Let me tell you about MY Southern Heritage:

[Texasgal]

I am a life long southerner and a 4th generation Texan.

My grandparents and their grandparents are from here and so on. We come from a very tight knit family. My Mothers side is Swedish and my Fathers side Scottish.

My Mothers parents and grandparents were part of a huge settlement of Swedes. To this day my family is still very much involved in preserving the Swedish culture and taking care of one of the largest Swedish cemeteries in Central Texas. I personally visit this spot annually and help with "Swedish PRIDE" day and help clean up the cemetery. We clean the grounds and repair any damages of the markers, we also clean up trash and spend a day appreciating our background. Every Christmas we celebrate our heritage by cooking many Swedish dishes and brushing up on our language.

Being a native Austinite has some pride. I love my city, even though it's growing like crazy and becoming difficult for alot of folks to live here. No matter, Austin, TX is my home and I could never imagine being anywhere else. When you tell someone you are "native" they seem amazed!

I went to college in Texas and earned a nursing degree. I work in my community caring for others. My nursing has been a wonderful career. I've enjoyed just about every minute of giving back to my community. As a matter of fact when Katrina hit I volunteered countless hours caring for the infirmed in a make shift facility as a volunteer. I still have contact with some of those patients to this very day! I am proud to have been part of their care and will never forget the people I met. My brothers are both in education, one in our school district and the other in our community college.

My husbands family came here from Mexico in 1935 and not legally, they recieved citizenship in the 70's. I find it puzzling that immigrants are typically not mentioned when it comes to Southern Pride? My husbands family raised 5 children that went on to become great Texans. My father in law was a janitor that later ended up retiring from our school district at 72 years old. My Mother in law was a maid for one of the oldest and most beloved hotel here in Austin. They still spoke mainly spanish in their home. I cannot imagine them knowing too much about the Confederacy. My husband and I took care of them until they died. They were both in their 80's and worked hard all of their lives. They did not have much, but they were beautiful and caring people.

My parents were hippies in Austin. I remember going with my mom as she and her friends chained themselves to tree to protest a development in the early 70's. My Father is a retired professor from the University Of Texas. He was all about education and both of my parents raised myself and my two brothers to be decent citizens and to believe in our backgrounds and lives.

When we talk about "Southern Heritage" this is what we are talking about! And really to be completely honest I really do not remember any talk of the civil war or the flag. This was just not a topic of conversation. Our background was mostly focused on our Swedish and Scottish backgrounds.

I am tired of people pigeonholing us. Yes, we have issues. I know this. We are not perfect, but not all of us are flag waving white folks! And please, please...do not say I am being "sensitive". I am just being truthful.

In closing.. Cornbread should NOT be sweet and Chili should NOT have beans.

Thank you.

[libdem4life]

1. Thanks for sharing your story. It was that last sentence, however, that cinched it !

[Fred Sanders]

2. Flags of failed racist nations should not be revered and even a dash of racism in the recipe is too much.

No one is disputing anyone's laying claim to anyone's heritage, but the Dixie Swastika is not symbolic of just that.

The Germans got it right with the symbols of their past failed racist nation.

[Texasgal]

7. Actually, yes there are people on DU

That are disputing that very fact.

My whole point is that my "southern pride" has nothing to do with the flag or the Confederacy. It never has and never will.

[Igel]

13. That rules out a lot of flags.

Unless the "failed" bit is what's really important.

Brazil's flag represented slavery and racism on a grander scale than the US, whose flag also represented slavery. Then there's the Union Jack.

No, I think what really matters is internal US politics and this odd thing that Americans have of imagining that redefining a symbol bears some relation to redefining reality. It's the whole form over substance thing that we superficial, crass materialist consumers have been stuck with since at least the '60s, with a bit of French '50s Marxist thought added for justification.

