[1964Alum]

[QUOTE=MysticCat

"I think this is probably true. I also think that people who don't live here may lack the context or the first-hand experience to understand how the Lost Cause mythology/romanticism permeates things (though much less than it did when I was a child), the state (good and bad) of race relations now, or how these issues actually affect communities now.

In some ways, I think it may be a case of to "outsiders" (for want of a better term), this looks like a debate about monuments and history, while to many of us in the South—on both sides of the issue—it's more a debate about "who are we and what do we stand for?"

Yes, absolutely. The romanticism of the Old South goes far beyond the issue of slavery. I never had the kind of encounters as Kevin did with his "Uncle Al", but it went without saying that Blacks, other people of color, and even the lower classes of whites were of inferior stock. I was taught to never, EVER, be rude or disrespectful to Blacks (or darkies as they were called in Virginia) as that was the behavior a lower class white would exhibit. I was not to be rude or disrespectful to anyone. The Blacks on my family farms (they had stopped calling them plantations) were also descendants of slaves and still lived in the former slave cabins. They would run out and wave to us as we drove by.

The KKK as revived in the 20th century was also strongly opposed to immigrants, except those from northern European countries, Catholics (which came from Mediterranean European countries and Central and South America) and was very powerful nationwide! So a new form of White Supremacy arose. And along with it a focus on pedigree among whites. My Virginia belle grandmother was the first in my family to marry outside the very small list of Virginia families that were considered acceptable. She married -GASP- a first generation Swede! And didn't bring him home to marry! The fact that he had a Ph D from Yale was completely irrelevant. After I inherited a good many of the family documents, I discovered a card engraved on heavy paper stock an announcement by my great grandparents that my grandmother had married a Dr. so and so, whose name had been anglicized. The announcement was bordered in black, which was customary for death announcements! All of her siblings except one younger brother married within the "approved" families. The next generation went further afield, but not entirely. Mine went even further, but not entirely as well.

Pedigree became everything. Our horses had pedigrees, our dogs and cats, even my great uncles' prized Black Angus, which they were proud to display pictures of. No Confederate flags displayed, but I still have Confederate money issued and signed by my great grandfather. It is out of sight in a drawer. My grandmother had the coats of arms of each of her parents displayed, which I now have hanging in our library. When I pledged Chi Omega in another much more southern Confederate state maaaany years ago, those old family lines were still the ones recommendations were written for. That has changed, of course. Thankfully.

As [B]Mystic Cat [/B]stated, it is now a question of "who we are and what do we stand for." I don't deny my heritage, which was a mixture of good and not so good. I don't pay homage to that which was not so good. It is not part of my value system, and I haven't passed it on to my son except to be aware of it.