The South

 First off, congratulations to the Alabama Crimson Tide for a dismantling of THE Ohio State Buckeyes. Or should I say the Ohio State Buckeyes. I didn't have a chance to watch the game, but judging by the score it wasn't even close. So the best college team in the nation won.

The South gets a really bad rap. To be honest, I have NEVER met a rude Southerner. Ever. Seriously. There are disgustingly rude East Coasters and, in the arena of sports, ugly Midwesterners. Ohio State Buckeye fans are mean and completely understand how people would target them as a college team to despise. I still love them, and now keep it more on the downlow. I've been to the games and it isn't pretty. They are rabid fans.

That said, the Southern people are very very nice people. Post 1970's towards the Black and Brown folk, of course. I know that there are a TON of genuinely racist people there. And perhaps that's how they got their reputation, but I've been to the South a LOT and what I experienced were very kind generous people.

I recall going thru a Georgia when I was a college student, poor and hungry but I had to have my Spring Break. And pulling up to a fried chicken place. It was a local place, not a franchise. It was late and I was tired and had only bottles of Snapple my sister had given me. I think I only had a few bucks left and just enough gas to get home. The lady behind the drive thru window seemed to see this. And ask me if I wanted the rest of the chicken they had. She gave me all the chicken they were about to throw out. I inhaled it and have been grateful ever since. I doubt a chicken place in Van Nuys, California would ever do this. They would most likely huff rudely that they were closing and there's nothing left.

To me, this is the image I have about the South: Kindness.

The problem I see is that most Northerners/Midwesterners have gone to college and have a low opinion of the South. And that's why I can't stand the more cosmopolitan folk. They're snobs.

So for the more urban folk...don't look at kindness as weakness.