How Alabama taught its children to be racists

boing
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The presence of good people doesn’t come into the equation. Wonderful isn’t a useful metric for such things. Lots of racists would never lynch a man because they know it is wrong and consider themselves good people, go to churches or what, donate to the poor of any race, they still contribute to the problem.

I don’t know what Xeni wanted to imply but the map implies a correlation between poverty, misery & scrip abuse.

That broad brush doesn’t get paint on anyone who knows they don’t fit, or don’t want to fit, the mould of the South. Those persons would also know that the cultural problems of the South are omnipresent & won’t deny it.

As well, there has been a shift backwards as of late. There may be more progressive people in the south than ever before, I don’t know. But I do know that to me it doesn’t seem likely.

My own family there was raised correctly (considering the territory & times) to not be bigots/racists/bad people. But now when I visit (or when they visit me, since I stopped going there) I hear unapologetic racism cloaked in stupid, sad, failed rationalizations that would never get by where I am now. Or gotten by me when I lived there. “You don’t know son, all the black people from Katrina that came here are committing crimes and raping people all the time.” I’d like to move to a better neighbourhood, with all the blacks and mexicans where I am now it isn’t safe.".

This from people I know know better, but immersed in it, among people who find the above normal or tolerable…

Put it to you this way, the last time the Klan killed someone I knew personally I was 12, but I’m only in my early forties now. Nothing has gone away.

(edit- I’m from Texas, not Alabama, but It likely doesn’t matter)

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Yes, yes. A good reminder that those in the North shouldn’t get all that self-congratulatory when they scold the South for slavery and ongoing racism/white supremacy. Indeed, I think that sometimes, the South serves the North as a sort of scapegoat, distracting from its own ills and sins.

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Well, Bless your heart.

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Ah, that does remind me of something else I disliked there, the way some people would smile and say something nice sounding all while sticking you with a knife :wink:

Now that this thread got me remembering more, yeah there were plenty of negative things. I just think stereotyping should be avoided.

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But this textbook isn’t a “stereotype,” it’s a historical fact demonstrating how the state government and public education system in the State of Alabama indoctrinated its children with incredibly racist propaganda. Those children are now holding elected office, crafting public policy, and making up a huge portion (if not a majority) of the voting public.

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