The Upper Crust

Someone forwarded to me a post by m. and his friends mocking Southern accents as a sign of ignorance, with m. happily instigating that. Nice. It does not surprise me in the least. I could not have predicted that someone could display themselves as a more elitist and thoughtless boob than they have in the past, but I have been proved wrong yet again.

 I have no idea why an educated crowd  (peace-loving, New age, vegans and vegetarians) thinks such things are remotely funny, but it does show something I've long thought: Facebook has opened the world in marvelous ways, yet also has shown how often people swiftly and unquestioningly engage in knee-jerk reactions to things that prove to be half-truths, or not funny, or hoaxes. A recent hoax about McDonalds supposedly using french fry grease in their coffee provoked reactions such as "My God!  Why would they do that, those f-ing corporate BASTARDS!! There must be LAWS about the french fry grease!! We must gather and protest the french fry grease in our coffee!!!" Two minutes of research showed that the story was a hoax.  I mean, really...think about it...grease floats on liquid...hard to deceive people about that.  Some time ago, I decided to research every tidbit of information which crosses my path on Facebook before liking or commenting on it.


 I know one person in that group who would assuredly be sensitive to things if the fact of ridicule was pointed out (I doubt he would want his kids to talk that way, either), but that's it among the crowd.

Yes, what is going on in the South is horrific and reprehensible.  It is still not a reason for mocking and ridiculing the accents of everyone from the Southern states, and tarring everyone there with the same brush of stupidity and malignancy.  I grew up in Southern California, and if you want to experience a hotbed of racism, live there for a while.  In fact, racism and ignorance are everywhere, even in Hippietown

Is it ever okay to mock the accent of a general group of people from another part of our country, or the world, to denote that all of them are ignorant or share the same malignant traits? My father has a Southern accent and the implication that he was a dimwit for having one hurt him all of his life. I think consciousness starts with the most basic things we think and do.