Thank you, Mr. Gussow for this passionate and well-written article which shows that the South contrary to what the other of the Barn claims, has come far since the days of Jim Crow. In fact, the South is actually more racially integrated than the North is. Atlanta and Houston are the two most integrated cities in the nation. Meanwhile, New York City, Boston and Chicago for example are all still very racially segregated. I’ve been down South to Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Virginia, and Louisiana. The South never fails to wow me with its hospitable people, incredible history, amazing food, cultural diversity, beautiful scenery and women, and incredible sports. You still see the Confederate flag and Confederate statues everywhere but these days those are up not to intimidate blacks or other minorities but to honor the South’s history and heritage. Heck, Confederate heritage groups like the SCV and UDC are now racially integrated and the Southern heritage community as I call them, has black, Latino, Asian, mixed-race, and Native American members. It’s not just whites who fly the Confederate flag down South it’s everybody. When even the Confederate flag has become a multicultural thing and Southern historical groups are emphasizing the contributions people of color made to the Confederate cause, you know the South has changed drastically for the better! Not to mention all the Jewish members of Confederate heritage groups which you’d of never seen in the 1950s and 1960s. Southerners look their football especially if its SEC football! They love their fried foods! Fried chicken, fried candy bars, fried Oreos, fried pizza. No one can beat the South in terms of food. Fried chicken, grits with cheese or gravy, boiled peanuts, buttery biscuits, Georgia peaches, different types of cheesecake, hand made milkshakes, burgers, fries, pie, seafood you name it. This is the part of the country that gave us George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Robert E. Lee, Martin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, Stonewall Jackson, Moon Pies, Coca Cola, Magnolias, The Texas Rangers, Country & Western Music, Elvis Presley, Blind Willie Johnson, chicken fried steak, pecan pie, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Patrick Henry, and much more. You can hear I Wish I Was in Dixie and Dixieland Delight played anywhere you go not to mention the amazing array of country and rock music too. Nashville and Miami have eclipsed NYC and LA as the happening cities in the United States. The thing I found most striking about the South though was how well and without incident people of different races lives together each day and how accepting people were of interracial couples, interracial marriage and mixed-race children. I’ve met many proud black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American Southerners. White and black people down South mixed together everyday like it was nothing. I’ve even seen a photo of a black man waving the Confederate flag kissing his white wife! White Southerners you’ll also generally find loathe racism. The KKK? Their a tiny little group these days in the South. I remember a family member telling me when the KKK in the 1990s in Houston everyone black and white in the crowd booed them and threw vegetables at them. Wow! Back in the 19th and 20th centuries the KKK ruled the roost and thought of as heroes in the South and their getting pelted with tomatoes and celery?! Is there still racism, sexism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, etc. in the South? In pockets. But the vast majority of Southerners of all colors aren’t racist in the slightest. They also by the way, are among the most patriotic and God fearing people in this country. They also are the ones who join the military at the highest rates. If MLK were alive today and visited the South he’d be absolutely blown away! He’d see whites, blacks, Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, immigrants from all over the world, Christians, Jews, Muslims, straight people, gay people, and disabled people all living together for the most part in harmony with equal rights and opportunities. The South indeed rose again but not in the way the white supremacists meant it! Adam Gussow, thank you sir for this piece!
The article shows the definitive gains of the African-American movement of 1930-1965, attained through black struggle and through key alliances with the national political establishment and progressive voices of white society. Our national narrative must recognize the important changes that have been made in American society since 1965, standing against false concepts like "systemic racism" and "white privilege."
Agree, Charles. Those things can, and i believe are calculated to, create division, undermine agency, and destroy the value of individual decency and character.
What a beautiful essay, it made my day. I'm starved for diversity of thought about black-white relations. I am 75 and was raised in a blue-collar suburb of Chicago and our neighborhoods were mostly divided by ethnic or national background, which persisted because of history and preference (mine was Polish) and we all went to school and played together and enjoyed each other's restaurants and shared backyard BBQs and didn't think about our differences. I had an inter-racial marriage and was an expat for 16 years and it broke my heart in this past decade when anti-racism became a scalpel that destroyed my ability to appreciate all cultures, or even to talk about them. And now we have a generation of very unhappy indoctrinated young people of all races that I can only hope will find a path to stop brooding and realize joy and peace. I'm also eager to get back to joy and peace. I loved the interview with you on the JoFBT podcast and, after reading this remarkable essay, have just bought the audio version of your book.
Thanks for the nice piece. For some perverse reason, there are those who seem to need, desperately, the continued existence of the Mississippi that was. Even though, since the days of Emmett Smith, I’ve had little use for “Jerry’s kids,” I’m glad to know you drew on my Texas to form your family. Maybe that soil, “baked brick-hard by July,” will yield another Faulkner to ruminate on the Mississippi that is.
Thank you for putting this out there. I really needed something positive today. It would be wise to go back and reclaim MLK's vision of a united people, a community that includes everyone. That message seems to have been lost by so many self-anointed activists. Wish your family the best and keep on keeping on.
