I am trying very hard to hold my temper in place here, but as a native son of the very southern state of Georgia, I am deeply offended by the stereotypes which are being thrown about in recent posts on the net. It astounds me that anyone who has looked at the media with any insight would take media stereotypes of the region at face value, or that you would confuse representations of the south in the 1950s and 1960s with the reality today. Take any of the statements you folks are making about the south and substitute the minority of your choice-- Jews, Blacks, etc. -- and see if you would be prepared to make the same kinds of comments in a public forum. I honestly don't think most of you would. Are southerners close minded towards outsiders? Look, I live in Boston right now and there aren't many other places in the world more close-minded to outsiders. Maybe southern resistance to outsiders has something to do with the snobbery and arrogance of people who come into other regions with the assumption that all southerners are dumb hicks. Are southerners racist? Most of us from the south have had to confront our racism from day one, we live in a place where the history of racism is ever present. When I was going to school in the midwest, I encountered forms of racism that were so overt and so naive that it made my mouth drop. Fraternities at major midwestern universities had "Martin Luther Coon Birthday Parties," where everyone wore black-face, ate fried chicken and watermellon. When the frat boys were asked about their actions, they looked astonished that anyone would find this offensive. It was just an honest joke! Where I came from, you probably wouldn't do something like that if you had an ounce of humanity, but if you did, you would have known what you were doing and meant it. I don't mean to be flaming other regions. All I want to suggest is that the south is being presented here as a scapegoat for national problems and it has been used that way for more than a hundred years. --Henry Jenkins