"White trash," the #ConfederateFlag, and Southern culture and Southern heritage

A 10-15 second snippet from a segment on NPR's Morning Edition today, about the Confederate flag and Charleston, is the starting point here.

Actually, connotatively, it kind of is the CSA flag.
Officially, it became the canton of the actual CSA flag
that replaced the Stars and Bars in 1863, so, IMO,
this meme attempt isn't totally right either.
Connotatively again, it then became seen as "the flag"
of the Confederacy because of the racists behind the
rise of the Second Klan in the 1920s.
Plus, again connotatively, this meme attempt is itself
often used as an attempt to stifle larger questions
about "Southern culture," etc. with an "ignoramus" label.

A white kid, a college student at Catawba College says (not quite direct quote, but pretty close), says, about the Rebel (battle) flag: "No, it's not a symbol of racism for me, but the white trash made it that." (The "white trash" is actual words.)

The multiple layers of smug. The multiple layers of stratification in his comment.

And, as part of that, not a denial that he might be racist; just an attempt to put the flag of rebellion in a circumscribed box and attach it to other people.

Don’t be surprised to see if this gains traction in days ahead.

Don't be surprised if the South Carolina Legislature spins and frames its actions similarly, as part of what I already see as head fakefirst, in-depth action a distant second. Definitely don’t be surprised if that’s the next way Dylann Roof’s actions get spun by some, if the “attack on Christianity” and “mentally ill” angles don’t take hold.

That said, any “organized” attempt to go this route would definitely be playing with fire, wouldn’t it? Many tea party types, whether they are or are not what Southern “betters” would call “white trash,” probably identify in some way as such. After all, that’s part of how the Confederate flag spread beyond the old South in the 1950s.

As for the college student? There’s a grain of truth to his saying, that goes back before the Civil War. It certainly covers the likes of President Andrew Johnson, with his mix of a high degree of racism plus a hatred of “betters” that led to the disasters of Reconstruction. (Johnson made rich planters and Confederate officers grovel to him for pardons. Once the groveling satisfied his ego, he granted just about every pardon request he got while remaining as racist as ever.)

And, it seems to have been some part of Southern societal structure in general, with the “betters” letting everyday white people deal with more of the small, everyday confrontations with Southern blacks and the friction related to that. In return, it offered these everyday white people someone to kick whenever they felt down — and kick they often did, sometimes fatally during the peak of the civil rights movement.

(None of this is to say that all Southern whites of today participate in such cultural stratification, or course. Nor is it to say that there is no such stratification outside of the South.)

The “betters” got the smug satisfaction of remaining above the fray, of kicking poor whites, and of keeping Southern culture stratified.

Sociologists and economists want to blame a number of factors for the South’s poor post-Reconstruction economic development, which basically carried on its relatively poor pre-Reconstruction economic development. Unfortunately, I don’t think they look enough to this continuing social stratification.

I actually read a book on this issue, several years ago. It was not just about Southern cultural stratification, but it was about how, in general, especially in similar systems with definite stratification, groups low on the totem pole can be "encouraged" to kick groups even further down, as an attempt to reduce anxiety and anger, even though the result may often be to increase anxiety, unwarranted anger and other psychological issues.

And, it is continuing. Note how casually the college kid spoke about “white trash.” Note that that too is part of "Southern culture" and "Southern heritage" that the Rebel flag supposedly is so much about.

Finally, he didn't get that "white trash" idea from nowhere. Behind Mr. Catawba College are parents and a peer group with the same mindset, most likely. And, for illustrative juxtaposition, Catawba is a private, and religious, college. No, not Baptist — it's "loosely affiliated" with the United Church of Christ, theologically liberal enough to be quasi-Unitarian.

But, the NCAA has already given it a noogie for use of the generic "Indians" mascot.

It is theoretically the type of place that would attract Southern Protestant "betters" too freethinking to go to an Episcopalian or liberal Methodist school.

Final note, especially for my humanist friends: Here is a good guide on how to talk about racial issues.

