ok now i'm just straight-up complaining about yankee political bullshit
honestly i feel like a lot of those attitudes tie into this larger problem - the south as america's scapegoat.
i'm not going to say we were justified in the fucked up shit! at all! but too much of the country is way too content to look at it as "well it's the south, people are racist there. there's the racists. since we're not in the south, we just can't be racists, so it's fine!"
ok now i'm just straight-up complaining about yankee political bullshit
this other-ing of the southern united states means that so much of the rest of the country is not even going to consider that what they're doing might be racist. because gawd it's not like there's a kkk rally or some shit, that's what those southerners do!
it's a cheap and easy trick to get yourself off the hook for ANY sort of self-reflection, and to let racism pass on through completely unabated and actively aided.
ok now i'm just straight-up complaining about yankee political bullshit
peak example - one of the most odious people i met in college who once exclaimed, "i CAN'T be racist! i'm from NEW YORK! there are different cultures ALL AROUND YOU all the time, you can't grow up in that and be racist!"
and yet he interacted with other cultures in 2 ways only:
1. pretentiously telling minorities what their shit was about, as if he was the expert
2. "eewww that's so gross i'm glad i don't have to touch it"
ok now i'm just straight-up complaining about yankee political bullshit
it's the same racist shit. The Same Racist Shit.
but because the yankee knows he's "not one of those stupid racist southerners", he sits around preening about how clever he is and denies that anything could ever be the issue with *him* and *his viewpoints*.
PEAK YANKEE BULLSHIT!
if you see anyone pull that or try to pull it, i hereby ask you to firmly and decisively bite their fucking head clean off