To Kill A Mockingbird

For this week's topic, I would like you guys to find a book that represents and portrays the image of the South.

The only book that I can think portrays the image of the South is "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. I have read this book when I was in 9th grade in high school, and it was a huge shock to me. I was amazed and surprised in how the whites treated the blacks in the old days. Sometimes, I even felt disgusted. Below are famous speeches by Atticus during the trial.

The speeches by Atticus portrays the South in those days. Blacks were not treated right. Although Tom Robinson was accused of rape, there was no single medical evidence that he had done it. However, Bob Ewell still accuses Tom for the rape. The witnesses of the State thinks that Tom lies when he says he did not do it. Atticus calls that a "evil assumption, that all negroes lie; all negroes are basically immoral beings." Through these speeches, it is clear that the South did not treat the blacks properly and there were no equal rights. The South is portrayed as the whites being superior and has all the power.

-Hye Jin Ahn-

Johhny Cash

Whenever I think of music that exemplifies the south or gives a taste of it, I cannot help but think of Johnny Cash and his own unique type of country music. From the beginning of life I occasionally heard Johhny Cash because ge was one of if not the favorite of my Grandpa's. Johhny was one of the pioneers in Country music giving his own twist with his unique characteristics.

His characteristics ser him apart from many artists of his time, including his well known deep raspy at times voice. That was not the only thing that set him apart. His songs unlike most of the country singers was about misery or religious misery, instead of most country singers of the time proclaiming to be saved by God and other subjects. Though he did at time sing about happy things he still was most well known for his dark deep songs. His life story is also shown in the movie Walk the Line. He grew up in the terrible conditions of the Depression that affected his family and had to work picking cotton in his family. Not only that but he had to deal with the death of his brother who was in a table saw accident. With his voice and determination he became one of the premiere idols in country music.

He opened a new book and sub-genre in Country music. His life story of drinking and struggles is sad but inspiring that he made it through and created such incredible music that was made even into a movie.

Georgia on my mind

When I think about the song of the South, I can only think about 'Georgia on my mind' by Ray Charles. I was in choir when I was in high school and we sang this song. I really loved the rhythm and the lyrics. Who would have known that I would come to Georgia, the place where it seems like peaceful yet graceful, according to the lyrics.

The lyrics represent the South through depicting Georgia's beauty. First of all, the song contains one of the southern states, Georgia. Georgia is a state that has a important history and was really involved in the Civil War. The song's lyrics mentions the finding of no peace, because Georgia has gone through so many wars that keeps Georgia on Ray's mind. The lyrics also mentions the love for Georgia, "Other arms reach out to me Other eyes smile tenderly."

Moreover, Ray Charles is a blind African-American man. Although he may be blind, he still views the south in the same perspective as other people. The song was recorded around the Civil Rights Movement, but the fact that it gained so much recognition in Georgia state illustrates that the song was important and somehow relevant to the state of Georgia. Furthermore, Charles essentially brought another genre of music: soul music, into the R&B world of the South.

-Hye Jin Ahn-

"Chicken Fried"

Since my project group focuses on the topic of Southern music, I have already talked to you about this song, "Chicken Fried", and how it identifies the South. This song, by the Zac Brown Band, has a very interesting background. Before writing the lyrics to this song, Zac Brown wanted to make a music video that shows that the Southern lifestyle can be celebrated. In order to do that, he wanted to make an image of the South that would help the viewers of the video be able to visualize what the South truly is. Brown made this image by making a list of things that are southern or characterize the South, mostly consisting of the basic stereotypes that most of the world looks at the South as.

In the music video, there are many stereotypical details of the South that are related to the Old South, such as the food, music, and clothing themes. However, there is one interesting theme that you wouldn't expect to be a characteristic of the South. Zac Brown included many patriotic images and lyrics to show that the South was patriotic and not the Confederacy supporter that one would stereotype. Basically, a couple months after Brown began writing the song, the 9/11 attacks occurred. In order to show that the South in fact supported America, Brown added an entire third verse dedicated to those who died for our country.

When you watch the video, be sure to notice the details in the music, the images, and the lyrics that provide a mostly stereotypical identity of the South.