[Fred Sanders]

16. Brazil, indeed, is not a failed racist nation. It's flag is not a symbol of failure of slavery or racism.

The (flag) motto, or lema in Portuguese, of Ordem e Progresso (Order and Progress) came from positivist French philosopher Auguste Comte, of whom the overthrowers of the monarchy were fans. Comte’s whole motto was “Love as a principle and order as the basis; Progress as the goal".

And racism is not woven in as it is into the Dixie Swastika.

Why this has to be explained on a liberal/socialist site is...sad.

http://streetsmartbrazil.com/brazilian-culture-history-meaning-brazilian-flag/

[BlueCollar]

64. then there's the Union Jack....

Would you please share what you were thinking when you made that statement?

[still_one]

77. Agreed. However, you do realize that the Native American genocide was done with the United States

blessing. Japanese Americans had their property confiscated, and they were put in internment camps during WII.

[DashOneBravo]

3. I disagree ma'am

Chili has to have beans.

[Texasgal]

4. PFFT!

NO! Just NO!

[MicaelS]

5. Sorry, I'm a lifelong Texan, and I say YES to beans! n/t

[Texasgal]

12. BOOO!!!

[Hangingon]

40. I am a 5th generation Texan and I agree - chili has no beans.

[catrose]

8. I agree

Is it okay to eat watermelon too? Growing up in the South, I didn't eat too many meals that didn't have cornbread (bread, not cake) or corn in another form, black-eyed peas, or watermelon. Or all of them. It's what all poor Southerners of any color ate. Now I just don't mention it in polite company.

[Texasgal]

11. Really Cat?

We eat watermelon all of the time! I love to sprinkle chili and limon' on it!

We just bought one at HEB just a few days ago.

Are you serious?

[Sophiegirl]

28. Texas born and raised!

Watermelon should be served cold with salt and yes, chili must have pinto beans.

[Lochloosa]

29. Would you ship me a case of HEB's Texas Rice?

Pretty please.

[Texasgal]

33. Send me you addy!

I'll do it!

[Warpy]

15. Depends. If it's a long time to payday and you have to stretch the meat

then beans have a perfectly honorable place in chili.

Just don't expect to win any chili contests with 'em in there.

[Sophiegirl]

31. I have!!

Won chili cook offs with beans in my chili. But I have a secret ingredient that puts it over the top.

[MicaelS]

97. Considering some the other crap chili contest cookers

Have reputed to put in their chili, (like rattlesnake or other "critters&quot I'll take beans any day of the week.

[kentauros]

61. It's acceptable for vegetarian chili to have beans,

but not the meat-based chili

[DashOneBravo]

92. Well that makes perfect sense to me

Of course I don't think I've ever had inedible chili.

[kentauros]

96. It depends on the seasoning as to whether it's inedible.

I'm going to assume you wouldn't mind having vegetarian chili (instead of assuming you wouldn't touch the stuff) especially if it's seasoned correctly and uses one of the delicious fake meats like the "beef" made by the brand gardein

[DashOneBravo]

100. I wouldn't mind at all

I know it makes a difference. About 10 years I started eating really well and it has paid off. About 90 % of the meat I eat is deer.

I haven't tried the brand you suggested. It's probably hard to find in a town that only had three grocery stores.

I do appreciate the suggestion.

[kentauros]

102. When I still ate meat, the best chili my father ever made

(and the best chili I've ever had, period) was made with venison. I'm going to have to get him to email me a copy of his recipe. You'd probably like it, as it's really just the chili liquid/sauce and the meat. Any of the few other vegetables in it (onions and jalapeños, I think) have long since cooked down by the time it's ready to serve.

