Ole Miss, Hampden-Sydney and a reactionary South
By Craig T. Ramey
I am a Southerner proud to claim my heritage. Southerners are complicated and diverse, yet we share and celebrate much in our common geography, culture and traditions. Like others, we have much that divides as well as unites us.
Our most abiding and corrosive divide derives from the stain of racism and its continuing legacy. The South was not alone in its conduct of slavery; slavery existed in New York, Philadelphia and Boston, as well as Charleston, Savanna and Mobile — in large cities and small towns alike. It was just more obvious in the South than in the North.
Ramey is professor and distinguished research scholar at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute.
November 18, 2012 - 8:00 AM
I have, for me uncharacteristic, hesitated in responding to this thread, especially as to what is now the moot aspect of the quite past election.
What, IMO is overlooked here, is that the type of unfortunate reaction displayed here is not, as many would wish to depict, simply (only) a matter of overt racism.
It is, again (last time) an unfortunate misplaced reaction to the PC & media reality that has now given us (again) an inferior president that is doing great harm to this nation.
Obama was & is essentially a novelty. If he were white he never would have been elected.
If he were white, what makes him an inferior & harmful president could & would have been discussed honestly. Instead, all criticism became called racism.
This and block voting by minorities gave us Obama.
Knee jerk personified.
No, I am not racist…..and no, I do not hate Obama.
#1 Ahhhh yes, that ol’ right-wing tactic of labeling their opponents as Pee Cee. How dare others condemn bigotry! Oh, the horror!
#2 Master Steven:
1. I am not “right-wing”.
2. I don’t have “opponents”.
3. Unlike you, I “condemn” no one.
You may want to re-read my post. I condone no bigotry. Including the bigotry that IMO you fail to see (and thus fall into). That of one-dimensional thought & archetypical profiling.
Right on Craig Ramey! This was indeed a “despicable” manifestation of the underlying racism and a primer for just how quickly it can rear its ugly head when people who feel “superior” are “defeated”. Well said, and this Southerner agrees with every word you said.
The saddest part of racism is those who promote it and decry that truth.
#4 “The saddest part of racism is those who promote it and decry that truth.”
Agreed. Thank you.