Hate words, all. You might know what these words mean; you might know more of them; you might have heard other people use them; you may have even used them yourself. I apologize to anyone I’ve insulted, and ask you to bear with me. While this diary is written with much snarkiness, its didactics are no joke.
A recent diarist related an incidence of hate crime, and those who commented were outraged – rightfully so – at the slurs and violence associated with the attack, and at the inadequate response the incident received.
One comment attached to that diary gisted that said commenter was sick and tired of hearing about shitty things happening in Georgia, that the state should be boycotted, and anyone living there should move away if possible. We commented back and forth several times until it came down to this: the role the South played in slavery is forever unforgivable and the region is still filled with redneck cracker Klu Klux Klanners.
Another commenter pointed out that it’s strictly verboten to make derogatory remarks against people of any race, religion, ancestry, sexual orientation, skin color or whatever – with the exception of southerners. Please type slower, I can’t read that fast.
I’m saddened that I feel the need to defend the community in which I live, to the community in which I’ve found intelligent, thoughtful, insightful friends. Herewith I lay out my case that all southerners are not in hate groups, and hate groups do not comprise only southerners.
I’m not going to speak for the entire southern region, but Georgia, my adopted home state, is considered by many to be the epitome of Confederate States (I wonder if "Gone With the Wind" has anything to do with that), maybe it’s just as well.
There will be two Q and As, and a Point.
Q. Is Georgia populated by rednecks, crackers and Klu Klux Klanners?
Let’s look at some facts, figures and tables, some of which are perhaps enlightening, but most of which are quite boring:
Population and racial makeup
"According to census estimates, Georgia ranks third among the states in terms of the percent of the total population that is African American (after Mississippi and Louisiana) and third in numerical Black population after New York and Florida. Georgia was the state with the largest numerical increase in the black population from 2006 to 2007 with 84,000."
Indeed the metro Atlanta area comprises a lot of the black population, but blacks are more populous than whites in many rural counties, including the Low Country.
As of 2005, approximately 2.7% of Georgia's population was Asian American. Georgia is the nation's third-fastest growing area for Asians, behind only Nevada and North Carolina.
Wikipedia
Except where indicated, figures are Census Bureau 2006 estimates. I beg your understanding for my difficulty of posting tables.
Georgia............U.S.
Population estimate 2006.....9,363,941.....299,398,484
Population, 2000.............8,186,453.....281,421,906
Female...........................50.8%...........50.7%
Male.............................49.2%...........49.3%
White persons....................65.8%...........80.1%
Black persons....................29.9%...........12.8%
AIAN persons......................0.3%............1.0%
Asian persons.....................2.8%............4.4%
NHOPI persons.....................0.1%............0.2%
Persons reporting 2/more races....1.1%............1.6%
Hispanic/Latino origin persons....7.5%...........14.8%
White persons not Hispanic.......58.9%...........66.4%
At least that’s the census estimate as of two years ago, and there’s every reason to believe they’re not correct. For example, Georgia’s self-identified Latino registered voters grew in leaps, especially in the outer counties, as identified by Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.
Latino registered voters by county
............2003......Oct 2008.......Growth rate
Hall.........468.........3,239..........592%
Whitfield....699.........2,603..........272%
Gwinnett.....803........13,504........1,582%
Fulton.......327.........4,754........1,354%
Cobb.......1,063.........7,915..........645%
(In fact, much of the growth in Cobb County's registered voter population from January 2003 through October 2008 can be attributed to the "Non-White" categories. With Black, Asian, Hispanic and "Other" categories together to form the "Non-White" group, the total growth during this period was 51,643 registered voters, accounting for 68% of the total growth.)
Okay, so Georgia’s census figures compare pretty evenly to those of the US, and it’s clear that the state is more like a colorful salad than a bowl of vanilla grits (not that there is such a thing, yecch).
Religion
Per Georgia Encyclopedia, Georgia is overwhelmingly Protestant:
Protestant 84%
Roman Catholic 6%
Other Christian 1%
Other Religions 1%
Non-Religious 5%
The three largest Protestant denominations in Georgia are Baptist (51% of total state population), Methodist (12%), Presbyterian & Pentacostal & Episcopalian (tied 2%)
Again, the figures don’t tell all. Georgia's Jewish community dates to the settlement of 42 mostly Sephardic Portuguese Jews in Savannah in 1733.
"A century ago, Atlanta was a relative Jewish backwater, with a population of about 2,000 Jews. For much of its history, Atlanta was an uneasy place to be a Jew, as epitomized by the infamous trial and lynching of Leo Frank in 1915 and the 1958 bombing of Atlanta’s main Reform congregation, the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (commonly known as "The Temple"), in apparent retaliation for its rabbi’s support for the civil rights movement. Jews from the rest of the country largely kept their distance.
