Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The End of the Blog - Southern Stereotypes and Southern Identity

Karen introduced the idea of southern stereotypes in her blog post introduction one week. I responded to this topic by introducing the “y’all” southern stereotype. The stereotype is that people of the South speak in that slow drawl and say y’all all the time. I actually found a video that had a group doing a project demonstrating the variety of dialects that can be found in the South. This group showed the enriched cultural diversity that leant the various dialects to be formed in the South. I would like to follow up that post with this video.



This video has a man venting about how angry he got about a girl who said something rather ignorant in a college class. His teacher asked the class to explain why there was a lack of different languages in the major cities of the South. The girl quickly explained that it was due to the nature of the people in the cities, these people being inhospitable to outsiders and such. The teacher responds that the girl is wrong and it is due to the economic states of these cities. The man is rather upset that the continued negative stereotypes of the South exist when they are clearly outdated. He is quick to point out that racism or being inhospitable to outsiders is more relevant in Seattle where he is living now. In conclusion, southern stereotypes do still exist and are the common Southern identity according to people outside the South, but these stereotypes are out of date and no longer relevant.

In terms of Southern identity, I think it exists. The Southern identity has firm roots in its history but is ever changing like the people inside of the South. I found a history of the South as fits a timeline, but I think the actual history of the South is better found in the oral stories passed through generations.

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