The liberal community is an extension of the enlightenment era that can reverse the current trend of fragmentation. It will take liberal political leadership on all levels, national and local, to move us from the trend of intolerance and identity confusion. There will be a cost to you, but it will be worth the fight to defend democratic values that can only be upheld through tolerance. In my opinion, this is critical juncture for East Tennessee.

Well said. I hope our liberal community can live up to your statements.

Great post. You might be interested in some of the discussion of this over at Facing South. Executive Director Chris Kromm is fascinated by the changing Southern demographic and the growing Latino impact on Southern politics. Here are some articles...

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WooHoo!
A topic I know a whole damn lot about!!! From growing up here as a half-breed, and from have lived in enough other places to have a basis on which to compare, I can say with quite a bit of confidence that East Tennessee has historically been about as close to a monolithic White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture as an area outside certain parts of the British Isles can get. The recent influx of hispanics is changing that somewhat, as did Oak Ridge, TVA and the University of Tennessee. But we are nowhere near being a melting pot. We're barely even a salad bowl.

Knoxville is a place where, in the 50s, foreign students from the Middle East, India or Pakistan, or, God help them, Africa, at UT found it uncomfortable, if not dangerous, to venture outside the university area dressed in 'American' garb, lest they be mistaken for "negroes."

My mother is Puerto Rican, my dad is descended from THE oldest Scotch-Irish family in Tennessee (Russell Bean was the first white child born in the state; his father, William Bean, was a signer of the Watauga Compact). The Beans are tall and fair-skinned and blue eyed, my mamma is short and olive complexioned and brown eyed. I look like her. I cannot tell you the number of times I was called a nigger as a child and as a young adult. Hundreds. Maybe thousands.

There were no hispanics but my mamma in Knoxville until some Cuban baseball players who fled Castro came here in the early 60s. She met a bunch of them, and they developed a little hispanic support system.

Catholics? There was I.C. on Summit Hill and Holy Ghost on Central and one rather sparsely-populated Catholic high school. My branch of the Bean family were all Methodists, and we didn't like Catholics much. When I found out my best friend at Fountain City Elementary School, Carol Blakeley, was a Catholic, which happened when she offered me her hamburger one Friday in the school cafeteria. I asked why she was giving it away, and she said "I'm Catholic." I couldn't quite figure it out, but I took the burger and thereafter avoided ever using the C word around her, because I figured it would hurt her feelings to be reminded of it.

A college friend of my first husband's from New Jersey -- in those days (mid-to-late 60s)there was evidently a shortage of higher ed opportunities for HS grads in NJ, and the state used to supplement the tuition expenses for their kids to attend college out-of-state -- anyhow, this guy was looking through my Holston High School yearbook and professed to be amazed at all the all-white Johnsons and Smiths and Beelers and Acuffs and Davises. He thought everybody pretty much looked alike, too. I still remember some of the names of kids he went to high school with -- Romeo DeFeo, Brillo Joe DeFazzio, Madelein Gallante -- I was pretty envious.

You may quibble with the definition of the word monolith, but I'm here to tell you that this is one of the least diverse regions in the country.

I could write a book.

Very informative.

East Tennessee has the strange distinction of being more homogenous now than in the past. In the late 18th century this place was mixed with people who knew little of one another. I'm speaking of Scots-Irish, Cherokees, Germans, African Americans, English and even Melungeons. Nowadays people of Scots-Irish, English and German ancestry are rolled into "whiteness," with many claiming "part Cherokee." The number of more recent "white ethnics" like Polish, Italian, Irish Catholic, Jewish or Greek is very small here. The black population is also very small, especially for the South.

I was amazed when I looked for plumbers and electricians to work on my new house and they were all named Jones, Davis, Payne, and Reid and all were white. Everywhere I've ever lived, at least half of those names would have been for African Americans. East Tennessee is, by modern standards, a very homogenous place.

East Tennessee is, by modern standards, a very homogenous place.

I am in full support of a constitutional amendment banning homogeneity in this state!

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I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!

Oh God. No Constitutional amendments. Please. I beg of you...

..The man asked McCain why the United States couldn't execute large-scale deportations, as he had heard they did in France and other countries.

"In case you hadn't noticed, the thousands of people who have been relegated to ghettos have risen up and burned cars in France," McCain replied. "They've got huge problems in France. They have tremendous problems. The police can't even go into certain areas in the suburbs of Paris. I don't want that in the suburbs of America."

