In some ways it has. Not in all. Have you not noticed the voting patterns? It's no accident that anti-Obama propaganda has taken on such a racist tinge since the Solid South became solidly Republican, or that Civil War revisionists are circulating myths that the Civil War was fought over tariffs, and that hundreds of blacks fought for the Confederacy, and that these lies are even showing up in school textbooks.
Obviously a college campus like Lancer will be a more liberal place, but a semi-educated white woman of Wanda's generation probably would bat an eye over Lewis, and I'm not too sure about the liberal attitudes of the folks over at Memphis Christian. Last I heard, Bob Jones University, though it admitted blacks, forbade interracial dating.
We've seen something of "the town itself" too, and apparently it's just as enlightened as the school. Tennessee is where Bob Corker beat the black candidate Harold Ford Jr. with a transparently racist ad where a white woman oohs about meeting him at the Playboy Mansion, and tells him to call her, and a radio ad in which patriotic music was played when Corker's name was mentioned and "jungle drums" were played under Ford's. That was only five years ago.
If you really believe no racists would ever wander through the Eden of these characters, you're living on the Good Ship Lollipop. I know the south very well. I have tons of family there, and I return regularly, plus I follow the news. I know southerners nowadays like to claim the region is racism-free, but it isn't, and I'm not going to let my family or anybody else get away with saying it is. Not while the Governor of Mississippi is defending the White Citizens Councils.
Southerners deserve some credit, but not nearly as much as they like to give themselves. I am one, and I get to say so.
The Republican Plan: repeal all reform; collect payoffs; go yachting (but not in the Gulf).
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EternalWolf
13 years ago
Maybe the show's trying to lead by example.
The best type of book is one that you mourn when you've finished it.
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ducdebrabant
13 years ago
Well, that's the eternal argument, isn't it? Should art show us life as it is, or as it ought to be? I think it should show us whatever it wants to, but that doesn't mean we can't jeer at it occasionally. Tennessee really does have a three strikes law. I guess they could have showed us a Tennessee without one. Every realistic or factual thing they do puts the unrealistic and unfactual things in a stronger light.
The Republican Plan: repeal all reform; collect payoffs; go yachting (but not in the Gulf).
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Brookic0
13 years ago
Sadly, I agree that it is not very realistic to see this in the South. I'm from a small town in Alabama and the elementary school and highschool I went to didn't even have one black student. Therefor, I think that has a little to do with it as well. If you aren't around any black people, it would be hard to date one. I did have a friend that dated a black guy. The guy was from another school and there were a couple of other girls from my school that dated black guys. A lot of people looked down on them for it, which I think is ridiculous. I have a friend that moved to Texas and she married a black guy and has kids with him, she said it is way more common there. Anyway, like I said several girls from my highschool dated black guys, but I don't remember any white guys dating black girls. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen here, but I have not personally witnessed it. You would think now that we are in the year 2011 that this wouldn't be still be taboo, but sadly it is. However, this is a TV show and an awesome one at that, so while it isn't that realistic to see in some of the southern states, who cares?
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