In a recent article, CNN writer Jack Cafferty asks, "What does it say that most of the ten poorest states are Republican?" I might add, "and mostly Southern." Cafferty based his article on one written by Roland S. Martin.
A few ideas come to mind, most of them snarky, but none compelling enough to be definitive. A good question, though, as far as it goes. But there has to be more - more ties that bind, so to speak, and in more than one or two areas.
A wide angle lens is required in order to give us a broader and clearer picture. "Why is it that mostly Southern states have the highest poverty rates, the highest obesity and diabetes rates, the highest number of teen births, and the fewest high school graduates while being the most religious and mostly Republican?" The top ten states' rights states - or the bottom ten, depending on how you look at it - are as follows:
Poverty Rates
Cafferty and Martin are apparently basing their list of the poorest states on a Wall Street Journal article, which factors in median income, poverty rates, unemployment, and lack of health insurance for 2009. Doing it this way, Mississippi is the poorest, followed by Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama and North Carolina.
If only the percentage of people living below the poverty level is taken into account, however, Mississippi still ranks first but is followed by Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Mexico, Alabama and Texas, which are tied, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia. Source U.S. Census Bureau.
1. Mississippi - 17.9 %
2. Arkansas - 14.8
3. Kentucky - 14.4
4. West Virginia - 13.9
5. New Mexico - 13.6
6. Alabama and Texas are tied at 13.4
7. Louisiana - 13.3
8. Tennessee - 13.1
9. South Carolina - 12.9
10. Georgia - 12.7
Obesity
It is well worth the link to CDC because the map begins in 1985 and clicks forward year by year to 2010. The trend toward fatness is quite astounding when viewed in this way.
1. Mississippi - 34.0 %
2. West Virginia - 32.5
3. Alabama - 32.2
4. South Carolina - 31.5
5. Kentucky - 31.3
6. Louisiana - 31.0
7. Michigan - 30.9
8. Tennessee - 30.8
9. Oklahoma - 30.4
10. Arkansas - 30.1
Ironic, isn't it, that these are the very segments of the population who are pushing back against Michelle Obama's school nutrition programs?
Diabetes
From the Centers for Disease Control:
Teen Births
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States has the highest teenage pregnancy rate of all developed countries. The states with the highest teen birth rates per 1,000, ages 15-19 are:
1. Mississippi - 64.2 %
2. New Mexico - 63.9
3. Texas - 60.7
4. Oklahoma - 60.1
5. Arkansas - 59.3
6. Louisiana - 52.7
7. Kentucky - 51.3
8. Alabama - 50.7
9. Arizona - 50.6
9. Tennessee - 50.6
10. West Virginia - 49.8
High School Graduates
For persons 25 years and older. Reading from lowest to "highest."
1. Texas - 79.9 %
2. Mississippi - 80.4
3. California - 80.6
4. Kentucky - 81.7
5. Alabama - 82.1
6. Louisiana - 82.2
7. New Mexico and West Virginia are tied at 82.8
8. Tennessee - 83.1
9. South Carolina - 83.6
10. Georgia and Nevada are tied at 83.9
Religion (Gallup)
High School Graduates
For persons 25 years and older. Reading from lowest to "highest."
1. Texas - 79.9 %
2. Mississippi - 80.4
3. California - 80.6
4. Kentucky - 81.7
5. Alabama - 82.1
6. Louisiana - 82.2
7. New Mexico and West Virginia are tied at 82.8
8. Tennessee - 83.1
9. South Carolina - 83.6
10. Georgia and Nevada are tied at 83.9
Religion (Gallup)
How telling that the most religious state has the highest teen birth rate.
Republican vs. Democrats
States carried by the Republican in all four elections
States carried by the Republican in three of the four elections
States carried by each party twice in the four elections
States carried by the Democrat in three of the four elections
States carried by the Democrat in all four elections
SUMMARY:
Rank (# 1 being the highest rates)
CAT.
