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Wow - what a dull hit job. It starts off tame but it isn’t long before the author makes her position clear: this gathering of families is a Bad Thing and repres

Wow - what a dull hit job. It starts off tame but it isn’t long before the author makes her position clear: this gathering of families is a Bad Thing and represents a risk to American democracy and it’s important to remember that the only reason people would ever celebrate southern legacy is racism. If you check out any of her other publications it’s not hard to find a pattern. Who reads this stuff? Self assured coastal folks who are looking to justify their hatred of rural Americans? This piece wasn’t written to educate or inform, just further stoke derision.

zenbane 3y ago
[flagged]
catchnear4321 3y ago
you only had to read to the end. > When she inherits her share, Derrick will own it with her, becoming the first owner of color in the cabin’s history. if it were such a bad thing, why celebrate integration? because it isn’t a bad thing. it is a complex thing. good and bad. just like the individual from la was called out for calling women “bitches,” and was corrected to call them “ladies.” it is a piece in the new yorker. it is a hit piece in the same way that one is attacked when they bump their head on a low doorway. if one were expecting an objective piece, one ought to have known better. but you didn’t even bump your head. you only noticed you were about to. …so it was fear that prompted your outburst?
marcinzm 3y ago
>Who reads this stuff? Self assured coastal folks who are looking to justify their hatred of rural Americans? This piece wasn’t written to educate or inform, just further stoke derision. If you want to minimize stoking derision look inwards first before you look outwards. It seems clear from what I quoted you're fine with derision as long as it's against the groups you don't like but not the other way around. Which is the real problem in america and not some new yorker article.
blantonl 3y ago
I didn't get that at all. Many of the topics covered later in the article are aren't a hit job, they are a reality and cover an underlying tone of the gathering. It seems like an amazing tradition and frankly a pretty cool thing. But, make no mistake, this is rural Mississippi we're talking about there. There are some uncomfortable truths.
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  I'm not from Mississippi, but from blue-collar Kansas. I think there can be something to celebrating a tradition of "white-trashiness" (ha ha) that is devoid of any racist over(under?)tones (Kansas though was of course a "free-state", so that legacy would not be a contributing factor to any perceived racism). Now that my sister and I are older, have left our roots, become (I hope) cosmopolitan, we can laugh about growing up on "shit-on-shingles" and meat-loaf sandwiches (and butter/sugar sandwiches, mayonnaise sandwiches, Jiffy corn muffins...). There is a part of me that could celebrate that. (Although when I stop and reflect, when the wife and I raised our own kids we kind of dispensed with our own "traditions" in favor of newly created ones — except for shit-on-shingles maybe once a year.)
  - blantonl 3y ago
    There definitely is something great about these traditions, family, food etc. The article does a great job covering it. I was raised in the south, mostly southern Louisiana, and make no mistake many of these events are not "white-trashiness" celebrations. Owners of these cabins and the traditions that surround them are decidedly run, managed, and participated mostly by the "ruling families" of the rural south. And like I said, there are a lot of uncomfortable truths that accompany those families. It definitely is easy for "coastal elites" to look at this as simply a gathering of racists, but that paints an enormously broad brush. I'm definitely not going to sit here and decry the tradition of the events, because they are a great time. But at the same time, I grew up around a lot of these families and I know what's up. The rural areas of the south are absolutely no different than the 1950s other than federal law.
    - deleted 3y ago
atourgates 3y ago
If you’re offended by a piece that suggests it’s odd to have a week-long all white get-together in a state where 36% of the population is black, I’d suggest the piece and the author’s supposed bias are not the issue.
- Chris2048 3y ago
  Why, should every event have demographics that perfectly mirror state demographics?
  - black6 3y ago
    This is the same state that hosts "Black Spring Break" and I haven't heard anyone complain about the lack of diversity or racial overtones of that event.
    - Chris2048 3y ago
      I didn't say race doesn't matter, I responded to this comment: > If you’re offended by a piece that suggests it’s odd to have a week-long all white get-together in a state where 36% of the population is black Which wrt the history of the fair, is context-free.
    - yardie 3y ago
      Probably more White people attending "Black Spring Break" than Black people attending this event.
  - greenie_beans 3y ago
    here's a tldr why race matters in the context of the neshoba county fair: this is the same county where chaney, schwerner, and goodman were murdered. at the fair that year, the kkk dropped pamphlets from an airplane in response to their murder. clearly targeting the fair audience. this was during the freedom summer of 1964 if you know what that is? ronald reagan did a presidential campaign speech at the fair. a presidential candidate speaking there was unheard of at the time, but he was clearly following the "southern strategy". he proclaimed his belief in states rights, which has been a dog whistle since the civil war. the fair is a popular place for dog whistle political speeches. there are racial dynamics about who is allowed at the fair. none of the cabins are owned by black people. the owners of cabins are largely the ruling class in mississippi. during the day, spaces within the fair are segregated. most black people at the fair are workers or horse racers, etc. there are more reasons why race matters, but i have to work. you should read the article.
irrational 3y ago
Me thinks thou dost protest too much.
greenie_beans 3y ago
lol the writer is from mississippi. we're forced to reckon with race there, unlike most places, hence we write about it. there is a long racist history at the fair. it's important to know about that history.
- MaxHoppersGhost 3y ago
  You think the New Yorker would have published this article without bringing race into a completely unracist thing?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - greenie_beans 3y ago
    no, they wouldn't publish it without exploring the racial dynamics, because race is central to understanding the neshoba county fair. therefore, they wouldn't publish it because it wouldn't be interesting to read. > a completely unracist thing you clearly do not know what you're talking about.
    - Workaccount2 3y ago
      To the New Yorker's demographic, race is central to everything. They feed an audience who fetishizes finding racism in the most obscure nooks and crannies of society. The piece is written to be pure self-masturbatory confirmation of "good" values for people who live in wealthy enclaves of coastal urban centers.
      - throw4847285 3y ago
        And is the New Yorker demographic in the room with us right now?
    - MaxHoppersGhost 3y ago
      > you clearly do not know what you're talking about. Not everything is racist. Take a lap.
egypturnash 3y ago
Politics doesn't come into this story at all until about halfway through, when it discusses how Reagan brought politics to this fair and started talking about his platform designed to get white rural voters to the polls. The entire first half of the article is all about what a warm, wholesome community springs up for a week. I grew up in New Orleans and I think it's pretty damn important to discuss how fucked up and racist the South is. It's not gonna get any better if we keep on sweeping it under the rug and ignoring it like it seems you want to.
madengr 3y ago
[dead]
RajT88 3y ago
The article mostly was spent talking about how amazing an event this was. There's a few paragraphs in the middle talking about race, which I assume you're taking issue with, starting with "Whenever I asked fairgoers about race...". The article is a look at a Southern cultural event with a long history. The history of southern culture also includes racism, and so no examination of it would be complete without a look at racial dynamics in play. This is just simply not a hit piece; it's just a thorough writeup. If you come from the conservative school of thought of, "Talking about race is itself racist", I can see how you might take issue with this article. Most sane and reasonable people do not come from that school of thought.

