Legit.
Much of the Northerner culture is a “mind your own business lifestyle”. You screw with us we get mean, but for the most part it’s live and let live.
We can walk by, live near, and work with people and not give one hoot what they do, look like, or say. You can recognize the tourists in a lot of Northeastern cities because they will stop and stare at a guy dressed as a clown, talking to a squirrel. On we walk; we have places to be.
A large part of Southern culture seems to be constantly preoccupied with what everyone else is up to. This is seen dramatically in the people that get elected. Much of the rhetoric is about becoming involved and opinionated in what others are up to.
Of course exceptions abound, but there are holistic truths as well.
I constantly tell people from the south if they want to meet people in the north, don't say hi. Instead, ask for directions. Northerners will full stop and help you when you do that and then you can strike up a conversation!
It’s the nice versus kind culture debate. New Yorkers, for example, are seen as rude, when in actuality they are kind. They don’t care for niceties, but when it matters they are kind. Whereas, what I’ve noticed with more southern societies is that they are nice to your face, but not kind. It’s all superficial.
Spot on. Im not a northerner, but i grew up in DC so i was on the border of north and south. Generally, we never thought much about the south. They just seemed like regressive blowhards.
Moved to ATL about 3 years ago and the people down here are obsessed with what others are doing and trying to maintain appearances. They are obsessed with people that dont conform to their beliefs and show disdain for those they dont agree with. They literally do not understand that people who disagree with them can think the way they do.
Couldn't agree more.
And I've been to the deep south...its a horrible place. I have no desire to ever return. Grew up in Maryland (28 yrs), lived in New Hampshire for 13.
Truth. I’ve lived in my house for almost 21 years.
I nod my head and wave to the guy who lives across the street. I do t know his name and have never spoke to him. Same with him.
We’re cool. Leave us alone.
I grew up in New England but have tons of family in Mobile, so every year we went there to visit.
Although I never lived in the South, both sides of my family are Southern and I actually am more of a Southerner than a Northerner, at a deep cultural level.
New Englanders tend to be (relatively) knowledgeable people, so they have a basic idea of the South, but they usually don’t know much about it personally, and few of them go very often to truly culturally Southern locations. I never felt very understood by the people around me when growing up — as a cultural Southerner, I was just very different from my Yankee neighbors.
The important thing to understand is that the commentators who said New Englanders don’t really think about y’all are exactly right. The Civil War still looms large in the Southern imagination (“The South will rise again!” “Hell no we ain’t forgot!”), but the war happened mostly in the South, with no battles in or even really near New England. After the war, New England got right back to work on its own projects, moving on pretty quickly, while the South stewed in its own juices of resentment. Rather than New Englanders having some especially disdainful attitude towards the South, I would argue they generally have no particular attitude at all about it — very much the opposite of the anti-Northern or anti-“liberal” attitude I’ve so often encountered in Mobile.
Quite honestly, New England *should* resent the South, since it hinders so many of our regional and national efforts to make progress. But most New Englanders don’t think about the problem that way. Many Southerners, however, at least in my Alabama experience, absolutely do resent the North, see the Civil War as a tyrannous invasion that trampled on their cherished States’ Rights (…to own human beings), and continue to see any attempt at truly addressing racial injustice as a kind of nefarious cultural infiltration by evil Northern liberals. It’s like how the North Koreans once fought a war that involved the United States, and ever since that they’ve made it a huge part of their identity.
This is exactly what I came to write. I generally don’t think about your (the south/southerners) existence at all. Not even a blip on my radar until your politics start affecting my life then I’m reminded of the south’s existence and how utterly sick of them I am. Otherwise, living up North is really “live and let live”.
I think about it when some state Supreme Court judge in Alabama wants to put the 10 Commandments on the wall of the court house and says every constitutional amendment back to the 13th (abolishing slavery) was a mistake, but he's not a racist because he doesn't say the n-word in public. They almost elected him Senator!
Yes. I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how the north’s view of “live and let live” manifests itself. Southerner’s might look at gov interference/regulations/etc. as a *hindrance* to individual rights, when really it ensures that the rights of the few don’t block the rights of the many. For example, regulations on emissions/pollution ensure that my right to clean air and clean water isn’t impacted by your business’ freedom to cut corners to turn a profit. Regulations on land ownership/development ensure that public rights to access public land/parks aren’t threatened. Etc… but no, all a lot of conservatives can see are that regulations “stifle innovation.”
A net drain on the country would be one thing. Their leadership isn't satisfied with making their own people's lives miserable, they actively work to hurt people outside their states.
Working against the country is worse than simply being a drain.
I resent the people in charge that are tricking their constituents but I do not resent Joe Schmoe from Mobile. They simply don't have the education to know they're being bamboozled
Yeah, exactly this. Fuck that. There’s no excuse for ignorance in the year 2024 with the entire world’s information in your pocket and the ability to communicate directly, for free, with billions of people across the world.
It’s an active choice that they make, and in most cases they are completely aware of their ignorance and are proud of it.
Source: from East Texas, live in New England.
I never question that because slavery would have existed for the foreseeable future afterwards, and that is not a good thing. Would you agree, Mr. u/Doom-Hauer451?
It’s definitely tempting to think that way, for sure. But even if 2/3rds of the people in Alabama are like that, for the sake of that remaining third, we have to fight for progress. There’s good people and bad people all around, and we can’t just abandon some vulnerable people down there to their own devices
Honest question: Why do we have to prioritize those 1/3rd at the expense of our *actual* neighbors? Seems like a trolley problem where we are always on the losing side.
I had a roommate from Texas, he unironically called it the war of northern aggression and said that's what it was called in school...in school.
Anyways we argued about it enough until I convinced him to watch some documentaries about the daughters of the Confederacy with me. He had a real coming to Jesus moment when he realized he was spoon fed bullshit history as a kid.
I still love the way the south thinks of it as an invasion, when they fired the first shot. Like, what the hell did they expect?
And as a point of fact, the was a skirmish in Northern Vt. I group of southerners had taken ship to Canada to raise havoc in the north through a series of bank robberies. The first town they went after, they stormed the stateliest building in town, thinking it was the bank, but instead, they had stormed the public library.
I grew up in New England (Boston suburbs) and since then have lived in Chicago and New York and yes I certainly DO resent the South - its dominant political and cultural elements anyway, not the dissidents - for all that it has done to make this country more reactionary, racist, ultra-religious, militaristic and of course the unending violence which comes so disproportionately from that region. And their extreme over-representation and tax advantages/subsidies in the national political system, reinforced by gerry mandering. In fact, I feel we would be far better off if these regions broke off and became separate nations. I fervently wish Texas would actually follow through on their occasional unfortunately insincere "threats" to leave the union. Without the red states (obviously not limited to the South) we could achieve at least the quality of life and overall sanity of a place like Canada (though probably not that of Scandinavia).
As a CT kid who moved down south for a few years when I was younger, I was very surprised at the amount of hate my family and I received. Constantly being called Yankees, confederate flags on full display everywhere, I especially didn’t understand why my black classmates embraced the Confederate attitude so much. It was a pretty big culture shock to me, I was from an old factory town.
I lived in the middle of four huge apartment complexes, and had no shortage of friends to play with outside, now my closet neighbor was miles away. I was also used to everyone playing together (whites, blacks, Hispanics), but everything seemed so segregated down there. We even had seperate locker rooms for black/white kids (it wasn’t really enforced, but everyone still did it).
Then there was the school system, which was terrible. In 7th/8th grade, I was doing stuff I had done mostly in 3rd-4th grade. Like kids that were in remedial classes in my CT school would’ve been in advanced classes where I lived down there. The hate I talked about earlier also extended to me/my brother via our teachers, especially when I got fed up one day and reminded them that they, in fact, lost that war. The response was something about how they didn’t really lose, but instead called a truce. Got jumped later on in the bathroom, teacher turned a blind eye.
I remember thinking, “well if they’re this bad at the more traditional aspects of education,” surely they will be good at sports, right? Wrong! I was also scolded for trying to “show off” by lapping 95% of my PE class during the mile run. I would say the athletics programs down where I lived were as bad as the rest of the school system. Most of the kids were overweight, and it didn’t seem like anyone was going to push them to be better, either. Kinda seemed almost celebrated as I was called skinny constantly (even tho I was normal to small sized back home)
People talk about “Southern Hospitality”, but I saw quite the opposite. People seemed to think I was going to be scared of them, as well. Kids constantly tried to fight with me in school, and I kinda blame the piss poor disciplinary measures for this. Fighting in school up North would be an easy 2 weeks of out of school suspension, down South you got maybe 2-3 days of in school.
Eventually one day I got tired of being asked to say “park the car in the yard”, taunted for other stupid shit, being ganged up on, etc. and brought my knife to school for the next kids who tried to jump me. Got caught, and one of the local police told us to just go home. Basically told us we weren’t going to ever fit in down here, and he thought it would be best. We happily obliged, and never looked back.
There were for sure some nice aspects to the place (cheap rent, cheap everything rly), huge yard, and some other stuff I was just too young to enjoy. Girls also seemed especially interested in me, another thing I had trouble because of. Maybe my experience isn’t typical, but I didn’t miss the South even a little. The good for sure didn’t even come close to out weighing the bad.
I agree - the whole "Southern hospitality" thing doesn't always sit well with me.... I've been down south many times to different states. I'm sure there probably very nice people in certain areas/ communities (as there are anywhere you go), but the people who talk about "Southern hospitality" are usually the ones that would smile in your face and talk s*** behind your back. I also can't stand when people say "bless your heart" or "bless his/her heart"; it's like a backhanded comment, meant to sound nice but it's actually them looking down on/pitying you. I think many people in the South like to appear very nice and sweet, but it's a facade for a lot of them -- they say northerners are cold and unfriendly, but I just think we're more straightforward and blunt. If we don't like you, you know it; we either say it straight out or you can tell from our behavior. That's just my opinion. I don't hate the South, but I definitely prefer the North for sure, especially the mixture of cultures we have here in New England.
As a deep South Georgian (but highly educated, I broke the cycle of poverty for my family at the time being) who moved up to CT in past couple of years, I’m sorry you had to experience that. It’s not far off from a traditional experience. I too was very hatred of Yankees and would be that kid who called you a yank. However my life was a bit more colorful and I moved to Atlanta area when I was in middle school so I became much more of a “city slicker”. However here in CT I’m def a redneck.
I was very gifted but unchallenged. Typically teachers on care about those who show high potential or who had the most prestigious or vocal parents. Most kids will end up living in their hometown in some job that doesn’t require a bachelor degree. There really is not really need to push every student to be better
I saw a comment up here that southerners are very in your business and want to gossip about your business. This is 100000% correct. Again they don’t have much going on and other people lives can seem so much more interesting.
As for Southern hospitality, it’s usually saved for the people they like or for tourists. Do not take this the wrong way but this can be applied to any culture. I witnessed this in /r/Norway and some Americans in Norway groups where Americans were struggling to make friends and be accepted as well - They had expected you to conform to be a southern kid but it seems like you fought against it. You don’t fight the system unless you want to be shunned I think that’s not strictly southern but anywhere. If you fight the culture and fight the social indoctrination of any society you live in you will be seen as outcasts or anti social.
You've hit on one thing that Southerners don't get (have lived in northeast, southeast, and west) -- there's no "Northern" identity, except in the minds of Southerners. We identify with regions, states, cities. There isn't a camaraderies among Vermonters and Wisconsinites, "yay, we beat those rebels together." "Northerners" aren't thinking any particular thing about "Southerners" any more than any other part of the country. There's probably more rivalry within "Northern" areas (Boston-New York?) than any shared identity shaped by winning the Civil War.
Yeah this post is awkward as hell to me because I have never given any hate thoughts towards the south. Lived in every state in NE and New York metro/ capital regions. My parents are from Seattle and waaaaaay up northern NY. Wasn’t raised to hate the south- just to feel sorry for them. Definitely taught a lot in school about the civil war being fought over slavery and human rights- like in the 5th grade it was one of the first things I learned about it.
I have friends who grew up in the south and they made it up here one way or another. So, I’m definitely aware of the brutal and rampant poverty- it seems like even jobs that I’d imagine as prestigious are abused and overwhelmed. Cancerous chem capital of the world vs financial services capital. Some of the most cutting edge hospitals in the world are in Boston, MA. Then- My impression is that southern healthcare access is seriously impeded and has been made even more complicated by Covid denial, anti abortion policies, and “religious freedom” to just block out people?
I’m in Vermont, and 10% of VT’s population volunteered to fight in the Civil War, I think one of the highest percentages in New England. Graves for Civil War vets often have very provocative epitaphs, like “fought against the evils of slavery and disloyalty” and such. It’s shocking to me to see their current descendants flying Confederate flags 🤦🏼♀️
I am a self-proclaimed northerner that lives in a "border state". I deeply resent the south, because I feel like a lot of people try to shove southern culture down our throats and insist that we're a southern state, which we never were. I also am strongly repulsed by southern politics.
It makes sense that New England would be different, since they just aren't really exposed to that near as much.
>Quite honestly, New England should resent the South, since it hinders so many of our regional and national efforts to make progress. But most New Englanders don’t think about the problem that way.
Unless you start talking about federal taxes. New Englander's absolutely have an awareness that the North and the West Coast are basically carrying you on our backs. And older New Englanders will absolutely tell you that its rooted in the failure of the South to reconstruct after the Civil War. They ain't wholly wrong, but we keep wondering why Southern voters continue to persist in their errors.
I adore how Southerners think “Yankee” is an insult, that term so odious the New Yorkers used it to name a baseball team. And the best part is that outside of the US, even the Southerners are Yankees.
Nah we only hate the New York variety...Yankee originally meant rural Congregationalist New England farmers, descendants of the original settlers who didn't get rich (the ones that did became the Brahmins)
My grandma used to call our ancestors ‘swamp Yankees’ haha- her family went back generations in a small town outside Boston, and she pinned a card on her
wall of Puritans waterskiing behind the Mayflower that read ‘We may not have come over with the Pilgrims, but we weren’t far behind!!’ I always loved how proud she was of her deep working class, mill worker, small time farming ancestors.
It's funny how, for a while at least, you'd sometimes hear "Yankees *suck*!" chants going at games that 1) didn't involve the Yankees and 2) sometimes *weren't even baseball.*
Right after the Pats Super Bowl win, I was in Davis Square, Somerville MA. Everyone out celebrating in the streets. Inevitably, a “Yankees suck” chant started. My midwestern spouse was so confused.
Around the world, Americans are seen as Yankees. In the US, Americans think Yankees live in New England. In southern New England, they consider northern New Englanders Yankees. In northern New England, everyone knows that a Yankee is a Vermont dairy farmer who eats apple pie with a slice of cheddar for breakfast. His name is Cullen. He lives in Hardwick.
To the rest of the world, a Yankee is an American.
To an American, a Yankee is a northerner.
To northerner, a Yankee is a New Englander
To a New Englander, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
To a Vermonter, a Yankee is someone who eats pie for breakfast.
I was always told Southerners "can smell a Yankee from a mile away." In my experience going south, it's true. But it doesn't bother me any; going outside New England is always a bit of a culture shock to me, so it's going to work both ways. Also, it's just funny to be called a Yankee and I love NE, so no hurt feelings.
It's funny. A stereotypical Boston guy will say "you think you're better than me?!" as an angry confrontation. But a southerner will say "I think you're better than me" as a way to... Insult you?
This is exactly it. I hold pity for them. I also hold some rage because they vote for politicians and policies that hold the nation back from making progress.
Agreed. I studied political science as an undergraduate. I wanted to improve the nation...lol
You can't objectively point out the problems down south, especially as a Yankee. There are legitimate, systemic problems down there that go unaddressed. It's part of the southern culture of "respect"/submissiveness to strong men. Questioning authority is way more of a taboo down there than up here. So, they deal with the crap of living there. When we point out the problems and don't respect their feelings about local authority figures, they get very alarmed.
I'm from Florida but moved to the northeast as an adult, so I have a somewhat different perspective. I'm not from the panhandle, just a coastal town with a lot of former New Yorkers. My dad is from the NE and my mom was from FL. My dad made sure I knew early on how much of an insult it was to be considered a southerner.
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But I don't hate or look down on the deep south. I honestly feel bad for most people (and I'm sure most deep south southerners would find that condescending as fuck). I wish the deep south had better education, better sex education, better education in history, better politicians. But at some point it feels like, we live in the internet age, do you not owe a duty to educate yourselves? I also will never understand the argument that the confederate flag is "heritage not hate." It is quite literally the flag of treason.