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
Poverty
|
MS
|
AR
|
KY
|
WV
|
NM
|
TX/AL
|
LA
|
TN
|
SC
|
GA
|
Obesity
|
MS
|
WV
|
AL
|
SC
|
KY
|
LA
|
MI
|
TN
|
OK
|
AR
|
Diabetes
|
WV
|
KY
|
AL
|
MS
|
TN
|
AR
|
OH
|
LA
|
OK
|
NC
|
Teen B
|
MS
|
NM
|
TX
|
OK
|
AR
|
LA
|
KY
|
AL
|
TN/AZ
|
WV
|
H.S.
|
TX
|
MS
|
CA
|
KY
|
AL
|
LA
|
NM/WV
|
TN
|
SC
|
GA/NV
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
MS
|
AL
|
SC
|
LA
|
UT
|
TN
|
AR
|
NC
|
GA
|
TX
|
Which states fall in the bottom ten the most?
Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee - 6 times
Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia - 5
New Mexico and Texas - 4 times
Due to the diabetes mishmash, Mississippi really should be there six times.
So, I ask again: "Why is it that mostly Southern states have the highest poverty rates, the highest obesity and diabetes rates, the highest number of teen births, and the fewest high school graduates while being the most religious and mostly Republican?" Being from Tennessee, I hate to admit it, but I'd venture to guess that blessed ignorance is the single most tie that binds.
"...ignorance is the tie that binds."
ReplyDeleteHere is further verification of that statement.
Great job L! I can't think of a thing to add ;)
ReplyDelete@Jerry: Wow. Great link. Glad to know I'm not just whistling Dixie.
ReplyDelete@Sue: Well, I find that hard to believe. ;)
No surprise here. I live in Ohio and I see these idiots every day.
ReplyDeleteI am astounded at the absence of Florida from any of the lists!!
ReplyDelete@Kay: My neighbor across the breezeway is one. Lord, I can hardly stand to talk to her.
ReplyDelete@Anon: Demographics? Mostly retired and some pretty wealthy areas, maybe?
Once a librarian...
ReplyDeleteI'm going to link to this on Birds, if you don't mind. I've ranted on some of these issues before but steered away from them recently because I was in a healing mode. Now I'm almost back to fighting weight, so watch out!
Thanks for doing all this research and posting this, Leslie.
@Paula: Go for it. I'm glad to hear you're healing - finally. It's good to see you floating around.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that those states with the highest incarceration rates also have the highest crime rates and most guns per capita – and are mostly in the South. Locking people up and giving them the death penalty don't correlate with lower crime rates, which kind of undermines a lot of Republican assumptions.
ReplyDeleteNot sure who would consider New Mexico to be a "Southern" state. It's poor, but it's more like other Western states. Some Texans don't consider Texas to be in the South either, despite its Civil War participation. Texas is ... special.
I have voted for the Democratic nominee for President every time since 1976, so maybe in your eyes I might have some credibility, and you will not dismiss me and my comments outright.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I fail to see any redeeming value in this blog piece. Why are you denigrating all Southerners? If you did that to Hispanics, it would be called racism. If you did that to GLBTs, it would be called homophobia.
Does it make you feel superior to look down your nose at Southerners? If so, how sad.
Besides you are lumping non-Southern states with Southern states.
Are you really correlating diabetes with political views? Obesity?
Also just because someone claims to attend church regular does not mean that they are "more religious." It does mean that they consider themselves to be "Christian" -- so what about everyone else?
If you really looked at these data, you might find that the people who are poor, obese, have diabetes, did not graduate from high school, etc actually are the ones who vote for Democrats. What would you do then? Regardless, what difference would any of this make? It is a mistake in the first place to try to correlate these things with political views.
I expected better of you than this.
well said!
DeleteL.P., you'll find the answer to the questions in your last paragraph explained excellently, along with a whole lot more, in a book I recently finished. It's not a new one, but with Perry running for president and for what it explains about the Deep South and Republican politics, it's timely and invaluable. This book is very readable and available in paperback at a low price.
ReplyDeleteThe book is Made In Texas: George W. Bush And The Southern Takeover Of American Politics by Michael Lind. If you get it, I'll be you won't be able to put it down until you've finished it.