zenbane 3y ago

[flagged]

catchnear4321 3y ago

you only had to read to the end. > When she inherits her share, Derrick will own it with her, becoming the first owner of color in the cabin’s history. if it were such a bad thing, why celebrate integration? because it isn’t a bad thing. it is a complex thing. good and bad. just like the individual from la was called out for calling women “bitches,” and was corrected to call them “ladies.” it is a piece in the new yorker. it is a hit piece in the same way that one is attacked when they bump their head on a low doorway. if one were expecting an objective piece, one ought to have known better. but you didn’t even bump your head. you only noticed you were about to. …so it was fear that prompted your outburst?

marcinzm 3y ago

>Who reads this stuff? Self assured coastal folks who are looking to justify their hatred of rural Americans? This piece wasn’t written to educate or inform, just further stoke derision. If you want to minimize stoking derision look inwards first before you look outwards. It seems clear from what I quoted you're fine with derision as long as it's against the groups you don't like but not the other way around. Which is the real problem in america and not some new yorker article.

blantonl 3y ago

I didn't get that at all. Many of the topics covered later in the article are aren't a hit job, they are a reality and cover an underlying tone of the gathering. It seems like an amazing tradition and frankly a pretty cool thing. But, make no mistake, this is rural Mississippi we're talking about there. There are some uncomfortable truths.