Yes, who started Memorial Day matters

Union soldiers killed at Gettysburg. Getty Images via New York Times

At a recent Memorial Day event, I heard one of the speakers first try to claim that Memorial Day was started in the South, not the North, and that, second, it doesn't matter anyway.

Partially wrong on No. 1, definitely wrong on No. 2.

Yes, women both North and South were decorating the graves of soldiers from previous wars before Memorial Day, per Wikipedia.

But, also per Wikipedia, the non-Monday Holiday original date of May 30 was proposed by Union veteran John Logan, president of the Grand Army of the Republic, in 1968, specifically as "Decoration Day." And, that's how Memorial Day started.

The fact that it was for Civil War dead, and more specifically, for Union Civil War dead, is also important. It's doubly important in our lifetimes.

That's because, ever since the election to the presidency of Richard Nixon in 1968, based on part on Kevin Phillips' "Southern strategy," the South, which appeared to have culturally won the Civil War by the time of Plessy vs. Ferguson, only to have the clock pushed forward again by the civil rights movement, has been at least partially winning a number of battles again.

Those are mainly battles over the power and range of the federal government, and they've had a massive resurgence with the tea party movement, and calls for things like nullification. The movement has also shown us that the racism which fueled the South's attachment to its "peculiar institution," wasn't publicly, let alone privately, wiped out by the civil rights movement.

Related to that, this is why the issue of American forts still being named after Confederate Civil War generals matters. No, none were ever prosecuted for it, but by the Constitutional definition, they were all traitors. There's no other word for it.

So, eff the gun nut and related cultures that run strong in the South. This column is totally right. It's time to rename, among others, Fort Hood here in Texas, named after John Bell Hood. It's time to rename Fort Lee and Fort A.P. Hill. Period.

And, it's also time to remember the Robert E. Lee was first offered the leadership of the Ku Klux Klan. He turned it down, and it went to Nathan Bedford Forrest. There's no indication, though, that he disagreed with its general work or ideals.

A couple of 'reads' to get ready for opening day

First, from the New York Times' Disunion series, here's a good column on baseball, in its multiple varieties, striving to separate itself from cricket and gain popularity at the start of the Civil War.

It's interesting, given the number of Southern players at the time modern professional baseball took off, after the start of the World Series, how little popularity baseball had south of the Mason-Dixon Line in 1861.

Second, here's former MLB player and manager Bobby Valentine, wondering in a NYT op-ed if it ain't about time to get chewing and snuff tobacco out of MLB dugouts. In the wake of Tony Gwynn and his recent grueling recovery from oral cancer, it's timely indeed.

I agree, by the way. Let's have players set a better example. And a cleaner one.

If it's mandatory, it's not volunteer

At school districts, that includes not just students who have required community service, which goes against the spirit of that type of service, but also includes parents, mainly moms.

And now, parents are pushing back against school demands, even as budget-strapped school districts redefine "volunteer":

As local and state economies continue to struggle, budget cuts to rich and poor school systems are increasing the reliance on unpaid parent help. The need is so great that some school districts, like a couple of specialty schools in Prince William County, Va., have made it mandatory to commit to a small amount of volunteer time, and others are considering it. In San Jose, Calif., one elementary school district has been discussing a proposal that the families of its 13,000 students commit to 30 hours of volunteer work during the year.

I say good, not just for parents' sake, but for states' sake. Maybe this will get states to be more progressive in their taxation. That said, they're going to need the help of the federal government against ... Tea Party/red/GOP/Southern-Texan type states.

Healthcare blowback after Obama town hall

First, Sam Stein notes that President Barack Obama just doesn’t get Sarah Palin and other wingers.

Here’s the problem, Barry. Not everybody’s hymnal has “Kumbaya” in it. Second, to mash up Nazi Germany and cognitive science, to tell the Big Lie convincingly, you have to tell it to yourself enough, and convincingly enough, that you first believe it for yourself.