Chicken Fried @ Yahoo! Video

Coming from Florida, I have not been acquainted with Southern music. Since coming to Georgia Tech, I always pass by the Fraternity houses making it inevitable to hear country music. This was my first encounter with this type of music, so I will analyze the song-- What Hurts The Most from Rascal Flatts. It is a beautiful , at the same time a very sad song, that describes the pain of a young girl who's boyfriend just died. I have attached the video from youtube in the post. The video clearly demonstrates that this is a typical southern song. The first thing that has to be mentioned is the setting of the video. She is with her boyfriend in a typical southern field, where a truck owned by her boyfriend is parked. Obviously, the truck is a perfect representation of the South. I also have to mention the clothing of everybody in the video. Notice that both her dad and her boyfriend are wearing plaid shirts-- which are symbols of the South as well. I will like to experience more of this music, so I am open to any suggestions.

SEE VIDEO

Southern Music

Music is not only a source of entertainment that people have enjoyed for thousands of years, but it is also a way to show our identity and part of culture. Southern culture is rich with many different types of music: blues, bluegrass, country, rap, and more. The topic for this week is to pick either a genre of music or a specific song and talk about it and how it is part of Southern culture or depicts Southern identity.

I will talk about shape note singing (also known as sacred harp singing because the book they sing from is titled The Sacred Harp). It is called shape note singing because the music is written using 4 different shapes to depict different notes making it easier to read. Everyone sits in a square facing inward to the singing leader. People keep time with their arm as can be seen in the videos. Shape note singing was sung both in the northeast and the South in the first half of the 19th century but it fizzled out in the north and flourished in the South. It was sung in many churches, and with how religious the South is, it makes sense it became more popular in the South. Shape note singing is not a refined music, the singing is rough and unique. In recent years shape note singing has gained popularity and there are singings that occur quite often. The singings nowadays are not a church service but the lyrics of the songs they sing are religious. The singings have a very hospitable and homely feel to them. Everyone is welcome to join in the singing and get up and lead a song (the singing leader changes with every song). The singings usually are an all day event where they sing for several hours and then break for food and then sing some more. There is a singing at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church that meets on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Wed. of every month. It is marked on the Y'all Come Back Now map. The first video is a trailer for a movie about shape note singing and it talks a little bit about the music and history and the second video is from the movie Cold Mountain in which shape note singing appears and is heard a couple of times.

Stars & Bars

I think the most Southern symbol out there is the Confederate flag, the stars & bars. Everything else might be largely associated with the South, but the Confederate flag is always associated with the South. Not only is it always associated with the south, it's quite common to see it. It's on hats, shirts, swimsuits, belt buckles, bumperstickers, and the flags themselves flown outside houses (it was on the Georgia State flag until 2001).

The stereotypical southern truck will have several bumper stickers about southern heritage with Confederate flags on them and will be driven by a guy with a shirt or hat that has a rebel flag on it (sometimes both). There is a horrendous statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest on the highway coming into Nashville, and it has either all 50 state flags or just the state flags of the Southern States in a semi-circle around it. Above every state flag however there is a Confederate flag flying.

A lot of people believe the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism. A lot of other people believe that it is not, that it is a symbol of heritage, a government, or rebellion (hence the name "rebel flag"). The ongoing argument, shown in the video at the end, is whether this flag stands for slavery and racism or not. It's different for everyone. For some people racism and slavery is all they see when they see the Confederate flag. For me, it is a symbol of my heritage not a symbol of racism or rebellion.

The PICKUP

In regards to the topic of what symbol of object comes to my mind when I think of the South, I can only think of one thing and that is the pickup truck. I am originally from the Midwest and am accustomed to seeing the casual pickup in such an agricultural place, but when I moved to Virginia I saw more pickups than I had ever seen before.

Not only does this vehicle symbolize America, but it more reminiscent of the southern culture or the stereotypical south. When people come to the south they expect to see pick up trucks, whether it be with off-road tires or have a old confederate flag on the rear window. They are the best-selling cars in the world and whether your in a small town or a city in the south there will most likely be a pickup truck somewhere around you. The pickup truck represents many demographics and groups from the farmers to the southern confederates to workers, making a niche with almost every group.

Its hard not think of the south without thinking about pickup trucks and their lasting presence in the south and its personality. Heck its even my dream to have a pickup sometime in my life.

-Ryan Dettmann

Waffle House

Hello everyone! To respond to the topic for this week, I think that Waffle House represents the South in many different ways. I never knew about Waffle House until I came to Georgia last fall. Like In-n-Out is only in California, Waffle House is mainly in the Southern part of USA.

