Speak Now Against the Day: The Southernization
of the United States
The United States is becoming like the South rather than the South being
transformed into a non-racist area. This transformation is being large ignored
by American sociologists, and, worse, is being justified in the name of
multicultural separatism. By the time American sociologists and other
intellectuals wake up to this process of southernization, it will probably
be too late for them to change it and they will have to accept it as a reality.
Indeed, once fully established, the few American intellectuals who protest
against the new southernized America will be largely ignored and punished
into quietness.
The Second Civil War and the Second Reconstruction
There are two great periods of substantial change in American civil rights
history, the first American civil war, 1861-1865, and the second civil war,
1954-1966, under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. Following the
attempts by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson to abolish
the apartheid system in the South, a period of reconstruction began in which,
like the first Reconstruction, the white middle class reasserted its political
and social power vis-à-vis black and poor Americans. This occurred not only
in the South, but in the rest of the nation as well.
Like the failure of the first Reconstruction, the second Reconstruction led
to a resurgence of white dominance in the political arena that took back
many of the gains in the area of civil rights. Conservative attitudes once
again dominated and racism came to the fore. Something new arose in American
politics -- not just political retrenchment, but longing to go back to the
past. The conservatives firmly reestablished control with the election of
former Governor of California Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980. With
this election, the conservative backlash turned into a major assault on not
only civil rights, but on the welfare state itself. Reaganism went beyond
backlash to a restoration of some of the inequalities that the nation had
eliminated in earlier increases in equality. Indeed, one could say that the
United States to some extent has retreated to the Age of the Robber Barons
under the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George Bush (see Barlett and
Steele, 1992). The backlash went so far as to constitute a counter cycle,
one that increased rather than decreased inequality. While legal apartheid
had been largely abolished, discrimination has become so widespread and
sociological racist theories so popular that blacks have been even more heavily
segregated in the centers of the nation's cities.
The Recovery of Dixie
In 1971 two sociologists with an interest in the American South published
an article on the region's transformation since the 1930s and what they called
its "national incorporation." Citing the South's industrialization, occupation
redistribution, income, and education, they depicted a region that was rapidly
abandoning its "geographic, mental, and social" isolation and being fully
integrated into the larger American system. . . . In the process the contrasts
and disparities between North and South receded, although differences remained
along with recurrent sectional conflicts and rivalries. (McKinney and Bourque
1971, cited in Grantham 1994:259)
In a 1974 book entitled The Americanization of Dixie: The Southernization
of America, the writer John Egerton examined the homogenizing processes
that were steadily eroding the distinctiveness of the South and making North
and South increasingly alike. "The South is no longer simply a colony of
the nation, an inferior region, a stepchild; it is now rushing to rejoin
the Union, and in the process it is becoming indistinguishable from the North
and East and West. The Union is meeting the South at the front door with
overtures of welcome." (Egerton 1974:xix cited in Grantham
1994:278)
But what has been more ignored is that the entire United States is becoming
like the South. The South has become so integrated into racist-capitalist
America that it is leading the way in many areas. Atlanta, Georgia has become
a major media center with innovations such as the twenty-four hour news service
and now has become a mecca for many black Americans returning to the South.
The Demographic Trends
Blacks have been moving out of the South for a long time now. The great migration
up to Harlem occurred in the 1920s. And after the Second World War many blacks
experienced a massive migration to the north. The end result is that whereas
at one time the vast majority of the American blacks were concentrated in
the South, they are now spread throughout the country and concentrated in
the center cities of most of the major cities of the United States. This
change has been a major cause of the increasingly Southern-like behavior
of all Americans.
The South is in the vanguard of the racist counter movement, but it is being
assisted by California. California is in the vanguard because it is rapidly
becoming a society of numerically equal groups of color, brown, yellow, black
and white. This scares a lot of whites and they have been actively fighting
so-called multiculturalism. And many of the minorities are actually helping
in this endeavor. In fact, California is currently being used as a scare
tactic to frighten white America. Our most populous state is now seen as
a scary example of what can happen if we continue to follow liberal policies
on immigration and multi-culturalism. And this has increased the degree of
conservatism in the entire United States.
The actual trends are toward more segregation at the same time the intellectual
and civil rights leaders are calling America a multicultural society. Talk
about wishful thinking.
Similar Economy
The South is becoming more and more integrated into the national economy.
