Classism: Hating Da South

Most of the hatred of the souf is rooted in classism, Intragroup Xenophobia and ancestral ptsd. There I said it.

I seen a video of Cleotrapa a Nigerian American claim that northern fashion and customs are better. She said that everyone wanted to be NY. I won’t get into the fact that an African woman is subtly creating division between northern black Americans and southern black Americans but what she said was something very familiar to my ears.

See growing up , I spent most of my time in the northern states/Cities such as Philly , Delaware, New Jersey, New York and so much more though my family is from the south. Most kids up north get sent down South because that’s where they grandmama or mama may originally be from. My family bloodline is so southern that when I take a dna test it links me to “Deep South African Americans”. To specify, I am a descendant of The Great Migration. My maternal side? Texas, Georgia and South Carolina, while my paternal side is rooted in Louisiana and the Chesapeake area yet, I’d hear immediate family say things very similar to what Cleotrapa said. They’d talk about the south with disgust, and what always confused me was that most of the ish we did was rooted in the south. From the collard greens, Mac n cheese, fried fish to the spiritual beliefs disguised as “superstitions”.

I also recently came across a post saying that northerners don’t eat soul food, have cookouts, or do anything that’s inherently Black American.

This Narrative leads to cultural erasure because Black Americans do, in fact, carry these traditions everywhere we go. The creator proceeded to get mad because I said that we still eat soulfood.

What is the “Great Migration”?

The Great Migration was the mass movement of over 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the urban North, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970.

They moved up north to these places for a better life at the time because the South was still stuck in their old oppressive racist ways, making it hard for Black Americans to make a living. Most of the Places they migrated to tended to be more industrialized ,hence the reasoning why the misconception was that black Americans up north are more bougie, and make more money.

It Happened in Two Waves:

First Wave (1910–1940s)

Triggered by Jim Crow laws, racial violence (like lynchings), and limited economic opportunities (mostly sharecropping).

• Many Black families moved to cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York (Harlem), Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.

• World War I created jobs in Northern factories, which drew Southern Black workers up.

• Second Wave (1940s–1970s)

• Accelerated during and after World War II.

African Americans moved to even more cities — including Los Angeles, Oakland, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C.

• Fleeing continued segregation and looking for better schools, housing, and jobs.

• This led to the Harlem Renaissance and Black Movements in Washington D.C

Most people on the EastCoast migrated to similar regions ( the whole entire EastCoast) which is why people in Philly , NYC , and New Jersey have roots in Dmv, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Most in Chicago have some Mississippi , Alabama, Louisiana and even some Texas.

This greatly affected the accents , economy and culture. A lot of Black Chicago accents are similar to Mississippi accents. I mean I should know, my man is Chicago Mississippian, and even I’m a lil taken back by his accent. He mocks me, saying I can sound a lil country but I do the same for him. We both unknowingly at the time had different variations of southern based accents because of that migration. This a complicated history most foreign black immigrants wouldn’t understand which is why most shouldn’t speak on this topic.

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When I took pride in my southern heritage it was a reclamation, a call and response to those that came before me. I went to stay and Visit family in my true home and embrace all of it.

Everything Black American IN Northern America came from the South. So I do feel this should be left alone by 1st Gen immigrant children. Honestly if your lineage doesn’t go all the way back to the 1600s or more in America this conversation should be left alone. People came to the Norf for a better life and now it’s getting turned into some weird classist war. The most common things they criticize the South for is how it can be less industrialized or they compare their Deep Southern accents to “Slave Talk” without realizing our accents is the offspring of those accents. The way Black American Northerners speak is rooted in the South. I seen a video of a girl mocking northern women saying we talk proper but I literally could not relate because though the accents differ I still say the same things she does. I say yeen instead you ain’t, I say youn instead of you don’t, I barely pronounce the t in ain’t, I still can make a good full Soulfood meal. This idea that black Americans further up North are completely different is strange considering the origins of our culture and as I’ve briefly mentioned before in my other substack, The Difference Between Southern and Country🤎

Country don’t mean Southern and Southern don’t mean Country. I mention this because I noticed that a lot of people assume I lack “Country” experiences simply because I was born up North but that’s false. Pennsylvania and Maryland ( both mid Atlantic states) are very country outside of the Northern corridor, I was brought up riding horses over the summer and running through cornfields but I also was very familiar with city life because I spent time in Brooklyn and Philly. I lived a balanced life but a lot of “Country” ways even influence the general accent in that area or the Cowboy culture there. My man is from Chicago, Illinois and outside of Chicago it gets very “Country”. Now don’t get me wrong there’s still huge cultural differences but acting like we lose our blackness cause we live elsewhere or that southern people are still poor and in the dark ages is just wrong.

They once tried to convince me to be ashamed of anything “Country,” and to ignore my family’s black cowboy lineage, Galveston Texan roots, Gullah Roots, or even the Northern Country Subcultures, but I now embrace it all. The South ain’t behind, it’s the blueprint of most if not all black American cultural heritage. We didn’t leave the South behind, we carried it with us, in our tongues, in our kitchens, in our bones, and to reclaim the South is to reclaim ourselves unfiltered, unashamed, and unforgotten.

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