Waffle House serves delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner food. Waffle House is not that expensive, allowing everyone to dine there anytime. Moreover, since it is open for 24 hours, 365days, they attract lots of travelers and college students.

Waffle House represents the South by their workers. People working there are mainly Southerners who have southern accent. Therefore, whenever you visit there, you can hear the unique southern accent everytime you server comes to serve. For me, hearing the southern accent makes me feel happy and nervous at the same time. Happy because I actually feel like I'm in southern part of America; nervous because sometimes I don't understand what the server is saying. Moreover, the workers are also very kind and friendly. When I went there, the lady who was serving our table was very kind and interacted with my table. She asked us questions about our nationalities and how we came to Georgia, etc. Waffle House makes a feeling like you are at home.

South is also famous and well known for food, and I think Waffle House plays a part in that role of representing the food of the South.

-Hye Jin Ahn-

John Deere and the South

Since I grew up in Georgia, I used to see this logo almost everyday, whether it was on equipment or on clothing. This logo represents John Deere, a company that makes equipment such as agricultural, construction, and forestry machines. However, when I see this logo, it does not remind me about the company but about something else.

In my high school, there were many cliques, one which was the redneck group. These guys believed they represented the South, so they would perform some of the stereotypical characteristics of Southerners. For example, they would have the redneck accent, drive red pick-up trucks, camouflage clothes, and of course the John Deere merchandise hats and jackets. But why would those guys want to where John Deere? It's because they feel in order to perform a Southern identity, they need to incorporate one part of it, which is the agriculture/construction identity. The redneck clique knew that if they wanted to be a part of the South, they need to acknowledge the agricultural/construction part of their performed identity.

So whenever I see the John Deere logo, especially on clothing, I think about how some Southern people try to perform their Southern identity by embodying themselves with specific stereotypes of the South. So the topic that I'm introducing is to talk about any symbol or object that you feel represents the South or at least provides a portrayal of the South.

Git-r-Done!

Hey, it's Ankur. Since I was born and raised in the South, I really can't recognize any Southern idioms that other people do. There are always the "y'all" and "'em" as well as "ain't" that are words that almost everyone relates them to the South. Because I really don't know any idioms that sum up the real South, I will talk about a phrase that sums up the stereotypical South.

I'm sure you guys have heard of Larry the Cable Guy, a stand-up comedian and actor who frequently stars on Comedy Central. If you just take one look at him, you can figure out that he is the icon of the Southern stereotype. What really made this guy popular was his catch phrase: "Git-r-Done". According to the urban dictionary, the phrase means lets do this or go for it. Whenever I hear this phrase on TV or random people talking about it, it reminds me of how everyone views the South (rednecks with accents) from this one phrase and in association, Larry the Cable Guy.

Here is a video to show Larry's trademark phrase:

Y'all

I am honored to be able to talk about one of the greatest words in the english language. Y'all. I absolutely love the word. I think of all sayings or words this is the one that identifies someone as Southern more than any other. It is the contraction of you all. Many people misspell the word as ya'll. This is wrong however.

I know many northerners that have come down to the South and will accept listening to country music or doing something else that is mostly Southern, but they refuse to say the word y'all. They say "you guys" instead hoping to hold onto the last bit of their northern identity. It seems like the deciding factor to if you are Southern or northern is if you say y'all or "you guys". We all take pride in the way we refer to others.

Since y'all is so commonly associated with being Southern, it is even the name of a Southern magazine, Y'all: The Magazine of Southern People.

It's such a great Southern word because it begs to be said with a Southern drawl. You cannot say it properly without dragging it out and saying "Yawl". It even made it into Rush Hour when Chris Tucker was trying to teach Jackie Chan how to say y'all properly.

Put 'em up?

Hey you guys,
I want to share with you an experience that impacted me when I came to the States 6 years ago. The first day of school I noticed things were different--the people, especially the way they interacted with me, some treating me as if I was a complete "alien," others a little more accepting of my bizarre accent. And this leads me to the topic I want to present.

In every country, more so in every country's subdivision, regionalism exists. Some define regionalism as "a feature that is characteristic of a particular region" and to me accents and colloquialisms are everything. Hispanics are characterized by their mispronunciation of "r's", since most are "rolled" in Spanish. There's also the challenging difference between "sh" and "ch" sounds, and the infamous "th" and "t." People stereotype me by my accent, as I do to others.