It is really doing well, economically, with Atlanta now one of the most
influential cities in the nation. In fact, the South has done so well that
many blacks are returning to the South. Newsweek (July 14, 1997:36-38) carried
an article about the fact that many blacks are returning to the South. Some
369,000 blacks moved back to the South between 1990 and 1995. At this rate
a net tide of 2.7 million -- more than half of the great post-1940 migration
-- will have headed South between 1975 and 2010. And why not, since no matter
where you go in the United States ,race relations are pretty much the same:
bad. Of course, the major reason they are returning is the availability of
jobs in the growing South.
The old South was surely characterized by great economic inequality. The
United States is turning into the old South economically, in the sense that
income inequality has been rapidly growing (see Philips).
Similar Government
There has been a growth in KKK-like right wing organizations throughout the
United States. The Michigan Militia has especially gained notice, and Michigan
is certainly about as north as one can get in the United States. Accompanying
this has been a surge in the growth of hate speech.
In voting behavior, whites are becoming unified in their rejection of those
who support affirmative action and other remedial actions. The new "red-necks"
are the white blue collar workers, whether they are found in the South or
the North. They share many similar ideas and behaviors. White males are becoming
a large Republican block and the white females will increasingly follow as
racial tensions rise in the nation. This trend is certainly more pronounced
in the South, but the South is the leader here rather than being a retrogressive
lager in terms of national trends.
The South has reasserted its political power after the long delay caused
by its switch of political allegiance from the Democratic to the Republican
party. The speaker of the House is now Newt Gingrich from Georgia, and the
speaker of the Senate is Trent Lott from Mississippi. Men such as Jesse Helms
and Strom Thurmond, old Southern racists, now have leading positions in the
committee structure of the nation's congress.
The Republican party captured the congress in the 1994 elections. It could
have been worse, but the Democrats were saved in the 1996 elections by the
Republican victories in the 1994 off-year elections. Following the 1994
elections, the Republicans dominated both House and Senate. Their overwhelming
victory, however, led them to think that they had a mandate to become even
more conservative. This proved their undoing for it is one thing to threaten
to take away the benefits of the poor, and quite another to threaten to take
away welfare state benefits designated for the white and black middle class.
The hubris of the Republicans, and the new speaker of the House allowed them
to portray themselves in a mean-spirited fashion that led the white middle
class to perceive them as a threat. And as a result, Clinton won reelection.
Although the Republicans failed to win control over both the executive and
legislative branches at the same time, the conservatives won a great victory
with the Democratic approval of the new welfare reforms. When neither the
Republican or the Democratic parties will touch the label of "liberal," one
has to recognize just how southernized the United States has become.
No Institutions of Change
The major institutions of the South reinforced segregation. This was true
of both white and blacks with their separate, but parallel, institutions
of segregation. The major institutions of the United States are now similarly
conservative. The school system justifies segregation with its talk of
multicultural separatism. The mass media similarly performs the same function.
All this is sanctioned by the so-called intellectuals, both black and white.
Indeed, with their talk of separatism through multiculturalism, they justify
the rise of conservatism and racism in the United States.
Disappearance of the Historical South Means no Future Major Change Agency
in the United States
Historically, the United States was able to make progress in race relations
by using the power of the federal government to intervene in the South to
change that region, and while doing so, to change the rules for the better
for the entire society. The federal government intervened in the slavery
issue during the first civil war and in the South's apartheid system during
the second civil war. But the southernization of the entire United States,
and the accompanying disappearance of the southern region, means there is
no further internal engine to overcome racism. When we are all southerners,
who or what will change the American system?
Similar Behaviors
One has to look at the behavior of Americans and not what they say to appreciate
fully just how much they have all become southernized. The traditional South
always covered up its racism with wonderful sounding phrases, many of which
could have come directly from any politician's fourth of July speech.
The new understanding of racism is that it is definitely not the primary
result of prejudice. Racism stems from a system of racist capitalism in which
race is used as a key variable to maintain the capitalist system. Prejudice
is only one of the methods used to keep this racist capitalist system in
continuance. But most liberals are still having troubles recognizing this.
Racist institutions come first, then are accompanied by appropriate racist
behaviors. Accompanying these primary forces are the appropriate racist values
and attitudes. All this is covered up with high-sounding, but basically racist,
intellectual ideas.
We are starting to see behavior patterns similar to those traditionally
associated with the South in the entire nation. Incidents of police brutality
are now quite common in all the areas where there is a large concentration
of minorities, especially blacks. There is the growth of all-white juries
unwilling to convict brutal police officers of unnecessary use of force as
a result of the increasing racially segregated neighborhoods in the United
States.
There has been a growth in the number of violent incidents when blacks have
traveled into white neighborhoods and been chased, brutalized, and even murdered.
When blacks try to protest these incidents, whites in the offending neighborhoods
harass the marching protesters.