JKCalhoun 3y ago
I'm not from Mississippi, but from blue-collar Kansas. I think there can be something to celebrating a tradition of "white-trashiness" (ha ha) that is devoid of any racist over(under?)tones (Kansas though was of course a "free-state", so that legacy would not be a contributing factor to any perceived racism). Now that my sister and I are older, have left our roots, become (I hope) cosmopolitan, we can laugh about growing up on "shit-on-shingles" and meat-loaf sandwiches (and butter/sugar sandwiches, mayonnaise sandwiches, Jiffy corn muffins...). There is a part of me that could celebrate that. (Although when I stop and reflect, when the wife and I raised our own kids we kind of dispensed with our own "traditions" in favor of newly created ones — except for shit-on-shingles maybe once a year.)
- blantonl 3y ago
  There definitely is something great about these traditions, family, food etc. The article does a great job covering it. I was raised in the south, mostly southern Louisiana, and make no mistake many of these events are not "white-trashiness" celebrations. Owners of these cabins and the traditions that surround them are decidedly run, managed, and participated mostly by the "ruling families" of the rural south. And like I said, there are a lot of uncomfortable truths that accompany those families. It definitely is easy for "coastal elites" to look at this as simply a gathering of racists, but that paints an enormously broad brush. I'm definitely not going to sit here and decry the tradition of the events, because they are a great time. But at the same time, I grew up around a lot of these families and I know what's up. The rural areas of the south are absolutely no different than the 1950s other than federal law.
  - deleted 3y ago

atourgates 3y ago

If you’re offended by a piece that suggests it’s odd to have a week-long all white get-together in a state where 36% of the population is black, I’d suggest the piece and the author’s supposed bias are not the issue.

Chris2048 3y ago
Why, should every event have demographics that perfectly mirror state demographics?
- black6 3y ago
  This is the same state that hosts "Black Spring Break" and I haven't heard anyone complain about the lack of diversity or racial overtones of that event.
  - Chris2048 3y ago
    I didn't say race doesn't matter, I responded to this comment: > If you’re offended by a piece that suggests it’s odd to have a week-long all white get-together in a state where 36% of the population is black Which wrt the history of the fair, is context-free.
  - yardie 3y ago
    Probably more White people attending "Black Spring Break" than Black people attending this event.
- greenie_beans 3y ago
  here's a tldr why race matters in the context of the neshoba county fair: this is the same county where chaney, schwerner, and goodman were murdered. at the fair that year, the kkk dropped pamphlets from an airplane in response to their murder. clearly targeting the fair audience. this was during the freedom summer of 1964 if you know what that is? ronald reagan did a presidential campaign speech at the fair. a presidential candidate speaking there was unheard of at the time, but he was clearly following the "southern strategy". he proclaimed his belief in states rights, which has been a dog whistle since the civil war. the fair is a popular place for dog whistle political speeches. there are racial dynamics about who is allowed at the fair. none of the cabins are owned by black people. the owners of cabins are largely the ruling class in mississippi. during the day, spaces within the fair are segregated. most black people at the fair are workers or horse racers, etc. there are more reasons why race matters, but i have to work. you should read the article.

irrational 3y ago

Me thinks thou dost protest too much.

greenie_beans 3y ago

lol the writer is from mississippi. we're forced to reckon with race there, unlike most places, hence we write about it. there is a long racist history at the fair. it's important to know about that history.

MaxHoppersGhost 3y ago
You think the New Yorker would have published this article without bringing race into a completely unracist thing?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- greenie_beans 3y ago
  no, they wouldn't publish it without exploring the racial dynamics, because race is central to understanding the neshoba county fair. therefore, they wouldn't publish it because it wouldn't be interesting to read. > a completely unracist thing you clearly do not know what you're talking about.
  - Workaccount2 3y ago
    To the New Yorker's demographic, race is central to everything. They feed an audience who fetishizes finding racism in the most obscure nooks and crannies of society. The piece is written to be pure self-masturbatory confirmation of "good" values for people who live in wealthy enclaves of coastal urban centers.
    - throw4847285 3y ago
      And is the New Yorker demographic in the room with us right now?
  - MaxHoppersGhost 3y ago
    > you clearly do not know what you're talking about. Not everything is racist. Take a lap.

egypturnash 3y ago

Politics doesn't come into this story at all until about halfway through, when it discusses how Reagan brought politics to this fair and started talking about his platform designed to get white rural voters to the polls. The entire first half of the article is all about what a warm, wholesome community springs up for a week. I grew up in New Orleans and I think it's pretty damn important to discuss how fucked up and racist the South is. It's not gonna get any better if we keep on sweeping it under the rug and ignoring it like it seems you want to.

madengr 3y ago

[dead]

RajT88 3y ago

The article mostly was spent talking about how amazing an event this was. There's a few paragraphs in the middle talking about race, which I assume you're taking issue with, starting with "Whenever I asked fairgoers about race...". The article is a look at a Southern cultural event with a long history. The history of southern culture also includes racism, and so no examination of it would be complete without a look at racial dynamics in play. This is just simply not a hit piece; it's just a thorough writeup. If you come from the conservative school of thought of, "Talking about race is itself racist", I can see how you might take issue with this article. Most sane and reasonable people do not come from that school of thought.