How to imply "Southern Culture" without having it taken the wrong way?

[Taverner]

I've always wondered - when referring to Southern Culture (and by that I mean plantation arcitecture, Bluegrass music, southern cooking etc...)- how can you imply it without having it mistaken for the negative aspects?

Basically any time I refer to it I get some wiseass plucking out the negative aspects and highlighting them...

[DarkPhenyx]

1. Give us an example of a statement...

...you would normally use but find getting picked apart.

[Taverner]

2. One example

I was talking with some coworkers who recently went to RTP and we were talking about how we both love Southern Culture, bluegrass music etc...and one my other coworkers piped up "Yeah Southern Culture like the KKK..."

[DarkPhenyx]

3. Much as I despise it...

...you won't win in that instance. The people making those sorts of commetns are to ignorant and bullheaded to realize how bigoted they are acting. trust me. I've tried. Sadly, you see a lot of that sort of stupidity in some of the threads here.

You might try pointing out that the KK is also present in all Northern states as well. That might do it. Used to live in Ohio and during one of my High School plays we had a big base drumn on the stage. The inside of the drumhead had "The NW Ohio Chapter of the Knights of the Klu Klux Klan" printed in the indies. I'm assuming that the drumhead had been turned around at some point.

This isn't an ignorant bias you can win in a single battle. Fighting against stupidity is always a long uphill battle.

RTP? Cool! I live here in Raleigh and I'm glad your co-workers enjoyed the visit.

[Taverner]

10. Yeah I'm hoping one of these days they send me

They tell me theres a rib shack near the office where the meat flys off the bone and into your mouth...I gotta try that...

Besides, I've never seen the Blue Ridge Mountains and I figure that's about as close as I'll get in a while...

[DarkPhenyx]

11. Let me know if you are in the area.

I'll take you to the best in the Triangle.

[Red_Viking]

4. Are the wiseasses from the South?

Usually those kinds of stereotypes come from people who have neither lived in nor visited the South for any period of time.

I'm a Texan, and I know Texas likes to believe it's a country all by itself. Hell, after letting loose people like * and Tom Delay on the world, it's a wonder the rest of the country doesn't disown us. But I digress.

I consider myself a Southerner as well as a Texan. Our history is rich, and intertwined with the history of the country, just like someone's from the North. We have great cooking, a tradition of treating people politely, music, good weather...but we also have some nasty skeletons in the closet. I'm not proud that my ancestors owned slaves. I had people in my family fighting in the Revolutionary War, then in the Civil War. On both sides.

Living here, I see every day examples of how the South just can't stop looking backward. Racism may exist everywhere, but it's a special kind here. Not too many years in the past, there were regular lynchings in most southern states, and the KKK held sway. We have so many rural poor; people without running water, let alone a decent school. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.

So, I don't really blame people for having preconceived ideas about the south. We earned most of them. :)

It's doubly bad for Texans. Everyone assumes I ride a horse to work and own several oil wells. Hell, I've lived in Austin all my life, and I have never owned a pair of cowboy boots. We're moving to Oregon over the summer. When we visited to check out neighborhoods and schools for my daughter, everyone who found out where we were from had some comment or other. They were all said in fun, and no one was offensive. But, it's interesting to see how others perceive your home state, especially when they've never set foot in it!

Since you obviously see the good in the South, just keep evangelizing it. And pity the narrow-minded fools who can't see past the burning crosses. :)

RV

[DarkPhenyx]

6. We've tried to disown ya'll.

You won't let us though. :)

[VelmaD]

7. Dangit Phe...do we have to go through this again...

it's y'all. Y-apostrophe-a-l-l. Y'all. :P

[DarkPhenyx]

8. Only if you aren't willing to admit I'm right. n/t

[VelmaD]

9. Nope. This one time I'm right and you're not

The apostrophe goes where the missing letters would be. They taught us that back in elementary school. :P

[Red_Viking]

13. She's right.

It's a contraction of "you all."

Y'all.

Don't forget "fixin'." As in, "I'm fixin' to go to the store. Do y'all want to come along?"

RV

[Pithlet]

14. Yep

You're right. I've lived in the south for 6 years now, and I also know how to use y'all correctly. I haven't picked up a southern accent yet, so it still sounds silly when I say it, so I don't use it often.

[VelmaD]

15. Thanks for having my back y'all...

this is just a long running thing between me and Phe. It's become a tradition. :)

[Taverner]

16. <Sigh> The pitfalls of having a language without a 2nd person plural

We need an Ustedes or Vosotros in our language...

[MichaelHarris]

12. I was raised in

Texas, born in New Mexico and now I live in Washington. I may be the exception but I've always thought Southern humor/slanders we're always kinda funny. I think its always better that we can laugh at ourselves first before we laugh at others. Just my opinion.

[SheilaT]

5. Every state and region of the country

has to put up with clods who only have a negative view of the state/region. I live in Kansas and a lot of people out there either think we spend a lot of time dodging tornadoes or are all Creationist troglodytes.

I have my own personal negative opinions of certain states and regions, but I don't often bother to express those publicly because there are others who absolutely love those places and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. So unless someone is trying to talk me into relocating to my least favorite city, why should I be insulting? It's not called for most of the time.