I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, so I do not consider myself a southerner. According to some people in Memphis, I am a Yankee. I did not want to move from Cleveland because I liked my friends, and the last place I wanted to move was the South. Because of what I had learned from history, southerners did not have a good reputation in my eyes. I moved to Memphis just over three years ago and I expected most people to be either racist, bible beaters (hard core religion nuts), or somewhat inbred, or even a mix of all three. So in general, my views of southerners were close to how Faulkner depicts them in his novels.
The first couple months in Memphis were difficult because I had to adapt to a completely different culture than I was accustomed. …show more content…
I went to Saint Louis Catholic School and in the entire school, which was Pre-K to eighth grade, there was one black kid. One. My brother, who was friends with the one black student, was appalled at the way he was treated and spoken to. I can guarantee that if you went to a private school in the south, and asked them about black people, at least ten white kids would have no problem calling them a nigger. I first heard someone use nigger I was still living in Cleveland. When I asked my Dad what it meant, he immediately freaked out and asked where I heard that word. Upon my telling him where I heard it, he told me never to repeat that word again. I was shocked to realize that southern parents obviously had not taught their kids the same lesson.
There being no black kids at a private grade school in the south now makes sense to me after reading The Reivers. In this book, even though slavery had been abolished and everyone was equal, the blacks had the harder, lower paying jobs, much like in today’s society, especially in the south. In The Reivers, characters like Ned and Ludus have to work the night shift, which includes long hours, low pay, and no time off, which is the reason Ned high jacked Boon and Lucius’s trip to
The first couple months in Memphis were difficult because I had to adapt to a completely different culture than I was accustomed. …show more content…
I went to Saint Louis Catholic School and in the entire school, which was Pre-K to eighth grade, there was one black kid. One. My brother, who was friends with the one black student, was appalled at the way he was treated and spoken to. I can guarantee that if you went to a private school in the south, and asked them about black people, at least ten white kids would have no problem calling them a nigger. I first heard someone use nigger I was still living in Cleveland. When I asked my Dad what it meant, he immediately freaked out and asked where I heard that word. Upon my telling him where I heard it, he told me never to repeat that word again. I was shocked to realize that southern parents obviously had not taught their kids the same lesson.
There being no black kids at a private grade school in the south now makes sense to me after reading The Reivers. In this book, even though slavery had been abolished and everyone was equal, the blacks had the harder, lower paying jobs, much like in today’s society, especially in the south. In The Reivers, characters like Ned and Ludus have to work the night shift, which includes long hours, low pay, and no time off, which is the reason Ned high jacked Boon and Lucius’s trip to