Racism + The South = ?

In this English class we have been toying with the identity of the South. In “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” we were given a rather harsh picture created by racism in southern places. Now this article was written in 1937, so surely things have changed since then, right? For this blog post I want you to come up with a sentence. This sentence needs to have the word racism and south somewhere in it. You can come up with any relationship you like. Some questions you might think about are: is there racism in the South, who is being racist, is the racism hidden or blunt? After you have come up with this sentence, you need to support it with something whether it be an article, a news video, etc.

The old racism (whites racist towards blacks) that is stereotypically associated with the South is alive and well. While society might be tired of the same old story or while society would like to believe that things have gotten better, society is wrong. While society might need to focus on the possibility that racism has evolved to be more then just white on black, it is important to not forget the racism that has stereotypically been associated with the South. The video on this post is a special from ESPN Outside the Lines on the “Jena 6”. The Jena 6 is six black students that were charged with attempted second-degree murder of a white student. Clearly to support my sentence you need a bit of background to the story.

According to the article by Adrian DePugh and the video, a few days before the attack there was an incident revolving around a tree that was normally an all white hang out. When a few black students spent some time under the tree, the next day there were nooses hung on the tree. Then the white student that was attacked either did or did not instigate the fight, depending on who you ask. The Jena 6 then attacked the white student. The response to this racism was clearly out of line, but the fact is that the racism is still there. Whether the white student instigated the fight, the nooses were still hung on the tree. This racism that is stereotypical of the South is not only alive and well, but is an intricate part of the Southern identity.