Sublime

The consequence of the projection of national sins, and specifically racism, onto one region is a mis-narration of history and American identity. The consequence of truncating the South and relegating it to a backwards corner is a misapprehension of its power in American history. Paying attention to the South—its past, its dance, its present, its

On the former cemetery land, two years later, in 1941, the city also situated the Magnolia Housing Projects. Wherever you are in the South, the accent of “Magnolia” is heavy on the first syllable. And in Louisiana, the ubiquitous hardwood trees produce flowers that are fragrant and leaves that are shiny and thick. Called by the nickname “‘Nolia,”

I’ve always rejected the tendency to talk about Southern food as unhealthy. Greens, beans, corn, and even freshly slaughtered meat, the mainstays of our foodways, are, relative to the standard American diet, quite healthy. Our nutritional deprivation these days is more than anything a consequence of fast food, mass production, and poverty. But I

“[t]he South has tons of black people, so even if you’re racist, you’re still down with the black people. But up there, they ain’t got that many black people so they don’t even know how to act.”

One afternoon, many months later, when I continued interviewing Walter for a profile I decided to write, I blurted out to him, “I love Charleston, but it feels different from Savannah.” He said, “Charleston has a lot of transplants. People from up North.” Characteristically he withheld what might be a withering judgment. No excess needed. I didn’t

If you take an “Are You Southern?” data-mining-type test on social media, one of the questions will inevitably be: “Do you call soft drinks soda, pop, or coke?” The last one is supposed to be the correct answer, but that’s not true everywhere in the South. Rather, it evidences the power of Atlanta as siphon and signifier. And it underscores one of

Genteel poverty slowly became both cultural ideal and ready excuse—southerners would deemphasize wealth and magnify lineage to dissociate themselves from wealthy northerners, a practice that continues today.