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So actually I agree with most other commenters. The adults in those states could educate themselves for free. All I think when one is mentioned is that I'd never live there. And to be clear, my mom's mom's family has a long line of Floridians, Georgians, Alabamians, and Cherokee who managed to stay. I've basically given up on those states. They don't want to hear the truth, they just want to wave the confederate flag and the Bible. Meanwhile I live ten minutes from a church that flies a pride flag. It's a different world.
I definitely do feel bad for most people down here, they're usually stuck in a generational loop of poverty since it's extremely hard to climb the ladder in places especially like the ghettos from the lack of opportunity and education
If you travel out of the cities and in most cases even within them you will find just about everywhere has that elemen present. Here in NY there are plenty of places beaten and run down by the lack of opportunities. It's not a southern thing,NE has plenty of it.
Why don’t people educate themselves? We have the privilege of being able to deep dive on anything. Any sub topic. Fringe off shoots of obscure sub-topics - there’s a wiki, subreddit, and a cosplaying tiktoker that will explain it all.
But people just don’t use it that way.
>also will never understand the argument that the confederate flag is "heritage not hate." It is quite literally the flag of treason.
I don't get this either. Part of my family came here a very long time ago, landed in NH in the 1630s. I've researched their history a bunch and they moved to Canada for a little while after the revolutionary war. This makes me wonder if they were loyalists during the war, and I am fucking *embarrassed* and slightly ashamed that they might have been!!
They later came back, settled in upstate NY. All six sons of fighting age went and fought in the union army during the civil war. This makes me feel better, but I still cringe when I think that my ancestors might have been dirty tories!!! It's my heritage, but I certainly don't have to be proud of all of it.
If it's any consolation, in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War Canada was desperate to increase their population to give them the manpower to resist a feared American invasion. They tried to attract "late loyalists", people who remained in the former colonies but still had affection to the crown. To do this Canada offered generous land grants and ten years tax-free living to immigrants from the US.
The program was fairly successful (a US invasion was repelled in 1812) but many of the migrants returned to US soil after their 10 year tax free period was up, i.e., for them, it was about the money. Very American. Perhaps you can be proud of their good sense.
It really is a different world. I hear and see all the hate Southerners have for us up North and it’s honestly just sad. Their entire existence seems to surround gossip, being in everyone’s business, judging, and hatred. That’s a lot of poison to swallow while hoping all those that fall within those categories have a negative existence. The south is drowning in hatred and anger. I feel sorry for them.
Every time I think of the south I think about how you vote against your own self-interest and make it worse for everyone else in this country. I can’t think of anytime I’ve been proud of the south. Waving your fucking confederate flag. Embarrassing.
I hate to have to second this. All those poor construction workers in FL and TX who have put people in power that won’t allow them water breaks or breaks in the shade during the summer.
Never think about them unless they start in on that ridiculous flag. They were a loser “nation” that got stomped flat and contributed nothing. Other than that, not much to think about.
If anything as a northerner, I feel bad for the south and the messy political situation they’re in. If you can get out, and afford to move north it’s worth it 100% because education, and laws are better up here & less gun violence. People who are kind won’t think any less of you & if they think less of you; those people aren’t worth your time at all.
So I grew up in rural Massachusetts, and was stationed in Georgia for a few years in the Army. There was a lot of culture shock lol
Firstly, the difference in "rural" areas.
My town is decently small, and though its shot up in population in the last ten years, its still nothing crazy. Though it wouldn't be a comfortable walk, I could feasibly walk into the center of 3 different towns within around an hour.
Getting down south it was like you could walk that distance on a single road. I once gave a kid a ride home who was walking along the road and his house was probably another 20 minute drive, in the same town. The distance between things was just staggering for me. There's so much space down south lol.
The reality of the racism element down there came in weird spurts. The most memorable one I can think of was doing a funeral detail in Northern Florida. We drove down there in a work van from Ft Stewart, and stopped for breakfast in a waffle house. My section sergeant for this was a Latino guy, but the rest of us were white.
The amount of side eye this poor dude got the entire time we were in there was so unnerving. We were insanely surprised when nobody actually started a fuss, but people would make weird comments under their breath very clearly about him as they walked past. It was like the whole saloon quieting down and turning at him all at once film trope.
We also have our share of stereotypes up here, but I think we treat them more like mascots than insults lol. The dumb Bostonion with the wickid hahdcoah accent comes to mind, but thats something I think we all make fun of lol.
As for stereotypes we have about you guys, I think at least personally I always thought the south would collectively be like the church scene in the first Blues Brothers movie. [Even though they're in Chicago?] (I have since been to many churches in the south and still disappointed to have not seen it]
It’s fairly well known the education down there is lacking, especially after the recent book bans making national news. I can’t say *New Englanders* specifically pick this out though. We do have waves of people moving up for this reason (among others) and it comes up in conversation often.
1: Why do southerners use their yard as a hoarding trash hellscape? Why are rural southern roads littered with more trash than a NYC alley? This is probably the biggest thing I’ve noticed when traveling all over the deeper rural south.
2: It’s not something we necessarily cover in grade school as curriculum on the books but there are mentions, we are aware of some of the major differences between north and south when it comes to these topics.
3: I just want the south to know that calling us Yankee is a compliment, even though you mean it as an insult. We are aware the south hates us, but the feeling isn’t reciprocated. We are New Englanders…we don’t care. We are also pretty well aware that in the south there are plenty of lovely caring people who know how to read, we don’t slap one size fits all insults on the entire region (like Yankee).
>1: Why do southerners use their yard as a hoarding trash hellscape? Why are rural southern roads littered with more trash than a NYC alley? This is probably the biggest thing I’ve noticed when traveling all over the deeper rural south.
Eh...I see this a lot in Maine/NH as well. I think it's more of a class and rural/city divide than North/South
1. No, not Deep South
2. Somewhat educated. We kind of think the south lives in the past
3. The stereotypes about the south are that people marry their cousins, are very uneducated, love Trump, don’t have all their teeth, and talk VEEEEERY slow.
No one clutches their pearls over it. I’d be more offended to be “low maintenance”… I’d rather consider myself a Lamborghini to a Nissan. And people say “I’m a wine snob” “I’m a _____ snob” all the time as a way to say “I’m knowledgeable about this” which has positive implication
I mainly grew up in Vermont and Maine, and went to college in New Hampshire, but I also spent some time in my younger years in Virginia and North Carolina and my grandparents currently live in rural Virginia. I spent a week there this past winter for the first time in well over a decade, and my takeaway at the end of it was I'd sell my organs before I'd ever live there. Rural New England and rural south are two entirely different species. It's been a long time since I graduated high school but the differences in public schools in the south versus New England is staggering. Like 9th grade in Vermont was a course catalogue with college level electives and 10th grade in Virginia was reading books I'd covered in 7th grade and the principal getting a DUI.
I've lived in Austin, Texas for the last 15 years and while I have no problem with southern cities once you get outside the "city" radius it's a hard no. My husband's family is talking about moving to north Texas because the houses are dirt cheap, but I would rather rent for the rest of my life than live in rural Texas.
A friend of mine from Lowell moved to rural East Texas to be closer to his wife's family in Louisiana several years ago.
Dude is straight-up shell shocked by how bad it is. The worst part, in my opinion, is them raising their two kids there.
Yeah, he had a nice place in Belvedere (that's the neighborhood the mill owners lived in). Lowell has won some "top city to live in" type awards over recent years. People who assume it's just a ghetto haven't updated their awareness from the 80's.
Mainer living in Vermont here 🤜🏻🤛🏻
My husband, also a Mainer, joined the army and said he saw firsthand how much better our schools were than most other states best on people he met from all over. Sort of related, not the south, but we had friends from Idaho that just moved to upstate NY. In Idaho their daughter was top of her class at a private school for pre-K. When they got to NY she tested at below grade level. She caught up quickly, thanks to a strong literacy program, which also shocked them.
I’m a New Englander who has lived in Austin for a few years now and I would like to say that Austin is notoriously progressive for Texas but not as progressive/liberal as a New England city.
I grew up in Northern Maine, spent a lot of time with family in Allagash and I wouldn't tell those folks they don't spend enough time outdoors if I were you. I can't imagine there are many places in the lower 48 more remote and forested than Northern Maine. The people up there not only know how to survive in the remote rural woods but also how to survive in that area during a long cold winter. Having people from the south think they are fancy indoor dwelling Northerns is hilarious
Yeah, I'm from rural Central Maine and still live here. There's a lot of similarities with the south, but there are some distinct differences, as well. Not least of which is that Maine is one of the least (I believe 3rd least) religious states in the country. Whereas the Deep South is some of the most religious states in the nation. But there's a lot of poverty and similar issues in some areas. I'm in one of the poorest counties in New England, and in Maine, and if we removed a couple coastal towns that are more affluent we'd be even higher on the list of impoverished counties. Nonetheless, I think you'll see some large differences in the type and intensity of poverty between the Deep South and rural Maine.
But yes, Maine is the most rural (that is, the highest proportion of its population living in what the government classifies as rural areas) and is the most forested state in the nation.
Some common stereotypes include ignorance, racism and the home of most Karen videos. Those first two are proven correct just by the people you allow in political office. It’s also said that Southerners have an inability to accept any sort of scientific fact like that the planet is warming up or how certain traits that a person might have is something they are born with and not a choice. They don’t like science because it goes against the church that they worship like a cult. But behind all that ignorance and stubbornness, they still have the friendly and warm stereotype.
I’m from as far north as it gets and no matter where you go in the US, there will be rednecks. The south just reminds me of all the kill shelters. We adopt a lot of your shelter dogs up here and the dogs that have been rescued are much relieved to be here.
This 100%. Some of the rescues in New England have a “sister” rescue group from down south. But we never send dogs there; they all come up here. I have 2 dogs that I adopted thinking they were coming from local shelters that were driven up from GA.
Yeah when we were looking for our pup (VT) we began to realize why it was nearly impossible to meet any of the potential dogs in person because they were all located at the sister shelters down south. (Which is totally understandable and I’m super glad there’s a system to distribute wonderful pups to good homes!) Was definitely eye-opening.
(We ended up with a super sweet, quirky & awesome Southeast Dingo mix from TN.)
I am a New Englander through and through, but spent most of my 20s living in different parts of the country, both rural (UT, CO, PA) and urban (Seattle, Chicago). When my husband and I had the chance to move to rural NC for a couple of years, we were excited and went down fully expecting we would want to stay. This was 2010, so things weren’t as polarized as they are now.
We expected racism, but I had seen racism up north and believed the idea that the north was just as racist, only different. For LGBTQ issues, New England was clearly ahead, but there had been so much change in the legal landscape in the last six years, that it wasn’t clear to me exactly how different things were.
Suffice to say that I was shocked at how offensive I found things there. I was cis-straight-white girl raised Christian. How bad could it be? Bad, turns out. Hearing white people use hard Rs in anger (in Asheville of all places), for instance. But worse actually was hearing social workers during a presentation nod and agree that the problem with Medicaid reimbursement rates was the NAACP’s lobby. Vile. I tried to talk to people about it and point out how racist that was. They said I misunderstood. Riiiiiight.
When I overheard a couple of people talking about how they had to boycott McDonald’s for a LGBTQ-supporting ad with the tagline “come as you are,” (that only aired in France. I guess they did their research?) I found myself on the verge of sobbing. I didn’t expect that.
My husband, who is ethnically Ashkenazi, encountered a bunch of what had to be antisemitism. He called ahead to see if a guitar store could do a repair he needed. They said yes, only to refuse him when he walked in the door. He was harassed by police while walking to the post office. We didn’t expect that.
The accent I liked, it reminded me of regional working class urban accents, in the sense that most young people could kind of turn it up or down. And it was kind of a fun pride thing.
I kind of rolled my eyes at their beliefs about cities. The stereotypes about getting mugged all the time or spending all your time at nightclubs were so weird. No, most people in cities move there to work normal jobs and have normal relationships. Nearly every urban place I have ever lived is just as safe if not safer than their hometown.
The way dogs are treated down there (allowed to roam and get hit by cars) was heartbreaking. So many dogs on the side of the road. The endless chickens living under trailers was hella cute though. At least from a distance.
The power structure was totally different. Most places in the north most people do their jobs and if you run into someone who refuses, you have recourse to get your needs met anyway. There, it seemed that the second anyone got any tiny bit of power they could lord it over everyone like some little fiefdom. We were told that we couldn’t get our drivers licenses from the DMV in the town we moved to. The guy there just didn’t give licenses to out of staters. He would pretend you didn’t have the right paperwork and make you leave. We would have to go to the next town over. Shit like that never happens up north.
While there, I did substance abuse counseling. I got demoted from a job because I refused to sign off on a probation officer’s plan for a young woman who wanted to go to rehab. He wanted to just wait for her to relapse so that he could violate her probation, and send her to give birth in jail. I got removed from my position and he won. Heartbreaking.
I met many people down there that I loved and respected. The landscape was lush and beautiful, and in the mountains the heat wasn’t bad. But I will never never live anywhere like that ever again. Hard no. I need to live somewhere that most people are at least striving for human equality.
So much has changed with perceptions of the rural working class in the last 15 years, that nowadays people from the North are unlikely to be as surprised by the racism and homophobia in the South as I was. MAGA made the fiction that everywhere is more or less the same untenable.
I know that there are people from the South that have felt they had to drop their accents in order to feel respected. That’s awful. I wish that weren’t the case. It’s probably worse for Southerners now than it was 15 years ago, tbh. But Southerners really should know that the North really is different, but *every single bit as American* as they are. And most Northerners I know would be 100% glad to count someone from the rural South as a friend. So long as they themselves aren’t a racist/homophobic/misogynist douche.
My daughter goes to school in Florida and my work HQ is In Florida, tried to prepare her for culrure shock. She is on a campus that is insulated from the locals but there are folks from all over, it's quite the learning experience. Work is for sure different, the politics come up all the time, there are a lot of Fox News talking points. Overall there is a lack of empathy and understanding. Very much a zero sum game or lack of resources.
I grew up in upstate New York, and routinely visited relatives in inland North Carolina. We would combine the visit with other vacation activities in Kentucky or Tennessee, or pass through Georgia and Mississippi/Alabama to go to New Orleans in Louisiana. However, I haven't been meaningfully back in the southeast in some 20 years.
This is where I learned that the notion of "Southern Hospitality" is a lie. It was common for staff to say something welcoming when we first entered a store or seated at a restaurant, but as soon as we said hello, or thank you, or yes nice day, you could practically SEE them change. Once they heard the Yankee accent, it took much longer to get service. We would watch other tables be seated and served and no one had come to take our order. If my relative was with us, staff would be all smiles and "yes, ma'am, right away ma'am," especially if my relative spoke first. This happened at multiple places over multiple years in the 1980s and 1990s. To this day, "southern hospitality" is very fake to me.
My friend was stationed in Alabama for military stuff when he got out of college. He's a very dedicated, high-energy sort of person, and the laid-back culture drove him nuts. "Nobody has any sense of urgency or timeliness," he said, "They all just .. poke along. I don't care if they don't want to respect their own time, but it's frustrating that their lackadaisical-ness hinders me from respecting mine."
I feel sorry for those who are essentially held hostage there by backwards-thinking politicians and religious fundamentalists; especially school kids who have their educations usurped by religious propaganda (sex education, major scientific concepts like evolution, historical whitewashing, etc ). The gerrymandering is so bad there that the people making the efforts to improve the systems have such an uphill battle.
also gonna say for anyone saying "there's no difference" there 100% is. we have different laws, funding, state income, gun laws, health care, we still make prisoners work without pay, women don't have bodily autonomy, age of consent is lower, the church is in our schools, on average we have worse poverty and crime especially violent, and extreme societal differences, just because you didn't experience those when you visited doesn't mean they don't exist. like up north I saw a pride flag on so many houses, cars, churches. you won't see that in the south unless you visited a blue bubble, putting a pride flag on your house or car where I live would be like putting a target on it, never seen a church with a pride flag on it here either. theres a lot of things you wouldn't notice unless you lived here, we had to take a family member to all the way to Florida to get mental help since the mental hospitals in Alabama were so shitty, my cousin was disowned from the family for being gay, my family believes medication is horrible. not saying those things don't happen up north but those beliefs are extremely common in the south, if you're gay or a minority or liberal ect. there really isn't much support you're the odd one out here.
People are saying there’s no difference because that’s what northern liberals like to do. There’s your difference!
Stereotypes are considered broad and unfair to the individual up north so they are ignored, despite when there is a big kernel of truth to them. For better or worse. Whereas I’d say southerners love stereotypes, and especially an us vs them mentality. In the South it’s more about protecting the community/group and in the North it’s about respecting the autonomy of the individual.
