The American Prospect Bashes the South

Do cheap Southern stereotypes sell magazines? Apparently, the editors of The American Prospect think so. The April issue of that venerable liberal magazine contains several pieces dealing with Southern issues, none of which present the region in a particularly realistic light.

Perhaps the most outrageous article is "Wal-Mart Comes North: The Continuation of the Civil War by Other Means" by longtime labor journalist Harold Meyerson. This article ostensibly aims to describe the political fights that have occurred in northern cities like New York and Chicago over Wal-Mart's efforts to open stores. Those attempts have led local residents, rightfully, to to ask hard questions about the company's labor practices.

Instead of using the Wal-Mart wars as a way to discuss complicated questions of of economic competitiveness and fairness in a globalized economy, Meyerson instead likens Wal-Mart's northern push to an attempt to impose a barbaric "Southern way of life" on an enlightened population. One example of Meyerson's characterization of the South follows:

"Before Wal-Mart, no nationally dominant company has ever come from the nation's most backwards region, let alone clung so stubbornly to that region's casual barbarities."

Such inflammatory language is both stupid and silly. Wal-Mart's expansion plans are not part of some coordinated, nefarious Southern plot to conquer the nation. In fact, many Southerners object strongly to the kinds of labor policies pursued by firms like Wal-Mart. By peddling such cheap stereotypes, Meyerson manages to alienate people who otherwise would agree with him and misses an opportunity to discuss meaningfully questions of work, wages and opportunity -- questions of central importance to progressives in every part of the country, even the South.