Leslie,
ReplyDeleteMy -v-v-vision is b-b-blurry this morning. Did you say State's Rights or Stage Fright?
Jerry,
ReplyDeleteAbout your link, there are anomalies of embryonic development, similar to conjoined Siamese twins, wherein the amygdala has not yet separated in utero from other organs of the body - such as the gall bladder, the kidneys, or the lower bowel. In rare cases, i.e., among Tea Party Republicans such as Stephen King, the amygdala is the only part of them that gets born while their higher functioning cerebral cortex remains stuck in the fallopian tubes. For unknown reasons, the incidence rate is higher in red states than in blue states.
Wonderfully researched post Leslie (once again). "Blessed ignorance" what an appropriate use of words.
ReplyDelete@Moffatt: Interesting thought there but I think it would require some serious research to make a correlation. In doing the research, I'd include the laxest gun laws. Certainly Houston, New Orleans and Miami have extremely high crime rates, but so do NYC, Detroit and Los Angeles.
ReplyDeleteRemember, I said "mostly" southern states, so we see CA, AZ and MI as well - but they're few and far between. Having lived in Texas and CO, I consider New Mexico and parts of Texas more Southwestern. Yes, Texas is indeed "special," but what is meant by "special" is open to many interpretations. ; )
@Michael: Being southern (Tennessee born and bred), I'm hardly looking down my nose at a culture that has produced people like MLK and some of the world's best writers, among many other things too numerous to include here. I'm merely putting up statistics that are provided by such auspicious organizations as the CDC and Gallup, and government agencies such as the Census Bureau. Facts are facts and in this case, they have nothing whatsoever to do with how I might feel.
ReplyDeleteApparently, your thin skin inhibits you from looking at these statistics very objectively. You are also contradicting yourself by first accusing me of looking down my nose at "all" southerners and then chastising me for including non-Southern states.
"You" expect better of me? I don't even know who you are.
@SW: Thanks for the book tip. I'll be sure to look for it. Not only should we not ignore statistics, we shouldn't ignore history.
ReplyDelete@Octo: "Stage Fright" is probably part and partial of "States' Rights," don't you think? Wouldn't paranoia be behind maintaining the status quo?
@Holte: Thanks. Being a transplanted southerner, I'm sure you can see the reality behind the stats.
Michael: "If you really looked at these data, you might find that the people who are poor, obese, have diabetes, did not graduate from high school, etc [sic] actually are the ones who vote for Democrats."
ReplyDeleteMichael, you fail to note the irony: Conservatives are the first to blame all social ills on liberals and the last to acknowledge extremes of inequality in their own backyards. Where conservatives control local governments and have the power of the purse, they beg the question and avoid all soul-searching.
You criticize Leslie for lack of statistical rigor; yet you fail to provide attribution for a bogus statement: "the ones who vote for Democrats."
This is not Freakonomics, and you don't need a statistical validity T-test of < p=0.05 to note a political irony. You are wearing your amygdala on your shirt sleeve.
All this work...it's a real service you've done us, Leslie! I'm sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThere's less excuse for Southern ignorance now that it's not necessary to leave the provinces to learn more about the world, but Southern poverty still limits vision. I would rank poverty as the pivot point. And it will be easier for me to look more closely at that belief, thanks to your handy chart aggregation.
I have reason to suspect that Moffatt and Michael may be "a" troll. Let's don't feed him - or her - okay?
ReplyDeleteWhat tipped me off? Michael's statement: "I expected better of you than this." Only a right winging male would make such a condescending pronouncement to a woman. I seriously doubt if he ever voted for a Democrat in his life. I did a little of that research stuff the right avoids like the plague. Then I put two and two together and came up with one.
@Nance: Thanks. You know how much I love to work with numbers. Not. Tank God I didn't have to add and subtract.
ReplyDeleteI guess I think education can help people break the cycle of poverty. I'm not saying that everyone should go to college, but those who don't even obtain a high school degree are doomed to low wage jobs or no jobs at all. Even with a HS diploma, I don't have much faith in the "quality" of education in these states - from the administrators down to most of the teachers and including the textbooks.
