Confessions of a Scalawag

I identify as a Southerner. Culturally, socially, politically, my outlook on life is defined, in many ways, from a Southern outlook. But this is a difficult position for a self-identified Progressive Radical. After all, Southern "Culture" is just a softened-over idealistic romantic vision of class division, patronizing sexism, and viscious racism, right?

Well, like any culture, there are many aspects to Southern Culture. True, there are the Plantation Patricians; old money, old power, the "gentlemanly racialist," rather then the course prolitarian racist. The true aristocrats who, through gentle gestures and polite manners, sugar over a type of oppression that should not exist in any democratic society. But this is not my Southern culture.

I am proud to say I am a Scalawag. I am one of the millions of Southerners who, throughout our history, has been oppressed and under-thumb of these "nobel gentleman." My culture was built out of a sense of oppression; we were small farmers, later sharecroppers, later the factory workers and mill workers, who suffered long, inhuman, brutal working conditions to provide those gentleman with their fancy homes and luxurous living.

I love my culture and heritage, but we must look back and see the horrible things that have gone on in our home. 150 years of slavery, followed by 100 years of segregation, followed by another 50 where we are still short of true Equality, true Freedom, true Justice, for our black brothers and sisters. Yet there is also a lack of true Equality, true Freedom, true Justice, for all of us. And I think that's the key: Our oppression has made us more clear-eyed and more genuine. The man on the hill, for all his kindly words, is still a capitalist and an aristocrat. My black brothers and sisters are not so different from me. We both suffer the same yolk of oppression.

Our humor, our hospitality, and our "proper manners" are not guises, like those of our masters. With us, it is genuine. We are gentle men and women, not to provide a polite veil over that most intimate oppression, but because we believe everyone deserves to be treated decently, as a human being.

We fight for economic and social justice here in our homeland, because we see, Black, White, or Latino, the issues facing working folks and everyday citizens unite us as one people. But in fighting for Justice and Freedom here, we see the appaling lack of Freedom and Justice around the globe. So, while being a Scalawag identifies us with our "tribe," as progressive Southerners, it also makes us internationalists, in what Gore Vidal called the irony of our time. The more I identify with this Southern culture, the more kinship I feel with brothers and sisters around the world.

I called this blog "Red Dixie" for a reason. My Southernism bred my Socialism, which I now apply to that region I claim as home, for better and (often) for worse. The Revolution begins at home, so for me, it must begin here. Clearly, we've got a lot of work to do.

Seek Peace, Fly High, Find Love,
Poncho.