A Region Long Defined by Its History

'The End of the South': Readers reacted strongly to Christopher Dickey's claim that Confederate influences in Southern politics are coming to an end. One said, "Dickey has insightfully led us through the modern journey of the South." Others found the report to be "at best naive," and countered with "racism is still rampant in America." However, a large number bristled and insisted that the South is no more racist than any other region in the United States. "What 'old Confederacy'?" one asked. "This is 2008, not 1860."

On 'Jerusalem Up Against the Wall': "The Israelis deserve to be accorded the same human-interest coverage as Palestinians; they, too, are mothers, fathers and children, and have suffered through decades of Arab aggression."
Heshy Riesel
North Miami Beach, Fla.

Deconstructing Dixie
I grew up in the '60s and '70s in rural Georgia and found myself both cringing and cheering as I read Christopher Dickey's "Southern Discomfort" (Aug. 11). The South is no doubt confounding and alluring. I have spent a great deal of my 50 years trying to make sense of a childhood riddled with images of poverty and degradation, heroism and faith, great irony and a painful sentimentality. Dickey did a masterful job capturing my home and its peculiar brand of American politics.
Julie Murphy
McLean, Va.

Maybe as a lifelong northerner I just don't get it, but why in 2008 are we even talking about "the old Confederacy"? It is astounding that a lost cause, defeated and discredited more than a century ago, can hold any currency at all in today's South. As a cause doomed from the start by its moral, political and economic bankruptcy, I would think that Southerners would rather forget that it ever existed. Christopher Dickey states that "There is a sense that a world is ending, maybe not this year but inevitably." It should have ended 100 years ago.
Peter Stern
Oak Park, Ill.

I am a conservative, white male from the Bible belt who is supremely proud of my numerous Confederate ancestors. "Southern Discomfort" accurately indicates that classifying Southerners as either Obama or McCain supporters is difficult. I have no doubt that the vast majority of white Southerners are willing to vote for a black candidate if that candidate accurately reflects their values. I refuse to vote for Obama because of his ultraliberal politics, not because of the pigment of his skin. And while I don't believe he is a Muslim, I do question his choice of a Christian church that reeks of anti-white bigotry. I will support a candidate who shares my values, loves the United States, disdains intrusive big government, desires to protect our borders and will help us become energy self-sufficient even if it requires drilling and nuclear energy.
Ernest Wade
Loganville, Ga.

What Christopher Dickey witnessed was not the end of the South but perhaps the end of the Confederacy. The South was formed by the institution of slavery. Africans taught Southerners of British descent how to talk, how to walk, how to eat, and how to sing and dance. It doesn't matter how many Yankees, Mexicans or Hindus move into the region. As long as there is a substantial African-American presence, there will be a South, and we will define it. The Confederacy, on the other hand, was the institutionalization of the political and economic power of the planter class and their supporters. The Confederates lost the war but won the peace. Race and racism, Jim Crow and the Republican "Southern strategy" were merely means toward the end of continued planter hegemony. In recent times, after blacks regained the franchise, George Wallace and Strom Thurmond abandoned the Confederate cause. The late senator Jesse Helms was the last great Confederate politician. Even if he loses, Barack Hussein Obama has set the stage for the Confederacy's demise.
Robert Hinton
The Africana Studies Program
New York University
New York, N.Y.