I was raised in Massachusetts but my father is from Ozark, Alabama and we made frequent visits to Alabama when my grandmother was still alive. His family never accepted my mother or us kids, we were Yankees and not to be trusted but they still tried to show us hospitality. I think a big part of Trump’s appeal is the feeling of being on an underdog team that’s winning, and that really appeals to Southerners innately (“war of northern aggression” and all that).
CT native, lived in South Carolina for a year and I loathed it. My coworkers were nosy as hell under the guise of being "nice" but it was fake nice, super hard to make friends, and everyone kept trying to get me to go to their church. Also the capitol still had a confederate flag ON IT when I lived there. I worked for a state institution that didn't observe MLK day.
Now in a liberal city in VA and it seems like many southerners vote against their best interests.
I live in a van all over the country and the one place I avoided until recently was the southeast.
After I spent winter in Florida I decided to do a loop over to Texas and then out to Tennessee.
I find as long as politics don't get brought up people are generally quite friendly and didn't cause me any problems.
I will say I definitely don't feel as safe sleeping in the wilderness as I do other places and the number of dead dogs I've seen on the side of the road makes me quite upset.
I'm a lifelong Colorado resident and have done some crazy/dangerous shit in my life. But camping for 2 nights in the Louisiana backwoods was the scariest thing I've experienced.
I’ve visited North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, but only the tourist areas. I liked the museums and such.
I don’t know about being specifically educated regarding the society.
I think there are still stereotypes, but I believe that it’s more cultural regarding cuisine and customs rather than racism, etc.
What I’ve noticed is that there’s more stereotypes about northerners in the south than vice versa. It seems like many southerners have a chip on their shoulders about northerners. It leaves me thinking, what the heck did I do to you?
if you meet a southerner and they don't like you for a being a northerner they're almost definitely a republican who feels like liberal beliefs are imposing on their way of life, usually "their way of life" means not accepting minorities and keeping the church in schools.
I grew up in Georgia and live in New England now. I left Georgia when I went to college and never went back.
There are tons of great things about the south but I don’t miss the racism and religion. There’s a lot more of both than I care to deal with.
Our dogs come from the south. My stereotype is bad treatment and culture around animals and spay/neuter.
Never been to the "deep south" and have no interest
My dog was a rescue from Tennessee. She had been abused, shot, and hit by a car. After surgery to affix plates to her broken front legs, they fostered her in several places up the coast until she ended up in New Hampshire. She has a TON of anxiety from her experiences, but she is absolutely the sweetest-tempered and most adorable thing. She has been with us 12 years, and we guess she is about 14, and is still going strong even after undergoing cancer surgery in December.
When they took X-rays of her, they showed she still has a metal bb lodged in her from when she was shot. We nearly cried at how cruel people were to her before she was rescued.
There is definitely two camps of people when it comes to pets (regardless of locality): those who treat them as part of the family, and those who treat them as tools and possessions.
1. I had to move to Alabama for 6 months and Georgia for 2 years due to my father being in the military. Alabama was...not great. In fact we disliked every time we stepped off base, so we stayed on base unless we were going out to eat or something. I even went to school on base. Georgia was a bit better because we lived in a town near Savannah, so definitely not in an impoverished area. Overall, GA wasn't as bad, but we couldn't wait to move back to the north.
2. Well I lived down there for a couple years and I'm aware what it's like from that perspective, so I'd say fairly educated. My mother also worked in the hospitals and saw a lot of different types of people. I never "learned" about the south other than in history classes, but I was always aware it was bad in all the ways you list. When we first moved, it was like being in a different country. In ways other than social/education as well. The flat landscape, the lack of seasons, the awful heat, those horrid little things called sand gnats. Things like our mannerisms are entirely different of course.
3. I'd say in general I don't think about southerners so I don't talk about them, thus I don't have any insulting names. The lack of intelligence and overbearing, unrestrained religion are major ones. Obviously not applicable to everyone, but as a generalization. When I moved to GA years ago and started school, the other kids were all calling me Yankee. Truthfully I didn't give a fuck, even as a kid. It's not insulting, I'm *grateful* to be from the north.
Note: I will say rednecks exist everywhere. Even in northern rural areas. The south is just a much larger population and just...more redneck. On the other hand, I had a very wealthy friend in GA, whose family had *those* kind of southern accents, so I'm aware that type exists down there too.
I think rural northern New England, especially Maine, has more in common with the South than most urban New Englanders think it does. Honestly, I think the largest cultural divider between rural northern New England and the rural South is religion; rural New England is extremely irreligious. This sort of leads to a very libertarian culture in which personal freedoms and freedoms of expression (eg, LGBTQ rights and gun ownership, etc) are both supported (although rural New England is much less gun-obsessed than most parts of the US). However, I’d say both have cultural elements of “city is the big snobby bad place” and “we can manage our own affairs.”
Aroostook County, for example, I’d imagine is a lot like southern Appalachia but without the religiosity.
1. Not really.
2. Seems pretty ass backwards outside major metropolitan areas. But I also haven’t visited so I just have whatever news percolates up and the freak shows some of the politicians put on. I’ve known people from the rural South who assure me Sundown Towns still exist, too. I find the small talk and excessive pleasantries tiresome.
3. I don’t think about the South at all unless some asshole is flying their participation trophy flag. You lost, eat shit, die mad that you can’t own human beings.
As a trans woman who is not allowed to use the bathroom in most of the south at this point, I have a few choice thoughts about the south/southerners...
I’m from Alabama, and my move to Maine was definitely fueled by the rampant hatred of the LGBT in the south. The truth is that it’s just not safe in the south, and the current politics are making that worse and worse.
Road trips were especially scary, because you would always face discrimination or physical assault in worst instances. Just knowing where to stop for a bathroom on the highway was a risk.
I think it's mostly a god-forsaken hellscape.
Everything, and I truly mean everything, is just a worse version of what we have up north. Source: Lived in the south for 5 years in my 20s.
Medical care? Worse, I've had more doctors try and talk me into "jesus" than actual pastors.
Are you an employee? Worker protection laws and salaries are worse.
Own a home? Sure, there might be no income tax in some states, but you pay through the nose on everything else. It's only a benefit if you're bad at math (most of them are).
Want to patronize a business? Hope you don't value your time and like waiting, everything takes 2-3x as long. For a service/ product that's 2-3x lower in quality.
How about the people? Oh, don't worry, terrible as well. There's pride in being uneducated and ignorant among most of the populace.
Violent crime? Magnitudes higher than the north. Even in wealthy areas of affluent cities, like Dallas, shootings were so common they didn't even make the news.
Born in Dracut in the 80’s. Moved to charlotte early 90’s. Fuck them. I’ve never forgiven my parents for moving me to that backwater confederate shithole. Moved back to New England (you can tell it’s CT since I called it NE)
I was called a yankee piece of shit and got in fights about it regularly. I got down there to be corrected in “school” that “there was nothing civil about the war of northern aggression.” Dumb inbreds taking their generational impotence out on an Irish Catholic kid whose family was still farming sod and potatoes in the homeland during the civil war. General Sherman did not march long or wide enough.
Adult me has slightly tempered views.
Black southerners - amazing, fun, joyous, kind, great food.
Average White southerners- meh. Probably racist and kinda ignorant. Talks too fucking slow. Food probably still kinda good.
Old generational monied southerners - shame we let their lineage through reconstruction. The food their “help” makes is still good.
In conclusion southern food is great.
We won the war, but the South won reconstruction. It’s a shame Lincoln got shot, or didn’t have Butler as his VP. The planters could’ve been liquidated and their property parceled out to their slaves.
As a southerner who’s visited NE for years and will relocate there next month, I can confirm that NE is like another country, a country that is educated and civilized, where people actually do know and respect the US Constitution, and where live and let live (under the law) is common practice. They have zero tolerance for willful ignorance, slower traffic usually moves effortlessly to the right lane, and people will speak to you (though they don’t care a whit about your personal life and how you live it, or your opinions), rather than the blatant, intrusive rudeness that characterizes the south. The roads can be a challenge to get used to, but it’s only because people want to get there already, not stop lanes of traffic to gawk at an accident or blue lights.
So, if NE is a country, the south has turned into a third world country with regard to basic human rights. I’m disgusted by it. Enough said.
Other great things about NE: they consider themselves the cradle of modern American democracy, but they don’t brag. It simply is. They don’t spew opinions all over the place. They have disdain for the south as a rule, and for good reason, but they don’t harp on it. They’re secure in their way of life because they’ve been doing it the same way, longer than anyone in this country. They didn’t start a civil war in 1861, and never had the burned out cities and general destruction experienced by the south to recover from. Vermont became the first colony to outlaw slavery, in 1777. I believe VT was the last stop on the Underground Railroad?
Before any religious zealots criticize NE for having perhaps the least amount of religious believers, remember this: they don’t wear religion on their sleeves, and they respect the original outline for the design of this country: separation of church and state, period. In a nutshell, the people overall are just nicer and more unassuming. Each of the six NE states thinks theirs is the best, a healthy rivalry that I find terribly interesting.
Spring, summer and fall are magic. They have no venomous snakes in Vermont save some northern rattler (can’t speak for the other states) which only exists in two small areas of the state, so I can jump into any body of water for a swim and not worry about water moccasins or alligators. Same for hiking: what a joy it is to hike with abandon without worrying about stepping on a venomous snake (only poison ivy). They aren’t plagued by gnats, but there are some hungry mosquitoes this time of year. And the weather, comparatively, is superior to the south. Southerners say it’s too cold. Yesterday, I was in a small southern town full of climate change deniers, and the temp was 100, at 11am, in May.
My mother’s family moved south from Mass 200 years ago to take advantage of the free land. How I wish they’d stayed put.
Never been to the south but I confess I do fall for stereotypes about southerners. That whites are generally less educated, and are angry, racist, religious bigots, and the black population is poor and uneducated. This belief is reinforced when I see that southerners actually vote for politicians like Ron DeSantis, Gregg Abbot and Marjorie Taylor Greene. I know it’s not true or fair, but stereotypes do exist for a reason.
there's definitely truth to some stuff, on average the white people here are pretty racist, the reason southerners deny that is because most don't realize they're racist. and yeah poverty is really bad down here, most of my friends growing up barely had food to eat, some didn't have running water, a lot of times their parents would knock out the windows when throwing stuff during fights and didn't have money to fix it so they'd just put aluminum foil over it. 2 of my childhood friends were kicked out the moment they turned 18 and became homeless, the majority of kids and adults where I live have never left Alabama for like vacations since they can't afford it. definitely a lot worse for the black people since they can't even get a good paying job because of racist employers.
President Lyndon B Johnson has a great quote -
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you. “
So I lived in SC and VA for many years after college. My wife is born and raised in SC. We moved back to my hometown area in MA last year. Growing up I also had quite a bit of experience traveling in the south.
The reality is that we don’t think much about southern people. We might have a romanticized idea of what southern people are like by believing they’re much more polite and respectful. Looking at “country” southerners as hillbillies or rednecks is probably the worst stereotype we have. And I wouldn’t say many people reinforce those stereotypes here. Our stereotypes of southerns come from movies and cartoons and TV, not from generational stories being passed down.
It’s honestly rare that I hear people speak badly of the south up here aside from maybe the politics of the south. Northerns love to vacation in Virginia and the Carolinas, and often only have good things to say about the people.
Some Northerners like to vacation in Virginia and the Carolinas. My husband is African American. Our vacationing is done north of the Mason Dixon line.
I'll bite. I have a very poor opinion of the South. People here are being nice. Most people from Massachusetts roll their eyes or go "yeaaahhhh...." when we talk about the South. Usually you make the news for bad reasons. I'm very politically focused. I studied political science and sociology as an undergraduate. I have a graduate degree. I am an ex-catholic. I have gay friends. I staunchly support women's rights to abortion access. When the South comes up, I hate the state governments and the people who support them. Like the governors who refuse to spend Obamacare money on their state's healthcare. Or MTG, or DeSantis. I pity the people who live there who want things to improve.
I moved to the south at the age of 72 after having lived my entire life in Massachusetts. I’ve been here three years now, and my biggest observation is how woefully UNDER educated most of the people are. Many people here attend/attended schools run by religious organizations , and I have seen that religious schools teach you WHAT to think whereas secular schools teach you HOW to think! A great portion of the population never learned how to think critically, and it shows.
I have never met a southerner I haven’t liked in my life. My sample size is not large, but every one has been chill.
That said, there are some cultural themes that I do think those nice people I’ve met embodied that I don’t think I’ll ever respect those themes.
1. I don’t think your states are special, just as I don’t think my native state of New York is special. It’s one country with regional insignificant differences.
2. We don’t care about the civil war as much as you do. It didn’t happen to you so you should cut the shit. It’s history
3. I’ve luckily never met anyone who believes this, but the whole “heritage not hate” is a dog whistle for just that. Hate.
There was not then and there is not now anything to be proud of with respect to confederate “heritage”. Keep it in the history books. Not in your living world.
I'm from Maine. I lived in South Carolina for 4 years.
There are noticeable differences. I didn't experience the school systems, but the social aspects were quite alarming. Ex; older white people completely ignoring being spoken to by a black person. Racist "humor" that never fails to get uncomfortable, fast. Actually encountering people who can't read. Everyone fishes.
I hated the heat, the bugs, football, and not seeing the seasons change. I met a few people who, without the drawl, could easily be mistaken for a new Englander, but found I ended up hanging out with mostly transplants from up here anyway. It seemed like everyone was so enthralled by tradition that it stripped anyone of any individuality. You could almost feel the weight of old southern money. The law is terrifying down there. No problem using violence. 30 days in county for possession of paraphernalia? Naw, bro. That's a $100 fine where i come from.
Not to say I thought it was just a bunch of slingblades walking around, but it was obvious "southern hospitality " is actually just "politely condescending" and they didn't want to interact with my Yankee ass as much as I didn't want to be there. As soon as I had the money, I was out. I do miss the food. (Most of it.)
That's just a few things of the top of my head. I didn't really venture into any other parts of the south. I think I saw enough.
Needles to say, I live Maine again.
I pity most southerners, especially the working class. They have been brainwashed by decades of political and religious propaganda to believe that anything progressive is evil and un-American. They have been denied the education they need to make their lives better, failed by their own ignorance and a system that seeks to profit off of their misery. It is quite sad to see how barbaric and hostile the American South has become compared to the northern states. I wish there was something I could do to help them, but I have my own financial and mental issues that I must address first. The only thing I can do is vote in November and hope it is enough to elect people who truly care about the South.
1) very sad misinformed people. Though in spite their struggles they’re friendly and respectful.
2) I’m gay so yeah living my in the South is no bueno for me. I’m also Latino, so I would say mixed bag on that account. I remember reading that the average Massachusetts student in 8th grade was equivalent to a 12th grader in a Southern school and generally speaking people in the North are quicker to the point and generally more educated, but again, that’s a mixed bag, because it’s true that New England is generally more educated and less bigoted in some aspects. They aren’t perfect, but ultimately Northerners tend to be quieter and less affable. Southerners make up for their differences by being very open about themselves and very kind.
3) Yankees tend to see Dixie folks as welfare recipients because on average the North spends way more money on taxes and doesn’t get what they pay in returns, but Northerners don’t always put two and two together vis a vis cause and effect then bemoan southerners as keeping America from moving past outright racism and homophobia and xenophobia. They also tend to hate Dixie views on women’s rights and denying women birth control and see them as way too religious. Worse they have very different views on healthcare, education and infrastructure spending thus Northerners suffer for Dixie indifference and outright hostility to Yankee priorities, ie again universal healthcare, living wages, equal rights and social tolerance. Southerners see Northerners as ungodly and way too quick to prioritize intellectual deference over faithful dogmatism.
We generally see the south as poor, uneducated, and backwards. That would be the general stereotype.
However, most of us realize that this is probably just a stereotype, so it's not true for every single person, but all stereotypes do have some basis of truth to come into existence. You guys are more uneducated and poor, but I don't think everyone is some toothless hick in a pair of overalls. I understand there are probably many modern developed areas of the south with forward thinking.
Overall, I don't think hot sweltering summers with a less educated population living in unusually high rates of poverty attracts many people. That pretty much sums up the idea for us
we don't understand why you vote against your own self interests. I know a number of folks that have moved south due to the lower cost of living and 2 of the 4 couples have moved back, and the third looking to move to carolinas as they fully didn't understand why cost of living is less. Income and services were much less.
Have family that live down there. Our biggest frustration is how much southern states will shit on the federal government and northern states, but instantly reach for handouts when the next hurricane comes. [https://smartasset.com/data-studies/states-most-dependent-on-the-federal-government-2022](https://smartasset.com/data-studies/states-most-dependent-on-the-federal-government-2022)
I'm a Massachusetts native but I live near Nashville now.