"Even by 1976, the Jewish population was still only 21,000. But as Atlanta has subsequently expanded in the decades since then, Jews have poured into town with ever-increasing speed, and the population has grown and sprawled out. According to a 2006 study conducted by Jacob Ukeles and Ron Miller for the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, the Jewish population was 119,800 in 2006 — an increase of 56% over 10 years — and by all accounts, new residents are still coming. Atlanta is now the 11th largest Jewish community in the United States." Jewish Daily Forward
Atlanta even has a synagogue, Bet Haverim, founded by and for the GLBT population – which, by the way, celebrates a huge Pride Day parade. Atlanta has thriving GLBT communities and, I believe, is rated as one of the most gay-friendly cities in the country.
Fine and performing arts
Georgia Museum of Art, High Museum of Art (designed by Richard Meier and recently expanded by Renzo Piano), Michael C. Carlos Museum, (Emory University, home to one of the country’s greatest antiquities collections), Morris Museum of Art and the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art. Full-time company Atlanta Opera, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (the most widely recognized orchestra and largest arts organization in the southeastern United States.) There’s world-class galleries, a lot of underground, co-operative, and non-profit gallery/performance spaces, theaters, spoken word. There’s annual National Black Arts Festival, Auburn Avenue Festival, Dogwood Festival.
The Center for Puppetry Arts is truly unique to Atlanta, a "cultural treasure - a magical place where children and adults are educated, enlightened and entertained. Since 1978, the Center has introduced millions of visitors to the wonder and art of puppetry, and has touched the lives of many through enchanting performances, curriculum-based workshops, and the hands-on Museum, as well as Distance Learning and Outreach Programs." This is where the original Pigs in Space live, but the X-Rated Xperimental Puppetry Theater is definitely the most fun.
Music
Rhythm and blues, rock and roll, country music, hip-hop, folk musical traditions.
Ray Charles, James Brown, Little Richard, Gladys Knight, Otis Redding.
REM, Widespread Panic, Black Crowes, Mastodon, B-52s, Drive By Truckers, Counting Crows, Collective Soul.
There’s a reason they moved the BET Awards to Atlanta a couple of years ago. "Atlanta has become a central player in hip hop as the home of artists Outkast, Ludacris, TI, and Young Jeezy and producers Jermaine Dupri and Jazzy Pha. Atlanta is also home to multiple R&B and neo soul artists including India Arie, Ciara, Bobby Brown, and Usher."
Sons, daughters and marsupials of the state
Conrad Aiken, Jim Brown, Ty Cobb, Ossie Davis, Rebecca Latimer Felton (the first appointed woman U.S. senator), Oliver Hardy, Joel Chandler Harris, Jasper Johns, Carson McCullers, Jessye Norman, Jackie Robinson, Alice Walker, Joanne Woodward.
Not to mention the momentous visit in 1949 to the Okefenokee Swamp that inspired one Walt Kelly to create Pogo, oner ‘possum of the original tag line "We have met the enemy and he is us."
This alone should afford Georgia great respect.
Education
Georgia is home to almost 70 public colleges, universities, and technical colleges in addition to over 45 private institutes of higher learning.
Other quick facts from the Census 2000.......Georgia......US
High school graduates age 25+..................78.6%....80.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher age 25+............24.3%....24.4%
Business, sports
These are topics I know little about, but I’m sure are significant to some.
Georgia's 2006 total gross state product was $380 billion.
If Georgia were a stand-alone country, it would be the 28th largest economy in the world.
Georgia's principal airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, is the world's busiest passenger airport.
There are 15 Fortune 500 companies and 26 Fortune 1000 companies with headquarters in Georgia, including such names as Home Depot, UPS, Coca Cola, Delta Air Lines, AFLAC, Southern Company, and SunTrust Banks. Georgia has over 1,700 internationally headquartered facilities representing 43 countries, employing more than 112,000 Georgians with an estimated capital investment of $22.7 billion. (At least they did up until a couple of weeks ago.)
Georgia is home to TBS, TNT, TCM, Cartoon Network, CNN, and Headline News, and Adult Swim.
........................................GA........US
Homeownership rate...................67.5%........66.2%
Median household income............$42,679......$44,334
Per capita money income, 1999......$21,154......$21,587
Persons below poverty 2004...........13.7%........12.7%
Census
The State of Georgia has a team in eight major professional leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, ABA, AFL, IL, AND ECHL).
