Southern identity changes
A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll shows the number of people who identify themselves as "Southerners" is shrinking, leading some to forecast the region is changing in interesting ways.
While a third of respondents said they were born outside of the South, only 77 percent of people born in the South considered themselves to be "Southerners," results showed. According to the story on the poll:
Things are indeed changing in the South. And so is the notion of what it means to be "Southern." In this most maligned and mused-upon of American regions, the term conjures up a variety of images: magnolias, front-porch swings and sweet tea for some; football, stock cars and fried chicken for others; lynchings, burning crosses and civil-rights marches for still others.More of the series on what it means to be Southern and how the notion may be changing:
We've had the Solid South, the Old South and the New South. But are we heading toward a "No South"?
posted by Andy Brack @ 11:46 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
As a native Floridian who regards himself as a true Southerner, I can recall when much of my home state was largely Southern in character. Rapid population growth fueled by migration from the North has changed Florida drastically in the past 40 years or so. The Southern drawls that were so common around the state in my youth are fading even in the parts of Florida that are close to Alabama and Georgia.
My theory is that Florida clearly went into the Yankee column when it elected the first non-Southern speaking Governor Jeb Bush. It is interesting how his brother George has such a definite Texas twang but Jeb lacks any trace of a Southern accent. Florida elected a Yankee Republican Governor Claude Kirk in 1966. Kirk, however, honored traditions and spoke in a mock Southern drawl most of the time. The last remaining major statewide political figure with a Southern drawl is Senator Bill Nelson. If only he had decided to run for Governor instead, maybe this unfortunate trend could still be reversed !
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