So, I haven't yet tried it with the fake meat, but expect it to be just as delicious. And that's understandable about not being able to get the fake meats. Sometimes it's difficult even in a large city without having to drive all over to find a certain brand at a good price. For me, the fake meats I like often cost a dollar or two less at Whole Foods than at my convenient grocery (Kroger) and the other major chains in town (Fiesta and HEB) don't carry what I like at all. If I knew how to make them myself, I would

[Enthusiast]

106. Post that recipe, kentauros, while I still have some venison left.

[kentauros]

112. Unfortunately, I lost the paper copy,

thus why I need to get my father to email me a copy. I tend not to lose computer files

[Enthusiast]

114. Computer files are forever. The NSA has them.

[kentauros]

116. They won't have my father's recipe, though.

He keeps too much stuff on paper

[snooper2]

110. vegetarian chili is against the laws of nature

just FYI

[Comrade Grumpy]

72. My East Texas-born father said NO to beans in chili. But pass the black eyed peas.

[DashOneBravo]

93. I agree with both your statements

Who in the world doesn't like black eyed peas?

[Warpy]

6. Even I have southern heritage, although I couldn't wait to save up enough to leave

and I left like I was shot out of a cannon.

Mine comes in my cooking, well seasoned with herbs and spices and, yes, cayenne, a real shock to people in Boston who were used to boiled dinners and pretty much unseasoned deep fried fish. Say what you will about deep fried Twinkies, the south still has the best food in the country. Well, the eastern half of the country.

[Texasgal]

9. Not everyone loves it here.

And I understand that.

I'm a native Austinite, I just cannot imagine being anywhere else. It's not perfect here but I am not sure anywhere else would be to my liking.

Yes, southern cooking is the best!

[Quayblue]

10. wait.. your cornbread isn't sweet???

Jk and

[Texasgal]

14. NO!

Sweet cornbread! Just NO!!!

[DawgHouse]

70. No sweet Johnny cake in this house, either!

[DashOneBravo]

17. In the south we call that pound cake.

[Uncle Joe]

18. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Texasgal.

[Texasgal]

21. Thank you

for understanding what I am saying!

[NRaleighLiberal]

19. Wait - I live in NC - my cornbread is sweet and my chili has beans!

then again I am a transplant from New England!

[Texasgal]

22. You weirdo!

[NRaleighLiberal]

27. you don't know the half of it!

[Thinkingabout]

20. I am also born and bred southern. I love the south and love my chosen state as much as others may

Live their state. I choose to remain im the south, proud of my heritage. I did nor have any control of events which occurred some generations back, I can only work on improving the future just like everyone else.

Thanks for your post, enjoyed very much.

[Texasgal]

25. Agreed.

Thank you. Yes, we can only work on improving the future.

[underthematrix]

51. What is your heritage?

What European country did your family of origin come from?

[Thinkingabout]

59. Probably Irish, Scottish, who the Heinz 57 variety dirt farmers

[procon]

23. Chiming in for authentic old fashioned Southern sweet cornbread.

In the 50s, my mom collected little anecdotes for a family cookbook, and the subject of sweet cornbread came up. We still have that old heirloom cookbook and the recipe for sweet cornbread is the one everyone in our family uses. I don't know if it's true, but I like that there is some logic to the story.

Anyway, as my Kentucky great grandma told it, sweet cornbread was a necessity that began when imported wheat flour became scarce. Bread making uses up a lot of four, but a lot less is needed for a big pan of cornbread and all the ingredients were available locally. Sugar was cheap and supplies overstocked because of wartime embargos, so it was added for taste and to keep money in the community. My great aunts from Florida added to the story, remarking that it was Northern cornbread that was 'plain' because they no longer had shipments of Southern sugar. They attributed the popularity of unsweetened cornbread after the war to the price increases prompted by the demand for sugar, and it was also the prefered choice of Northerners moving into the South during Reconstruction.

[DashOneBravo]

37. Thanks, I'd never heard that

But it would explain it.

Old family cookbooks are very cool.

[joanbarnes]

24. How do you feel about sweet tea? Personally I can't stand it. Its migrating north (Missouri).

[brer cat]

43. No sweet tea at my house.

When I was a child and we would visit our relatives, my mother always took along a jug of "our" tea 'cause everyone else had that sickening sweet stuff. You couldn't taste the tea for the sugar.