The University of Georgia Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Southeastern Conference. The Bulldogs have won 31 total national collegiate championships over the years. They have also won 127 Southeastern Conference Championships. There are seven other Division I institutions besides the University of Georgia: Georgia Southern University, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Kennesaw State University, Mercer University, and Savannah State University.
The Tour de Georgia is a U.S. professional cycling stage race across the state. Ranked as a Hors Classe (2.HC) event by the UCI, placing it among North America's highest rated professional cycling stage race events.
The Masters Tournament, played in Augusta in April, is one of four major golf tournaments played in the United States.
The Georgia Marathon has been named the 2009 Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) Southern Region Marathon Championship.
So far, so good: Georgia does indeed have culture, business, education, sports, music and all that stuff, and its numbers are within reasonable range of the overall US population.
Outdoorsy stuff
Abundance of virgin forests and lowlands, outdoor recreational activities including, but not limited to, rock climbing, whitewater paddling, fishing, and hiking along the Appalachian Trail and the Civil War Heritage Trails.
Sites to explore feature the Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site, Roosevelt’s Little White House, Cyclorama, Oakland Cemetary, and Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site. Georgia State Parks
Uh-oh. Civil War, Jefferson Davis: there’s that Confederate thing again, it’s all over the place. We southerners just refuse to let go of it.
History
There’s a reason for all these historical Civil War sites and monuments and museums and bronze plaques throughout Georgia. They represent the history of the state, and that’s something that can’t – and shouldn’t – be buried and ignored. As other cities build civil rights museums, Georgia continues to be a civil rights museum that lives and breathes; the monuments merely signify the enormity of its change.
Let’s see how much civil rights movement history I can fit in 150 words:
Post WWII, Atlanta’s leadership among educated, middle-class blacks planted the seeds; from that community emerged Dr ML King Jr. as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was founded in 1957; its 1961 campaign in Albany prepared for Selma AL campaign. Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. testified before Congress in support of the Civil Rights Act. Lester Maddox refused service to blacks at his restaurant; in 1966 was elected governor.* In 1969, the U.S. Department of Justice forced racial integration; a year later, new governor Jimmy Carter declared that the era of segregation had ended. In 1972, Andrew Young (who also rose among that community) was the first black elected to Congress since Reconstruction; in 1974, Maynard Jackson became Atlanta’s first black mayor. Atlanta is the first major American city to have both a black female mayor, Shirley Franklin, and a black female Police Chief, Beverly Harvard.
Like its history, present-day Georgia is a juxtaposition of past horrors against continuous hope and growth.
A. Georgia is a state with diversity, culture, institutions of higher learning; major businesses, media, and sports; living history spanning slavery to civil rights and beyond.
Score one for me.
N.B. Maddox became governor in 1967 on a fluke.
In the 1966 Democratic primary, Maddox ended up second behind former Gov. Ellis Arnall, known as a progressive, and ahead of Jimmy Carter.
Because nobody held a 50 percent+1 majority, a runoff was held.
Weird, huh. Go figure.
Q: Are people from Georgia – and by extension other southerners – more racist than those from other states?
Using figures from the The Southern Poverty Center, I chose for comparison states with similar populations and percentages of the total US population, three up, three down.
Wiki and The Southern Poverty Center
Damn, I wish I could figure out the html to insert a table. If you're able to read it at all, you'll see that it compares population of the state compared to the number of hate groups in that given state.
Georgia has the largest number of hate groups, not just among this comparison group, but ranking third among the fifty, behind only California and Texas, both very large states. There don’t seem to be any specific numbers regarding the number of members in each group, so I looked at the data differently.
What stands out is that the Klu Klux Klan, Black Separatist, and White Nationalist movements are present in all eleven states. I didn’t check the other 39 states, nor the districts, &c., but I bet they’re in each of them as well.
And the United Daughters of the Confederacy has active chapters in 33 states.
A. Yes, the states with the most kinds of hate groups are Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, and Georgia has the largest number of hate groups by population.
Score one for the commenter.
The Point
Do you remember, back in school – the teacher hands out a worksheet and everyone begins filling it in as quickly as possible. Except for one kid, probably the dorky smart one, who turns the paper over, folds his arms, and smugly smiles. Finally – hopefully – with a slap to your forehead, you realize that the instructions said to write your name on the sheet, turn it face down, and wait.
We just went through a whole lot of unnecessary nonsense because the questions, enlightening as they may be, have nothing to do with the point.
The point is that in this community, we don’t use hate words to describe one another. Period.
Score one for all of us.