This last fall, I got a new room mate from Tallahassee, Florida. Talking to her these last few weeks I’ve learned a lot about where she’s from. I think often when we think of Florida we think of Miami and the huge cities and night life. But a huge portion of it is actually incorporated deeply with traditional Southern roots. Hearing her talk about Southern Blacks is why I decided to choose them as my social group.
Personally, when I think of Southern Blacks I imagine thick accents, a huge attitude, and an uneducated people. It’s rather offensive, but that is the single story that has been created for them not only in my mind, but in many others as well. If you watch the videos I posted and see the picture, this is how they are conveyed. I believe the leprechaun video (which is real by the way, first video on list) fully conveys all of these points. It gets to a point in the video, where at the end, even the news anchors are laughing.
This single story is extremely limiting. Although it may be true in some cases, obviously not every Southern black person is like this. For example, in the leprechaun video, one of the news anchors was a black woman. If we were to give this single story to every southern black person, they would have less opportunities and chances. For example, in a job interview, they would not be considered as highly qualified because of the stereotype of being uneducated.
Love the post! When I first moved to Dallas, TX I definitely had some thoughts in the back of my mind based on what I'd heard about southern black people. While this story does fit some, it most definitely does not classify them as a whole. At my school they were all just as nice and polite and educated and wonderful people as anybody I'd met elsewhere. It's crazy the judgement we make based on what we're told or even see in the movies, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis was great! My husband is from Kentucky and had some very good friends that were African American. They are normal people, just like everyone else.
ReplyDeleteI will admit that I fall in to this category frequently. I grew up in Southern Utah and finding a Black person is like finding a needle in a hay stack and I also grew up with a grandfather who was born in raised in North Carolina and was raised in a very racial tense environment and regrettably has some racist tendencies himself. So my story of Blacks in the south has not been the best, Thank you for this article.
ReplyDeleteIm southern by birth, and am happy to see that this has been brought up. The portrayle of the south has been rough especially for blacks and I love that someone out of the south has brought this up
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