By John Ballard
Despite all my complaining and condescension about where I live I am still a son of the American South. Born in Kentucky and reared in Georgia, I belong to a rare breed close to the endangered species list, the Southern Liberals. People like Molly Ivins and Clarance Jordan were my heroes. But at some level I am also offended when outsiders say bad stuff about the South when they don't know what they're talking about.
In the tradition of John Steinbeck, whose Travels With Charlie chronicles a journey across the country rediscovering America in his declining years, Constantino Diaz-Duran is on pilgrimage and on foot, walking from New York to Los Angeles "to celebrate his eligibility for citizenship." I haven't followed his journey closely and probably won't, but I can assure you that this description of his discovery of The South is totally authentic.
I have learned... that my journey, while unique in its own way, is quintessentially American. We are a nation of individuals who act like we�ve got it all figured out, but really, we�re just in the process.
The South, for all its faults, is at least self-aware. I�ve heard racist remarks, and plenty of them�as a New Yorker, my eyes bugged out the first time I heard someone casually use the word �Oriental,� and when someone remarked about �all them Jews [we] have up there.� No one here pretends that there�s no racial tension, and yet I�ve seen more interracial couples here than anywhere else.
What I�ve realized is that prejudice here is abstract and collective in an almost (I hesitate to use the word) benign way. What I mean is that southerners will run off at the mouths about groups�about abstract �theys��but when it comes to one-on-one interactions, the racism is superficial. A guy will rant about black people, and use the N-word, only to later call his best buddy, who happens to be black, and rant about something completely different. It�s an odd kind of colorblindness.
In the South, people know where they stand even if they�re not entirely sure where they�re going. And that is where I find myself.
Not to mention football teammates, says I, another Southern Liberal who was raised by a Southern Liberal father and whose paternal grandmother was a Southern Liberal. My parents met while Dad was attending Tulane and Mother was at Newcombe College. My mother was Southern but not a Liberal, which kept things interesting.
ReplyDelete"someone casually use the word �Oriental,� "
ReplyDeletewhat? Oriental is racist? how about "Celestial"?
I was just reading about our invasion of the Phillipines in 1899-1902 and it said that the soldiers called the natives Gugu... gugus..
which stood for 40 years for any non-white but in the 40s was standidized as "gooks" for asians.
but ""They combine Chinese with Japanese with Korean and other oriental foods. Fantastic menu. It is always a fun place to visit." - zagat.com " !!
"A guy will rant about black people, and use the N-word, only to later call his best buddy, who happens to be black" and this is how we know this is fiction. I don't know a single redneck who has a black friend (black acquitance, black classmate yes, black friend, no) and I know thousands of rednecks (and most of them are southeners.)
ReplyDelete@Joe B
ReplyDelete"Oriental" carries a pejorative connotation. "Asian" is simply descriptive and is commonly used by the population itself.
Also, when scholars of MENA, Levant, or the Maghreb use the term Oriental they are referring to a cultural/historic attitude now considered out-of-date.
@Frank
My family may be the exception that proves your rule, but I have heard the N-word used casually by my parents generation for black neighbors that could be called friends as much as the term would be allowed in a segregated society. As a child I was occasionally left to play with the children of a black family, with one of their older siblings in charge, while the adults went about other business.
One of my early memories is going to a black church with my parents and sister to hear a traveling quartet of black gospel singers. My Dad was a car mechanic and accepted the invitation of a guy from the church to bring the family and come, and Dad accepted. We were the only white people in the place.
""Oriental" carries a pejorative connotation. "
ReplyDelete?? for who? no one I know. Is "Occidental" also an insult now?
googling I find an expat: "One things is for sure, the negative connotations associated with this word seem largely centred on America, while in the rest of the world, notably Europe, the word almost conjurs a mysterious and exotic eastern image, certainly a good one."
I can't remember the last time I needed to use it.. but still.
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080820012326AAt6jUQ
ReplyDeletehttp://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/545754.html
It's a matter of no consequence to me what vocabulary you use but I will continue to say Asian (not Oriental) in the same way I say Latino/ Latina (not Hispanic). I prefer to err on the side of courtesy, but that's just me, I suppose.