Thank you, Mr. Gussow for this passionate and well-written article which shows that the South contrary to what the other of the Barn claims, has come far since the days of Jim Crow. In fact, the South is actually more racially integrated than the North is. Atlanta and Houston are the two most integrated cities in the nation. Meanwhile, New York City, Boston and Chicago for example are all still very racially segregated. I’ve been down South to Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Virginia, and Louisiana. The South never fails to wow me with its hospitable people, incredible history, amazing food, cultural diversity, beautiful scenery and women, and incredible sports. You still see the Confederate flag and Confederate statues everywhere but these days those are up not to intimidate blacks or other minorities but to honor the South’s history and heritage. Heck, Confederate heritage groups like the SCV and UDC are now racially integrated and the Southern heritage community as I call them, has black, Latino, Asian, mixed-race, and Native American members. It’s not just whites who fly the Confederate flag down South it’s everybody. When even the Confederate flag has become a multicultural thing and Southern historical groups are emphasizing the contributions people of color made to the Confederate cause, you know the South has changed drastically for the better! Not to mention all the Jewish members of Confederate heritage groups which you’d of never seen in the 1950s and 1960s. Southerners look their football especially if its SEC football! They love their fried foods! Fried chicken, fried candy bars, fried Oreos, fried pizza. No one can beat the South in terms of food. Fried chicken, grits with cheese or gravy, boiled peanuts, buttery biscuits, Georgia peaches, different types of cheesecake, hand made milkshakes, burgers, fries, pie, seafood you name it. This is the part of the country that gave us George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Robert E. Lee, Martin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, Stonewall Jackson, Moon Pies, Coca Cola, Magnolias, The Texas Rangers, Country & Western Music, Elvis Presley, Blind Willie Johnson, chicken fried steak, pecan pie, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Patrick Henry, and much more. You can hear I Wish I Was in Dixie and Dixieland Delight played anywhere you go not to mention the amazing array of country and rock music too. Nashville and Miami have eclipsed NYC and LA as the happening cities in the United States. The thing I found most striking about the South though was how well and without incident people of different races lives together each day and how accepting people were of interracial couples, interracial marriage and mixed-race children. I’ve met many proud black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American Southerners. White and black people down South mixed together everyday like it was nothing. I’ve even seen a photo of a black man waving the Confederate flag kissing his white wife! White Southerners you’ll also generally find loathe racism. The KKK? Their a tiny little group these days in the South. I remember a family member telling me when the KKK in the 1990s in Houston everyone black and white in the crowd booed them and threw vegetables at them. Wow! Back in the 19th and 20th centuries the KKK ruled the roost and thought of as heroes in the South and their getting pelted with tomatoes and celery?! Is there still racism, sexism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, etc. in the South? In pockets. But the vast majority of Southerners of all colors aren’t racist in the slightest. They also by the way, are among the most patriotic and God fearing people in this country. They also are the ones who join the military at the highest rates. If MLK were alive today and visited the South he’d be absolutely blown away! He’d see whites, blacks, Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, immigrants from all over the world, Christians, Jews, Muslims, straight people, gay people, and disabled people all living together for the most part in harmony with equal rights and opportunities. The South indeed rose again but not in the way the white supremacists meant it! Adam Gussow, thank you sir for this piece!
Thank you for sharing this. I learned new information about Mississippi from your article.
It’s refreshing to learn that places like this exist.
I hope that one day, many of our towns and villages will be as you described.
May your family remain well during these challenging times.
The article shows the definitive gains of the African-American movement of 1930-1965, attained through black struggle and through key alliances with the national political establishment and progressive voices of white society. Our national narrative must recognize the important changes that have been made in American society since 1965, standing against false concepts like "systemic racism" and "white privilege."
Agree, Charles. Those things can, and i believe are calculated to, create division, undermine agency, and destroy the value of individual decency and character.
Thank you. I appreciate this site very much.
What a beautiful essay, it made my day. I'm starved for diversity of thought about black-white relations. I am 75 and was raised in a blue-collar suburb of Chicago and our neighborhoods were mostly divided by ethnic or national background, which persisted because of history and preference (mine was Polish) and we all went to school and played together and enjoyed each other's restaurants and shared backyard BBQs and didn't think about our differences. I had an inter-racial marriage and was an expat for 16 years and it broke my heart in this past decade when anti-racism became a scalpel that destroyed my ability to appreciate all cultures, or even to talk about them. And now we have a generation of very unhappy indoctrinated young people of all races that I can only hope will find a path to stop brooding and realize joy and peace. I'm also eager to get back to joy and peace. I loved the interview with you on the JoFBT podcast and, after reading this remarkable essay, have just bought the audio version of your book.
Thanks for the nice piece. For some perverse reason, there are those who seem to need, desperately, the continued existence of the Mississippi that was. Even though, since the days of Emmett Smith, I’ve had little use for “Jerry’s kids,” I’m glad to know you drew on my Texas to form your family. Maybe that soil, “baked brick-hard by July,” will yield another Faulkner to ruminate on the Mississippi that is.
Thank you for putting this out there. I really needed something positive today. It would be wise to go back and reclaim MLK's vision of a united people, a community that includes everyone. That message seems to have been lost by so many self-anointed activists. Wish your family the best and keep on keeping on.