Last Updated: 03/16/20 | 16. mars 2020
The American South has a mixed reputation: it’s home to sweet tea, greasy but delicious food, country music, the blues, friendly and valuable people, and stunning and diverse landscapes. However, it’s also associated with guns, racists, bigots, rednecks, and is the subject of many other negative stereotypes.
The first time I visited the South was in 2006 on a road trip across the United States.
As a liberal Yankee, I wanted the negative stereotypes to be true and my beliefs to be validated. Instead, I found an incredible region of valuable people, a countryside dotted with rolling hills, farms, and forests, and hearty food rich in flavor. From Charleston to new Orleans and everything in between, the South was extraordinary.
Now, nine years later, on another road trip through the South, I wondered if it would provoke the same warm feelings. America is a more politically divided country and I was unsure what to expect.
The South has drifted to the right politically, and I wondered about heated debates about “that president,” gay rights, guns, and more.
Would I feel like a stranger in a strange land?
After spending months exploring the region, I realized that the southern states, encompassing a large area of the United States, are not as culturally and politically monolithic as they once were. There is a prodigious variety here, and the region left me with many impressions.
1. The Food will Make You Happy
Food plays a central role in southern life and is rich in both flavor and diversity. Each region has its own specialties — barbecue in Missouri, Memphis, and North Carolina; Creole food and oysters in new Orleans; Cajun food on the Bayou; fried chicken in Nashville; the growing organic food scene in Atlanta; and upscale dining in Oxford, Mississippi.
I pictured southern food as greasy, fried, and heavy fare. While much of it is hearty, the richness in flavor and variety was outstanding. There is something for everyone, and if you go hungry while visiting, it’s your own fault.
2. music Makes the region Go ’Round
Music is a way of life here. The sound of live music filled the air everywhere. Nashville, Memphis, and new Orleans are famous music haunts, but even the tiniest towns have robust live music scenes. From jazz to country to blues to bluegrass, there’s a music soul to this region. I danced, jammed, and sang, and it was wonderful.
3. The people really are Friendly
There’s a common belief that the South is home to the friendliest people in the country. I’m not sure I believe that, but I would agree that Southerners are certainly friendly. They are cheerful, talkative, and incredibly helpful. Strangers waved hello, inquired about my day, were quick with invites for drinks, and generally made an effort to make me feel welcome. The folks here have hospitality down to an art.
Plus, they seem to have an endless supply of sweet tea and I can’t get enough of that stuff!
4. The Landscape is Stunning
The southern landscape is stunning and diverse. The Smoky Mountains are a vast, dense forest filled with inviting rivers, lakes, and trails. The Louisiana bayou is haunting with moss-covered trees and eerie calm. The hills of Appalachia stretch for wooded miles, and the whole Mississippi Delta, with its swamps, marshes, and biodiversity, is gorgeous. and the beaches of Florida are so white they sparkle.
I could spend months hiking and exploring all the parks and rivers in the region. (Mental note to future self: Do that.)
5. To understand It, You have to understand Its Past
As a former high school history teacher (I taught right out of college), I was excited to explore the area’s colonial cities and Civil war sites. Cities like Natchez, Vicksburg, new Orleans, Savannah, Memphis, Richmond, and Charleston helped shape the country, and their history and influence are important to the story of America.
It was in these cities that many American cultural and political leaders were born, the Civil war began, battles were won and lost, the rise and fall of slavery was sown, and many of the biggest names in American cultural history were born.
These cities and their history help explain a lot about southern pride, culture, and current feelings.
6. It’s Politically Conservative
Though the Ashevilles, Nashvilles, Atlantas, Austins, and other big cities of the region have become more liberal (thanks in part to open-minded college students, northern transplants, and hipsters), the rest of the region has moved more to the right nylig.
Besides country music, radio options seem to consist only of Christian lectures and music or right-wing talk radio warning of immigrants bringing in polio, evil Muslims, and Obama the antichrist. I overheard many conversations about “that guy” (the President) and “queers.” The big cities may be liberal, but in the rest of the South, it’s as conservativt som konservativ kan være.
7. Det er rasistisk (men det er ikke voldelig rasistisk 1950)
Jeg fant at rasismen i det moderne sør var mer en “off-the-cuff rasisme” enn et dyptliggende hat. Det var basert på stereotyper som haltet fordi de rett og slett ble en vane.
Fra B & B -eieren som kom med en kommentar om jøder til gutta i Nashville som snakket om at svarte var arbeidere fordi “det er slik det er,” for folkene i Atlanta som gjorde narr av homofile, til college -barn i Mississippi som forteller meg rasistiske vitser (eller sang rasistiske sanger på busser), kom de fleste over ganske enkelt som utenkelige.
På spørsmål om kommentarene deres var fordommer, vil de sannsynligvis si “Nei, det var bare en vits.” Men det er fortsatt veldig støtende.
Ingen ser ut til å stille spørsmål ved disse ideene, og det er grunnen til at disse holdningene ser ut til å somle. Betyr dette at jeg tror alle er en dyptliggende rasist? Nei ikke i det hele tatt. Jeg tror Sør har gjort utrolige fremskritt mot likhet og rasisme er et spørsmål mange steder. Selv om det var bedre enn det pleide å være, er det fremdeles veldig utbredt, og med flyttingen mot den politiske høyresiden, ser jeg ikke at den forsvinner når som helst snart.
Jeg hadde håpet at denne stereotypen skulle vise seg å være utdatert, men dessverre var det ikke.
***
Til tross for manglene, blir jeg mer glad i området med hvert besøk. Det er et av de mest kulturelt rike områdene i landet. Det er en grunn til at byene blomstrer.
Gå og sjekk ut regionen, kom deg ut av byene, reise gjennom fjellene og finn veien inn i de små byene. Du vil oppdage vennlige mennesker, himmelsk mat, fantastisk musikk og en forståelse for et sakte livstempo.
Reisebryter barrierer og misoppfatninger om mennesker og steder. Jo mer du reiser, jo mer forstår du mennesker (selv når du ikke er enig med dem).
Sør og jeg er kanskje ikke enige om mange problemer, men det er ikke regionen de negative stereotypiene gjør det ut til å være. Det er en levende, livlig, interessant og vennlig del av USA.
Og en region flere mennesker bør bli kjent med.
Bestill din tur på USA: Logistiske tips og triks
Bestill flyet ditt
Bruk Skyscanner eller Momondo for å finne en rimelig flytur. De er mine to favoritt søkemotorer fordi de søker på nettsteder og flyselskaper over hele kloden, slik at du alltid vet at ingen stein blir igjen. Begynn med Skyscanner først, men fordi de har størst rekkevidde!
Bestill innkvarteringen din
Du kan bestille vandrerhjemmet ditt med Hostelworld, da de har den største varen og de beste tilbudene. Hvis du vil bo et annet sted enn et herberge, kan du bruke booking.com, da de konsekvent returnerer de billigste prisene for gjestehus og rimelige hoteller.
Ikke glem reiseforsikring
Reiseforsikring vil beskytte deg mot sykdom, skade, tyveri og kanselleringer. Det er omfattende beskyttelse i tilfelle noe går galt. Jeg drar aldri på tur uten det, da jeg har måttet bruke den mange ganger i fortiden. Mine favorittbedrifter som tilbyr den beste servicen og verdien er:
Sikkerhetsving (for alle under 70)
Forsikre turen min (for de over 70)
MedJet (for ekstra hjemsendelsesdekning)
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