whats up with southern bigotry?

Question

i find that the south, a.k.a. the bible belt, seems to be the most bigoted area of the country... whats up with that?
in MANY of the churches there, blacks folks are not made to feel welcomed in"white" churches, and vice versa. isnt that blatent hypocrisy?

blackdragon,
i live in a liberal midwestern state(go badgers!) and my husband and i also own a home in south carolina, so i see firsthand both sides of the coin, and no doubt i see MUCH more acceptance and respect up here.

Answer 1

You haven't spent much time down south have you. I used to live in Alabama an there is a lot less bigotry down there then there is up in Michigan where I live now.

Truthfully it has always been that way. Contrary to popular belief there were black slave holders/plantation owners living in the south.

During the civil war the people in New York rioted, running through the streets killing black people. These days they are called "draft riots" instead of lynchings. Political correctness of liberal history teachers. The Democrats in New York city lobbied hard against stopping slavery. Slaves were tolerated, like illegal aliens, in New York city because it was so hard to find good servants.

The north did not want slavery down south. Some say it was because all those freed slaves kept coming up north an if it wasn't stopped the entire north would be over run by blacks. Lincoln proposed sending blacks back to Africa, Liberia, for that reason. Lincoln, like Jefferson, made a lot of compromises to achieve his goals.

I think people in the north just hated slavery, and really didn't care much for blacks.

Same problems as today.

Answer 2

Keep in mind that most Southerners are not bigots. However, the fact that many are can be accounted for in large part because of how they were raised. Culturally (although this is obviously a very big overgeneralization), the South, or at least specifically the Christian Fundamentalist, Bible Belt-intensive portion of the South, is a very backwards-looking place: they are not progressive, and they value tradition and the virtues of ages past, not novelty that upsets the status quo. They have a nostalgia for bygone eras, and believe that recent developments have taken people away from God and towards sin and Satan. And it is simply unavoidable that aspects of the past eras which they long for include racial segregation, religious persecution, intolerance, etc.; so an unfortunate side-effect of this aspect of the conservative belief system is that it is conducive to bigotry, simply as a consequence of American history.

Answer 3

Well, there are bigots everywhere. I don't think that the South is generally more racially segregated than anywhere else. Here in California, there are Black churches and White churches.

When hubby (Black Dragon) and I went to Augusta for his folks' 50th anniversary, we went to his folks' church, where there were people ranging in shade from paler than I am (which is pretty pale) to darker than he is (which is pretty dark). No one cared. No one seemed to notice much, even.

Yes, there were more dark faces than light, but I didn't feel unwelcome at all. Nor did my parents.

My only reason for discomfort at all was that I felt under-dressed.

Mind you, I was "dressed up" according to California standards...but I wasn't wearing a hat. Those Southern women do DRESS for church! (And I think that's terrific)

Answer 4

Black people stick together and so do whites. They have different traditions an d the Church Services are different. A white person may not feel comfortable in a church where people are dancing and screaming halleluah. While Blacks wouldn't like being in a church that has a bunch of boring people that makes them fall asleep

Answer 5

i live right around the belt "buckle", what you say is true, most religious institutions here are the last place you would want to go looking for god. on the bright side the spiritual and musical sub culture here is so interesting and unique. if your mind is open you will find many people here, esp. in the youth culture, who have a compassion and wisdom that can only belong to those who have found their own path in places where it is practically considered treason to do so.

Answer 6

Actually I found more open bigotry in the Northern Mid-Western states than I did in the south



What's the Difference between a Southern bigot and a Northern bigot?











A Southern bigot doesn't mind you living next to them as long as you don't get uppity





A Northern bigot doesn't mind if you get uppity as long as you don't live next to them


dali333: I am a southerner by birth, I have lived in several southern and northern states. My experience has been without a doubt less tolerance in the north.

Answer 7

My best friend and her husband are Pastors of a church in the deep south and they have a blend of many races in their church and it is normal in many churches down south....so I don't know of what hypocrisy you are talking about....

Answer 8

The southern Christians were the last to give up slavery, and they didn't give it up willingly. So it's left over from that.

Answer 9

You live under a rock in Wisconsin, don't you?

Answer 10

That isn't true.I have many black Brothers in Christ.Stop the stereotyping.