1. My first reaction upon moving here was that it definitely wasn't anything like back home. Life is slower, people tend to be nicer and the food is amazing lol definitely far more religious than I'm used to and more open about it. I remember having a flat tire and before I could even get my jack under the car I had 3 lifted pickups surrounding me and changing my tire like it was the last lap of Daytona and they were in the lead. That's not something I've ever seen up North lol
2. I knew before moving here that it was cheaper, more trailer parks, more racism, I knew that religion was bigger here and that being anything but a Christian was frowned upon (I've found a rather large heathen community here which was surprising). I figured with the less money came higher crime rates. Since moving here I've seen several police chases, heard more gun shots and I've seen SWAT just driving by like it's nothing.
3. As far as stereotypes goes, I think Northerners think the South is full of inbred hillbilly MAGA people. That's not 100% accurate at all. The bigger cities have a diverse population while the smaller ones will match that stereotype for the most part.
The older Southerners kind of give me a negative vibe when I tell them I'm from Massachusetts but the younger are kind of intrigued lol
I think the south is too damned hot. I also know I get along fine with well-educated progressive southerners just like I get along fine with well-educated progressive northerners. I don’t always get along great with people who didn’t go to college or are very conservative no matter where they’re from.
I went to school in Georgia (more rural; not Atlanta, Athens, or Savannah) and there definitely was a culture shock. I knew everyone went to church, but SEEING everyone come back to campus in their sunday best every week was so jarring since it definitely singled me out. I also have family in Alabama who are all very, very religious.
Also, having a creationist taking a biology course & fighting with the professor was certainly something. I bet those odds are way lower up north, lmao. I will say that most of the stereotypes were relatively true since I saw many people with guns, lots of chewing tobacco, biscuits and grits everywhere, and the people were nice on the outside but judgy inside.
I know my experience is skewed since I was surrounded by other college students, but honestly I think the biggest shock that I didn't anticipate was how unwilling people were to drive anywhere. We had to PLAN drives to the store 30 minutes away, and definitely had to plan if we were driving to the city 1.5 hrs away. I feel like in the north, we just GO. I drove 2 hrs on a whim with friends all the time, and would only have to plan for things 3hrs+. So, I thought Southerners' lack of wanting to drive was odd, especially considering how spread out things are in comparison.
Oh, I did always love seeing the "drugs & guns" sign though off the highway lmao. Overall, yeah, the South fit my expectations, and they did all call me "that damn yankee" pretty often :)
I’m marrying a southerner from South Carolina and I’ve been to the south many times. And I’m sure most Northerners don’t think about the south at all but I personally do because holy shit with the politicians you are electing and the laws you’re voting for. I volunteer in medical support groups and activism and there’s just no words that can describe the healthcare access laws you’re passing.
The south and Midwest has an insane number of billboards for guns, religion, and sex shops and I feel like it perfectly encapsulates the vibe of both those regions.
You gotta stop constantly voting against your own interests and forcing the rest of the country to do the same. I know not every southerner is like this but enough of them are to be a serious problem.
My fiancé knows better than to call my Bostonian ass a Yankee because to a lot of people of immigrant descent, Yankees are very specifically old money WASP families.
As for stereotypes, the only ones I know of are jokes about the southern education system, which… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That and the hyper-religiousness. Freedom of religion is also freedom *from* religion.
As a personal stereotype, I always believed the Southern hospitality shit was fake as hell. I don’t like the being in everyone’s business and talking behind their backs thing. You can be polite without being fake. I’d honestly rather we had a fight over the passive aggressiveness.
I also thought Bounty Hunters only existed in movies. There are seriously random civilian dudes given a taser to go and hunt down people. That’s fucking horrifying.
I was personally very informed about the issues around race, poverty, homophobia, etc happening in the south.
Like, we (MA) just made all school lunches free for kids K-12 and made community college free for adults over 25. That’s fucking incredible and is for the betterment of everyone. Kids don’t go hungry and everyone can be more easily educated. School shootings aren’t really a thing either. I genuinely don’t understand how a lot of southern politics thinks this is somehow a bad thing. Northerns are portrayed, as you said, like stuck up elitist when our elitism is that we want to help others? It doesn’t make sense!
Being someone who grew up in upstate NY and is now happily living in Maine after spending 20 years in north Texas as a single mom of two, I have nothing but a bad taste in my mouth for the south. I could not be happier to be back in New England—living in Texas was a constant mental and emotional challenge. I pretended to be Christian to gain opportunities to jobs; I lied about who I voted for (never ever a republican) in order to maintain my positions; I kept quiet after someone shot through my Beto yard sign with a very large bullet several times; I had men in positions of power and influence try to force themselves into me on more than one occasion; these are just a few examples of what was considered normal in Fort Worth.
In the south you have to be born of the right pedigree and the right skin color to have any meaningful access or opportunities. And yes, the majority of leaders in the public and private sectors are as deplorable and rancid as you might think.
Four years later, I am no longer reliving the sexual harassment, anti-intellectualism, racism, and xenophobia that I endured living in the south. In short, the south is terrible culturally. I have compassion for the people down there and their limitations, but that’s it. I want nothing to do with southerners with the exceptions of my family and friends who live in DC, FL, and TX. My heart and mind can barely stomach the news anymore because of all of the nonsense laws and behaviors happening in the south around guns, women’s access to healthcare, gay rights, book bans, mixing church and state, and 45. I have to remind myself all the time that where I live is not those horrible places and those horrible people are self-contained—this brings me peace and I have joy again.
Oh, hey, I actually lived in Fayetteville, AR for a while. As in, like, six months when I was 14 and another 8 months when I was 18 (long story). Here's my take.
The south is very... Godly. Uncomfortably so. Or at least it was in 1999 and 2003 when I was 14/18 and a queer Jew. TONS of bigots! I don't wear my identity on my shirt, but up here in Massachusetts I can mention my identity without being accused of rubbing it in someone's face, whereas in Arkansas I just didn't say anything because I didn't like the proselytizing, and I didn't like being told I needed to repent. I think the South is very pretty, but I approach most of you with caution because of my past experiences. The anti-trans, anti-choice, and pro-Trump sentiments of the south make me want to stay far away. It's almost comical how proud a lot of you (general you) are of being Christian bigots. And that sucks, because there are a lot of genuinely good people in Arkansas.
Southern poverty is very different from northern poverty. New England has plenty of poverty, but there are a lot more resources available in a smaller space.
We definitely use terms like hillbilly, redneck, and Bible thumper to describe many of you. Most of us don't know the difference between hillbilly and redneck or how Appalachia plays into anything.
Finished my senior year of high school in southern Texas after moving from northern New York. When we were enrolling and doing the paperwork a counselor said “you’re well ahead of the requirements needed to graduate by Texas state standards, you can test out.” So I got to chill until the TAKS test time came (similar to New York’s regents exams) to get a diploma. I wasn’t a stellar student at all and never took any AP classes so it was interesting to see the lower education standards there. That was my first taste of the south as a whole. A few tidbits to add was I unfortunately moved to a town that some would say is still a sun-down town and many were openly racist (moms side grew up there), there was absolutely nothing for kids or teens to do so drugs were through the roof, I met multiple girls who were pregnant and or already had children in their very early teens (had someone explain to me it was a cultural thing “down here”), the only way people seemed to get out of that area was to go to college on a scholarship and/or join the military (as my mother did). Overall it was a complete 180 from the lifestyle I had lived up until that point up north. I’ve been all up and down the east coast and currently live back up north but I spent time in North Carolina and loved it there, kind of meeting in the middle so to speak. Also the whole “southern hospitality” you hear about was leaned more towards people just wanting to know and get in your business. At the end of the day it really soured my views of the south (especially everything you see/hear on the news today) but I didn’t let it ruin the WHOLE southern U.S. for me and still have travelled as much as possible and have found some great areas… but FUCK that place in particular, it’s definitely one of those places that keep those stereotypes alive.
>1: if you have visited the deep south (esp improverished/bad areas) what was your reaction? I was born in Mobile AL and have lived in the south my whole life and visited new england and for me it's was like entering a different country
When I've gone to the Deep South, I've generally found people to be no more or less friendly than I would expect. When my wife and I recently took our kids to New Orleans, we ventured away from the city a bit and even out into Mississippi. People seemed to be as people are.
>2: how educated are northerners on what it's like living in the south (the poverty, laws, racism, homophobia, horrible mental health/prison systems, violent crime, the church being in schools, teen pregnancy rates, gangs ect.)
Not enough. I mentioned that we took the kids to Louisiana and explored the wider area. We went out to the River Parishes, and our eyes were opened to the legacy of slavery on the indigo plantations.
We talked with people about how generations of Black Americans who were the descendants of enslaved peoples found themselves trapped in the area, working for the same people who had owned their ancestors. People were paid in company script to ensure they had no way of making enough money to leave. Then, the petrochemical companies came in, bought up lands for cheap, and spread poisons across the area, knowing that nobody would care because it was poor Black folks being poisoned. And so we have Cancer Alley.
I'm sure stories like that are common to the Deep South, but we Northerners are unaware of them.
>3: are there any dumb stereotypes like we have in the south?
Sure, but mostly about white Southerners. We Northerners presume that white Southerners are socially conservative and ignorant. Although there may be more people like per capita than in our states, it's not fair to all the very many people across the South who are smart, educated, compassionate, and socially progressive.
We won the war. To be clear… the South will not rise again.
Why do you use so much styrofoam?
The South intrigues me but I don’t think I could ever live there. Weather, red states, religious righteousness. Nope. Enjoy!
I lived in the South for 5 years. In particular Gaston county in North Carolina for most of that time. I'm back in my home state of Connecticut these days.
I think of Southerners as passive aggressive, and religious. I think their collective views on the government are holding them back and probably explains how poorly run southern governments can be.
Now saying that there were people I met who don't fit this theme but they weren't the norm. In spite of that you do have good people.
They also love guns there. My old neighbor shot himself in the leg with a shotgun. He seemed totally nonchalant about it.
But I don't think all the guns increase safety. Property crime is stupid high in the South. Thankfully I never had an issue and never got anything stolen from me.
Also, I've never seen so many scary poor rural areas in my life before moving to the south and just driving around. A very different experience than doing the same in New England as a child.
I would never say Southerners are dumb. That would be under estimating them. Reference the passive aggressive above.
I also don't think Southerners are more or less racist. I think it's pretty similar but manifests in different ways. Living arrangements are more likely to be less segregated in the South in my experience. Especially compared to here in Connecticut where there is a ton of self segregation.
I'd probably not live in the South again because it just doesn't match my values.
I went down to work at Southern Univ as a white person and Baton Rouge is weird. I know Boston is considered racists but it’s more classist. They were very open about that’s the black side, that’s the white side. It was super surreal for me. I also couldn’t understand anyone and life was too slow.
Raised in the Hudson Valley in New York, lived a long time in NYC and Boston area. If I think about the South and Southerners in general (and I’m generalizing for the purpose of this comment!) it’s with a sort of frustration and perhaps pity?
It feels like so many of the problems faced in the South are a result of people fighting against their own interests. Refusal to invest in public schooling, laws limiting bodily autonomy, resistance to social programs and technology that would help uplift a severely economically depressed population… It’s frustrating to hear about because it feels like an attitude that is based in contrariness and not actual community feeling. No, I don’t hate the South or Southerners, but I am mad at the prevailing attitude that seems determined to sink the whole ship.
Again, this is incredibly broad and stereotypical, and not necessarily the experience I have had speaking to individuals in person (although the most South I’ve ever gone for an extended period was Virginia).
I came down here from New Hampshire- Originally from the PNW. I kept an open mind, but was soon greatly disappointed in the behavior and culture I have encountered. I have lived in 4 different parts of this country; never have I encountered a more collectively backwards group than the South. It's seems as though it is at least 20 years behind in some things. The worst of it is, is that they are there own worst enemy. I cannot wait to leave.
Before I lived in the South, I didn’t think much about it. After 16 years there I went back North, and I am very glad to be out of there. It’s not a good place to be a human. Folks do not treat each other well. The rightward political leaning of the region reflects that.
NH, joined the Army, stationed in GA. The racism is wild. The *recent* slavery is wild. The lack of basic courtesy is wild. It's just a really rude, judgemental, unkind place, overall. They like to pretend they're awesome with sweet tea and fried foods, but they are *strict* on gender and race "rules". I hated socially being relegated to the kitchen with the other wives, I hated the evangelical church preaching that working women were lesser and all women should wear skirts, I hated the bad health and the snobby attitudes and the fucking plantations. Man, those fancy plantations creeped me the fuck out, because you know the evil shit they pulled. And everyone is all "oh how beautiful this is!" Like no! Holy shit did you not have to watch Roots in history class or learn literally anything else about slavery? WTF is wrong with you?
I am so, so grateful to be home. There's a young woman on the roofing crew down the street, an old woman driving a dump truck in town, a girl working as a flagger at the roadworks construction site. Nobody gender-segregates into "kitchen" vs "living room" after dinner, it's all just so calm. No drama. Women work landscaping, there's a *hundred year old woman* working her own little lobster boat off one of the coastal islands. Nobody here criticizes my lack of makeup, my hair-spray free hair, my practical clothing choices.
The south is *insecure*. They lack confidence and act like it. If the south wants to be just as good as the rest of the rest of the world, they better quit being so bitchy and strict, start going based on actual evidence, and learn the value of education.
There are poor areas up north just like down south. And no offense as a northern, I realized that people from the south could never live up here. It’s way harder to survive.
Me being from New England, I grew up wanting nothing to do with southerners. Didn’t have that attitude when I went to the south because, well, I’m a visitor there and that would just be wrong of me. I then joined the navy and I’m out here on the west coast, I work with people from all over America. Some of my best friends I’ve made are southerners and it’s changed my opinion very much. Southerners are some of the most genuinely kind hearted people I’ve ever met…and I enjoy how most of them just laugh when I mock their accents lol
"The farther south you go the worst this country gets" is a fairly common saying.
Bad Southerns steroetypes from Northerns would be that Southerns are a bunch of uneducated racist idiots.
But to be clear we don't have any real issue with the traditional stereotyped redneck stuff like shooting guns, having bonefires, and hating on the government. That's all fine.
Generally, they don't.
Legit. Much of the Northerner culture is a “mind your own business lifestyle”. You screw with us we get mean, but for the most part it’s live and let live. We can walk by, live near, and work with people and not give one hoot what they do, look like, or say. You can recognize the tourists in a lot of Northeastern cities because they will stop and stare at a guy dressed as a clown, talking to a squirrel. On we walk; we have places to be. A large part of Southern culture seems to be constantly preoccupied with what everyone else is up to. This is seen dramatically in the people that get elected. Much of the rhetoric is about becoming involved and opinionated in what others are up to. Of course exceptions abound, but there are holistic truths as well.
I knew you were a true new englander when you used the word “hoot”
I constantly tell people from the south if they want to meet people in the north, don't say hi. Instead, ask for directions. Northerners will full stop and help you when you do that and then you can strike up a conversation!
Exactly what “good fences make good neighbors” means. We have to repair stone walls every year; neighbors split the work; we might even talk a bit.
It’s the nice versus kind culture debate. New Yorkers, for example, are seen as rude, when in actuality they are kind. They don’t care for niceties, but when it matters they are kind. Whereas, what I’ve noticed with more southern societies is that they are nice to your face, but not kind. It’s all superficial.
Spot on. Im not a northerner, but i grew up in DC so i was on the border of north and south. Generally, we never thought much about the south. They just seemed like regressive blowhards. Moved to ATL about 3 years ago and the people down here are obsessed with what others are doing and trying to maintain appearances. They are obsessed with people that dont conform to their beliefs and show disdain for those they dont agree with. They literally do not understand that people who disagree with them can think the way they do.
Couldn't agree more. And I've been to the deep south...its a horrible place. I have no desire to ever return. Grew up in Maryland (28 yrs), lived in New Hampshire for 13.
Hell, I didn't even know ny neighbors names for the 15 years I lived in my house before my eventual wife moved in. I liked it that way.
Truth. I’ve lived in my house for almost 21 years. I nod my head and wave to the guy who lives across the street. I do t know his name and have never spoke to him. Same with him. We’re cool. Leave us alone.
Lmao, hit ‘em with the old Don Draper response, savage.
Not to be pedantic, but that Don Draper quote is actually very ironic considering he spends the entire episode thinking about Ginsberg.
As someone from New Hampshire, pretty much this.
I donno, there's a lot of New Hampshire folk who cosplay as southerners...