[Texasgal]

46. Honestly we did not do

Sweet Tea.

We did TEA, but it was brewed in the sun with no sugar, although my Mom would add a teaspoon or so when we asked.

[Humanist_Activist]

57. Always had a gallon of sweetened tea at our house growing up in Missouri...

but its not like a lot of the southern stuff, so sweet you can feel your teeth hurt. No more than a cup of sugar for a gallon of tea.

Some teas more resemble syrups.

[AuntPatsy]

26. I'd much rather have my cornbread sweetened though chili, beans or no beans are not

an issue and your right, southern pride means different things to different people, good post...

[Enthusiast]

30. I have the gluten thing. My boxed gluten-free cornbread mix lists sugar as the first ingredient.

My cornbread is like cornbread cookies!

Thanks for sharing your story.

[haikugal]

101. Gluten free cornbread is like that

but I was so happy to find something I could eat that I eat it with relish! I don't know if sugar is the first ingredient but I can taste it and it isn't supposed to be there!

My father loved Blackstrap Molasses and cornbread in buttermilk. He used to eat it with a spoon....shades of the depression when hunger was familiar and you ate what you had.

[Enthusiast]

104. I was the same way. I guess I had gone without carbs for a long while. Happy happy!

My first batch of gluten-free cornbread made me crazy. I still love it.

I love the brownie mix I get from Aldis. I stir in a load of walnuts. No wonder I'm on the hefty side.

[haikugal]

105. I get mine from nutsonline...

They have good gluten free pancakes too. My son likes his with mashed banana added...he enjoys the cornbread too, and the brownies...yeah we have the same problem but we think it's the water!

[Enthusiast]

107. We have been mixing blue berries into the pancake mix.

I'll have to try bananas too.

[dflprincess]

32. So, when you say Swedish Pride Day do you mean

Svenskarnas Dag?

[Trajan]

34. I'm a Jersey boy ....

Born to the streets of NYC ...

I guess I don't appreciate the genteel airs or southern culture in general ....

I lived in the Ozarks for 15 months .... 15 of the most awful months of my life ....

I see the south as holding the nation back from progress ...

I see Texas and the south as an American Maquiladoras center - where wages go to die ...

It's not my world ...

[Texasgal]

35. And youy know what Trajan

that's OKAY.

I would love to invite you down here to Austin. I think you mind would change.

[DashOneBravo]

41. That's fine sir, I've been to Jersey

[7962]

48. Ha!

[DFW]

68. I'm a southerner whose grandparents were all from NYC

Though one grandfather was born in Charleston, SC in 1894 and moved north early on--worked his way through Harvard as a janitor. But I'm perfectly comfortable in both cultures, and now have children perfectly comfortable in two cultures (Germany and USA).

You don't have to be confined to just one world.

[dem in texas]

36. My grandmother was Swedish and lived in Travis County, too.

She came to the US when 9 years old and her family settled in Travis county, near the old town of Creedmore. She married my Grandfather who was Scottish. My great-grand father was from Scotland and landed in Pike County, Illinois. When the Civil War broke out, he was a Democrat (they were called Copperheads)but he enlisted and fought for the Union. After the war, hard feelings existed between the Republicans and Democrats in Pike County. Feelings were so strong that there was even a murder - a Republican killed a Democrat. There is book written about what went on in Pike County.

Anyway, because of the hard feelings, he picked up and moved his family to Texas and settled in Travis county. Being a Democrat is deeply ingrained in my heritage.

Texans don't put sugar in their cornbread and always eat mustard, but no mayo or catsup on their hamburgers.

[Texasgal]

39. :) Are we related?

Perhaps.

Thank you for your post. We swedes need to appreciate and remember our heritage.

[dem in texas]

60. Don't Know

My grandmother's maiden name was Kullenburg. My sister has done a lot of work on our family tree, even researched and found relatives in Sweden. My great-grandfather was a doctor in Travis county and served as head of the Travis County school board. My grandfather and grandmother had 10 boys and one set of twin girls, one of the girls was my mother. When naming the boys, they finally ran out of names and the last boy was named Travis Austin. Don't have any family left in the Austin area, we all live in North Texas now.