Why don't you go ahead and take this all the way and note that these states are also the one's with the highest percentage of blacks. Puts a little different spin on it, right? Now, suddenly, it's understandable and explainable what with all the years of prejudice and racism, etc. You might also note that these same states have lead the nation in these categories since the Civil War, a lasting testament to vengeance. The conclusions you draw from these figures are off base. They are useful in telling us where the most urgent need is, nothing more. Come on Parsley, you can do better than that.
ReplyDeleteI know, it is hard to believe..LOL! I'm having a brain freeze, too much drama going on around me. I can't think straight these days... it seems.. :)
ReplyDeletethe right to be poor, fat, ignorant,
ReplyDeleteWhat's that, the Confederacy's First Amendment?
I think you're on the right track about ignorance. Lower educational levels have a very widespread correlation with greater religiosity, more conservative political views, poorer nutritional choices, lower incomes, and less knowledge about sexuality (leading, under many conditions, to more teenage pregnancy). So it's just not surprising that more of all of those things are seen in the part of the country with the lowest educational standards.
The ultimate root cause is probably the general economic backwardness of the South in the antebellum period, caused ironically by the high productivity of the plantation economy -- there was less incentive for industrialization than in the north.
And yes, Texas is quite different. It has a semi-arid prairie climate rather unlike the mostly-humid South, and originally developed a cattle-based economy rather than a plantation economy (the eastern edge of Texas is an exception on both counts). There's also the centuries-old Hispanic presence, something absent from the South until recently. There are some of the same social pathologies, but don't forget that if everyone eligible to vote in Texas actually voted, it would probably be a blue state.
@Charleston: I'm one step ahead of you as I had already researched this. Rightly or wrongly, I opted not to use them. The ten states with the largest percentage of African-Americans with the percentage of whites (in parenthesis) are:
ReplyDelete1. Mississippi: 37.2% (60.6)
2. Louisiana: 32.0 (64.8
3. Georgia: 30.0 (65.4)
4. Maryland: 29.4 (63.4)
5. South Carolina: 28.5 (68.7)
6. Alabama: 26.4 (71.0)
7. North Carolina: (73.9)
8. Delaware: 20.9 (74.3)
9. Virginia: 19.9 (73.0)
10. New York: 17.3 (73.4)
The rest of the southern states mentioned in the article rank as follows:
11. Tennessee: 16.8 (80.4)
13. Arkansas: 15.8 (80.8)
17. Ohio: 12.0 (84.8)
18. Texas: 11.9 (82.4)
24. Oklahoma: 8.0 (78.1)
25. Kentucky: 7.7 (89.9)
37. West Virginia: 3.6 (84.3)
Perhaps I had a fail moment but with these stats, I simply could not make a viable connection. African-Americans do have a higher rate of obesity, a little over 60%, and 2.5 times the diabetes rate than whites, but this is nationwide and is not related to just being Southern.
Granted, I utilized artistic license and arbitrarily selected those categories that hold a special interest for me. No doubt there are other areas that you are interested in and I suggest you research and write about your findings. In the meantime, I will stick to my conclusion that lack of education, or ignorance, is the main culprit in the South.
The link for the above statistics is:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/rankings.html
Earth to Sue: I think we all get in these funks occasionally and not without reason. ; )
ReplyDeleteInfidel: The fact you mention re the plantation economy hindering industrialization is excellent. I suppose one might be able to say that this is why so many southerners want to go back to the good ole days.
Texas is a mixed bag. Out of 45 governors, there have only been six Republicans. Of course, it's probably safe to assume that many of them were not true blue. I think you're right, however, that if people would actually vote, it would very well turn blue again. You'd think they'd learn after the reign of Perry terror.
Among other things, I think that the downtrodden folk in entrenched generational poverty with poor educations are particularly susceptible to propaganda that uses scapegoats; so that, for instance, they are more likely to believe union workers are unfairly advantaged, rather than working to hold the line against the plutocracy. And so we spiral down.
