During the complicated history of the US its Northern and Southern states have developed hostile feelings against each other. It had happened mainly because of the historical patterns of economic and political development of these regions. “No real transportation infrastructure existed in colonial America, and north-south roads were practically nonexistent” (Junius P. Rodriguez 249), what has led to the division between these regions. The hostility has reached its peak during the Civil war, after what the mutual animosity has thawed. However those tensions have had a tremendous impact on northern perceptions of South and southern perceptions of North.
Talking about these perceptions it is worth saying that people from these regions often pick on each other, showing off their wit. Often enough those jokes seem to be very absurd, however some of them are very true and funny. For example in northern states they say that in Louisiana they ride crocodiles to work and school. In southern states, they claim that all the northern states are covered with the cryotic soils, and that people keep polar bears instead of dogs. Of course all of these jokes do not make sense, and are not true at all, but they show that people from South and North consider themselves to be different from each other. And it has an explanation. While South still remains a kind of resource appendage of the industrialized Northeast, people from North think of Southerners as of low class ignoramuses, calling them “rednecks” or “hillbillies”. Southerners, on the contrary, think of people living in northern states as of arrogant snobs. Although “slavery’s power has been denied as a divisive issue,” (John B. Boles 85) racism is a very big issue when we talk about perceptions. In northern states almost everyone will tell you that every southerner is a convinced racist, and that was true in “the late 19th century, when blatant racism was reaching the extreme point” (George M. Fredrickson 130). However these days the situation has changed, but due to the existing stereotypes all the southerners are considered to be “white supremacists” (George M. Fredrickson 130)
So, as it can be noticed people from South and North have different stereotypes about each other, what inevitably leads to different perceptions. This proves that they are really different. Just different, not better, not worst.
Works Cited
Boles, John B. A Companion to the American South. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. Print.
Fredrickson, George M. White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African History. Oxford [Oxfordshire: Oxford UP, 1982. Print.
Rodriguez, Junius P. Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007. Print.
