Good evening all:
Forward
I am an Alabama native that relocated to one of the "bluest" states, so I can provide a critique from an outsider's perspective - provided you folks are willing to hear some "tough love". I contribute the occasional sardonic jest to the Alabama forums, but I will break from tradition and try to get my points across tonight in a wholly earnest way. Perhaps through my personal story and observations, you can extrapolate some of the larger issues at hand.
In sum, I'm the kind of person that Alabama can't really afford to lose, but lost anyway. Outside of burying my mother, I'll never come back.
Introduction
To provide you all some background and context, I'll furnish some biographical information. I was born at St. Margaret's, went to school at Dannelly, then Cloverdale, and finally Jeff Davis and graduated with the class of '95. I was accepted to AUM on full scholarship, and there I pursued a Business degree and graduated Magna Cum Laude.
I worked at some odd jobs in college, ultimately landing a clerical gig with Colonial Bank, whereupon I earned two rapid promotions to the loan audit team. Growing tired of the culture there, I impetuously moved to Birmingham to pursue a tech career. I had lived in Montgomery for 24 years!
I moved up the socioeconomic ladder working for a few firms and, in the process, was able to travel extensively for the first time. Knowing that my fate lay beyond the borders of the state, I moved to Portland, OR after securing a remotely-based position at my firm. I've now lived here three years and work for a local company downtown. I no longer own a car and rely on public transit to do everything, and using a zip car when I fancy a ride to the coast or the mountains, each a little over an hour away.
Observations
I have very, very strong memories of living in the South. There are a few recurring themes I encountered in my youth that I will examine, in no particular order. I'll make several posts, focusing on one theme at a time.
The first theme?
Fierce Pride In One's Own Ignorance
From being taunted at grade school for knowing what NAFTA meant to being ridiculed for believing in evolution or the ozone hole as an adult, one thing that seared my memory was people's ferocious pride in their own ignorance.
Whites and Blacks were equally guilty of this offense. It just wasn't cool to actually demonstrate knowledge and GOD FORBID if you used a "big" word. I remember clearly one time using the word "intonation" to describe the pitch of someone's speech and the TEACHER said "the hypotenuse of WHAT?” igniting a round of guffaws in the classroom and humiliating me into silence. I didn't forget.
I could give you dozens and dozens of examples in an array of social situations of being marginalized through peer pressure for articulating stances on evolution or climate change, or even discussing how delicious ethnic food is or expressing interest in world travel.
No matter the country discussed, the conversation always included a stern "But they HATE us over thar!!" and an OBSTINATE refusal to EVER consider traveling overseas. Even though they didn't know anyone from any of these nations, nor did any of their friends - they knew with 100% certitude that "they hate us over thar".
So, why does any of this matter? It matters because the state's leaders emulate their electorate. The attitude of "I don't know, I don't wanna know, I'm proud I don't know and you're a fairy elitist for wanting to know" is precisely the kind of leadership Alabama has had from top to bottom. Really, from Roy Moore to Fob James to Emory Folmar, they all berated people for deviating from a creationist, blue-law kind of worldview.
I won't forget reading about Fob James hunching across the stage like a monkey to illustrate his disagreements with Darwin. Of course, in a state filled with cars that have trunk ornaments of "King of the Jews" fishes eating smaller "Darwin" fishes, it's no big surprise that stunts like that earn substantial political mileage.
Now, the funny thing is, the pride in ignorance really only holds true on a macro level. People I knew in Alabama didn't take pride in doing a poor job, not knowing how their car works or not knowing who won the latest Iron Bowl. However, for instance, they took an immense amount of pride in not knowing - or caring - about the difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
They took PRIDE in not caring about the difference between Japanese, Chinese, Koreans or Thais; they all just fell into the same dog-eating "gook" category.
So why does it even matter? It matters because if you've got Japanese, Korean and German auto companies doing business in your state, doesn't it pay to be just a LITTLE curious about those cultures?
So, there you have one of the biggest reasons I fled west - to find a place where you weren't labeled a weirdo for exhibiting genuine curiosity in the world at large.
Unfortunately, it seems the old myth of assiduously avoiding the consumption of any fruit from the tree of knowledge is taken all too literally in the Heart of Dixie.