Regional Prejudice

It’s really not that funny anymore.

I mean, it used to be funny that the only real “acceptable” prejudice in polite society was against people in the southern United States. It was a triumph that we still had an outlet for humor that did not assault the sensibilities of African-Americans, the Poles, fat people, skinny people, blondes… all once considered the targets for humor, and now not considered polite.

Well, we can still joke about Southerners, right? I mean, anyone who likes Larry the Cable Guy must be an ignoramus (and probably can’t spell it, either.) Those beer-swilling NASCAR fans, if they are entitled to vote should it really count more than 3/5? Do they really count their IQ scores on fingers and barefoot toes, and dream of indoor plumbing?

It’s all well and good, until you start to wonder what people really believe about the South and the people who live here.

I stumbled across a Freakonomics write-up of an energy efficiency study, and the gist of the study was that some states aren’t producing as much wealth for the amount of electricity they consume. The authors of the study appeared to go out of their way to take economic activity and climate into account, but their results are flawed by the assumptions they made. For instance, Southerners are far more likely to use electricity to heat their homes (which counts against us), while Northeastern residents use natural gas or other means which don’t count against their energy consumption.

Regardless, I found the following comment from “Steve” amusing:

Just sell Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and several other low productivity southern states to Mexico. Their energy use will decline rapidly once the subsidies end. Any auto plants there, will relocate back to the US too, once their ability to gain subsidies to employ low productivity workers stops with the end of federal largess. Once the cretins in these places start to earn Mexican wages, they’ll be plenty of work for them. They may eventually regret their lack of interest in education, but there is no guarantee of that.

Gee Steve, ever get around much? I can only assume the subsidized energy he is talking about is in the Tennessee Valley Authority service area, which is just a small part of “the South.” I can also assume he’s not concerned about the massive amount of subsidy that goes into bringing water to arid regions in the West.

Let’s ignore for a moment the preposterous bits for a moment, and look at the underlying psychology:

• Southerners are, by definition, stupid
• Southerners have auto plants because they cheated economically (as though states aren’t allowed to compete for manufacturing, but entire nations are)
• Southerners deserve “Mexican” wages (do I detect racism there, Steve, or are you just an enlightened xenophobe?)
• Southerners are not interested in education

I thought it might “edjamacate” him to hear from one of the “cretins” that he is so eager to sell off:

Actually, those of us in the South were really considering selling off Michigan. If we do so before all those automotive bailouts are paid, we can really get out from under a bad debt. You guys are costing me boatloads of cash.

Granted, with your surplus of $7,000 homes on the market, now would not be the ideal time to sell, but I’m not sure that you haven’t bottomed out already.

This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered elitist regional snobbery:

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(Note: I was very deliberate about linking the New York Times to the anchor word “edjamacate.” If more people do the same, then the New York Times will become the top search result for “edjamacate,” and I learned this without going to any fancy Big 10 state college.)

We can still joke about lawyers, right?