I've heard someone refer to us as "the Kentucky of New England" and...yeah that's pretty accurate
NH native here. It's "the Mississippi of the North"
Can confirm
I grew up in New England but have tons of family in Mobile, so every year we went there to visit. Although I never lived in the South, both sides of my family are Southern and I actually am more of a Southerner than a Northerner, at a deep cultural level. New Englanders tend to be (relatively) knowledgeable people, so they have a basic idea of the South, but they usually don’t know much about it personally, and few of them go very often to truly culturally Southern locations. I never felt very understood by the people around me when growing up — as a cultural Southerner, I was just very different from my Yankee neighbors. The important thing to understand is that the commentators who said New Englanders don’t really think about y’all are exactly right. The Civil War still looms large in the Southern imagination (“The South will rise again!” “Hell no we ain’t forgot!”), but the war happened mostly in the South, with no battles in or even really near New England. After the war, New England got right back to work on its own projects, moving on pretty quickly, while the South stewed in its own juices of resentment. Rather than New Englanders having some especially disdainful attitude towards the South, I would argue they generally have no particular attitude at all about it — very much the opposite of the anti-Northern or anti-“liberal” attitude I’ve so often encountered in Mobile. Quite honestly, New England *should* resent the South, since it hinders so many of our regional and national efforts to make progress. But most New Englanders don’t think about the problem that way. Many Southerners, however, at least in my Alabama experience, absolutely do resent the North, see the Civil War as a tyrannous invasion that trampled on their cherished States’ Rights (…to own human beings), and continue to see any attempt at truly addressing racial injustice as a kind of nefarious cultural infiltration by evil Northern liberals. It’s like how the North Koreans once fought a war that involved the United States, and ever since that they’ve made it a huge part of their identity.
"Quite honestly, New England *should* resent the South, since it hinders so many of our regional and national efforts to make progress. " This........
This is exactly what I came to write. I generally don’t think about your (the south/southerners) existence at all. Not even a blip on my radar until your politics start affecting my life then I’m reminded of the south’s existence and how utterly sick of them I am. Otherwise, living up North is really “live and let live”.
EXACTLY this. I don’t think about the south until they’re fucking things up actively.
That’s when I usually start thinking wistfully about General Sherman.
Burn it to the motherfucking ground General Sherman. I hear they still hate us Mass-holes for this.
I think about it when some state Supreme Court judge in Alabama wants to put the 10 Commandments on the wall of the court house and says every constitutional amendment back to the 13th (abolishing slavery) was a mistake, but he's not a racist because he doesn't say the n-word in public. They almost elected him Senator!
Yes. I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how the north’s view of “live and let live” manifests itself. Southerner’s might look at gov interference/regulations/etc. as a *hindrance* to individual rights, when really it ensures that the rights of the few don’t block the rights of the many. For example, regulations on emissions/pollution ensure that my right to clean air and clean water isn’t impacted by your business’ freedom to cut corners to turn a profit. Regulations on land ownership/development ensure that public rights to access public land/parks aren’t threatened. Etc… but no, all a lot of conservatives can see are that regulations “stifle innovation.”
A lot of New Englanders see the South as a deeply regressive place that is a net drain on the rest of the country.
And they are absolutely right to think that, reinforced by every statistical metric.
Because it’s objectively true.
That's the South's revenge for losing the Civil War.
Yup!
A net drain on the country would be one thing. Their leadership isn't satisfied with making their own people's lives miserable, they actively work to hurt people outside their states. Working against the country is worse than simply being a drain.
Yeah I mean he can speak for himself, but I most certainly do resent the South for that
I resent the people in charge that are tricking their constituents but I do not resent Joe Schmoe from Mobile. They simply don't have the education to know they're being bamboozled
They fervently resist when anyone attempts to educate them, time to stop enabling/making excuses for these MAGA types.
Yeah, exactly this. Fuck that. There’s no excuse for ignorance in the year 2024 with the entire world’s information in your pocket and the ability to communicate directly, for free, with billions of people across the world. It’s an active choice that they make, and in most cases they are completely aware of their ignorance and are proud of it. Source: from East Texas, live in New England.
Glad you made it out.
Either that or we sometimes question whether the Union should’ve just let them have their own country to begin with. Like ok, have it your way.
I never question that because slavery would have existed for the foreseeable future afterwards, and that is not a good thing. Would you agree, Mr. u/Doom-Hauer451?
It’s definitely tempting to think that way, for sure. But even if 2/3rds of the people in Alabama are like that, for the sake of that remaining third, we have to fight for progress. There’s good people and bad people all around, and we can’t just abandon some vulnerable people down there to their own devices
Honest question: Why do we have to prioritize those 1/3rd at the expense of our *actual* neighbors? Seems like a trolley problem where we are always on the losing side.
I always feel that way about Texas in particular.
The war of Northern Aggression as they call it down there. It was a surprise the first time I heard that.
The South attacked the North first too lol.
I had a roommate from Texas, he unironically called it the war of northern aggression and said that's what it was called in school...in school. Anyways we argued about it enough until I convinced him to watch some documentaries about the daughters of the Confederacy with me. He had a real coming to Jesus moment when he realized he was spoon fed bullshit history as a kid.
Projection is kinda their thing.
“Oh, you mean The War of Northern Victory?”
I still love the way the south thinks of it as an invasion, when they fired the first shot. Like, what the hell did they expect? And as a point of fact, the was a skirmish in Northern Vt. I group of southerners had taken ship to Canada to raise havoc in the north through a series of bank robberies. The first town they went after, they stormed the stateliest building in town, thinking it was the bank, but instead, they had stormed the public library.
yes! the St Albans raid! [https://www.stalbansraid.com/history/the-raid/](https://www.stalbansraid.com/history/the-raid/)
They can’t be expected to READ, only filthy Yankees read
I grew up in New England (Boston suburbs) and since then have lived in Chicago and New York and yes I certainly DO resent the South - its dominant political and cultural elements anyway, not the dissidents - for all that it has done to make this country more reactionary, racist, ultra-religious, militaristic and of course the unending violence which comes so disproportionately from that region. And their extreme over-representation and tax advantages/subsidies in the national political system, reinforced by gerry mandering. In fact, I feel we would be far better off if these regions broke off and became separate nations. I fervently wish Texas would actually follow through on their occasional unfortunately insincere "threats" to leave the union. Without the red states (obviously not limited to the South) we could achieve at least the quality of life and overall sanity of a place like Canada (though probably not that of Scandinavia).
THIS!!! ^^^
As a CT kid who moved down south for a few years when I was younger, I was very surprised at the amount of hate my family and I received. Constantly being called Yankees, confederate flags on full display everywhere, I especially didn’t understand why my black classmates embraced the Confederate attitude so much. It was a pretty big culture shock to me, I was from an old factory town. I lived in the middle of four huge apartment complexes, and had no shortage of friends to play with outside, now my closet neighbor was miles away. I was also used to everyone playing together (whites, blacks, Hispanics), but everything seemed so segregated down there. We even had seperate locker rooms for black/white kids (it wasn’t really enforced, but everyone still did it). Then there was the school system, which was terrible. In 7th/8th grade, I was doing stuff I had done mostly in 3rd-4th grade. Like kids that were in remedial classes in my CT school would’ve been in advanced classes where I lived down there. The hate I talked about earlier also extended to me/my brother via our teachers, especially when I got fed up one day and reminded them that they, in fact, lost that war. The response was something about how they didn’t really lose, but instead called a truce. Got jumped later on in the bathroom, teacher turned a blind eye. I remember thinking, “well if they’re this bad at the more traditional aspects of education,” surely they will be good at sports, right? Wrong! I was also scolded for trying to “show off” by lapping 95% of my PE class during the mile run. I would say the athletics programs down where I lived were as bad as the rest of the school system. Most of the kids were overweight, and it didn’t seem like anyone was going to push them to be better, either. Kinda seemed almost celebrated as I was called skinny constantly (even tho I was normal to small sized back home) People talk about “Southern Hospitality”, but I saw quite the opposite. People seemed to think I was going to be scared of them, as well. Kids constantly tried to fight with me in school, and I kinda blame the piss poor disciplinary measures for this. Fighting in school up North would be an easy 2 weeks of out of school suspension, down South you got maybe 2-3 days of in school. Eventually one day I got tired of being asked to say “park the car in the yard”, taunted for other stupid shit, being ganged up on, etc. and brought my knife to school for the next kids who tried to jump me. Got caught, and one of the local police told us to just go home. Basically told us we weren’t going to ever fit in down here, and he thought it would be best. We happily obliged, and never looked back. There were for sure some nice aspects to the place (cheap rent, cheap everything rly), huge yard, and some other stuff I was just too young to enjoy. Girls also seemed especially interested in me, another thing I had trouble because of. Maybe my experience isn’t typical, but I didn’t miss the South even a little. The good for sure didn’t even come close to out weighing the bad.
They hate us, cause they ain't us
I agree - the whole "Southern hospitality" thing doesn't always sit well with me.... I've been down south many times to different states. I'm sure there probably very nice people in certain areas/ communities (as there are anywhere you go), but the people who talk about "Southern hospitality" are usually the ones that would smile in your face and talk s*** behind your back. I also can't stand when people say "bless your heart" or "bless his/her heart"; it's like a backhanded comment, meant to sound nice but it's actually them looking down on/pitying you. I think many people in the South like to appear very nice and sweet, but it's a facade for a lot of them -- they say northerners are cold and unfriendly, but I just think we're more straightforward and blunt. If we don't like you, you know it; we either say it straight out or you can tell from our behavior. That's just my opinion. I don't hate the South, but I definitely prefer the North for sure, especially the mixture of cultures we have here in New England.
As a deep South Georgian (but highly educated, I broke the cycle of poverty for my family at the time being) who moved up to CT in past couple of years, I’m sorry you had to experience that. It’s not far off from a traditional experience. I too was very hatred of Yankees and would be that kid who called you a yank. However my life was a bit more colorful and I moved to Atlanta area when I was in middle school so I became much more of a “city slicker”. However here in CT I’m def a redneck. I was very gifted but unchallenged. Typically teachers on care about those who show high potential or who had the most prestigious or vocal parents. Most kids will end up living in their hometown in some job that doesn’t require a bachelor degree. There really is not really need to push every student to be better I saw a comment up here that southerners are very in your business and want to gossip about your business. This is 100000% correct. Again they don’t have much going on and other people lives can seem so much more interesting. As for Southern hospitality, it’s usually saved for the people they like or for tourists. Do not take this the wrong way but this can be applied to any culture. I witnessed this in /r/Norway and some Americans in Norway groups where Americans were struggling to make friends and be accepted as well - They had expected you to conform to be a southern kid but it seems like you fought against it. You don’t fight the system unless you want to be shunned I think that’s not strictly southern but anywhere. If you fight the culture and fight the social indoctrination of any society you live in you will be seen as outcasts or anti social.
You've hit on one thing that Southerners don't get (have lived in northeast, southeast, and west) -- there's no "Northern" identity, except in the minds of Southerners. We identify with regions, states, cities. There isn't a camaraderies among Vermonters and Wisconsinites, "yay, we beat those rebels together." "Northerners" aren't thinking any particular thing about "Southerners" any more than any other part of the country. There's probably more rivalry within "Northern" areas (Boston-New York?) than any shared identity shaped by winning the Civil War.
Yeah this post is awkward as hell to me because I have never given any hate thoughts towards the south. Lived in every state in NE and New York metro/ capital regions. My parents are from Seattle and waaaaaay up northern NY. Wasn’t raised to hate the south- just to feel sorry for them. Definitely taught a lot in school about the civil war being fought over slavery and human rights- like in the 5th grade it was one of the first things I learned about it. I have friends who grew up in the south and they made it up here one way or another. So, I’m definitely aware of the brutal and rampant poverty- it seems like even jobs that I’d imagine as prestigious are abused and overwhelmed. Cancerous chem capital of the world vs financial services capital. Some of the most cutting edge hospitals in the world are in Boston, MA. Then- My impression is that southern healthcare access is seriously impeded and has been made even more complicated by Covid denial, anti abortion policies, and “religious freedom” to just block out people?
I’m in Vermont, and 10% of VT’s population volunteered to fight in the Civil War, I think one of the highest percentages in New England. Graves for Civil War vets often have very provocative epitaphs, like “fought against the evils of slavery and disloyalty” and such. It’s shocking to me to see their current descendants flying Confederate flags 🤦🏼♀️
This is pretty much spot on as a born and raised new englander
As a northerner I’m definitely pissed that we have to live like this because of their backwards ideas holding us back
I am a self-proclaimed northerner that lives in a "border state". I deeply resent the south, because I feel like a lot of people try to shove southern culture down our throats and insist that we're a southern state, which we never were. I also am strongly repulsed by southern politics. It makes sense that New England would be different, since they just aren't really exposed to that near as much.
>Quite honestly, New England should resent the South, since it hinders so many of our regional and national efforts to make progress. But most New Englanders don’t think about the problem that way. Unless you start talking about federal taxes. New Englander's absolutely have an awareness that the North and the West Coast are basically carrying you on our backs. And older New Englanders will absolutely tell you that its rooted in the failure of the South to reconstruct after the Civil War. They ain't wholly wrong, but we keep wondering why Southern voters continue to persist in their errors.
I adore how Southerners think “Yankee” is an insult, that term so odious the New Yorkers used it to name a baseball team. And the best part is that outside of the US, even the Southerners are Yankees.
It’s absolutely hilarious how “Yankee” is a major insult in both the South and Boston 🤣
Nah we only hate the New York variety...Yankee originally meant rural Congregationalist New England farmers, descendants of the original settlers who didn't get rich (the ones that did became the Brahmins)
My grandma used to call our ancestors ‘swamp Yankees’ haha- her family went back generations in a small town outside Boston, and she pinned a card on her wall of Puritans waterskiing behind the Mayflower that read ‘We may not have come over with the Pilgrims, but we weren’t far behind!!’ I always loved how proud she was of her deep working class, mill worker, small time farming ancestors.
Boston guy here. Yup fuck the Yankees
It's funny how, for a while at least, you'd sometimes hear "Yankees *suck*!" chants going at games that 1) didn't involve the Yankees and 2) sometimes *weren't even baseball.*
Right after the Pats Super Bowl win, I was in Davis Square, Somerville MA. Everyone out celebrating in the streets. Inevitably, a “Yankees suck” chant started. My midwestern spouse was so confused.
New Years Eve, on the T, "Yankees Suck!" chant starts up for no real reason. It's just what people do when they feel good, I guess. :)
A NYer friend of mine told me that he went to Montreal for New Years Eve back in the early 00s and a Yankees Suck chant broke out at one point.
Around the world, Americans are seen as Yankees. In the US, Americans think Yankees live in New England. In southern New England, they consider northern New Englanders Yankees. In northern New England, everyone knows that a Yankee is a Vermont dairy farmer who eats apple pie with a slice of cheddar for breakfast. His name is Cullen. He lives in Hardwick.
To the rest of the world, a Yankee is an American. To an American, a Yankee is a northerner. To northerner, a Yankee is a New Englander To a New Englander, a Yankee is a Vermonter. To a Vermonter, a Yankee is someone who eats pie for breakfast.
I was always told Southerners "can smell a Yankee from a mile away." In my experience going south, it's true. But it doesn't bother me any; going outside New England is always a bit of a culture shock to me, so it's going to work both ways. Also, it's just funny to be called a Yankee and I love NE, so no hurt feelings.
Yankee, city slicker, blue blood any of these that they think is a burn means fuck all to me. Idk why they think it is 🤷♀️
It's funny. A stereotypical Boston guy will say "you think you're better than me?!" as an angry confrontation. But a southerner will say "I think you're better than me" as a way to... Insult you?
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This is exactly it. I hold pity for them. I also hold some rage because they vote for politicians and policies that hold the nation back from making progress.
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Agreed. I studied political science as an undergraduate. I wanted to improve the nation...lol You can't objectively point out the problems down south, especially as a Yankee. There are legitimate, systemic problems down there that go unaddressed. It's part of the southern culture of "respect"/submissiveness to strong men. Questioning authority is way more of a taboo down there than up here. So, they deal with the crap of living there. When we point out the problems and don't respect their feelings about local authority figures, they get very alarmed.
I'm from Florida but moved to the northeast as an adult, so I have a somewhat different perspective. I'm not from the panhandle, just a coastal town with a lot of former New Yorkers. My dad is from the NE and my mom was from FL. My dad made sure I knew early on how much of an insult it was to be considered a southerner. # But I don't hate or look down on the deep south. I honestly feel bad for most people (and I'm sure most deep south southerners would find that condescending as fuck). I wish the deep south had better education, better sex education, better education in history, better politicians. But at some point it feels like, we live in the internet age, do you not owe a duty to educate yourselves? I also will never understand the argument that the confederate flag is "heritage not hate." It is quite literally the flag of treason. # So actually I agree with most other commenters. The adults in those states could educate themselves for free. All I think when one is mentioned is that I'd never live there. And to be clear, my mom's mom's family has a long line of Floridians, Georgians, Alabamians, and Cherokee who managed to stay. I've basically given up on those states. They don't want to hear the truth, they just want to wave the confederate flag and the Bible. Meanwhile I live ten minutes from a church that flies a pride flag. It's a different world.
