Tuesday, June 28 2005
Do White Folks Get the Blues?
If white folks don't really get the blues, they certainly preserve it, record it, and put together and attend festivals where the music is rightfully celebrated.
Wednesday, April 27 2005
Superman in the Cotton Fields: Comics in Black and White, Mostly White
A racist society is one in which significant political and social capital rests in white hands, even if that society gives lip service and official tribute to the ideals of 'tolerance' and 'diversity'. At least in the marginal art form of comics, African American representations are changing.
Wednesday, March 2 2005
Captain Confederacy: The South in Living Color
The creators of the 'tights and cape' crew that have dominated the comics form for much of its history knew the streets of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn well, but the rural South proved beyond their imagining. 'Captain Confederacy' changed all that.
Wednesday, December 29 2004
Goodbye, Lady in Black
Poole writes of the last Southern 500, Republicans in blue collars, and why it's still the economy, stupid.
Wednesday, October 27 2004
Dark Representations: The South as Horror Movie
Violence in the American tradition tends to bed down with the American Myth of Innocence; horror films full of southern hellbillys often erase the historical context for southern violence.
Wednesday, August 25 2004
Get Your Geechee On: Commercialism and Hope in the Sea Islands
Descendents of slaves in the South Carolina region, now a stopover point for 'historical' tours, turn their 'blood memories' into strategies that will keep them out of the ghetto or off the reservation. Although they risk the possibility of becoming living museum pieces, they also insure their children's survival.
Wednesday, June 30 2004
Race Theory: NASCAR’S White Knuckle Ride
Stock car racing has its origins in the working class south. Many of the sport's legends began their racing as bootleg runners, known locally as 'trippers' in the 1950s and '60s. Nowadays, a racer can't get out of the starting gate without first fueling up on corporate sponsorship.
Wednesday, April 28 2004
Redneck Chic and Hip-hop Get Down and Dirty
Drive-By Truckers and Bubba Sparxxx share a similar aesthetic, a defiantly rednecked aesthetic that caterwauls and rebel yells, demanding that their listeners put down their bottle of Dasani and pick up a fifth of Wild Turkey. Both acts have exploded out of the musical ferment of Athens, becoming part of what can only be called a red neck chic, a fascination with the low-down South that can be seen in everything from the jokes of Jeff Foxworthy to the popularity of NASCAR.