ReplyDeleteAs a wayward Yankee making my home in rural Tennessee for over a decade now, I've been struck by the traits shared between the rural poor here and those in my "home" state of PA (new state motto: "Pennsylvania: The South of the North").
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wish I could find a scholarly article I read some years ago that criticized post-Civil War Reconstruction for not going far enough, and those policies that were, in name, intended to "help" the South have only served to deepen poverty and perpetuate a culture of poverty and dependency on (or, perhaps more accurately, a love-hate relationship with) government assistance. It's another way in which the rich and powerful manipulate the disadvantaged. As long as these predominantly poor regions can be kept down, they'll be pawns in the game. But that's what Murr said...
@Murr: Well stated and excellent point. I'd venture to guess that the largest percentage of Fox News viewers reside in the South, but I can't find stats that provide geographical demographics. What I can say unequivocally is that eight out of ten conversations I have with my fellow southerners are proof of what you say - simply mind-boggling and jaw-dropping amazing in their inability to see through the "misfacts" and the propaganda.
ReplyDelete@Intelli: Yes, yes, yes. Needless to say, this is how the status quo is maintained and passed on from generation to generation. In line with what you say about Reconstruction and touches on what Infidel says re the plantation economy, I found this little tidbit at VOA:
"Reconstruction changed the economy of the South, too. White land-owners broke up their big farms into smaller pieces of land. They rented these to black farmers. With the land came seed, tools, and enough supplies for a year. In exchange for this, the owner would get a large share of the crop raised by the tenant farmer.
This system, called share-cropping, spread through the South. It lasted for almost one hundred years.
Share-cropping made it possible for blacks to work the land for themselves for the first time in their lives. But it also made it difficult for them to earn enough money to improve their condition. As a result, the majority of southern blacks remained in poverty. The system helped cause the South to be the poorest part of the United States for many years."
Obviously, the South remains the poorest part of the U.S.
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/a-23-2005-07-13-voa4-83125892.html
Sharecropping -- that sure sounds a lot like what most of us working folks are doing for Wall Street & the CEOs these days.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to crawl out on a limb and suggest that a lot of what's behind these characteristics of Southern states can be attributed to deeply ingrained cultural preferences and norms; a sense of separateness and of having been victimized; and tendency to favor emotion over rationality, the subjective over the objective.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, none of these things is 100 percent anywhere, nor are all southerners alike.
One additional interesting statistic that has been brought out elsewhere is how these federal-government averse Southern states tend to receive more in federal aid, contracts, military installations, etc., than do Northern blue states that tend to pay in more than they get back.
Seems to me that your figures on race simply support what I said. You can add drop-out rate, crime rate, etc. to the list as well. But I don't want to turn this into a racial thing, it is not. It's simply part of the equation for poor education statistics. I have had the opportunity to spend some time inside the public schools in Jacksonville, FL recently, (statistically the worst of the worst) and I found a system of clean, well-maintained and equipped schools with capable staffs. What I also found was a great disparity in student ability and interest between different neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteTo contrast, I have also spent some time recently in an upscale private day school whose students all go on to advanced degrees. What I observed there was that there wasn't so much of a difference in the quality of the instruction compared to public schools, but a huge difference in the quality of the parents and their involvement in their children's education.
I believe Intelliwench is correct in saying poverty and ignorance know no boundaries. Our school systems are in trouble nation-wide, not just in the South. I also agree with her sharecropping quip. Instead of 20-acres and one Ginny mule it's become a time-clock and a mortgage.
@Intelli: Snort!
ReplyDelete@Mr. C: I don't disagree with what you're saying. I've read about and personally witnessed the same kinds of things. But, I think what you're focusing on, albeit something that cries for close examination, is beyond the scope of this article where I was gathering data from a variety of areas. The whole public school system picture is indeed grim, however, and well worth pursuing at all different levels.
No doubt each one of these areas has a whole subset of other variables that need to be studied more closely but this was meant to be no more than a very broad view of several different areas - some might say it's a bit superficial. I asked a question based on these stats and, as we see, readers have plenty of opinions, all of them good. If something like this simply gets people thinking about it and talking about it, and in some cases getting actively involved, all the better.