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I've now heard three comments in my first week in Maryville compalining about "all those Mexicans." It's really the only rightwing political comment I've heard since moving here, and I used to hear it a bit in Michigan too. Dude in the barber shop today said there are so many Mexicans here now. But then he followed it up by saying that "he heard they were good workers." I jumped in and said that I used to live in Chicago, which had the highest Mexican population in the US outside LA. That stat always surprises people. Another guy piped in and said, "Well, then you must be used to 'em because Blount County's startin' to look like that." I ended my participation in the conversation right there and thought to myself. "Are these guys serious?" I've seen a total of three Latinos in Maryville since I've arrived here. The only concentrated area of Latinos I saw was in the southern part of Lenoir City.

Funny thing is that most of these folks recognize that the answer to illegal immigration is to crack down on the employers. These same folks complaining about "all the Mexicans" usually follow it up by saying, "Hell, I don't blame 'em. I'd come to the US too if I could."

I think it's just culture shock for most of the folks down here. They've just never seen large numbers of Latinos before. They always associated it with California or Texas or Florida or New York (strangely, not Chicago).

Hey Elrod,

I would ask people in Maryville if they consider who owns the U.S. businesses using the cheap almost slave labor?

The Republicans.

Blount County pulled the levers in mass for Bush cause he's a gooood ole Republican and put that idiot back in for a second term.

They deserve everything they get. Tell em to get used to it. Oh, by the way, do any of their kids want to join up to go get dismembered in Iraq for George?

How far would I get on a trip over seas without a passport?How far would one of my friends in Turkey get trying to come to the U.S. without one? I'm pretty sure we would both be detained at some point and if no documents surfaced then we wold be turned back. Seems pretty simple to stop the flow now. Then address the illegals that are here in a humane way and politely ask them to go back and come back the right way, learn English and join our melting pot of many cultures that pours out Americans when finished. Maybe I'll try to move to Mexico and become a citizen. What do you think they would think about that?

Elrod,

Take a wander down Hwy 33 (Old Knoxville Hwy) from downtown toward Knoxville some time. There are any number of little Latino stores and restaurants that simply weren't there five years ago. It's hardly an invasion, but to old timers it's a pretty significant and seemingly sudden presence in what has always been a really white area. I expect that's what your guys in the barber shop were reacting to.

It's older areas with lower rents that are seeing a lot of Latino entrepreneurship. Knoxville has a similar area out Chapman Hwy.

mjw,
I suspect there are lots of similar low-rent places around the area. I haven't yet explored the whole county yet! What I saw in the southern half of Lenoir City looked a lot like some of the more low-rent areas on Chapman Highway.

But still, what drives the animus? Is it simple culture shock? I get it if that's it. This is a very Anglo area. Michigan, where I lived before, was similar. Lots of blacks and whites, and even a fair number of Arab Americans. But very few Latinos. The few that did arrive in Western Michigan to pick berries drew plenty of ire from the locals though.

Or is it anger over depressed wages? The Republican elites around here sure love all the cheap labor they can get. And lots of the small business owners, who vote heavily Republican in these parts too, also love the cheap Latino labor. But the comments I've heard came from people I know are not business owners (based on my conversations with them).

It certainly can't be the drain on city/county services either. The Maryville schools are almost entirely white. I'm sure some of the County schools have Latinos but I doubt very much. And I bet the old Appalachian folk are, as a unit, poorer than the newly arrived Latinos.

My guess is that it's culture shock.

I think there are different levels of curiosity/dismay/animus about the changing demographics of this part of the country. Certainly, a simple "I can't believe Wal-Mart has a hispanic food section" reaction, which may or may not reflect disapproval of said change, is on a different plane from the "they're taking our jobs, I'm going to join the Minutemen in Texas" level of animus.

From your description, I can't judge where what you're hearing falls on the spectrum, although that "rat bastards, but I hear they go to church every Sunday" sort of discourse is pretty typical good-ole-boy talk. Our Mamas taught us that if we can't say something nice about someone, we shouldn't say anything at all. So sometimes after we say something mean we have to sweeten it.

As to where the animus comes from, I'd say 100.3FM (home of Rush, Neal, Sean, etc).

Seems pretty simple to stop the flow now.

"Seems." Right.

Maybe I'll try to move to Mexico and become a citizen. What do you think they would think about that?

You know, you should do this. You really, really should.

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I'm a guy in a Reagan mask -- and I'm running for President!