That being said, I would like you to mention a particular word, phrase, or sound that you believe characterizes the South. As for me, there's one experience that stands out vividly. As I mentioned before, when I moved to the States my life changed completely. I knew English since I attended a bilingual school, but I realized there were specific phrases I did not understand. One day, I dutifully placed my textbook on top of my desk as I did every other day. As soon as I did that, my teacher addressed the class and said, "Ok, put 'em up." That did not make any sense to me... first off, put what up? and up where? The book? But mine was already up? And why was everyone just sitting there without their books on their desks? Well, I guess it was because, ironically enough, "put 'em up" really meant "put 'em down" (aka away...).
So that's what they say in the South.. not too rational, but hey, it makes the South, the South.

Misrepresentation from popular TV shows

I hate to talk about more TV shows, but the ideals of today's media are apparent mainly from the popularity of TV and its shows. One show that I thought really presents a misrepresentation of the South is My Name is Earl, which is a comedy about a "white trash" crook who turns his life around by beginning to do good deeds in order to gain positive karma. The setting is in Camden County, a fictional location on the border between the North and the South. Because of the exact location, the show compares and contrasts the people of each region. Earl and his family, representing the South, live in trailer homes and fulfill the white trash stereotype. Throughout the show, there are multiple extramarital affairs among the characters, even interracial affairs. Compared the "Northern" suburb which the rest of Camden County represents, Earl and his family are portrayed as dirty, unsophisticated, and unintelligent.



This show like many others, such as The Cleveland Show, demonstrate the stereotypical South as a bunch of dumb, racist rednecks or white trash that live in trailer homes with the Southern accents. From these TV shows, we can see that the media itself misrepresents the South without it ever actually learning about the South and portraying it as it is; however, as we know, the South is more than what the media presents.

Sweet Home Alabama

The first movie that popped into my head was Sweet Home Alabama. It doesn't necessarily present ideas of the old South. It is more presenting what people think the stereotypical South of today is. Gone with the Wind is about a family with southern money, however Sweet Home Alabama is mostly about middle-class folks. I feel that when people think of families of the old South they imagine rich plantation owners, but when they think of Southerners from today they think of rednecks. This stereotype is represented in the movie Sweet Home Alabama. The movie suggests that just about everyone drives a truck and that it is commonplace to dress up in a Confederate uniform and shoot mortars around the backyard of the plantation house that was owned by our relatives. It also suggests that everyone goes to watch or participate in the Civil War reenactment and then goes to get drunk at the bar. The overall feel of the movie is that Southerners have lost what "class" they had and have not forgotten about the Civil War and believe that "the South will rise again!" and northerners are heartless and cold (well, that partly is true). A large portion of Southerners probably know very little about the Civil War.

Equal opportunity in current media show

To tell you the truth, I have not watched american TV shows for the past few years so I do not exactly know about current TV shows. However, reminding myself of the TV shows I have watched few years back, I can say that current media does not portray old southern ideals or values. Today media shows contains characters from different ethnicity and background. However, they all have equal opportunities and rights in the shows.

For example, Project Runway is a tv-show that is a competition of fashion designers to win the title and open their own fashion store. They also get to present their collection in a famous fashion show. Because it is a competition, designers with talent and uniqueness get to compete in this show, despite their background and ethnicity. Therefore, whites and blacks and even Asians get to join the competition. This show portrays that there is no old southern values or ideals. These days, it's more of a talent and ideas that makes you superior and powerful rather than skin colors and history.

Another show that I would like to introduce is the America's Next Top Model. I bet all the girls would know this show. Similar to Project Runway, this is a show where girls from around the United States compete to become America's next top model. Although the picture above is a picture from season 5 (I think), just by first look, you can tell that not everyone is white. About 35% of the girls who competed in this cycle were blacks. It is a show that is not only for white Americans, but for girls who have the potential to become American's next top model and represent America to the world.

I don't know about other shows that portrays the old souther ideal or values. The shows that I have watched since I came to the United States were all about competing and winning. Maybe that's why the shows that I can talk about are shows that gave everyone equal rights and opportunity to achieve their goals.

-Hye Jin Ahn-