As for the plain old GOP small-town, traditional conservative type and racism, I find from experience that most small town types tend to have a far more multiracial social experience in their daily lives than many urban professionals, at least in the South, where you do find black people also living in rural areas.
As for the plain old GOP small-town, traditional conservative type and racism, I find from experience that most small town types tend to have a far more multiracial social experience in their daily lives than many urban professionals, at least in the South, where you do find black people also living in rural areas.
As for small towns in general, and here I’ll speak of such places that I know about in Pennsylvania or Maine, I find again that most people are very open to the idea of welcoming anyone who might wish to move in if they are employed and law-abiding. It is simply the relative lack of opportunity to enjoy a great variety of social experiences in a small town setting that many urbanites mistake for discomfort with the Other. In fact, I find most urbanites are only comfortable with their own stratum, and are far less comfortable crossing class and race lines than are small town denizens. The hypocrisies of the Metropolis know few bounds.
Finally, I find, too, that some of the more strident leftist folks I know are from and still live in small towns. They are especially at pains to demonstrate their progressive cred.
I've noticed that many of the more angry and strident leftists have come from abusive backgrounds. This is especially true of women. They've generalized their anger at bad families, boyfriends and the like into a generic hate for anyone that even slightly resembles those people.
There is nothing more insular and sheltered than the "elite". That's why the Hollywood types have been putting out garbage movie after garbage movie and TV show, they fail, and they act shocked. Because within their circle, this is supposed to be what everyone is about. And again, it is bewildering to them when they find out wokeism is not a hit "out there" in flyover country.
Trying to reduce all political ideology to a single one dimensional line is responsible for many of these contradictions and errors. There are multiple axes on which our politics play out; Individual vs. community, tradition vs innovation, local vs international, populism vs elitism, and more.
I have a lot of family in the south and I spend a ton of time down there, and one think I've noticed is the huge number of majority-white families that have black family members. My own immediate family, which includes some people who now live in the Deep South, is multi-racial. They don't fuss or fret or theorize about it or write op-eds about it. They just continue to be a family, love each other, and act (verboten word these days) colorblind in their dealings with each other.
By contrast, up here in the Mid-Atlantic they'll talk your ear off about differences in "culture" and they'll tiptoe around each other and treat black people like they're special, magical, fragile beings.
This isn't to say that there's no racism in the south or that everyone in the north is race-obsessed. I've met some stone-cold paleo-racists in the south, too. But when friends and families and communities integrate down there, my sense is that it happens with much less anxiety than up north.
My wife’s family is from the South and that is true of her family as well. It’s inconceivable among the people I knew growing up in the North, even the very liberal ones.
As for the plain old GOP small-town, traditional conservative type and racism, I find from experience that most small town types tend to have a far more multiracial social experience in their daily lives than many urban professionals, at least in the South, where you do find black people also living in rural areas.
As for small towns in general, and here I’ll speak of such places that I know about in Pennsylvania or Maine, I find again that most people are very open to the idea of welcoming anyone who might wish to move in if they are employed and law-abiding. It is simply the relative lack of opportunity to enjoy a great variety of social experiences in a small town setting that many urbanites mistake for discomfort with the Other. In fact, I find most urbanites are only comfortable with their own stratum, and are far less comfortable crossing class and race lines than are small town denizens. The hypocrisies of the Metropolis know few bounds.
Finally, I find, too, that some of the more strident leftist folks I know are from and still live in small towns. They are especially at pains to demonstrate their progressive cred.
I've noticed that many of the more angry and strident leftists have come from abusive backgrounds. This is especially true of women. They've generalized their anger at bad families, boyfriends and the like into a generic hate for anyone that even slightly resembles those people.
There is nothing more insular and sheltered than the "elite". That's why the Hollywood types have been putting out garbage movie after garbage movie and TV show, they fail, and they act shocked. Because within their circle, this is supposed to be what everyone is about. And again, it is bewildering to them when they find out wokeism is not a hit "out there" in flyover country.
Trying to reduce all political ideology to a single one dimensional line is responsible for many of these contradictions and errors. There are multiple axes on which our politics play out; Individual vs. community, tradition vs innovation, local vs international, populism vs elitism, and more.
I have a lot of family in the south and I spend a ton of time down there, and one think I've noticed is the huge number of majority-white families that have black family members. My own immediate family, which includes some people who now live in the Deep South, is multi-racial. They don't fuss or fret or theorize about it or write op-eds about it. They just continue to be a family, love each other, and act (verboten word these days) colorblind in their dealings with each other.
By contrast, up here in the Mid-Atlantic they'll talk your ear off about differences in "culture" and they'll tiptoe around each other and treat black people like they're special, magical, fragile beings.
This isn't to say that there's no racism in the south or that everyone in the north is race-obsessed. I've met some stone-cold paleo-racists in the south, too. But when friends and families and communities integrate down there, my sense is that it happens with much less anxiety than up north.
My wife’s family is from the South and that is true of her family as well. It’s inconceivable among the people I knew growing up in the North, even the very liberal ones.