Get rid of the South, lose a lot of culture

While many of the stereotypes you made in your opinion piece about the South might be true, you should do a little bit more research before slamming an entire region of the United States.

While, yes, the south has some ridiculous ideologies when it comes to religion, growing up in the South for the past 21 years has made me appreciate where I come from. I was raised in a household with a Methodist mother and Jewish father and raised Jewish.

While you cringe at the “slow” southern drawl, I love and welcome it, and especially love hearing it while going to a real tailgate at schools like University of Georgia, University of Alabama or even Vanderbilt. The girls wear sun dresses, high heels and pearls and know just as much about football as the boys do. They dress to impress and carry themselves with class, unlike the girls of the Midwest and Northeast region.

While these “slow” drawls might not sound good to you, they never scared away great minds like William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Harper Lee or Cormac McCarthy, to name just a few of the great literary minds. How many presidents were brought up in the south during the last 40 years? Four different men from the South held the oval office for more than six terms.

Speaking of politics, you felt the need to mention Sen. John Edwards’ affair to support the claim that southern Republicans can not be trusted. All I need to say is: Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer, Bob Taft and Rick Renzi. If you don’t know who they are, then be a real journalist and do your research.

The Confederate flag is no longer a sign of discrimination or hate. While those from regions other than the South might think differently, I proudly hang my Confederate flag in my room, not because I hate blacks or any other race or culture, but because I like to show my southern pride at a university over run with girls wearing leggings and UGG boots, and guys wearing graphic tees and hair gel that keeps even the winds in Chicago at bay.

Go ahead and get rid of the South, but in doing so you lose St. Augustine, Fla., the first town in U.S. history. You would rid yourself of the best collegiate football conference, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) – four straight Bowl Championship Series titles have gone to teams in the SEC. You would also rid yourself of the best athletes that come from the South, year after year. Rock ‘n’ roll originated largely in the south as well, Elvis, Ray Charles, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, The Allman Brothers Band and countless others. Many of the best movies ever made were set in the south – “Gone With the Wind”, “Driving Miss Daisy”, “Deliverance”. And the food from the South is much better than the bland food I’ve found in the Midwest (fried chicken, green beans, Cajun food, BBQ).


Elliott Scokin
IU junior