That said, ABC’s Kate Snow notes that, on the end-of-life consultations that Palin et al say would be “government-forced euthanasia, hospitals do them right now. Hospice does in a sense. And, if that hospital or hospice is paying that patient’s bill with Medicare, well, then we right now have the government involved with end-of-life issues and no euthanasia.

Finally, Michael Lind says that progressives/liberals need to stop bashing stereotypical Southerners as a class, whether over national heathcare, or over other issues.

Taking direct aim at Kevin Drum, Texas native Lind says his state produced LBJ (set Vietnam aside, please), Barbara Jordan, Anne Richards and Maury Maverick, among others, while Drum’s California was the home of Nixon, Reagan the John Birch Society, Prop. 13 and as late as last year, Prop. 8:

According to Drum: "There are, needless to say, plenty of individual Southern whites who are wholly admirable. But taken as a whole, Southern white culture is [redacted]. Jim Webb can pretty it up all he wants, but it's a [redacted]." …

Drum's creepy bigotry becomes clear when other groups are substituted: "There are, needless to say, plenty of individual blacks who are wholly admirable. But taken as a whole, black culture is [redacted]. Barack Obama can pretty it up all he wants, but it's a [redacted]." Or maybe this: "There are, needless to say, plenty of individual Jews who are wholly admirable. But taken as a whole, Jewish culture is [redacted]. The late Irving Howe can pretty it up all he wants, but it's a [redacted]."

From there, he goes off on Prop. 8, and how stereotypes aren’t always put into place:

Blacks and Latinos, it appears, are allowed to hold conventionally conservative social views about gay rights, abortion and (in the case of blacks) immigration without being mocked and denounced by elite white liberals in the pages of the Washington Post and Mother Jones, as long as they vote for the Democratic Party on the basis of other issues.

Beyond that, there’s always the “why” behind non-stereotypical anger, which is the bottom line of what Obama doesn’t get. After all, besides “Kumbaya,” hymnbooks also contain “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

GOP needs to ‘drive a stake through old Dixie’

That’s the money quote from Kathleen Parker. And, the “flexibly conservative” columnist, who would be at least as good as Douthat on the NYT pages, says, he’s more right than wrong.

At the same time, she calls “hypocrisy alert” on folks like Voinovich:

Though Voinovich's views may be shared by others in the party, it's a tad late -- not to mention ungrateful -- to indict the South. Republicans have been harvesting Southern votes for decades from seeds strategically planted during the civil rights era.

It’s a good column; give it a read.

Bubba doesn’t walk enough

According to Time, it’s not just all those chicken-fried steaks and biscuits smothered with country gravy that have Bubba carrying around a spare monster truck tire. isn’t walking much to move that tire around.

Some of the Time observations are spot on: Fewer bus routes mean less walking to buses. Narrower roads means less biking, for general safety sake and for redneck-types (or urban minority types here in Dallas, too) yelling out the doors while driving six inches away, etc.

But others? Like heat and humidity?

You don’t see a lot of fat Brazilians or Congolese, do you?

Instead, let’s blame air-conditioning for encouraging Southern refusal to get outside and do more.

Besides, if people are like monkeys on eating, cut back the chicken-frieds to add years to your life.

‘A third Reconstruction’

Michael Lind is right that this is what it will take to get the South to stop its anti-labor, anti-infrastructure, anti-government investments, job-poaching approach to governance.

His suggestions toward that end include:
• Restoring federal revenue sharing;
• Getting a real living wage;
• Replacing the power of state and local economic development corporations (started in the South/Texas) to poach Northern jobs) with a real federal-state partnership.

Read the full story; it’s good.

Gas prices hit rural areas hard

Earlier today, I noted how Midwestern rain was pushing corn futures strongly upward, and added that this wasn’t even taking gas prices into consideration.

Well, here’s the gas prices story.

The rural south, Desert Southwest and High Plains are hardest hit. The story notes that, although nationally, people spend about 4 percent of their income on gas, that figure hits 13 percent in the Mississippi Delta.

Why? Because of the poverty there, obviously.

The interactive map shows the correlation pretty clearly.