Southern DU'ers: Tell me about the South

[Heddi]

45. Born & raised in SC, lived in SC, FL, WA, PA

The south is like anywhere else: There are good people, there are bad people. There is poverty, there is wealth. There are beautiful places, there are places full of strip malls and blight.

Born & raised in Charleston, SC, Lived there til I was 25 then moved to Seattle for roughly 12 years. Have also lived in Florida on and off a few times, and now live in Philadelphia.

There is nothing magical or special about the south. There is hospitality everywhere. In fact, I've met the most consistently pleasant people I've ever met in my life here in Philadelphia. People in Seattle were frosty, but made super great friendships that will last my entire lifetime as well.

There's this myth about the south being more hospitable, more genteel, slower....Maybe 50 years ago...not now, at least not the big cities. Got family in Atlanta, Charlotte, Myrtle Beach, and have been to every state east of the Mississippi and south of the Mason Dixon.

Criss-crossed the country by car 4x's in the last 5 years. Small towns, whether in the northwest, southeast, midwest, breadbasket, are different than big cities. They're generally slower going, simpler, wary of strangers. And I've seen *no* difference between a small town in the middle of WA or ND or SC or GA or FL.

Big cities are faster paced, talk faster, walk faster, drive faster....Fargo vs Charleston vs Orlando vs Seattle....all the same.

I lived in Yakima, WA for 4 years while I went to nursing school. Saw and heard more outright racism and racist langauge and remarks than I ever did in Charleston. Or at least on the same level, let's say that. 2 hours east of Seattle and it was like I was on a different coast. Seattle has high asian population but in the city suburbs a small black population but a growing African immigrant population (Somali, Ethiopian, etc). Have heard perfectly educated liberal "more progressive than thou" people refer to those immigrants as "stinky blacks' and make comments like "Why do they smell so bad" and "I wish they'd overdose on Curry or whatever the fuck they et that comes out of their pores...." No idea that it's offensive and racist. Normal people, bachelor's degrees at University of Washington clueless that it's offensive to suggest that a group of people are inherently stinky because of where they come from.

It's the same as any other place. Just more mythological, for some reason. I lived there and I don't get it.