I grew up in fly-over land. The land of corn fields and a state capital most cannot pronounce. People don't think much about Iowa, though I would argue we are quite the state. Excellent education. The first presidential primaries in the nation. We legalized gay-marriage. I've also lived in Nebraska... another place we consider fly-over land. Corn, beef, and football. And then I moved to Minnesota. A great place for many reasons, but a state that is quite narcissistic at times. It may be darn cold and we pay our share of taxes, but we have great health care, great social services, public amenities for all to enjoy, and the DFL legacy of Humphrey and Wellstone. Yet, who knows these things about Minnesota except maybe people who study these issues and/or live there and Minnesota also has some work to do in terms of minority education and jobs rates.
Am I proud of where I from and where I have lived? Sure, but us from the fly-over states are not collectively known for espousing "Midwestern Pride" in this sense. And as much as we know the good things, we know the bad too (well, some of us). We are predominately White states. We lack public transportation. And so on...
I say this as I have been introduced to the concept of Southern Pride, which I don't quite grasp completely. And this may be a matter of how we all learn history beyond the places we were raised and lived. I cannot and will not ever endorse the confederate flag. To me it's symbolic of all the things I am against and first and foremost, this represents slavery to me. I use the flag example as people have told me that they display the confederate flag as part of Southern Pride, but yet do not mention the race and slavery issues embedded in this display. Sure, part of the civil war and current political debates (and the history of most politics in this country) do deal with state rights versus the federal government. But the civil war was about SLAVERY. And don't tell me that race is not an issue when Jim Crow laws existed and segregation and discrimination still exists. How can you be proud of this flag and not think about the race issues?
Okay, so this is an issue I struggle with here, especially as a social scientist. But this also relates to racist comments I overhear and get told. Granted, racism exists in the North, and it may be more covert, but for a Northerner the comments I hear with the whole Confederate flag thing take a toll. As a white person, people assume and tell me their racist comments. Depending on the situation, I respond in different ways. What I really want to say is do you know how this makes you sound? That you are a being a racist? But already being a liberal outsider in a conservative place, makes one approach situations with caution and learn how to do the social justice dance (attributed to the Reverend of the church we attend).
Yet, in talking to folks from the South, I understand that Southern Pride is also part of a defense mechanism in that stereotypes exist denoting people from the South as stupid, etc. And I can get that... people from fly over land are often stereotyped in a similar fashion (I've been asked if we had running water...yes, we do ). I think it is great that people resist stereotypes, but I can't endorse a symbol of pride that is symbolic of racial intolerance, slavery, and discrimination.
But that leads me to my last thought for now on this... I know I am an outsider here and I will write more on this as I am not just a Northerner, but a liberal one at that. An interaction with someone from the South in asking me where I was from and why I moved here, after they told me about their hobby of civil war re-enactments, said, in what I want to believe was a joking manner considering the context and place of this interaction, why don't you go back. Was it a joke? I don't really know. Even if it was, symbolically this still shows me a divide. And while I can walk away from this situation and move forward, the encounter stays with me as I try to find my place here, negotiate cultural norms, raise my children to be social justice minded, and not have to hide my identities rooted in social justice.
And this is why I write. To understand. To find comfort in a foreign place to me. I may not be living in a foreign country, but at times, it does feel like a different country. No, I'm not from here, but I do live here.
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