Stats don't pick up what you describe in your personal experiences. For example, the percentage of African Americans in Florida is only 15.9 (compared to 79.8% white). That hardly speaks to the discrepancies that you write about, which is why I opted not to go there.
Back in 1969 (yikes!) I read a book written by a NYC public school teacher which had a profound impact on me - obviously, because I can still remember it, just not the author or title. He wrote about his experience teaching 5th and 6th graders in what he called a Bean School. He was the only white face in that school. No math books - they were locked up. Assembly line teaching - no innovation. Burned out teachers - rigid administration. He was young, eager and dedicated. He took his kids on field trips - frowned upon, not only by the admin but by suspicious parents. His kids published a newspaper - major frown because they wrote about what they knew: the bums and druggies they passed on the way to school and all the uncles that visited their moms. His kids advanced from 2nd and 3rd grade levels to 6th and 7th on their standardized tests within 2 years. By the time he was fired after 2 years he was burned out, frustrated and angry.
This was in the year man first stepped on the moon! Obviously not much has changed.
@SW: Your comment once again went to spam and I just now saw it. I don't know why this happens - not all the time but just occasionally. LOL, if only a certain troll would automatically go to spam.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I don't think you're crawling out on a limb at all and it's a sound proposition. Yet, wouldn't education serve to counteract these characteristics you mention? Maybe not overnight but in time? We have to start somewhere.
Of course not all southerners are alike. Look at me!
I believe a KY county is the poorest in the country, is mostly white and has the highest percentage on federal aid - and votes Republican.
". . .wouldn't education serve to counteract these characteristics you mention?"
ReplyDeleteSure, education could make a difference over time. But if those acculturated with the region's dominant traditional beliefs and preferences choose the textbooks, formulate the curriculum and do the teaching, which is typically the case, what you get is more inculcation and reinforcement of the dominant traditional beliefs and preferences.
For example, how many schools in the South still refer to the Civil War as the War of Northern Aggression or war between the states? How many explain its origin as being rooted in the demand of northern industrial interests to get exclusive access to Southern agricultural commodities like cotton without competition from foreign buyers? Slavery? Well, that was peripheral. Most slaves were well cared for, happy and grateful to be where they could become civilized and have their souls saved by accepting Christian teachings. The plan was always that they would become free and full citizens; they just needed a few centuries to become as civilized as white folks of NW European ancestry, that's all. (Never mind that many were purposely denied the chance to learn to read.) And so on. Then, there's all the business about evolution vs. creation.
I'm reminded we've seen fairly recent examples of some of the above practices in Rick Perry's Texas.
Again, I want to make clear I don't believe these things are true for every school district across the South, or of all teachers there. But they do happen.
@SW: "...if those acculturated with the region's dominant traditional beliefs and preferences choose the textbooks, formulate the curriculum and do the teaching..."
ReplyDeleteNo doubt about it. I think, though and in general and as you imply, there's a huge difference between the rural and urban areas - except in the most die-hard of Southern states, such as MS - which, imo, is akin to a third world nation.
And Texas? The state, along with VA, which wants to rewrite the history books? Perfect examples of all that you describe.
I remember when the civil and voting rights bills were passed. Those against it argued that you couldn't legislate morals (funny, look at 'em now). When I left Nashville for parts West, I never saw African Americans in restaurants, so when I came back for visits a few years later, I was thrilled but surprised to see blacks eating in restaurants that had been historically reserved for whites only. It wasn't too many visits/years later that I saw blacks and whites actually eating together at the same table! Another pleasant surprise. Then it wasn't unusual to see interracial couples walking hand in hand and, God forbid, interracial marriages. It's taken a long, long time but with education and being forced to "mingle" there have been some impressive accomplishments. Of course there are still too many whites who are so thoroughly entrenched in their "traditional beliefs" that there's probably not much hope for them. Unfortunately, most of them seem to reside in the South.