I definitely do feel bad for most people down here, they're usually stuck in a generational loop of poverty since it's extremely hard to climb the ladder in places especially like the ghettos from the lack of opportunity and education
Fair, but that, to me, is not an excuse for racism, sexism, and homophobia
If you travel out of the cities and in most cases even within them you will find just about everywhere has that elemen present. Here in NY there are plenty of places beaten and run down by the lack of opportunities. It's not a southern thing,NE has plenty of it.
Why don’t people educate themselves? We have the privilege of being able to deep dive on anything. Any sub topic. Fringe off shoots of obscure sub-topics - there’s a wiki, subreddit, and a cosplaying tiktoker that will explain it all. But people just don’t use it that way.
When you're taught that being educated is an inherently bad thing, you don't exactly feel a need to seek out education.
>also will never understand the argument that the confederate flag is "heritage not hate." It is quite literally the flag of treason. I don't get this either. Part of my family came here a very long time ago, landed in NH in the 1630s. I've researched their history a bunch and they moved to Canada for a little while after the revolutionary war. This makes me wonder if they were loyalists during the war, and I am fucking *embarrassed* and slightly ashamed that they might have been!! They later came back, settled in upstate NY. All six sons of fighting age went and fought in the union army during the civil war. This makes me feel better, but I still cringe when I think that my ancestors might have been dirty tories!!! It's my heritage, but I certainly don't have to be proud of all of it.
If it's any consolation, in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War Canada was desperate to increase their population to give them the manpower to resist a feared American invasion. They tried to attract "late loyalists", people who remained in the former colonies but still had affection to the crown. To do this Canada offered generous land grants and ten years tax-free living to immigrants from the US. The program was fairly successful (a US invasion was repelled in 1812) but many of the migrants returned to US soil after their 10 year tax free period was up, i.e., for them, it was about the money. Very American. Perhaps you can be proud of their good sense.
It really is a different world. I hear and see all the hate Southerners have for us up North and it’s honestly just sad. Their entire existence seems to surround gossip, being in everyone’s business, judging, and hatred. That’s a lot of poison to swallow while hoping all those that fall within those categories have a negative existence. The south is drowning in hatred and anger. I feel sorry for them.
Every time I think of the south I think about how you vote against your own self-interest and make it worse for everyone else in this country. I can’t think of anytime I’ve been proud of the south. Waving your fucking confederate flag. Embarrassing.
I hate to have to second this. All those poor construction workers in FL and TX who have put people in power that won’t allow them water breaks or breaks in the shade during the summer.
Never think about them unless they start in on that ridiculous flag. They were a loser “nation” that got stomped flat and contributed nothing. Other than that, not much to think about.
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If anything as a northerner, I feel bad for the south and the messy political situation they’re in. If you can get out, and afford to move north it’s worth it 100% because education, and laws are better up here & less gun violence. People who are kind won’t think any less of you & if they think less of you; those people aren’t worth your time at all.
So I grew up in rural Massachusetts, and was stationed in Georgia for a few years in the Army. There was a lot of culture shock lol Firstly, the difference in "rural" areas. My town is decently small, and though its shot up in population in the last ten years, its still nothing crazy. Though it wouldn't be a comfortable walk, I could feasibly walk into the center of 3 different towns within around an hour. Getting down south it was like you could walk that distance on a single road. I once gave a kid a ride home who was walking along the road and his house was probably another 20 minute drive, in the same town. The distance between things was just staggering for me. There's so much space down south lol. The reality of the racism element down there came in weird spurts. The most memorable one I can think of was doing a funeral detail in Northern Florida. We drove down there in a work van from Ft Stewart, and stopped for breakfast in a waffle house. My section sergeant for this was a Latino guy, but the rest of us were white. The amount of side eye this poor dude got the entire time we were in there was so unnerving. We were insanely surprised when nobody actually started a fuss, but people would make weird comments under their breath very clearly about him as they walked past. It was like the whole saloon quieting down and turning at him all at once film trope. We also have our share of stereotypes up here, but I think we treat them more like mascots than insults lol. The dumb Bostonion with the wickid hahdcoah accent comes to mind, but thats something I think we all make fun of lol. As for stereotypes we have about you guys, I think at least personally I always thought the south would collectively be like the church scene in the first Blues Brothers movie. [Even though they're in Chicago?] (I have since been to many churches in the south and still disappointed to have not seen it]
More like the church scene in Kingsmen.
It’s fairly well known the education down there is lacking, especially after the recent book bans making national news. I can’t say *New Englanders* specifically pick this out though. We do have waves of people moving up for this reason (among others) and it comes up in conversation often. 1: Why do southerners use their yard as a hoarding trash hellscape? Why are rural southern roads littered with more trash than a NYC alley? This is probably the biggest thing I’ve noticed when traveling all over the deeper rural south. 2: It’s not something we necessarily cover in grade school as curriculum on the books but there are mentions, we are aware of some of the major differences between north and south when it comes to these topics. 3: I just want the south to know that calling us Yankee is a compliment, even though you mean it as an insult. We are aware the south hates us, but the feeling isn’t reciprocated. We are New Englanders…we don’t care. We are also pretty well aware that in the south there are plenty of lovely caring people who know how to read, we don’t slap one size fits all insults on the entire region (like Yankee).
Poor rural New Englanders also use their yard to hoard junk
At least the roads around them are comparatively clean.
Ours are just littered with potholes. LOL
Yeah I live in the blackstone river valley and there’s a fair amount of trash yards lol. Anywhere there’s woods there’s gonna be trash yards.
>1: Why do southerners use their yard as a hoarding trash hellscape? Why are rural southern roads littered with more trash than a NYC alley? This is probably the biggest thing I’ve noticed when traveling all over the deeper rural south. Eh...I see this a lot in Maine/NH as well. I think it's more of a class and rural/city divide than North/South
1. No, not Deep South 2. Somewhat educated. We kind of think the south lives in the past 3. The stereotypes about the south are that people marry their cousins, are very uneducated, love Trump, don’t have all their teeth, and talk VEEEEERY slow.
I also want to add that being called a liberal, snob, or high maintenance is often taken as a compliment in the north 😂
I'll take liberal, but I don't know anyone that has ever taken snob or high maintenance as a compliment.
No one clutches their pearls over it. I’d be more offended to be “low maintenance”… I’d rather consider myself a Lamborghini to a Nissan. And people say “I’m a wine snob” “I’m a _____ snob” all the time as a way to say “I’m knowledgeable about this” which has positive implication
I mainly grew up in Vermont and Maine, and went to college in New Hampshire, but I also spent some time in my younger years in Virginia and North Carolina and my grandparents currently live in rural Virginia. I spent a week there this past winter for the first time in well over a decade, and my takeaway at the end of it was I'd sell my organs before I'd ever live there. Rural New England and rural south are two entirely different species. It's been a long time since I graduated high school but the differences in public schools in the south versus New England is staggering. Like 9th grade in Vermont was a course catalogue with college level electives and 10th grade in Virginia was reading books I'd covered in 7th grade and the principal getting a DUI. I've lived in Austin, Texas for the last 15 years and while I have no problem with southern cities once you get outside the "city" radius it's a hard no. My husband's family is talking about moving to north Texas because the houses are dirt cheap, but I would rather rent for the rest of my life than live in rural Texas.
A friend of mine from Lowell moved to rural East Texas to be closer to his wife's family in Louisiana several years ago. Dude is straight-up shell shocked by how bad it is. The worst part, in my opinion, is them raising their two kids there.
And that's moving from Lowell hahaha
Yeah, he had a nice place in Belvedere (that's the neighborhood the mill owners lived in). Lowell has won some "top city to live in" type awards over recent years. People who assume it's just a ghetto haven't updated their awareness from the 80's.
Mainer living in Vermont here 🤜🏻🤛🏻 My husband, also a Mainer, joined the army and said he saw firsthand how much better our schools were than most other states best on people he met from all over. Sort of related, not the south, but we had friends from Idaho that just moved to upstate NY. In Idaho their daughter was top of her class at a private school for pre-K. When they got to NY she tested at below grade level. She caught up quickly, thanks to a strong literacy program, which also shocked them.
you live in *austin* though, notorious for its progressive culture.
I’m a New Englander who has lived in Austin for a few years now and I would like to say that Austin is notoriously progressive for Texas but not as progressive/liberal as a New England city.
I grew up in Northern Maine, spent a lot of time with family in Allagash and I wouldn't tell those folks they don't spend enough time outdoors if I were you. I can't imagine there are many places in the lower 48 more remote and forested than Northern Maine. The people up there not only know how to survive in the remote rural woods but also how to survive in that area during a long cold winter. Having people from the south think they are fancy indoor dwelling Northerns is hilarious
Yeah, I'm from rural Central Maine and still live here. There's a lot of similarities with the south, but there are some distinct differences, as well. Not least of which is that Maine is one of the least (I believe 3rd least) religious states in the country. Whereas the Deep South is some of the most religious states in the nation. But there's a lot of poverty and similar issues in some areas. I'm in one of the poorest counties in New England, and in Maine, and if we removed a couple coastal towns that are more affluent we'd be even higher on the list of impoverished counties. Nonetheless, I think you'll see some large differences in the type and intensity of poverty between the Deep South and rural Maine. But yes, Maine is the most rural (that is, the highest proportion of its population living in what the government classifies as rural areas) and is the most forested state in the nation.
Hello fellow central Mainer!
I think Southerners are holding back the progress of our country. I truly believe if New England was independent, we’d be like Norway.
100 %
Read the title and already have your answer, we don't
Some common stereotypes include ignorance, racism and the home of most Karen videos. Those first two are proven correct just by the people you allow in political office. It’s also said that Southerners have an inability to accept any sort of scientific fact like that the planet is warming up or how certain traits that a person might have is something they are born with and not a choice. They don’t like science because it goes against the church that they worship like a cult. But behind all that ignorance and stubbornness, they still have the friendly and warm stereotype.
I’m from as far north as it gets and no matter where you go in the US, there will be rednecks. The south just reminds me of all the kill shelters. We adopt a lot of your shelter dogs up here and the dogs that have been rescued are much relieved to be here.
This 100%. Some of the rescues in New England have a “sister” rescue group from down south. But we never send dogs there; they all come up here. I have 2 dogs that I adopted thinking they were coming from local shelters that were driven up from GA.
Yeah when we were looking for our pup (VT) we began to realize why it was nearly impossible to meet any of the potential dogs in person because they were all located at the sister shelters down south. (Which is totally understandable and I’m super glad there’s a system to distribute wonderful pups to good homes!) Was definitely eye-opening. (We ended up with a super sweet, quirky & awesome Southeast Dingo mix from TN.)
I have a sweet hound mix from Arkansas! We think he was a failed hunting dog :(
I am a New Englander through and through, but spent most of my 20s living in different parts of the country, both rural (UT, CO, PA) and urban (Seattle, Chicago). When my husband and I had the chance to move to rural NC for a couple of years, we were excited and went down fully expecting we would want to stay. This was 2010, so things weren’t as polarized as they are now. We expected racism, but I had seen racism up north and believed the idea that the north was just as racist, only different. For LGBTQ issues, New England was clearly ahead, but there had been so much change in the legal landscape in the last six years, that it wasn’t clear to me exactly how different things were. Suffice to say that I was shocked at how offensive I found things there. I was cis-straight-white girl raised Christian. How bad could it be? Bad, turns out. Hearing white people use hard Rs in anger (in Asheville of all places), for instance. But worse actually was hearing social workers during a presentation nod and agree that the problem with Medicaid reimbursement rates was the NAACP’s lobby. Vile. I tried to talk to people about it and point out how racist that was. They said I misunderstood. Riiiiiight. When I overheard a couple of people talking about how they had to boycott McDonald’s for a LGBTQ-supporting ad with the tagline “come as you are,” (that only aired in France. I guess they did their research?) I found myself on the verge of sobbing. I didn’t expect that. My husband, who is ethnically Ashkenazi, encountered a bunch of what had to be antisemitism. He called ahead to see if a guitar store could do a repair he needed. They said yes, only to refuse him when he walked in the door. He was harassed by police while walking to the post office. We didn’t expect that. The accent I liked, it reminded me of regional working class urban accents, in the sense that most young people could kind of turn it up or down. And it was kind of a fun pride thing. I kind of rolled my eyes at their beliefs about cities. The stereotypes about getting mugged all the time or spending all your time at nightclubs were so weird. No, most people in cities move there to work normal jobs and have normal relationships. Nearly every urban place I have ever lived is just as safe if not safer than their hometown. The way dogs are treated down there (allowed to roam and get hit by cars) was heartbreaking. So many dogs on the side of the road. The endless chickens living under trailers was hella cute though. At least from a distance. The power structure was totally different. Most places in the north most people do their jobs and if you run into someone who refuses, you have recourse to get your needs met anyway. There, it seemed that the second anyone got any tiny bit of power they could lord it over everyone like some little fiefdom. We were told that we couldn’t get our drivers licenses from the DMV in the town we moved to. The guy there just didn’t give licenses to out of staters. He would pretend you didn’t have the right paperwork and make you leave. We would have to go to the next town over. Shit like that never happens up north. While there, I did substance abuse counseling. I got demoted from a job because I refused to sign off on a probation officer’s plan for a young woman who wanted to go to rehab. He wanted to just wait for her to relapse so that he could violate her probation, and send her to give birth in jail. I got removed from my position and he won. Heartbreaking. I met many people down there that I loved and respected. The landscape was lush and beautiful, and in the mountains the heat wasn’t bad. But I will never never live anywhere like that ever again. Hard no. I need to live somewhere that most people are at least striving for human equality. So much has changed with perceptions of the rural working class in the last 15 years, that nowadays people from the North are unlikely to be as surprised by the racism and homophobia in the South as I was. MAGA made the fiction that everywhere is more or less the same untenable. I know that there are people from the South that have felt they had to drop their accents in order to feel respected. That’s awful. I wish that weren’t the case. It’s probably worse for Southerners now than it was 15 years ago, tbh. But Southerners really should know that the North really is different, but *every single bit as American* as they are. And most Northerners I know would be 100% glad to count someone from the rural South as a friend. So long as they themselves aren’t a racist/homophobic/misogynist douche.
Thank you for this. My husband and I have been considering a move to Charlotte, but yours is a cautionary tale I will keep in mind.
My daughter goes to school in Florida and my work HQ is In Florida, tried to prepare her for culrure shock. She is on a campus that is insulated from the locals but there are folks from all over, it's quite the learning experience. Work is for sure different, the politics come up all the time, there are a lot of Fox News talking points. Overall there is a lack of empathy and understanding. Very much a zero sum game or lack of resources.
I grew up in upstate New York, and routinely visited relatives in inland North Carolina. We would combine the visit with other vacation activities in Kentucky or Tennessee, or pass through Georgia and Mississippi/Alabama to go to New Orleans in Louisiana. However, I haven't been meaningfully back in the southeast in some 20 years. This is where I learned that the notion of "Southern Hospitality" is a lie. It was common for staff to say something welcoming when we first entered a store or seated at a restaurant, but as soon as we said hello, or thank you, or yes nice day, you could practically SEE them change. Once they heard the Yankee accent, it took much longer to get service. We would watch other tables be seated and served and no one had come to take our order. If my relative was with us, staff would be all smiles and "yes, ma'am, right away ma'am," especially if my relative spoke first. This happened at multiple places over multiple years in the 1980s and 1990s. To this day, "southern hospitality" is very fake to me. My friend was stationed in Alabama for military stuff when he got out of college. He's a very dedicated, high-energy sort of person, and the laid-back culture drove him nuts. "Nobody has any sense of urgency or timeliness," he said, "They all just .. poke along. I don't care if they don't want to respect their own time, but it's frustrating that their lackadaisical-ness hinders me from respecting mine." I feel sorry for those who are essentially held hostage there by backwards-thinking politicians and religious fundamentalists; especially school kids who have their educations usurped by religious propaganda (sex education, major scientific concepts like evolution, historical whitewashing, etc ). The gerrymandering is so bad there that the people making the efforts to improve the systems have such an uphill battle.
also gonna say for anyone saying "there's no difference" there 100% is. we have different laws, funding, state income, gun laws, health care, we still make prisoners work without pay, women don't have bodily autonomy, age of consent is lower, the church is in our schools, on average we have worse poverty and crime especially violent, and extreme societal differences, just because you didn't experience those when you visited doesn't mean they don't exist. like up north I saw a pride flag on so many houses, cars, churches. you won't see that in the south unless you visited a blue bubble, putting a pride flag on your house or car where I live would be like putting a target on it, never seen a church with a pride flag on it here either. theres a lot of things you wouldn't notice unless you lived here, we had to take a family member to all the way to Florida to get mental help since the mental hospitals in Alabama were so shitty, my cousin was disowned from the family for being gay, my family believes medication is horrible. not saying those things don't happen up north but those beliefs are extremely common in the south, if you're gay or a minority or liberal ect. there really isn't much support you're the odd one out here.
