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In reply to the discussion: I want to talk frankly about the south hate here [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)It's especially tough to defend liberal Southerners on a day like today when Alabama and Mississippi voted for Santorum. Santorum isn't a Southerner but his reactionary opinions appeal to everything that is wretched in the southern mentality.
I criticize Southerners as one who lived in the South for years and experienced first hand how it can be beautiful but also how the people can be incredibly hateful and ugly -- and shockingly nonchalant about their cruelty.
What we give to the world, we get back. You are giving kindness and hope, and you should get that back.
But you have to understand that the stereotype of the bigoted Southerner is not about the exceptions like you. It did not grow out of the minds of bigoted people in the rest of the country. That stereotype has a basis in fact and the experience of many, many people who suffered from the bigotry of Southerners in the past. While the stereotype is less accurate now than it was 60 years ago, it is still, unfortunately, pretty true from what I can tell.
Sorry that this problem hurts a good person like you. But there are just too few people like you in the South. I know that from my own experience.