Michigan is an anomaly then: fat and "blue"
ReplyDelete@dmarks: Hah, it is indeed. I wonder what's in their diet. In the South, it's fried, fried, and more fried - and veggies cooked in grease. And super-sized fast foods.
ReplyDeleteI discovered your blog via Sue's, so I decided to stop over. This post is excellent and well-researched. Which means I doubt we'll see any of the data you presented here on Fox "News".
ReplyDeleteI see that my state is ranked 7th in obesity. Although I'm not surprised, I'm doing my part to get that percentage down. Elliptical machine, here I come!
I noticed that "Michael" commented on your post. "He" commented on one of my blogs the other day on a post I wrote about how the Hispanic community's population growth in the U.S. is making them a force to be reckoned with in regards to elections. Below is what "Michael" wrote. Notice the similarities between what "he" wrote on my blog and yours. I'm guessing that "Michael" works from a template and changes some words here and there to suit the blog topic on which "he" is posting.
"I fail to see any redeeming value in this blog piece what so ever.. Why are you picking on Hispanics? Hispanics have been plentiful in the American citizen population for maybe 75 years or more.
If you said that about Muslims, it would be called racism. . The Hispanics in America are as political conscious as Blacks are , in fact maybe even more so. Yet you seem to give more credit to Blacks and defend them to the hilt. Yet you seem to have such a righteousness agenda towards Blacks.
Does it make you feel superior to treat Hispanics as 2nd class citizens? Stop defending people just because they are black. You have written phrases about Black people who have done nothing for the good of this country such as the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Reverend Jessie Jackson and that stupid turd Samir Shabazz.
And just because someone claims to be a Reverend doesn’t mean that they are a leader of the people, to me those two characters are whore’s and race pimps, and racial hypocrites.
They do nothing for the people who are poor, they are only there to line their own pockets.
I expected better than this from you."
@Malcolm: Welcome. I'm kind of curious as to what contributes to the obesity rate in MI. Poor dietary habits? Lack of exercise? Too much beer? Other? The garbage that people here in the South consume on a daily basis is nauseatingly bad and it isn't helped by cooks like Paula Dean.
ReplyDeleteWow! I think you're right about Michael (and Moffat). That is simply too funny. I can't even figure out what the hell he's trying to say in his garbled English. You'd think that if he's working from a template, which obviously he is, he'd get someone who knows the language to edit his text. Then again, maybe he doesn't hang with people who are anymore familiar with grammar than he is!
Thanks for sharing this.
Leslie, that's a wonderful post. All you need now is a guns-in-the-house map or a kids-shot-with daddy's-gun map to overlay on those above.
ReplyDeleteI know this was not meant to be humorous, but I can't stop laughing!
ReplyDelete@Mike: Thanks. I've kind of flirted with that in the past. While having pretty lax gun laws, so do a lot of other states these days, unfortunately.
ReplyDelete@John: It would be a lot more humorous, if it weren't so tragic, but will admit to chuckling a few times.
All these were historically slave states, and adds support to a quote I like:
ReplyDelete"Slavery harms the body of the slave, and the soul of the owner."
I think it just takes longer for souls to heal.
@uzza: Fabulous quote. I'm not sure many of these folks even have souls.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to much of the South; large parts remain colored by readings of Faulkner and Grisham as opposed to any real experience by me.
ReplyDeleteLeslie,
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderfully informative post. I've enjoyed the comments and the information shared here.
I too have looked at these data and was struck by the correlations. I actually have travelled in the south and have enjoyed, individually, the people and their hospitality--my brother has lived in Tennessee for twenty years. He married a southern woman.
The states that vote solidly Republican and are controlled by Republican governors and legislatures for decades seem not to be able to solve these heartbreaking and massive problems.
Now about Massachusetts, a very blue, very liberal state: Lowest divorce rate, one of the lowest in teen pregnancy rates, highest math and science scores, the most post graduate degree holders [as a percentage of its population], we rank #48 in obesity, with Hawaii and Colorado, #49 and #50 respectively.
And Massachusetts is one of the least religious states in the union.