Lots of people talk about the South like it’s one simple thing. However, the truth is that the South is far more complex than people like to imagine, thanks to the history, language, food & culture across the region. Many of these misconceptions come from people spreading things around without realizing the truth about what life is really like in the South, although they’re not necessarily trying to be malicious. Here are nine things outsiders get wrong about the South.
1. Southern culture rejects change
Some people like to believe that the South stays frozen in time. But it doesn’t. The truth is, Southern identity keeps changing as people move in & out of the area, as with any place. New industries grow, and people adopt different technologies. Look at cities like Austin or Atlanta, for example. The rise of tech industries in these places didn’t erase the regional customs, but rather, added a little more to them. You can see start-ups in these cities right next to local traditional stores. It really doesn’t fit the image of the South being stuck in the past.
2. “Y’all” isn’t a real word
You might be surprised to learn how people laugh when they hear a Southerner say the word “y’all,” as they see it as a kind of joke word. It’s not. Even linguistics don’t treat it that way, as officials at both the Merriam-Webster & the Oxford English Dictionary list it as a recognized second-person plural pronoun. Essentially, that means it’s used to talk directly to more than one person. Sociologist Walt Wolfram has also written quite a lot about how Southern speech follows consistent grammar patterns that don’t necessarily work the same way in other parts of the country. That doesn’t make them wrong. “Y’all” fits a gap in English that the standard “you” doesn’t cover.
3. Southern speech sounds slow because people think slowly
That’s not all for language. The stereotype about Southerners being slow talkers & thinkers says more about the stereotyper than Southerners themselves. Many linguists, including Wolfram, have said that Southerners tend to stretch the vowel sounds in words longer, making their speech sound a little slower. But the number of words they actually speak per minute isn’t necessarily lower than that of people from other places. The truth is, it’s a sound pattern more than a thinking pattern, and conversations in the South can actually move rather quickly.
4. There’s only one kind of Southern barbecue
The way Southerners have barbecue differs from state to state. For example, ordering barbecue in eastern North Carolina will get you some vinegar-based pulled pork, but over in Texas, you’ll get brisket instead. Historians at the Southern Foodways Alliance have researched how regional barbecue traditions in the South developed separately over time. As such, the idea of having a Southern BBQ doesn’t really make sense. Southerners take their barbecue traditions quite seriously, and there’s no such thing as a single kind of barbecue.
5. Southern music is only country music
Of course, country music is important to the South. But to treat it as the only kind of music that exists there is completely false because there are so many genres of music that came from the South. Take jazz, for one. Historians at the Smithsonian have traced New Orleans as the birthplace of early jazz, while researchers from the National Museum of African American Music claim that blues originated near the Mississippi Delta. Let’s not forget about genres like Tejano from Texas. Southerners do listen to country music, yes, but it’s hardly the only kind of contribution that they’ve made to musical history.
6. The South is all one religion
Hearing the phrase “the Bible Belt” makes it sound as though every Southerner practices their faith in the same way. There are undoubtedly a lot of Christians in the South, but even that has its differences because not everyone is in the same denomination of Christianity. Many Southerners aren’t even religious. The Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study has found that the differences in religion from place to place can be quite stark. Parts of Virginia have quite a lot of religious diversity, for one, while in Louisiana, there are many Catholics. The numbers & differences in faith vary a lot more than people might expect.
7. Southern identity is one political identity
Another stereotype that people outside the South have is the idea of the Southern vote. That makes it seem like Southerners all lean the same way politically. However, take a close look, and you’ll see that this idea couldn’t be further from the truth, as urban counties in Georgia, for example, don’t vote the same way as rural Mississippi. Coastal Virginia doesn’t have the same political views as West Texas, either. In fact, political scientist Angie Maxwell has written quite a lot about how Southern political identity changes quite a bit across generations & areas. It’s not fixed. The “Southern vote” doesn’t exist, just like how the “American vote” doesn’t exist.
8. Southerners are stupid
Unfortunately, quite a few people online like to spread the myth that all Southerners are stupid and that, for some reason, they hate intellectualism. It’s not remotely the case. There are so many academic institutions & research communities that have existed in the South for many years, and historians, including James C. Cobb, have written about the sheer amount of intellectual traditions in the South. Plus, we can’t ignore how schools like Duke, Rice, Emory, and the University of Virginia have produced some of the greatest minds in history. All those headlines about Southerners being uneducated are simply unfair.
9. Southern manners are fake politeness
For those who didn’t grow up hearing, “yes ma’am” or “no sir,” these phrases can feel a little too formal, and in some cases, outsiders assume they’re completely performative. They’re not. Valerie Fridland, a linguist, studied regional speech patterns and has explained that Southern manners are meant as a genuine form of respect that comes from upbringing. It has nothing to do with these phrases being a social strategy to get ahead. In reality, lots of Southern kids learn about these titles quite early from their parents & teachers. They’re a normal part of conversation instead of something calculated.
Spend enough time crossing state lines in the South, and you’ll see how different the details can be. The method of praying changes from state to state, and so do the kinds of foods people eat. Even the language is different. As such, there’s no single stereotype that really fits for how people live across the whole region, so it’s about time that outsiders quit treating it as such.