Grits are not a Texas food, they belong in Georgia and that area as does sweet tea. We always drink our iced tea with no sugar, but lots of ice! I grew up in a family with 6 kids and my mother always added beans to her chili, trying to feed so many mouths.

[Thespian2]

38. I am a native of the South.

Went to graduate school at the University of Houston...loved all the progressive people I met at the Univ...didn't much care for a few uber-wealthy I came to know...No need to disagree with those folks...Nixon was one of their important heroes...Yes, I was there in the '70's...Unlike Austin, Houston is so polluted that breathing is very difficult...and you face major waits at the allergy clinics...

Growing up in Georgia, we ate rabbits, squirrels, fish, pork...corn bread in all shapes (not sweet)...poke-salat (not a misspell), watermelons...chilli came from a can, along with spam and Dinty Moore...We were poor...

In Texas, I came to appreciate the Mexican culture...including the food, specially corn bread...I have spent many months in the last decades living in coastal villages along Mexico's Pacific coastline...

Writing this to let all know that there is nothing that can be pin-pointed as "Southern Heritage"...the South contains many heritages, so we cannot all be painted with a broad brush...not all of us fought the Civil War over and over...

[PADemD]

42. What about grits?

The first time I visited Florida, there were grits on my breakfast plate. I didn't know what they were or how to eat them.

Here in PA, we eat scrambled eggs, hash brown potatoes, and sometimes scrapple for breakfast.

[DashOneBravo]

94. I think they would be good

As some sort of industrial sealer or engine cleaner.

[NBachers]

44. I just have to rec your informative, upbeat, and friendly post, Texasgal. Texas is multidimensional,

and can't be pigeonholed into any single category.

I agree heartily with you on cornbread- it's cornbread, not cakebread.

The chili issue is open to discussion, but the volume of the discussion will be amplified by the bean-eaters.

[Texasgal]

47. Damn bean chili

people! UGH!

Thank you for your response.

[cwydro]

73. ...

[brer cat]

45. Nice thread, Texasgal.

The civil war was never discussed in my family, and we didn't sit around pining for antebellum days. There are many liberal democrats all over the south. And no sweet cornbread or sweet tea.

[NBachers]

49. Yeah- I love cake and ice cream and my Atlanta gramma's pecan pie was so good, but sweet tea?

What's passed off these days as sweet tea is just . . . wrong! I drink 80 ounces of tea most days of the week, but not a grain of sugar in it at all.

[cwydro]

65. No one I know in all my years in the south

has EVER discussed the civil war outside of a history class.

[cwydro]

75. Yes indeedy.

[curlyred]

50. Thank you!

No sweet cornbread!
Poor white trash democrats, born and bred.

[drthais]

52. here in Louisiana, the Confederate Flag is not an issue either

and our Southern-ness is as different from South Carolina as it is in Texas.
But I must say, we like our cornbread sweet...although, I must agree, chili should never, ever have beans.

[PufPuf23]

54. Thanks for a feel good slice of reality TexasGal

Wish there were more people like you in any state or region.

[HassleCat]

55. As far as the flag goes

The rebel battle flag does not necessarily represent any of that. It is closely associated with resistance to public school integration. This association pretty much poisons it for anything or anyone else.

[cstanleytech]

56. Cornbread not sweet? No beans in Chili? Ban this nutjob mods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(kidding)

[JDPriestly]

58. Cornbread should not be sweet. Absolutely agree.

[udbcrzy2]

62. Sweet cornbread here in this Missouri home

My father said NO beans in the chili, but I like them in mine.

