Coyote wrote:Elfdart wrote:There's a long history of people fleeing Dixie because of the bigotry and intolerance. Or did you think those large black populations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia and Cleveland were holdovers from the massive slave plantations they had up there?
Um, you realize that there are far larger Black populations in the US South, and that Atlanta, GA, once the unofficial heart of the Confederacy, is now a majority Black city?
You don't say.
I mentioned those cities because their ethnic makeups show that a large number of blacks fled the South during Jim Crow. A few of the southern states were majority black during slavery and Reconstruction, yet they aren't today. Unlike the Northeast and California, there were no huge waves of European immigrants to Dixie, so the obvious conclusion is that a large number of blacks left the South. How many black people do you think lived in Detroit a century ago? It's majority black now.
The schools suck because they are funded by local tax revenues. Poor hicks don't have a lot of tax revenues, because there are no good jobs to earn a decent wage to tax.
I agree.
I'm not sure that it is all the fat, rich, white politicians-- you know a politician would love to have a big company like Toyota land a plant in his district. Most of the politicians are probably busting ass trying to get a factory in their region, but due to the sub-standard living conditions to begin with, no corporation will move in.
And those sub-standard conditions will not change since the first priority of most politicians is getting re-elected. Sure, they'd love to get businesses to move in, but
(1) They aren't about to improve the schools, roads, etc because that means raising taxes and since poverty-stricken areas don't have much to give, any tax hikes would come out of the pockets of those "fat, rich, white politicians" and their friends.
(2) In order to make sure the rednecks don't vote for the tax hike, right-wing politicians appeal to the ignorance and bigotry of the voting cracker.
At this late stage in the game, it will take an act of charity-- some larger government institution will have to upgrade a region and invest in schools beyond what the normal tax load could bear.
They tried that from Roosevelt to Johnson. It was denounced as a communist plot to get black children used to sitting in classrooms like white ones and would only cause them to be "uppity". Even worse, the EVIL federal government actually enforced the laws giving blacks equal rights, and threatened to cut Dixie off from the Treasury Teat if they didn't abide by the law. The Democrats lost the South and won't get it back. Read
Made In Texas by Michael Lind for the gory details of how one state has thus been consigned to stupidity and poverty.
If a company moves in with fat jobs, then the tax load can begin a self-perpetuating cycle of normal standards. The problem is convincing someone that it's worthwhile to do all this.
Sorry peckerwoods, big companies can go to Third World countries for a lot less money next time they want cheap, superstitious and uneducated workers (Part of the resentment against Indian and Pakistani tech workers is that they are by and large
better educated than many Americans).
As long as people keep writing them off as fuckwit redneck hicks, and refuse to invest, then it will remain so. Even a redneck hick wants to better himself and his family. Why do they become insular, fundie-Christian bigots? Because they look for someone to give them free comfort (religion does that) and the look for someone to blame (foreigners, blacks, Jews, etc). Get them a shot at a decent life and education and within a couple generations the Bible-thumping will wear off and a relaxed tolerance will slowly settle. But it'll take time.
How many times do you let a dog bite your hand before you decide "Fuck you, go find someone else to feed you"? FDR, Truman and Johnson wanted to put an end to the South being a Third World country supplying raw materials to the North. The Dems have paid for it ever since.
Anyway, you're putting the cart before the horse. Clay-eaters didn't turn insular because of Northern condescension. Northerners started condescending when they realized the redneck would rather be poverty-stricken than allow equal rights, science, freedom, et al.
