DOES A FISH KNOW IT'S WET?

National Public Radio has a Saturday morning program that is worth the listening. This morning they were broadcasting from Alabama with native, Alabama guest reporters and personalities. Early in the program I heard a word that set me back. The host, Scott Simon, referring to a slew of elected officials who have either gone to Washington with the new administration or have resigned to avoid embarrassing investigations or legal action, asked “Is this the (Alabamization) of government?” I thought, ‘OMG, what did he just say?’ They compared the phenomenon to Simon’s home state, Illinois where several former governors are all serving prison sentences for corruption. They concurred, (writers, reporters & pundits) the next year would be rich with material for them to write about.

I couldn’t get my head around the word, Alabamization. Missourification would be no better, nor would Indianazation. But, Alabamization; seriously! My feelings about the South and Southern Tradition are no secret. I wouldn’t call it a ‘Love-Hate’ thing but it is  certainly a conflicted thing. I would take a more nuanced approach, calling it, ‘Charmed-Disillusion’. Sons & daughters of the South would say I’m prejudiced but I think substantiated bias is more to the truth. The charm of Southern Hospitality and its home-grown virtue glosses over a taproot of ruthless, feudal privilege. Only 150-years ago (two lifetimes) more than half-a-million Americans died in a war fought over the fate of purchased & paid for, African slaves. Southerners would argue it was over State’s Rights but without the slave issue, there was no issue. An outwardly religious culture needed moral justification for that human carnage which was from the beginning, manifest in White Supremacy. I don’t think an informed, rational observer can embrace Southern Culture without acknowledging the legacy of White Supremacy. It is still deeply invested in that identity. It is internalized but no less present; the way it is, the way we were raised. 

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying Southern sympathizers are overtly racist but then, does a fish know it’s wet? I love the music and the food. I love many of the good people there, one in particular. She is so, so Southern. But she is trained to observe and to weigh evidence objectively. Her sense of fairness is not compromised by the one for (iron fist-velvet glove) authority. She knows, she laments; the Good Old Boys rule and ‘White’ supercedes every other color. I suspect much of the resentment against so called, “Political Correctness” is the desire to publicly express a racist, sexist predisposition, like they did in the good old days. In Denham Springs, LA and Macomb, MS they tell me, “You can’t even hang a Nigger here no more.” White Supremacy is common above the Mason Dixon line but they don’t cloak it with molasses, call it something else and preach it’s virtue. They wouldn’t cultivate weeds and call it sugar cane. I could write a book, I already have, piece by piece, part by part, no need to resurrect a dead horse. 

Alabamization - I suppose we are ripe for it. What I see going on is polarization; middle class and the poor pitted against each other. It’s what the ‘Good Old Boys’ orchestrate when the natives get restless. I never thought I’d have a White Hero from Alabama, like meeting a tall, short, skinny, fat man. Great athletes, great musicians, great writers galore but nobody with a moral compass, oriented away from White Supremacy; not until E. O. Wilson. If you don’t know E. O. Wilson you should read his stuff. Raised in Mobile, Alabama he loved his growing up and he considers himself an Alabamian, even though he’s lived 65 of his 87-years in Massachusetts. He writes about the irresistibility of tribal identity, using himself and his attachment to his alma mater, University of Alabama as the example. He doesn’t tout Southern Culture as a good thing, just that he loves it. His insightful quote: “The trouble with humanity is; we have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and God-like technology.” Emotions move us to action long before intelligence can boot itself up. That makes it really, really difficult to push back against a culture that has nurtured you and not surprisingly, few Southerners, or any other tribalist’s for that matter, do that. Alabamization; really - Scott Simon, why did you do that to me this morning?