[madokie]

63. Beautiful picture you painted

English, German and Cherokee.
Big family, 13 kids in all, 9 of us still alive. Oldest 84 youngest 63, me 67. Grand Father joined the Union Army at the beginning of the Civil War to Free the Slaves although his Father was a Slave owner. They lived in Georgia. My dad was born in 1897 and being the youngest in his big family all the family history was passed down to him for safe keeping. All that is kept in a safe deposit box.
I never knew the importance of the symbol of the confederate flag although it's always made me uneasy. I never knew why until lately, now I know why that is. I've never had a desire to own that flag nor display it.
My dad was the 7th son and I'm my dads 7th son. If that means anything
I know all about long guns, lived by them as a kid as hunting game was what put meat on the table most times. never was around pistols though. By the time I was in the first grade I could skin a squirrel or rabbit with the best of them. During the winter months my brother and I would get up at 4 am to go run our rabbit traps and if we were lucky and had a rabbit in one of them we'd have meat to go with the eggs, oatmeal, biscuit and gravy for breakfast. Most days that wouldn't be the case because back then the game was pretty much all hunted out. I never seen a deer until I went to the zoo somewhere around the 3rd or 4th grade because there were none in the wild around here. Today they're a nuisance. My how times have changed. I could go on and on but its late and I don't want to bore anyone any further.
Peace

Thank you for your post

I might add. My dads family went to Oregon by wagon train in the 1890s and they came back by wagon train two years later and settled in Oklahoma where he was born. For some reason they didn't settle down in Oregon. Thats how we wound up here in northeast Ok.

[alarimer]

66. I could get blocked for this, but chili SHOULD have beans in it.

It is a meal. Chili without beans is hot dog topping.

I will defend Texas BBQ to the ends of the earth (don't give me that vinegar-based, pulled pork mush from NC, yuck!) but Texans are dead wrong on chili.

And maybe a few other things.

[DashOneBravo]

95. +1

And I'm stealing the hot dog comment. That's so accurate.

[Gothmog]

67. Great post

I am a third generation Texan and I loved your post

[DFW]

69. I have never been to Austin, if you can believe it.

Men jag kan tala svenska ganska bra, har varit i Sverige flera gånger.

Of course, I now live closer to Sweden that Dallas. Just a two hour flight up to Stockholm as opposed to ten hours to get back to Dallas.

[cwydro]

71. Kick.

Great OP.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

74. My country is the world, and my religion is to do good. Thomas Paine

[JEB]

99. Thomas Paine as relevant now as ever.

[unblock]

76. everyone knows cornbread should be made with jalapenos!

i met mrs. unblock at threadgill's a long time ago.

i do miss austin.

sigh.

[still_one]

78. I hate to bring this up, because I realize it may offend many, but

who does the best barbecue?

[arely staircase]

79. This place is the best on earth.

https://www.kreuzmarket.com

[still_one]

83. Cool

[CTyankee]

82. I only knew beef growing up in TX but I have a good friend from TN and she has

helped me see the light on pork...

[still_one]

84. Before I became a Vegetarian, the best beef I ever had was in Texas and New Orleans,

[CTyankee]

85. I'll eat in New Orleans any day...I absolutely love that city...

my stepson's graduation day at Tulane was a multi cultural as you could get...just beautiful...and I get back to New Haven and Yale is giving an honorary degree to GW Bush. I thought I'd throw up...

[still_one]

87. well, for your stepson, congratulations!!!

[CTyankee]

89. thank you! What a great day it was!

[bvar22]

86. I've had the luck to travel slowly across the nation following my trade,

frequently spending a month or two or longer in individual places in our country.
The best BBQ I have eaten was either in Memphis, or Paducah, Kentucky.

The meat smokey & tender, and was served with sauce on the side, and was not sweet or "ketchupy" at all.
I brought a case of Paducah BBQ sauce home with me.

Born & raised in South Louisiana close to New Orleans.
Spent many years living & working across the country.


I was headed for Alaska when I met my future wife in Minnesota in 1999.
(Everybody should see Minnesota in February.)
After Katrina and the disastrous election of 2004, we decided to move to a hilltop in The Woods and start growing our own food. We wanted the Pacific North West, but couldn't afford the Buy In. We found another place that met our list of requirements in the Ouachita Mountains of West/Central Arkansas. We moved there in 2006,
and haven't regretted a single day.

[kentauros]

103. Even as a lifelong Texan,

I can't really recommend that kind of thing anymore (vegetarian for fifteen years now.) So, I'll defer and recommend you to read my favorite local food critic of all time: Robb Walsh. He's probably the best source you'll read if you want to learn about what makes the best BBQ the best

[still_one]

113. Actually, I am a vegetarian myself, but I do remember what good BBQ tasted like

[kentauros]

115. Oh, I still remember, too, including the best texture and tenderness.

I just wanted to "promote" my favorite food critic because he knows his stuff when it comes to BBQ

Barbecue Crossroads: Notes & Recipes from a Southern Odyssey


(And now to re-familiarize myself with a recipe for meringue made from chickpea water )

[still_one]

117. Thanks

[snooper2]

111. I do, but if you can't make it by my house and you're in DFW, then go to Lockhart

Oh, and you don't put fucking sauce on BBQ!

http://www.lockhartsmokehouse.com/

[mentalsolstice]

80. Xposting from the other thread

"Mint Juleps, Tara, Happy Slaves, and noble warriors in grey fighting for States Rights." Really?

I like mint juleps, I enjoy the old architecture (although I don't appreciate it in that it was built and maintained on the backs of the enslaved and dirt poor whites). "Happy Slaves," holy shit! Most of my generation eschews that crap!

Otherwise, I'm proud of modern southern culture, which can be enjoyed by black and white equally. I love bluegrass and jazz (RIP BB!), a genteel hospitality, native oaks with spanish moss, and bourbon. The beauty of the Appalachian mountains and our beaches and the fact it takes less than a day in most cases to get to one or the other. And, OMG, the FOOD! From low country to Texas, you have seafood, fresh veggies, and BBQ. Contrary to popular belief, we don't deep fry everything.

I live in a fairly large southern city. I like living here, it's not perfect, especially when you get out into the rural parts. However, for the most part, black and white folk have found a way to coexist and enjoy each other. In my own neighborhood, black, white, LGBT, we have parties where all are accepted, including blended families. When I'm introduced to a person, my mind doesn't register skin color or sexual orientation.

I often laugh at the "south bashing" here, because many DUers who do so live in areas where there isn't a large minority presence. And they haven't stepped foot in cities in the South where we're coexisting, supporting and blending. In the city I live in we have a lot of northerners coming in because of our main employers are medicine and banks. It's so funny to see how they acclimate. They'll clutch their wallets and purses, and whisper about their black neighbors and coworkers, when they do I'll feign deafness and ask them to speak up. At the same time they'll act superior because they're northerners. Pfft!

[CTyankee]

81. great post and I love the comment about cornbread and beans...

I have a friend from Tennessee who makes the BEST cornbread I can find in the NE. Of course, it is not sweet. AND she puts bacon grease in it. Wonderful!

As for beans in chili, I thought that was a sin and a crime (of course I didn't think you could leave TX w/o dire penalties...) but my midwestern husband likes the beans and I find them an extender of the dish so I've gotten used to them. I actually like them now.

I love my Austin relatives. Good people. I loved visiting my aunt and uncle in Brownwood, TX every summer...loved them so much and the nice, small town it once was...

[kentuck]

88. Sweet cornbread in buttermilk just ain't right.

[Warren Stupidity]

90. That fucking flag is a symbol of racist bigotry.

[Texasgal]

98. Yes it is.

We agree!

My point is it is not part of MY heritage. Never has been nor will it ever be.

[cwydro]

108. Perfect response.

[mmonk]

109. But this North Carolinian loves his cornbread sweet and his beans.

I understand. The south is not a monolith but the bad people are always the loudest and get all the press. It is the rest of us who bear the yoke of it.