In all regions of the United States there is a great deal of similar types
of discrimination that limit minorities in their freedom of choice in areas
such as housing, schools and jobs. This is not simply a southern phenomenon,
but rather one that is nationwide.
Similar Values
The United States has always been puritanical. The young people seemed to
be moving away from puritanism during the 1960s and early 1970s, but now
the puritanical values have taken on new life in the talk of family values.
The United States is returning to puritanical values, values which the South
always deeply embodied and cherished. But now all the United States is seeing
the virtue of puritanical values.
Similar Attitudes
Yes, there has been a trend where the South's attitudes have become more
like that of the United States as a whole. One does not hear as often in
the South the biological racism that was once so popular. And the South's
leaders try to be politically correct to a considerable extent. But, more
importantly, the rest of the nation's attitudes have been moving more toward
that of the South. Biological racism has largely been replaced by a new
sociological racism. And this is something all the regions are moving toward.
In the field of race relations a new ideology of race slowly developed.
Conservatives used code words such as "forced bussing" and "quotas" to appeal
to those opposed to the liberal agenda. Patrick Moynihan advised President
Nixon to begin a period of "benign neglect" in the area of civil rights.
The new conservatism stressed that there is plenty of equality of opportunity
in the nation, but that minorities fail to take advantage of this. Social
scientists, such as Edward Banfield (1970) and Charles Murray (1984), even
began to declare that now that racial barriers had been destroyed, any further
failure to make progress had to be ascribed to the minorities themselves.
Conservatives adopted a new form of racial ideology, sociological racism.
The new conservatism became so strong that most liberal commentators found
themselves pushed off television and radio and replaced by conservative
spokespersons.
All the regions of the nation are moving toward a belief in sociological
racism. There are still regional differences in attitudes, but these are
lessening. And when the entire nation is sociologically racist, why emphasize
the small differences between regions and the overwhelming importance of
the triumph of sociological racism nationwide? According to sociological
racism, racism is more structural than attitudinal. In other words, because
of past and present racism, blacks are badly off, so badly off that whites
do not want to be around them. This is seen as a rational response, one that
is not prejudicial in origin. So prejudice becomes rational in response to
the existing racist structures. Since the racist structure is not likely
to change any time soon, the sociological racists argue that racism will
continue certainly long into the foreseeable future.
Similar Culture
The South was always characterized by the lack of an honest debate about
racism (see Egerton). There was virtually no debate in the South, except
within a racist context. This can also now be said of the United States as
a whole. Similarly, there is lack of a national debate, except within a racist
context. The debate occurs among conservatives, old liberals, and new
multicultural liberals, but it is a debate largely within a racist context.
And none of the liberals have the slightest idea of how to get the nation
out of its current descent into more racism. President Clinton is to the
right of the old liberals, never mind the new multicultural liberals. The
national debate occurs without a real left, just as it did in the old South.
Dissent was treated as treason in the South. Today, it is treated as politically
incorrect and therefore racist. Different excuses, same results. All real
debate will cease, if it has not already.
Sociologists censor manuscripts dissenting from the new period of segregation.
They claim they are doing so to defend the new liberalism of multiculturalism,
but they are actually acting like the old liberals of the South under
segregation. They are not dissenting from segregation, but actually insuring
that it goes unchallenged. They are actually the new Southern liberals, which
makes them ineffectual pseudo-liberals.
Multiculturalism as the New Separate But Equal Segregation
Today multiculturalism is a very popular philosophy and approach to race
and ethnic relations. It is not, however, a liberal idea, but rather a
conservative one. It actually sanctions racial separatism. Indeed, the reason
why multiculturalism has become so popular is because it does solve the day
to day problems of dealing with hostile interrelationships between the various
racial and ethnic groups in America. Keeping different groups separate does
lessen problems for teachers and others.
Indeed, multiculturalism has co-existed with the rise of new forms of segregation
within Southern schools. For instance, in Mississippi the news programs have
reported that there are dual black and white power systems in the schools,
one for the whites with a white principal, and one for the blacks with a
black principal. The segregation is near complete with even the yearbook
being filled with separatist categories such as white best looking male and
female and black best looking male and female. In Georgia many school districts
have employed a different kind of segregation through so-called academic
tracking. White students are placed in the higher tracks even when testwise
they do not merit it, while blacks with better test scores, with a few
exceptions, are placed in the lower tracks. All the while, the multicultural
talks proceeds, partially covering the ugly reality of new structures of
segregation.
