I wrote this originally as just a post on C&L but then I decided why not just make it one big rant for everyone here to enjoy? I've tried to edit it so that it would hopefully convert as a free standing diary.
Seriously it isn't easy working with people on a cause or event if they insult you and everyone you know whenever they get the chance. Bigotry doesn't have to be against minorities and other religions and xenophobia doesn't have to be towards another country. Yes it is possible to be filled with mindless hate, and xenophobia against a state just as much as it is against a country. I'm really tired of the anti Mississippi bigotry, yes bigotry or would you prefer xenophobia? Just because Mississippi has a messed up past and some a**holes here I end up being called many names. Granted it is indirect but when you say that MS is a place filled with racists and imbeciles that need to be thrown out of the country or killed and yes I've read these very suggestions. How is that different than people saying Mexico is filled with lazy criminals and we need to block them from getting in? Or thinking that every brown person is a Muslim and all Muslims are terrorists and murderers so they have to kill them all before they kill us? Can you see the connections?
For the record having lived here my whole life I've seen plenty of racism from all sides and lots of unnecessary hate and anger that doesn't belong to this generation anymore and shouldn't. But I will tell you it isn't the way everyone seems to portray it. I don't sit on my lawn chair in front of my trailer drinking beer and shooting a shot gun. I do sit on a couch in my house reading books, playing my PS3, or getting online to read the news and events of the day. My parents do the same, as does my brother, well only my brother plays PS3. We aren't monsters or inbred hillbillies, we don't drink moonshine or wear suspenders all day. And we aren't racist or xenophobic either. Want to know what my mother taught me growing up? "If someone doesn't like you ignore them, and if you don't like someone just leave them alone or stay away from them."
I don't deny that Mississippi has racists but I don't claim that we are unique in that either, every state has racists, red-necks, xenophobes, and general morons. I haven't seen any evidence showing that we have some monopoly on these things. But if you want to see where the severe racism is growing try looking for the KKK and see where they've gone to have those rallies and protests they have. And personally I would like it if you visited the state before you judge everyone in it, nothing quite like the xenophobia and hate I feel when I get on Crooks and Liars or Daily Kos... If we can't even get along with each other what hope do we have of getting others to change their own ways? Having lived here in the south my whole life, would you want to know what my biggest complaint is? It's too hot and humid in the summers, and the winters don't have snow. That is also why I want to move North, it's colder and hopefully climate change won't change that until I'm dead atleast because we clearly can't focus on the important things beyond the surface of everyday life.