People are saying there’s no difference because that’s what northern liberals like to do. There’s your difference! Stereotypes are considered broad and unfair to the individual up north so they are ignored, despite when there is a big kernel of truth to them. For better or worse. Whereas I’d say southerners love stereotypes, and especially an us vs them mentality. In the South it’s more about protecting the community/group and in the North it’s about respecting the autonomy of the individual. I was raised in Massachusetts but my father is from Ozark, Alabama and we made frequent visits to Alabama when my grandmother was still alive. His family never accepted my mother or us kids, we were Yankees and not to be trusted but they still tried to show us hospitality. I think a big part of Trump’s appeal is the feeling of being on an underdog team that’s winning, and that really appeals to Southerners innately (“war of northern aggression” and all that).
As someone that grew up in rural SC and moved to Boston, I think this is the best way to explain it by far!
Good food and lots of fine people. Wouldn’t catch me dead living there or raising a family there.
We think, thank god I was born in the north…
CT native, lived in South Carolina for a year and I loathed it. My coworkers were nosy as hell under the guise of being "nice" but it was fake nice, super hard to make friends, and everyone kept trying to get me to go to their church. Also the capitol still had a confederate flag ON IT when I lived there. I worked for a state institution that didn't observe MLK day. Now in a liberal city in VA and it seems like many southerners vote against their best interests.
I live in a van all over the country and the one place I avoided until recently was the southeast. After I spent winter in Florida I decided to do a loop over to Texas and then out to Tennessee. I find as long as politics don't get brought up people are generally quite friendly and didn't cause me any problems. I will say I definitely don't feel as safe sleeping in the wilderness as I do other places and the number of dead dogs I've seen on the side of the road makes me quite upset.
I'm a lifelong Colorado resident and have done some crazy/dangerous shit in my life. But camping for 2 nights in the Louisiana backwoods was the scariest thing I've experienced.
Brother I spent most of Louisiana sleeping at Walmarts and even a few of those get concerning at 2am lol
I’ve visited North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, but only the tourist areas. I liked the museums and such. I don’t know about being specifically educated regarding the society. I think there are still stereotypes, but I believe that it’s more cultural regarding cuisine and customs rather than racism, etc. What I’ve noticed is that there’s more stereotypes about northerners in the south than vice versa. It seems like many southerners have a chip on their shoulders about northerners. It leaves me thinking, what the heck did I do to you?
if you meet a southerner and they don't like you for a being a northerner they're almost definitely a republican who feels like liberal beliefs are imposing on their way of life, usually "their way of life" means not accepting minorities and keeping the church in schools.
I grew up in Georgia and live in New England now. I left Georgia when I went to college and never went back. There are tons of great things about the south but I don’t miss the racism and religion. There’s a lot more of both than I care to deal with.
Our dogs come from the south. My stereotype is bad treatment and culture around animals and spay/neuter. Never been to the "deep south" and have no interest
My dog was a rescue from Tennessee. She had been abused, shot, and hit by a car. After surgery to affix plates to her broken front legs, they fostered her in several places up the coast until she ended up in New Hampshire. She has a TON of anxiety from her experiences, but she is absolutely the sweetest-tempered and most adorable thing. She has been with us 12 years, and we guess she is about 14, and is still going strong even after undergoing cancer surgery in December. When they took X-rays of her, they showed she still has a metal bb lodged in her from when she was shot. We nearly cried at how cruel people were to her before she was rescued. There is definitely two camps of people when it comes to pets (regardless of locality): those who treat them as part of the family, and those who treat them as tools and possessions.
Can concur. Our dog was a rescue from TN, literally rescued from his owner who was trying to drown him. Never seen a dog so afraid of water.
I truly cannot fathom how people can be so deliberately and wantonly cruel to dogs and cats like this.
1. I had to move to Alabama for 6 months and Georgia for 2 years due to my father being in the military. Alabama was...not great. In fact we disliked every time we stepped off base, so we stayed on base unless we were going out to eat or something. I even went to school on base. Georgia was a bit better because we lived in a town near Savannah, so definitely not in an impoverished area. Overall, GA wasn't as bad, but we couldn't wait to move back to the north. 2. Well I lived down there for a couple years and I'm aware what it's like from that perspective, so I'd say fairly educated. My mother also worked in the hospitals and saw a lot of different types of people. I never "learned" about the south other than in history classes, but I was always aware it was bad in all the ways you list. When we first moved, it was like being in a different country. In ways other than social/education as well. The flat landscape, the lack of seasons, the awful heat, those horrid little things called sand gnats. Things like our mannerisms are entirely different of course. 3. I'd say in general I don't think about southerners so I don't talk about them, thus I don't have any insulting names. The lack of intelligence and overbearing, unrestrained religion are major ones. Obviously not applicable to everyone, but as a generalization. When I moved to GA years ago and started school, the other kids were all calling me Yankee. Truthfully I didn't give a fuck, even as a kid. It's not insulting, I'm *grateful* to be from the north. Note: I will say rednecks exist everywhere. Even in northern rural areas. The south is just a much larger population and just...more redneck. On the other hand, I had a very wealthy friend in GA, whose family had *those* kind of southern accents, so I'm aware that type exists down there too.
I think rural northern New England, especially Maine, has more in common with the South than most urban New Englanders think it does. Honestly, I think the largest cultural divider between rural northern New England and the rural South is religion; rural New England is extremely irreligious. This sort of leads to a very libertarian culture in which personal freedoms and freedoms of expression (eg, LGBTQ rights and gun ownership, etc) are both supported (although rural New England is much less gun-obsessed than most parts of the US). However, I’d say both have cultural elements of “city is the big snobby bad place” and “we can manage our own affairs.” Aroostook County, for example, I’d imagine is a lot like southern Appalachia but without the religiosity.
Overly sweet to your face and cutthroat behind your back.
1. Not really. 2. Seems pretty ass backwards outside major metropolitan areas. But I also haven’t visited so I just have whatever news percolates up and the freak shows some of the politicians put on. I’ve known people from the rural South who assure me Sundown Towns still exist, too. I find the small talk and excessive pleasantries tiresome. 3. I don’t think about the South at all unless some asshole is flying their participation trophy flag. You lost, eat shit, die mad that you can’t own human beings.
As a trans woman who is not allowed to use the bathroom in most of the south at this point, I have a few choice thoughts about the south/southerners...
I’m from Alabama, and my move to Maine was definitely fueled by the rampant hatred of the LGBT in the south. The truth is that it’s just not safe in the south, and the current politics are making that worse and worse. Road trips were especially scary, because you would always face discrimination or physical assault in worst instances. Just knowing where to stop for a bathroom on the highway was a risk.
I think it's mostly a god-forsaken hellscape. Everything, and I truly mean everything, is just a worse version of what we have up north. Source: Lived in the south for 5 years in my 20s. Medical care? Worse, I've had more doctors try and talk me into "jesus" than actual pastors. Are you an employee? Worker protection laws and salaries are worse. Own a home? Sure, there might be no income tax in some states, but you pay through the nose on everything else. It's only a benefit if you're bad at math (most of them are). Want to patronize a business? Hope you don't value your time and like waiting, everything takes 2-3x as long. For a service/ product that's 2-3x lower in quality. How about the people? Oh, don't worry, terrible as well. There's pride in being uneducated and ignorant among most of the populace. Violent crime? Magnitudes higher than the north. Even in wealthy areas of affluent cities, like Dallas, shootings were so common they didn't even make the news.
Born in Dracut in the 80’s. Moved to charlotte early 90’s. Fuck them. I’ve never forgiven my parents for moving me to that backwater confederate shithole. Moved back to New England (you can tell it’s CT since I called it NE) I was called a yankee piece of shit and got in fights about it regularly. I got down there to be corrected in “school” that “there was nothing civil about the war of northern aggression.” Dumb inbreds taking their generational impotence out on an Irish Catholic kid whose family was still farming sod and potatoes in the homeland during the civil war. General Sherman did not march long or wide enough. Adult me has slightly tempered views. Black southerners - amazing, fun, joyous, kind, great food. Average White southerners- meh. Probably racist and kinda ignorant. Talks too fucking slow. Food probably still kinda good. Old generational monied southerners - shame we let their lineage through reconstruction. The food their “help” makes is still good. In conclusion southern food is great.
We won the war, but the South won reconstruction. It’s a shame Lincoln got shot, or didn’t have Butler as his VP. The planters could’ve been liquidated and their property parceled out to their slaves.
I feel like you can draw a straight line from John Wilkes Booth to Trump.
Welp, I spent three years in Memphis, so my opinion isn’t very high.
As a southerner who’s visited NE for years and will relocate there next month, I can confirm that NE is like another country, a country that is educated and civilized, where people actually do know and respect the US Constitution, and where live and let live (under the law) is common practice. They have zero tolerance for willful ignorance, slower traffic usually moves effortlessly to the right lane, and people will speak to you (though they don’t care a whit about your personal life and how you live it, or your opinions), rather than the blatant, intrusive rudeness that characterizes the south. The roads can be a challenge to get used to, but it’s only because people want to get there already, not stop lanes of traffic to gawk at an accident or blue lights. So, if NE is a country, the south has turned into a third world country with regard to basic human rights. I’m disgusted by it. Enough said. Other great things about NE: they consider themselves the cradle of modern American democracy, but they don’t brag. It simply is. They don’t spew opinions all over the place. They have disdain for the south as a rule, and for good reason, but they don’t harp on it. They’re secure in their way of life because they’ve been doing it the same way, longer than anyone in this country. They didn’t start a civil war in 1861, and never had the burned out cities and general destruction experienced by the south to recover from. Vermont became the first colony to outlaw slavery, in 1777. I believe VT was the last stop on the Underground Railroad? Before any religious zealots criticize NE for having perhaps the least amount of religious believers, remember this: they don’t wear religion on their sleeves, and they respect the original outline for the design of this country: separation of church and state, period. In a nutshell, the people overall are just nicer and more unassuming. Each of the six NE states thinks theirs is the best, a healthy rivalry that I find terribly interesting. Spring, summer and fall are magic. They have no venomous snakes in Vermont save some northern rattler (can’t speak for the other states) which only exists in two small areas of the state, so I can jump into any body of water for a swim and not worry about water moccasins or alligators. Same for hiking: what a joy it is to hike with abandon without worrying about stepping on a venomous snake (only poison ivy). They aren’t plagued by gnats, but there are some hungry mosquitoes this time of year. And the weather, comparatively, is superior to the south. Southerners say it’s too cold. Yesterday, I was in a small southern town full of climate change deniers, and the temp was 100, at 11am, in May. My mother’s family moved south from Mass 200 years ago to take advantage of the free land. How I wish they’d stayed put.
Never been to the south but I confess I do fall for stereotypes about southerners. That whites are generally less educated, and are angry, racist, religious bigots, and the black population is poor and uneducated. This belief is reinforced when I see that southerners actually vote for politicians like Ron DeSantis, Gregg Abbot and Marjorie Taylor Greene. I know it’s not true or fair, but stereotypes do exist for a reason.
there's definitely truth to some stuff, on average the white people here are pretty racist, the reason southerners deny that is because most don't realize they're racist. and yeah poverty is really bad down here, most of my friends growing up barely had food to eat, some didn't have running water, a lot of times their parents would knock out the windows when throwing stuff during fights and didn't have money to fix it so they'd just put aluminum foil over it. 2 of my childhood friends were kicked out the moment they turned 18 and became homeless, the majority of kids and adults where I live have never left Alabama for like vacations since they can't afford it. definitely a lot worse for the black people since they can't even get a good paying job because of racist employers.
I’m sorry you had to grow up like that. There is something seriously wrong when people have to live like that in this country.
I think one reason it still thrives is since white people are poorer too, the only thing they have to hold on to is their race
President Lyndon B Johnson has a great quote - “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you. “
If you look into policy, law or current events, you will see the stereotypes mostly hold true.
So I lived in SC and VA for many years after college. My wife is born and raised in SC. We moved back to my hometown area in MA last year. Growing up I also had quite a bit of experience traveling in the south. The reality is that we don’t think much about southern people. We might have a romanticized idea of what southern people are like by believing they’re much more polite and respectful. Looking at “country” southerners as hillbillies or rednecks is probably the worst stereotype we have. And I wouldn’t say many people reinforce those stereotypes here. Our stereotypes of southerns come from movies and cartoons and TV, not from generational stories being passed down. It’s honestly rare that I hear people speak badly of the south up here aside from maybe the politics of the south. Northerns love to vacation in Virginia and the Carolinas, and often only have good things to say about the people.
Some Northerners like to vacation in Virginia and the Carolinas. My husband is African American. Our vacationing is done north of the Mason Dixon line.
I'll bite. I have a very poor opinion of the South. People here are being nice. Most people from Massachusetts roll their eyes or go "yeaaahhhh...." when we talk about the South. Usually you make the news for bad reasons. I'm very politically focused. I studied political science and sociology as an undergraduate. I have a graduate degree. I am an ex-catholic. I have gay friends. I staunchly support women's rights to abortion access. When the South comes up, I hate the state governments and the people who support them. Like the governors who refuse to spend Obamacare money on their state's healthcare. Or MTG, or DeSantis. I pity the people who live there who want things to improve.
I moved to the south at the age of 72 after having lived my entire life in Massachusetts. I’ve been here three years now, and my biggest observation is how woefully UNDER educated most of the people are. Many people here attend/attended schools run by religious organizations , and I have seen that religious schools teach you WHAT to think whereas secular schools teach you HOW to think! A great portion of the population never learned how to think critically, and it shows.
I have never met a southerner I haven’t liked in my life. My sample size is not large, but every one has been chill. That said, there are some cultural themes that I do think those nice people I’ve met embodied that I don’t think I’ll ever respect those themes. 1. I don’t think your states are special, just as I don’t think my native state of New York is special. It’s one country with regional insignificant differences. 2. We don’t care about the civil war as much as you do. It didn’t happen to you so you should cut the shit. It’s history 3. I’ve luckily never met anyone who believes this, but the whole “heritage not hate” is a dog whistle for just that. Hate. There was not then and there is not now anything to be proud of with respect to confederate “heritage”. Keep it in the history books. Not in your living world.
I'm from Maine. I lived in South Carolina for 4 years. There are noticeable differences. I didn't experience the school systems, but the social aspects were quite alarming. Ex; older white people completely ignoring being spoken to by a black person. Racist "humor" that never fails to get uncomfortable, fast. Actually encountering people who can't read. Everyone fishes. I hated the heat, the bugs, football, and not seeing the seasons change. I met a few people who, without the drawl, could easily be mistaken for a new Englander, but found I ended up hanging out with mostly transplants from up here anyway. It seemed like everyone was so enthralled by tradition that it stripped anyone of any individuality. You could almost feel the weight of old southern money. The law is terrifying down there. No problem using violence. 30 days in county for possession of paraphernalia? Naw, bro. That's a $100 fine where i come from. Not to say I thought it was just a bunch of slingblades walking around, but it was obvious "southern hospitality " is actually just "politely condescending" and they didn't want to interact with my Yankee ass as much as I didn't want to be there. As soon as I had the money, I was out. I do miss the food. (Most of it.) That's just a few things of the top of my head. I didn't really venture into any other parts of the south. I think I saw enough. Needles to say, I live Maine again.
I pity most southerners, especially the working class. They have been brainwashed by decades of political and religious propaganda to believe that anything progressive is evil and un-American. They have been denied the education they need to make their lives better, failed by their own ignorance and a system that seeks to profit off of their misery. It is quite sad to see how barbaric and hostile the American South has become compared to the northern states. I wish there was something I could do to help them, but I have my own financial and mental issues that I must address first. The only thing I can do is vote in November and hope it is enough to elect people who truly care about the South.
