008 election share alot in common.

Its fairly obvious that the darker colored areas are those that seemed to vote Republican while the less religious northern states voted Democrat. The last line of the article is "Religion and politics, still bedfellows." which implies that the two go hand and hand. This means that more religious areas tend to vote Conservative and the less religious areas are Liberals.

Although there is a high correlation between the religion and political vote, I would argue that these two are not related. I can't wrap my head around how being more religious would cause a region to vote one way or the other. My belief is that the similarity is more of a coincidence. The south typically and especially in the 2008 election votes more Republican, not because of their religion but because of their political views. Any thoughts?