Colors

[catelin]

I haven't seen so much stupidity over the colors red and blue since I worked dealing with all the bullshit between Crips and Bloods with the L.A. City Attorney gang unit. I was born and raised in Texas, any of the members of my family for as long as I can remember who chose to align themselves with a party were hardcore yellow dog Democrats. My great uncle was one of the first and best labor organizers in the state. I'm one of literally thousands of others who have similar upbringings and histories.

So for everyone posting the "oh, yeah and all those people used to own niggers" and the "those ignorant dickweed bible thumpers are taking over the world!" maps....can I get a fucking break please??? Can the rest of us poor fucking uneducated racist hicks down here in the south get a respite from everyone wagging fingers and clucking tongues about how stupid and unenlightened we are? THIRTY-EIGHT PERCENT OF TEXAS DID NOT VOTE FOR BUSH. In fact, you can take a look at this map, roll over on any of the states that went to Bush and see that a good number of the people in every one of these states did not vote for Bush and his agenda. In fact, the state that lost the election for Kerry, OHIO, was a free state...so what the fuck is the purpose of these maps??

Why not have a map for states that treated their factory workers like shit, or states where "No Irish" signs used to hang in storefronts, or where people still live in neighborhoods that look like bombed out ghettos? This devisiveness is ridiculous! This stereotyping of everyone who happens to live in a state where Bush (sometimes barely!!) won is only adding insult to injury for many of us down here. Do you think, you who are so much more "enlightened" than the rest of us, that it is easy trying to be the voices of dissent down here? Do you think that none of us worked ourselves ragged in hopes of some sort of positive change here?

Bush only won the popular vote in this country by a very slight margin. It offends me that my so-called comrades in arms are so quick now to start placing blame and redrawing lines that are over a hundred and fifty years old. The south is a beautiful place, and it's full of beautiful people. I know its ugly warts and underbelly better than most. But it's a place I love and it's a place where we cried after a hard-fought struggle with all the rest of you.

It offends me to think that our hard work down here is now so easily discounted just because everyone wants a scapegoat. Those of us who are just as disappointed as anyone at the outcome of this election should not be forced into that position because of our geography.

If it offends you that I have said my piece about it, go read my friend Joi's post (because this is what I've actually seen a lot of people saying SERIOUSLY) then feel free to move right on along and color yourself from head to toe with a big giant blue Sharpie. Me, I'm going to just keep doing what I've always done...yeah, even down here in the land of the bible thumpers and racist, homophobic Jesus freaks.

Comments

[alchemi.livejournal.com]

Eh, I understand how you feel but I think it's the elephant in the room and it's better to talk about it then not talk about it. I don't think it's unreasonable, from a historic perspective, to argue that the civil rights movement began the trend of the South moving away from Democrats, nor that racism played a significant role in Nixon's southern strategy or Reagan's appeal to law & order.

It is particularly vivid given that some of the most extreme racists, homophobes and sexists in major office in modern times were Democrats before the Civil Rights Act/Voting Rights Act and for the past fourty years or so have been Republicans. I find it particularly hard to ignore when South Carolina elected a prominant (ex?) segregationist to Congress every election between 1954 and 2000.

I do not mean to suggest that everyone in the south is bad. Nor do I intend to discount the people there who are doing the hard work. Rather I am pissed on their behalf that they start behind the 8-ball because of issues that should have been sorted out at the end of the Civil War (well, they should have been sorted out much earlier.

But I don't want to gloss over those regional differences either (differences that are just as much forty years old or twenty years old as they are one-hundred and fifty years old). Nor do I believe this is a matter of the blue states having to be more understanding of regional differences. I expect those vocal minorities in the South to take the confederate flag off the statehouse. And I am disapointed that this late, so many people sit by passively and let the confederate flag, and all it symbolizes, live as a symbol of how far the South has refused to budge.

[catelin.livejournal.com]

My point is that the elephant in the room is in EVERYONE'S room, not just down here eating gumbo and drinking moonshine while waving a rebel flag. Most of the states where Kerry won had the same hair's breadth split between his winning and losing. Let's talk about the elephant. Let's figure out a way to drive it out of the room. I'm all for that. But let's stop pretending that this elephant's ass does not extend from L.A. to NYC.

The south does not have the monopoly on racism, ignorance, or fundamentalism. Some of the worst racism I've ever seen was actually far outside the south. I don't expect anyone to be more understanding of regional differences...chances are they won't be unless they come and live down here for a while. What I do expect is for people to clean their own house before they come and start gleefully and maliciously pointing out the dirt in my corners.

[razorart.livejournal.com]

A-fucking-men.

I am sick to death of people posting these smug "look how things haven't changed" maps on LJ. Even "back then"--the North had just as much backward rascism going on, but wow, it wasn't labeled "slavery." That in and of itself is a simplistic statement but I won't even get into it here, and I am hardly a historian.

But, I won't stop here. There is rascism, yes, even in *GASP* Europe!!! And not ONLY against one kind of people!!

People suck. No one is better than anyone else. They all fight to be, but they aren't.

[catelin.livejournal.com]

I sure do miss you! Let's definitely plan for a visit in the spring!