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Are some stereotypes abhorrent, but others are okay?
It's funny, the Hollywood and media stereotype of Southerners as murdering, raping, racists or just plain racists is considered quite acceptable since it fits their "let's blame the South for all racism in this country" agenda. This brand of caricaturing would be considered abhorrent were it directed people of the Jewish faith, or African Americans. Of course, if Southerners object, why then it's proof of their own racism.
It doesn't take any creativity, imagination or true examination of racial prejudices to create a story based on stock characters in stereotypical situations. If you portray the South as the racist section of the country, then the rest of the country is kind of let off the hook. If we all examine the South for the thousandth time, then no need to examine racist hearts in the North, East or West.
Particularly offensive is the attitude portrayed by Sandra Bulloch's character -- clearly Southerners are murdering, raping, self-delusionals who can only be enlightened by someone from the North who lets them know through pat clichés just how racist they really are.
Truly the South suffers from very real past and current racist sins. Yet, I challenge any non-Southerner who thinks Southerners are racist to come and live with us. I am a professional person in the South and every day I work shoulder to shoulder with and live in the same upper-middle class neighborhood with black people. At church, charity events, baseball games, the dry cleaners, the pool we live and work with the our fellow citizens who are black, wealthy and poor, educated and undeduated, honorable and dishonorable. I don't have an ivory tower view of racism. Dozens of times each day I must confront, address and sometimes even triumph over my own conscious and unconscious racist preconceptions. What we do every day determines whether we'll have a race war in this country or not. And some of us take that responsibility very seriously.
I am a daughter of the South having lived in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. But I have also lived in some not-so-Southern places: New Jersey, Chicago, Houston, and Dallas. I have seen racism everywhere, and I mean everywhere, I have lived.
Before you respond with a typical response, ask YOURself --have you invited someone to your house to dinner who happened to be black? do black families live in your neighborhood? have you ever lived with a black roommate? have you ever been the only white person at an all black event? Surely, the South must take blame for racism. But the South must not take THE blame.
Okay, I'll end this frustrated, babbling tirade with a true story. Last year during the Olympics a Harvard-educated friend from New York City (born and reared in the Northeast) came to visit us. After the day's events were over, we stayed out and just partied, literally dancing in the streets in huge crowds, celebrating the incredible event. The next day our friend remarked, "Wow! We were even dancing with black people!" Oh really? We hadn't noticed. We just thought we were dancing with people.
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