Redneck
Reality
“[We]
are completely conscious of all the ways our family and region have shaped our
approach to the world—rebels with a cause, you might say, clinging stubbornly
to what we have loved, even as we work hard to make clear all that needs to change.
It is that quality that is so precious and surprising…we recognize the inherent
strengths and wisdom that are found in the wounded people we have loved so much
and with whom we have sometimes been so angry…”
Dorothy
Allison (in the introduction to The Redneck Way of Knowledge by Blanche McCrary
Boyd, p.xiii; Vintage Books, 1978)
My
friend, Dejuana, gave me her copy of The Redneck Way of Knowledge by Blanche
Boyd before Christmas. I didn’t pick it up until two nights ago, and now I have
trouble putting it down. Boyd left South Carolina’s low country as soon as she graduated
from high school and tried hard to put its ways behind her. She wanted to be a sophisticated,
fast-talking New Yorker like she saw on TV. She discovered, in the long run, that
her own grounding came from that place, and from those people she had worked so
hard to escape.
I’ve
had many long conversations with my friend, Anna, who was born and grew up in Mississippi,
and who escaped to go to college in Washington, DC, and then studied at the
Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. By the time she left Mississippi, she
had been married twice and raised a family as a Southern woman. I grew up in
North Carolina, and Southern women of my generation are imprinted in a very particular
way—to fear God, love Jesus, never tell the truth about our family, and to be
pretty and quiet in the presence of men. Southern women who have a mind of
their own, even now, are considered—not interesting and smart—but opinionated, arrogant,
and rude. That perception is changing with new, better educated generations of
men, who grew up with women as peers and not objects, but there is still a
strong current of it in the deep South.
To say
that racism is inherent barely begins to cover the subject. My generation was brought up in the caldron of white patriarchy, and racism is woven into our
genetic material. Overcoming it takes a lifetime of work, and even then, we
have blind spots. For the boomers, separate communities were the norm. And it
was not so much that we intentionally espoused white superiority, but that we
were oblivious to it and its effects. Only as an adult, as a teacher, did I recognize
the terrible deficits and inequality of growing up “separate but equal.”
Especially because there was no such thing. The simple privilege of being white
made all the difference, even if we were as poor as dirt.
This
week when I saw that at least two of the people arrested for the assault on the
Capital were from Alabama, and that two of our representatives in Congress voted
to overturn the electoral college’s certification of the election, I was not
surprised. I was saddened, distressed, disgusted and embarrassed, but not at
all surprised. Much of Alabama clings to its history of white domination at all
costs. It is sad, but true. And let me say, they do not represent me.
One
thing that gives me hope is that new generations of Southern men and women do
not have a history of segregation and therefore, do not espouse racism. They
are shocked and, frankly, puzzled by it. I know that even Alabama and
Mississippi will one day be dragged kicking and screaming into the light
because millennials will demand it. I just hope I live to see it.
What is
also true is that what Jesus called “salt of the earth” people live here too.
There are decent, kind, and generous folks in the South. People who love, and
serve, and want to see things get better for all of us. We keep inching
forward, as you saw in Georgia last week. Progress is being made. Equality is
being worked toward. So, don’t count us out. In fact, pray for us. We need all
the help we can get.
The South is my home, these
are my people, and I am here to stay. The nature of true redneck wisdom is
earthy, hardy, and grounded in reality. And, yes, we have a little streak of rebel
in us—and spice, and bawdiness, and...
In
the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment