Port Folio Weekly is our local liberal “alternative” newspaper, Norfolk’s version of the Village Voice. This week’s issue included a one page essay by Lacy Hall, a young woman who moved from Virginia Beach to New York for a couple years and was shocked - shocked I tell you! - to discover overt racism. A New York University professor actually asked her to explain to the class how a cotton gin worked, under the assumption that anyone from south of DC must know such things. She didn’t.

If I said I was from the South, I would get a short lecture about how uneducated and racist people are from that part of the country. Two minutes later, I would hear complaints about the freaking Irish, the freaking Italians, or those shady Chinese over on Canal Street. [...] Some people think this is a good thing. They’re prejudiced but at least it’s out in the open. Yeah, it’s in the open, but it’s not being fixed. It’s not being fixed because New York would never admit to a racism problem. Why should they? Racists don’t live in New York, they live in the South.

As a resident of southeastern Virginia, with in-laws and relatives maintaining a toe-hold in northeastern New Jersey, I can vouch for the veracity of this argument. I have seen the superior attitude, the smug demeanor of people who think they live at the center of civilization. This while simultaneously castigating the Yankees broadcast team for having the temerity to employ a *gasp* Jewish announcer. Sure the South has its share of racists. But unlike the tolerant, educated New Yorkers, we’re ashamed of them.