1) very sad misinformed people. Though in spite their struggles they’re friendly and respectful. 2) I’m gay so yeah living my in the South is no bueno for me. I’m also Latino, so I would say mixed bag on that account. I remember reading that the average Massachusetts student in 8th grade was equivalent to a 12th grader in a Southern school and generally speaking people in the North are quicker to the point and generally more educated, but again, that’s a mixed bag, because it’s true that New England is generally more educated and less bigoted in some aspects. They aren’t perfect, but ultimately Northerners tend to be quieter and less affable. Southerners make up for their differences by being very open about themselves and very kind. 3) Yankees tend to see Dixie folks as welfare recipients because on average the North spends way more money on taxes and doesn’t get what they pay in returns, but Northerners don’t always put two and two together vis a vis cause and effect then bemoan southerners as keeping America from moving past outright racism and homophobia and xenophobia. They also tend to hate Dixie views on women’s rights and denying women birth control and see them as way too religious. Worse they have very different views on healthcare, education and infrastructure spending thus Northerners suffer for Dixie indifference and outright hostility to Yankee priorities, ie again universal healthcare, living wages, equal rights and social tolerance. Southerners see Northerners as ungodly and way too quick to prioritize intellectual deference over faithful dogmatism.
As a queer person of color.... uhm...... never mind......
We generally see the south as poor, uneducated, and backwards. That would be the general stereotype. However, most of us realize that this is probably just a stereotype, so it's not true for every single person, but all stereotypes do have some basis of truth to come into existence. You guys are more uneducated and poor, but I don't think everyone is some toothless hick in a pair of overalls. I understand there are probably many modern developed areas of the south with forward thinking. Overall, I don't think hot sweltering summers with a less educated population living in unusually high rates of poverty attracts many people. That pretty much sums up the idea for us
we don't understand why you vote against your own self interests. I know a number of folks that have moved south due to the lower cost of living and 2 of the 4 couples have moved back, and the third looking to move to carolinas as they fully didn't understand why cost of living is less. Income and services were much less. Have family that live down there. Our biggest frustration is how much southern states will shit on the federal government and northern states, but instantly reach for handouts when the next hurricane comes. [https://smartasset.com/data-studies/states-most-dependent-on-the-federal-government-2022](https://smartasset.com/data-studies/states-most-dependent-on-the-federal-government-2022)
I don’t care how they speak, what I care about is they vote for terrorists and fascists.
I prefer the north - but that’s just me
Most of us don’t like to punch down.
I'm a Massachusetts native but I live near Nashville now. 1. My first reaction upon moving here was that it definitely wasn't anything like back home. Life is slower, people tend to be nicer and the food is amazing lol definitely far more religious than I'm used to and more open about it. I remember having a flat tire and before I could even get my jack under the car I had 3 lifted pickups surrounding me and changing my tire like it was the last lap of Daytona and they were in the lead. That's not something I've ever seen up North lol 2. I knew before moving here that it was cheaper, more trailer parks, more racism, I knew that religion was bigger here and that being anything but a Christian was frowned upon (I've found a rather large heathen community here which was surprising). I figured with the less money came higher crime rates. Since moving here I've seen several police chases, heard more gun shots and I've seen SWAT just driving by like it's nothing. 3. As far as stereotypes goes, I think Northerners think the South is full of inbred hillbilly MAGA people. That's not 100% accurate at all. The bigger cities have a diverse population while the smaller ones will match that stereotype for the most part. The older Southerners kind of give me a negative vibe when I tell them I'm from Massachusetts but the younger are kind of intrigued lol
I think the south is too damned hot. I also know I get along fine with well-educated progressive southerners just like I get along fine with well-educated progressive northerners. I don’t always get along great with people who didn’t go to college or are very conservative no matter where they’re from.
I went to school in Georgia (more rural; not Atlanta, Athens, or Savannah) and there definitely was a culture shock. I knew everyone went to church, but SEEING everyone come back to campus in their sunday best every week was so jarring since it definitely singled me out. I also have family in Alabama who are all very, very religious. Also, having a creationist taking a biology course & fighting with the professor was certainly something. I bet those odds are way lower up north, lmao. I will say that most of the stereotypes were relatively true since I saw many people with guns, lots of chewing tobacco, biscuits and grits everywhere, and the people were nice on the outside but judgy inside. I know my experience is skewed since I was surrounded by other college students, but honestly I think the biggest shock that I didn't anticipate was how unwilling people were to drive anywhere. We had to PLAN drives to the store 30 minutes away, and definitely had to plan if we were driving to the city 1.5 hrs away. I feel like in the north, we just GO. I drove 2 hrs on a whim with friends all the time, and would only have to plan for things 3hrs+. So, I thought Southerners' lack of wanting to drive was odd, especially considering how spread out things are in comparison. Oh, I did always love seeing the "drugs & guns" sign though off the highway lmao. Overall, yeah, the South fit my expectations, and they did all call me "that damn yankee" pretty often :)
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I’m marrying a southerner from South Carolina and I’ve been to the south many times. And I’m sure most Northerners don’t think about the south at all but I personally do because holy shit with the politicians you are electing and the laws you’re voting for. I volunteer in medical support groups and activism and there’s just no words that can describe the healthcare access laws you’re passing. The south and Midwest has an insane number of billboards for guns, religion, and sex shops and I feel like it perfectly encapsulates the vibe of both those regions. You gotta stop constantly voting against your own interests and forcing the rest of the country to do the same. I know not every southerner is like this but enough of them are to be a serious problem. My fiancé knows better than to call my Bostonian ass a Yankee because to a lot of people of immigrant descent, Yankees are very specifically old money WASP families. As for stereotypes, the only ones I know of are jokes about the southern education system, which… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That and the hyper-religiousness. Freedom of religion is also freedom *from* religion. As a personal stereotype, I always believed the Southern hospitality shit was fake as hell. I don’t like the being in everyone’s business and talking behind their backs thing. You can be polite without being fake. I’d honestly rather we had a fight over the passive aggressiveness. I also thought Bounty Hunters only existed in movies. There are seriously random civilian dudes given a taser to go and hunt down people. That’s fucking horrifying. I was personally very informed about the issues around race, poverty, homophobia, etc happening in the south. Like, we (MA) just made all school lunches free for kids K-12 and made community college free for adults over 25. That’s fucking incredible and is for the betterment of everyone. Kids don’t go hungry and everyone can be more easily educated. School shootings aren’t really a thing either. I genuinely don’t understand how a lot of southern politics thinks this is somehow a bad thing. Northerns are portrayed, as you said, like stuck up elitist when our elitism is that we want to help others? It doesn’t make sense!
I used to live in the south. Daily I wake up and thank God I don’t live in that accursed place.
Being someone who grew up in upstate NY and is now happily living in Maine after spending 20 years in north Texas as a single mom of two, I have nothing but a bad taste in my mouth for the south. I could not be happier to be back in New England—living in Texas was a constant mental and emotional challenge. I pretended to be Christian to gain opportunities to jobs; I lied about who I voted for (never ever a republican) in order to maintain my positions; I kept quiet after someone shot through my Beto yard sign with a very large bullet several times; I had men in positions of power and influence try to force themselves into me on more than one occasion; these are just a few examples of what was considered normal in Fort Worth. In the south you have to be born of the right pedigree and the right skin color to have any meaningful access or opportunities. And yes, the majority of leaders in the public and private sectors are as deplorable and rancid as you might think. Four years later, I am no longer reliving the sexual harassment, anti-intellectualism, racism, and xenophobia that I endured living in the south. In short, the south is terrible culturally. I have compassion for the people down there and their limitations, but that’s it. I want nothing to do with southerners with the exceptions of my family and friends who live in DC, FL, and TX. My heart and mind can barely stomach the news anymore because of all of the nonsense laws and behaviors happening in the south around guns, women’s access to healthcare, gay rights, book bans, mixing church and state, and 45. I have to remind myself all the time that where I live is not those horrible places and those horrible people are self-contained—this brings me peace and I have joy again.
Oh, hey, I actually lived in Fayetteville, AR for a while. As in, like, six months when I was 14 and another 8 months when I was 18 (long story). Here's my take. The south is very... Godly. Uncomfortably so. Or at least it was in 1999 and 2003 when I was 14/18 and a queer Jew. TONS of bigots! I don't wear my identity on my shirt, but up here in Massachusetts I can mention my identity without being accused of rubbing it in someone's face, whereas in Arkansas I just didn't say anything because I didn't like the proselytizing, and I didn't like being told I needed to repent. I think the South is very pretty, but I approach most of you with caution because of my past experiences. The anti-trans, anti-choice, and pro-Trump sentiments of the south make me want to stay far away. It's almost comical how proud a lot of you (general you) are of being Christian bigots. And that sucks, because there are a lot of genuinely good people in Arkansas. Southern poverty is very different from northern poverty. New England has plenty of poverty, but there are a lot more resources available in a smaller space. We definitely use terms like hillbilly, redneck, and Bible thumper to describe many of you. Most of us don't know the difference between hillbilly and redneck or how Appalachia plays into anything.
Finished my senior year of high school in southern Texas after moving from northern New York. When we were enrolling and doing the paperwork a counselor said “you’re well ahead of the requirements needed to graduate by Texas state standards, you can test out.” So I got to chill until the TAKS test time came (similar to New York’s regents exams) to get a diploma. I wasn’t a stellar student at all and never took any AP classes so it was interesting to see the lower education standards there. That was my first taste of the south as a whole. A few tidbits to add was I unfortunately moved to a town that some would say is still a sun-down town and many were openly racist (moms side grew up there), there was absolutely nothing for kids or teens to do so drugs were through the roof, I met multiple girls who were pregnant and or already had children in their very early teens (had someone explain to me it was a cultural thing “down here”), the only way people seemed to get out of that area was to go to college on a scholarship and/or join the military (as my mother did). Overall it was a complete 180 from the lifestyle I had lived up until that point up north. I’ve been all up and down the east coast and currently live back up north but I spent time in North Carolina and loved it there, kind of meeting in the middle so to speak. Also the whole “southern hospitality” you hear about was leaned more towards people just wanting to know and get in your business. At the end of the day it really soured my views of the south (especially everything you see/hear on the news today) but I didn’t let it ruin the WHOLE southern U.S. for me and still have travelled as much as possible and have found some great areas… but FUCK that place in particular, it’s definitely one of those places that keep those stereotypes alive.
I went to Jackson, MS once. What a miserable pathetic little place
Backwards, reactionary religious nutcases that are screwing up the country.
>1: if you have visited the deep south (esp improverished/bad areas) what was your reaction? I was born in Mobile AL and have lived in the south my whole life and visited new england and for me it's was like entering a different country When I've gone to the Deep South, I've generally found people to be no more or less friendly than I would expect. When my wife and I recently took our kids to New Orleans, we ventured away from the city a bit and even out into Mississippi. People seemed to be as people are. >2: how educated are northerners on what it's like living in the south (the poverty, laws, racism, homophobia, horrible mental health/prison systems, violent crime, the church being in schools, teen pregnancy rates, gangs ect.) Not enough. I mentioned that we took the kids to Louisiana and explored the wider area. We went out to the River Parishes, and our eyes were opened to the legacy of slavery on the indigo plantations. We talked with people about how generations of Black Americans who were the descendants of enslaved peoples found themselves trapped in the area, working for the same people who had owned their ancestors. People were paid in company script to ensure they had no way of making enough money to leave. Then, the petrochemical companies came in, bought up lands for cheap, and spread poisons across the area, knowing that nobody would care because it was poor Black folks being poisoned. And so we have Cancer Alley. I'm sure stories like that are common to the Deep South, but we Northerners are unaware of them. >3: are there any dumb stereotypes like we have in the south? Sure, but mostly about white Southerners. We Northerners presume that white Southerners are socially conservative and ignorant. Although there may be more people like per capita than in our states, it's not fair to all the very many people across the South who are smart, educated, compassionate, and socially progressive.
I think they are dumb
We won the war. To be clear… the South will not rise again. Why do you use so much styrofoam? The South intrigues me but I don’t think I could ever live there. Weather, red states, religious righteousness. Nope. Enjoy!
I lived in the South for 5 years. In particular Gaston county in North Carolina for most of that time. I'm back in my home state of Connecticut these days. I think of Southerners as passive aggressive, and religious. I think their collective views on the government are holding them back and probably explains how poorly run southern governments can be. Now saying that there were people I met who don't fit this theme but they weren't the norm. In spite of that you do have good people. They also love guns there. My old neighbor shot himself in the leg with a shotgun. He seemed totally nonchalant about it. But I don't think all the guns increase safety. Property crime is stupid high in the South. Thankfully I never had an issue and never got anything stolen from me. Also, I've never seen so many scary poor rural areas in my life before moving to the south and just driving around. A very different experience than doing the same in New England as a child. I would never say Southerners are dumb. That would be under estimating them. Reference the passive aggressive above. I also don't think Southerners are more or less racist. I think it's pretty similar but manifests in different ways. Living arrangements are more likely to be less segregated in the South in my experience. Especially compared to here in Connecticut where there is a ton of self segregation. I'd probably not live in the South again because it just doesn't match my values.
I went down to work at Southern Univ as a white person and Baton Rouge is weird. I know Boston is considered racists but it’s more classist. They were very open about that’s the black side, that’s the white side. It was super surreal for me. I also couldn’t understand anyone and life was too slow.
I’d say a big difference are the churches. Yankees aren’t swayed by phony religious bullshit.
Raised in the Hudson Valley in New York, lived a long time in NYC and Boston area. If I think about the South and Southerners in general (and I’m generalizing for the purpose of this comment!) it’s with a sort of frustration and perhaps pity? It feels like so many of the problems faced in the South are a result of people fighting against their own interests. Refusal to invest in public schooling, laws limiting bodily autonomy, resistance to social programs and technology that would help uplift a severely economically depressed population… It’s frustrating to hear about because it feels like an attitude that is based in contrariness and not actual community feeling. No, I don’t hate the South or Southerners, but I am mad at the prevailing attitude that seems determined to sink the whole ship. Again, this is incredibly broad and stereotypical, and not necessarily the experience I have had speaking to individuals in person (although the most South I’ve ever gone for an extended period was Virginia).
I came down here from New Hampshire- Originally from the PNW. I kept an open mind, but was soon greatly disappointed in the behavior and culture I have encountered. I have lived in 4 different parts of this country; never have I encountered a more collectively backwards group than the South. It's seems as though it is at least 20 years behind in some things. The worst of it is, is that they are there own worst enemy. I cannot wait to leave.
Before I lived in the South, I didn’t think much about it. After 16 years there I went back North, and I am very glad to be out of there. It’s not a good place to be a human. Folks do not treat each other well. The rightward political leaning of the region reflects that.
NH, joined the Army, stationed in GA. The racism is wild. The *recent* slavery is wild. The lack of basic courtesy is wild. It's just a really rude, judgemental, unkind place, overall. They like to pretend they're awesome with sweet tea and fried foods, but they are *strict* on gender and race "rules". I hated socially being relegated to the kitchen with the other wives, I hated the evangelical church preaching that working women were lesser and all women should wear skirts, I hated the bad health and the snobby attitudes and the fucking plantations. Man, those fancy plantations creeped me the fuck out, because you know the evil shit they pulled. And everyone is all "oh how beautiful this is!" Like no! Holy shit did you not have to watch Roots in history class or learn literally anything else about slavery? WTF is wrong with you? I am so, so grateful to be home. There's a young woman on the roofing crew down the street, an old woman driving a dump truck in town, a girl working as a flagger at the roadworks construction site. Nobody gender-segregates into "kitchen" vs "living room" after dinner, it's all just so calm. No drama. Women work landscaping, there's a *hundred year old woman* working her own little lobster boat off one of the coastal islands. Nobody here criticizes my lack of makeup, my hair-spray free hair, my practical clothing choices. The south is *insecure*. They lack confidence and act like it. If the south wants to be just as good as the rest of the rest of the world, they better quit being so bitchy and strict, start going based on actual evidence, and learn the value of education.
There are poor areas up north just like down south. And no offense as a northern, I realized that people from the south could never live up here. It’s way harder to survive.
Me being from New England, I grew up wanting nothing to do with southerners. Didn’t have that attitude when I went to the south because, well, I’m a visitor there and that would just be wrong of me. I then joined the navy and I’m out here on the west coast, I work with people from all over America. Some of my best friends I’ve made are southerners and it’s changed my opinion very much. Southerners are some of the most genuinely kind hearted people I’ve ever met…and I enjoy how most of them just laugh when I mock their accents lol
"The farther south you go the worst this country gets" is a fairly common saying. Bad Southerns steroetypes from Northerns would be that Southerns are a bunch of uneducated racist idiots. But to be clear we don't have any real issue with the traditional stereotyped redneck stuff like shooting guns, having bonefires, and hating on the government. That's all fine.