And the South, and the West

I made the mistake of not stepping away from the homework assignments. And here is what I found:

“In the Southern states of the US, people are nicer and more polite than everywhere else in the country. They are known for their great values and good manners. They are racist and anti-women rights.”

It is especially curious that this black female student is not seeing any contradictions in her own statement.

Another student writes:

“I find it hard to describe the people of the West Coast because I don’t know how to say “surfer dude” in Spanish and my dictionary offers no translation.”

5 thoughts on “And the South, and the West

  1. “It is especially curious that this black female student is not seeing any contradictions in her own statement.”

    A synthesis takes some time to develop. She may not be technically wrong either: “They are known for…” would not necessarily imply that she agrees. That’s an issue of reputation, like if I were to say, “Church goers are known for their god-fearing values.” It’s true, but it doesn’t mean they’re not hypocrites.

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  2. People are full of contradictions, but your student didn’t qualify her statements appropriately. She should have written something like:
    “In the Southern states of the US, people have a reputation for being nicer and more polite than everywhere else in the country. They are known for their great values and good manners, however they are also often racist and anti-women’s rights.”

    That would have shown that she understands the contradictions.

    You can have great family values and also be a rampant racist, etc.

    Google suggests ‘surfista’ for surfer dude. How close is that?

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    1. “You can have great family values and also be a rampant racist, etc.”
      I suppose, if “family values” means you are opposed to equal pay for work of equal value, women’s right to choose an abortion, and same sex marriage, then this is true.
      However, according to my moral code, you can’t have “great values” and be a racist.

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