[Your Turn] A Yankee Reporter in the Bible Belt

by Matt Kozar
March 10, 2010

I drove 19 hours to get from New York to Mississippi. Nearly a dozen cans of Coke kept me from falling asleep and drifting into oncoming traffic. The only company in my Volkswagen was a bamboo plant sitting on the passenger seat. Each time I shifted gears, the plant's green leaves jolted forward.

"Do they have bamboo in Mississippi?"

It was one of a dozen odd questions I had about a place I knew very little: Is the Ku Klux Klan still active there? What do cotton fields look like? Does everyone have thick southern accents?

My knowledge of Mississippi was limited to movies that shine an unpleasant light on the state's checkered racial past: "Ghosts of Mississippi," "A Time to Kill" and "Mississippi Burning."

I'd come to work as a reporter for Jackson's CBS affiliate, pursuing a dream cultivated as a young boy. My parents and I religiously watched Dan Rather and Peter Jennings every evening. TV news had become my passion, and I made the decision to follow it, even if it led this Yankee reporter to the Bible Belt.

But when I got there, I was shocked—not at what I found, but what I didn't find.

I didn't see the racial tension I expected. I didn't find slack-jawed, tobacco-chewing, shotgun-toting sheriffs. I didn't hear the anti-northern sentiment I read about in textbooks and newspaper articles.

Despite being more than a thousand miles apart, Mississippians aren't all that different from New Yorkers. Both have funny accents. Both have suburbs, work hard and save money for their families. Both value education, respect authority and have great pride for their country.

Like Alexis de Tocqueville, I became entrenched in learning about a different way of life I had ignorantly labeled as backward. Southern food, music, history, cuisine, art and literature offer a glimpse into a rich and unique culture.

However, there are a few obvious differences:
Roe vs. Wade
Civil War vs. War of Northern Aggression
Church once a week vs. Church twice a week
Stuffing vs. Dressing
"Forget About It" vs. "Appreciate Ya"

Mississippi's news stories are no less exciting. I covered a mayor indicted by the federal government, a crooked crematorium owner accused of co-mingling ashes, a school bus driver charged with molestation, lawyers bribing judges, judges accepting bribes, and the list goes on and on.

Sadly, my shameful ignorance of the South is reflected in some southerners' perception of northerners. Rude, arrogant, stuffy and unfriendly are just a few of the adjectives used to describe those "Yankees" above the Mason-Dixon Line.

Highlighting our differences further accentuates the tensions percolating across the county because of a sour economy, two expensive wars, a shrinking middle class and a hostile political climate in Washington. It might do the country some good to realize that despite our differences, we're all Americans. We're proud of our country's history, and we care deeply about our country's future. We hope to see the United States remain the epicenter for scientific advancement and social change.

After months of being playfully heckled by an elderly man for being from New York, he pulled me aside one afternoon and said, "During World War II, the Brits called all Americans Yankees. So, I guess in the end, we're all Yankees."

Matt Kozar will be leaving Mississippi in a couple weeks to work for KVBC in Las Vegas.

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