Reactions & Stereotypes

I'd written previously that I wanted to write about a post about how people up here in the Northeast are reacting to us telling them we're moving to Auburn. This is that post.

There are essentially 3 steps to the reaction. And it usually goes like this.

1. Somehow I mention we are moving to Alabama. Their reaction? Surprise, bewilderment. Their eyes open wide. They are confused. I can tell they are thinking, "What on earth would you do that for?!", but they are too polite to actually say it.
2. This is followed by them saying something along the lines of "Wow. Talk about a culture shock!" or "That's going to be different!"
3. Followed by "Better get a pickup truck and a gun rack!"

Without fail, that is how the conversation opens.

It's followed by the person realizing I am not joking, that we are indeed moving, and the question: "Where is that?"

"It's 1.5 hrs southwest of Atlanta, right over the Georgia border. About 3.5 hrs from the coast."

"Oh, well....huh.....But, hey, at least its a college town, right? Won't be too bad!"

And they're right. It is a college town, and it won't be too bad. But that's not the point I want to make in this post. The point I want to make regards stereotypes, and how we all employ them, for good or ill.

I realize there are going to be class and race issues we will encounter when we move to Alabama. The wife and I are highly educated (she more so than I, considering she has a PhD, and I have my Masters), white (in the land of the civil rights era), and by relative standards, rich (we will make well above the median family income (look it up, yourself)). So, two out of the three of the above make us targets. Add these to the fact we're from Connecticut, and we really are "Damn Yankees" among the locals. Given we probably will not be there long term (I have no idea about this, by the way. I am just guessing), we've given no one in the community any reason to make a long term investment in us (relationship-wise, friendship-wise, etc.). Outside of the academic community, no one has any real reason to be friendly with us (although I suspect they will be, because the stereotype of people down south is that they're very friendly.)

We are outsiders from the start. We will be the subjects of the stereotypes Southerners hold for northerners.

Liberal, Lefty, Unpatriotic, Obama voting, America-hating, Socialists in waiting. Or, Wall-St. working, money-loving, god hating, consumerists devoted to all things fast (women, cocaine, take your pick, whatever). Or a combination of all of these things to form a conglomerate of New Englander, or New Yorker.

Yet, at the same time, when I have mentioned we are moving to Alabama, I can see the stereotypes we northerners hold for southerners pop up into the minds of the people I am speaking to. It's almost pavlovian in its instantaneous appearance. And I freely admit I did the same exact thing when the wife mentioned moving there as a possibility. The image of the slack-jawed yokel proudly waving his confederate flag from his big pick-up truck with the gun rack. Rednecks. White trash. Baby mommas smoking cigarettes acting out welfare queen fantasies.

But you know what? We have those here in Connecticut, too. So what makes us think we're so much better? What makes us feel the need to be so different? To elevate ourselves above others? I am not a sociologist, or a psychologist, for that matter. But this is the world we live in, so I suppose I must accept it, or at the very least make amends.

So, how to end this?

I realize we are all the same. We all employ stereotypes to help our brains deal with this world. The welfare queen is making fun of me right now as I speak. So I guess I will do my best to have an open mind when I arrive there, realizing that not everyone will like who we are, become friends with those who have an open mind like me, and make the best of our time there. It's an adventure, right?

Let's go.