The Southern Way of Life: Then and Now

When I think of the South, I think of cowboy boots, big hair bows, pickup trucks, and monogrammed belongings. I’m a sucker for southern charm and I will always be touched southern hospitality. Born and raised in the South, this is the culture that I grew up loving, and a place that I will always hope to return to.

However, in the 1900s, people had a much different characterization of the “southern way of life.” During Roosevelt’s presidency, the traditions of the South were much less focused on the sweetness of the South, but on the gruesome practices of slavery.

I hoped that our great nation had surpassed the ugliness of oppression that plagued our past, but Max Ehrenfreund argues that same the prejudice is still very much alive today. Recent studies have showed that political beliefs and racial biases are learned and passed down from one generation to the next (Ehrenfreund). Though the correlation does not mean causation, the relationship is unmistaken. This comes into effect with voters’ choice, which is especially influenced by geography. White Southerners are likely to vote Republican and Sears of the University of California even suggests “some Republicans rationalize their belief that people of color are inferior” (Ehrenfreund).

McAdam and Kloos explain the evolution of the ties to political parties, and the polarizing shifts of beliefs that character the Democrat and Republican parties today. As the country experienced major social changes, some candidates used this for their advantage, such as Reagan, because such polarizing issues gave people an opportunity to vote as a form of “protest in varying forms to the riots and racial unrest that had taken place” (McAdam and Kloos, 109).

Trump wants to build a wall, but perhaps we have a longstanding divider already constructed in our own nation.