The biggest proof that the United States is becoming like the South is that
a huge part of the entire intellectual community has signed on to a new system
of segregation, known euphemistically as the multicultural society. Not only
have they completely been enticed by this form of segregation, but defend
it with righteous indignation against all assaults. And like the old South,
we will soon be allowed almost no deviance from the intellectual totalitarianism
of the multicultural New Left segregationists. Already the vast majority
of American intellectuals, black and white, have cow-towed to this new orthodoxy
and seem to have not a clue that multicultural separatism is not a lasting,
or even decent, solution.
Multiculturalism has its greatest acceptance in the area of education. But
in fact, this is more curricula reform than social reform. In fact, it is
not a social movement. It is a policy approach to get the minorities a larger
share of governmental resources. It is not a movement to change America.
Of course, liberals justify their actions by saying that men can change through
education, but this is sheer self-serving clap-trap. The equal in the plural
but equal system is on the verge of being canceled in the United States.
Many of the individual states in America are not waiting for federal action
but are ridding themselves of the affirmative action programs built up so
painstakingly by the liberals over the decades. President Clinton sounded
the death knell for any true equality between the multi-cultural groups when
he signed the welfare reform bill. This marked a significant change in American
politics, as the government has now chose not to assure a safety net under
those who are the most unfortunate in American society.
Today we find ourselves in a period of increasing segregation that we can
term the era of multi-cultural or plural but equal segregation. Our new Booker
T. Washington's are the top multiculturalists, such as Jesse Jackson. And
judging from American history following the first Civil War this period of
separate but equal segregation will last quite some time. The conservatives
are going to tear the heart out of the so-called multicultural society and
its programs, but probably keep the shell of multicultural pretense. They
will of course continue to criticize multiculturalism, but will be happy
to co-exist with a moderated multiculturalism as long as its actual results
sanction racial/ethnic separatism. This will suit the South for multiculturalism
will keep the civil rights community quiet all the while things get progressively
worse for American minorities.
The Results of Multi-culturalism: Intellectual and Policy Civil War between
Left and Right Lead the Nation to Semi-Anarchy
What is really happening in America is a type of civil war between liberals
and conservatives. Conservatives dominate the nation's non-intellectual
institutions, but liberals are powerful enough in the more intellectual
institutions to be able to have enough power to sabotage the goals of the
conservatives. The result is that none of the nations' institutions run well.
Many of them are paralyzed as a result of the conflicting and incompatible
goals and means of the warring conservative and liberal factions. For instance,
multiculturalism has not been able to take over the nation's schools in
behavioral terms, and yet the liberals have so interfered with the schools
to oppose conservative policies that about the only thing that reigns in
the nation's average schools is a considerable degree of chaos.
The efforts of the liberals against the conservatives and the conservatives
response has led to near anarchy in the United States. The liberals have
so over-used the courts to challenge institutional authorities that the
authorities are scared of being in authority. The end result is that inmates
are more in charge of the asylum than the staff. But with the inmates in
charge, overall, there is less justice for everyone, including the inmates.
The conservatives have responded to liberal policies by leading a tax revolt
that has limited any real changes for minorities. As a result, all our
institutions have been weakened financially. Indeed, American government
has been so weakened by both sides that it is virtually inept at performing
a competent governing role.
Proof of the Failure of Multiculturalism: The O.J. Trial
Most of the discussions of the O.J. trial are completely short-sighted. It
is probably the trial of the century because all the major power groups in
the society lined up on different sides to fight it out to see who's version
of reality would prevail. It reminds me of the Dreyfus case in France where
all the different groups in the society took sides. It revealed all the lines
of division and contention in the society.
With the O.J. trial, whites saw how bitter, and indeed, hateful, blacks were
towards whites -- bitter and hateful enough to allow a murderer to go free.
This black attitude is a long way from the philosophy of Martin Luther King,
Jr.
The O.J. trial was multiculturalism gone crazy -- pushed to its logical extreme.
The trial makes one wonder if there ever can be justice again in matters
involving black and white interaction. If whites are going to let off influential
whites who harm blacks and the blacks are going to let off influential blacks
who harm whites, then we have reached a real impasse. A lot more
racially-motivated murderers and other offenders will be roaming America's
streets.
The Future
Before anything can be done about the trend toward the southernization of
the United States, American intellectuals, black and white, will have to
wake up to their own racism. As of yet, the intellectuals have only worked
actively to suppress attempts to point out existing racist attitudes among
the intellectuals themselves. With American intellectuals working for separatism
and segregation, at the present there is not much hope for challenging the
eventual triumph of Dixie.
Bibliography
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McKinney, John C. And Linda Brookover Bourque. 1971 "The changing South:
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