[GCFL-discuss] [GCFL.net] Friends vs Southern Friends

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

I not only have Southern Friends, I have Southern Friends Up North. They
are more commonly known as "black people," but I have discussed many
times with the young man who plays the keyboard at church that up north,
attitudes toward "black people" are shaped by the fact that their culture
is SOUTHERN, and therefore "they" stand out in a way that was not the
dividing line in the south. It is no coincidence that the largest
black-owned grocery chain in Milwaukee advertises "hard to find southern
foods." (He agrees -- in the south, people of different complexions may
attend different churches, but they are of the same or similar
denominations, food is about the same, and dialects are closely related.)
And, getting back to the point of the joke, in "black neighborhoods"
everyone is expected to warmly greet total strangers on the street, while
in neighborhoods full of people who have never been southern who have a
congenital melanin deficiency syndrome, someone might dial 911 if you did
that.

Siarlys

P.S. Come to think of it, my mother does not cling closely to the
southern part of her heritage because she did NOT WANT all her friends
giving her a big hug and a kiss, did not want my friends to call her
"mom," does not intend to let anyone outside of close family see her cry,
doesn't want me to know enough to write a book about her, much less her
friends, and would just as soon some of her friends be "for a while."
Which leaves me free to pick and choose from a smorgasbord of traditions.
What fun.