[lbo-talk] The paradox of southern racism

[Chuck Grimes]

), should have learnt by now to both understand the lives of black people 
and worked out ways to live with them. However, despite their higher rates 
of poverty (and therefore, likely, dependence on welfare programs), white 
people in these very states seem to be the ones who respond enthusiastically 
to dog whistles (or direct attacks) tying welfare to black people.

Thoughts?

—ravi

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I've never been to a southern state, so I am probably talking out my ass. 
Oklahoma is about as close as I got, in the long ago. The simple answer 
(guessing) is a very hidebound system of class and caste, where blacks are 
at the bottom, with some allowed exceptions, and white trash (poor and 
uneducated) come just above. Much a do about manners and customs from the 
southern white bourgeoisie. The control of local politics are probably in 
the hands of some very few old families locked into corporate and or landed 
wealth of some sort....  Jimmy Carter comes to mind as a representative 
sample. His liberalism is pretty thin, while there is also a kindly intended 
paternalism that has its caste-class distinctions. This worldview is 
captured in the NGO movements that plaque Africa in particular.

Another example is the Clinton-Bush duo does Haiti, for its own good, of 
course...

CG
CG