There’s way too much religion in the South to be consistent with good mental health. — George Carlin
WTF’s up with the Southern Swastika, you may be asking? Well, either you get parody, or you don’t. Either you see the humor in the Stone Mountain Laser Show, or you don’t. I.e. you either get the joke, or you don’t!
The legacy of bigotry and intolerance in the South is no laughing matter, of course. If you’ve lived here all your life like me, and were raised on Jack Chick tracts (believing they were fact, not fiction), and were dragged to Southern Baptist church every Sunday til you were 18, you either laugh, or you cry. Or, you go completely batshit insane — like I did. I’ve tried to see therapists about it, and the last one I saw laughed at me. I told him about the PTSD I suffered from growing up believing that the Rapture and Armageddon were going to happen any day now, and that the Four Horsemen and the Antichrist were going to show up at any moment, and he cracked up and told me I should be a stand-up comedian. Sooo … there you have it. The Devil went down to Georgia and they called him Jesus.
My home state flew the Confederate battle flag on its state flag from 1956 to 2003. Now we have another, more innocuous Confederate flag flying high. The Olympics came here during the period when we were flying the Rebel Flag. The Olympics also visited Nazi Germany and, now, Beijing. (Makes me wonder … Are the Olympics evil?)
So, why haven’t I left yet??? I guess b/c, for better or worse, it’s my home. There is a special vein of insanity in the South that can’t be duplicated. The city I live in has a law on the books requiring everyone to own a handgun. And, for some reason, a great number of Southerners enjoy Civil War re-enactment — I guess so they can lose over and over and over again!
On the other hand, we have the best food, (many of) the best writers, and (many of) the best bands/musicians (such as R.E.M., the B-52’s, Ray Charles and James Brown … and the Allman Brothers, if that’s your thing).
This is a very friendly, hospitable place, yet it’s also an incredibly warped and haunted place. Love it or leave it, they say … if the right opportunity arose, I might go. (Though I’d probably come back eventually!) But in the meantime, it makes great copy, and maybe, just maybe, us thinkin’ folk who stay behind can keep fighting the good fight and help drag our homeland into the 21st century. Even if it’s as small a start as being able to buy a 6-pack at Kroger on Sunday.
You’re fucking hilarious!
i have to say, I really love Atlanta. I’ve only visited twice, but had an amazing time on both occasions! Part of what was valuable to me is that Atlanta offers many opportunities for us to reconsider our past and evaluate how we will move forward in the future. It is the home of MLK Jr. It is a special place indeed. And are there any special places or special people for that matter who don’t have a messy past that they’ve learned from?
I also see racism everywhere. If the Union were truly fighting to free slaves, why are northerners so racist? The war propaganda is not the truth and written history is rarely honest. I don’t think it’s fair to dump all responsibility for racism on the south, it is rampant in many parts of our country, but not excusable anywhere.
I think making people laugh about this stuff is a good way to help people process through it without having to hate themselves for the past that they’ve inherited, I don’t think people are able to change from within when they hate themselves. Hate makes it harder to see solutions.
xo
[...] Debris Blanche has moved to WordPress.com, with a new blog name, a new layout – and, I believe, a first post that should win a prize for “best first [...]
Thanks Kimberlee! You said some things I wanted to say (especially that MLK Jr. is from here) but I didn’t want to/have time to write three pages.
You’re totally right about the south bearing the brunt of the scapegoat-ism of racism in this country, though, of course, our history of Jim Crow, segregation, lynchings and the KKK are definitely more visible. On the other hand, Southerners are still looked down upon in this country by those in the north, as if we’re all uncivilized, inbred yokels who live in trailer parks, swill moonshine and have sex with our siblings. And, we’re *not.* We’ve made a lot of progress over the past 50 years, though we’re still not “there” yet (wherever “there” is, in terms of the eradication of bigotry, religion/superstition, etc.)
Though I was raised in a very moderate Methodist church, I attended more than my share of Baptist-driven Vacation Bible Schools. I remember one in particular. They had us make paper-maché hot-air balloons, which was pretty cool, but the day ended with an assembly in the sanctuary, complete with sermon. The last place a southern kid wants to be on a summer afternoon is indoors. But it was there in that pew that I found my first ever Chick Tract.
This is the one.
very well put. i can’t wait to read more blog entries.
But what I wonder is, is *anyone* “there?”
In my experience there are Northerners who like to be very superior about *not* being from the South, thereby avoiding any responsibility for examining their own prejudices. If they can shift the blame, they don’t have to do any work themselves!
Off topic: I was so bummed that the laser show at Stone Mountain wasn’t playing on my last Sunday in Atlanta. I would have been all over that.
I’m here via Amber. I love this post. I’m a Northern transplant to Georgia. A hoosier, long time resident of Chicago and now here for five years. I try so, so hard to not be one of those snotty superior yankees, though sometimes I fail. Then I sound like an ass because who am I to be superior? I’m from Indiana!
I look forward to more writing from you.
Cheers!