[LINK] The Changing South
Dec. 3rd, 2005 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldThe Guardian is one newspaper among many that carries the AP article by Allen G. Breed, "Definition of South, Southern Is Changing". The US South, it seems, is mutating almost entirely beyond recognition. Almost.
The South is a case study for regionalism. The attenuation and/or mutation of this particular regionalism definitely bears watching. What will it mean to be Southern? Can it mean anything apart from a separateness from the mainstream once the root causes of this separatism fade?
Things are indeed changing in the South. And so is the notion of what it means to be ``Southern.''
In this most maligned and mused-upon of American regions, the term conjures a variety of images. Magnolias, front porch swings and sweet tea for some; football, stock cars and fried chicken for others; lynchings, burning crosses and civil rights marches for still others.
We've had the Solid South, the Old South and the New South.
But are we heading toward a ``No South''?
As the South's population booms - projected to comprise 40 percent of the nation's population by 2030 - a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll finds that the percentage of people in the region identifying themselves as ``Southerners'' is slowly shrinking.
The South is a case study for regionalism. The attenuation and/or mutation of this particular regionalism definitely bears watching. What will it mean to be Southern? Can it mean anything apart from a separateness from the mainstream once the root causes of this separatism fade?
