Enloe on Transplants to the Alpharetta Area:

“Once again those who have moved to the South love to try and change things instead of assimilating. The following article is yet another example of how pathetic many transplants views are. The sad thing about it is that many true Southerners are actually standing up and listening to these individuals pathetic banter.”

Tim Enloe, May 2005, The Force Arena

“The more you get to know me, the more you will realize that I am a bid advocate of the South. Call me whatever you like, but I am proud of my heritage. When my parents moved our family to a small country town in North Georgia from Atlanta in 1978, it opened up my world to things I had only dreamed about. I could go fishing, hiking, camping and do whatever an 8 year old wanted without too much concern. All my Mom or Dad had to do was ring the old cow bell and me and my siblings would come home. There were 3000 people here then, today we have close to 40,000. Good bye, Mayberry, hello Suburbanitis. The overwhelming majority of these new numbers are individuals from the North; ie the dreaded Yankee. Many wonder why I hold so much contempt for this species of man. It is really quite simple. They have destroyed what I and many other locals knew to be home. They have brought pollution, traffic, crime and sprawl to a once very innocent and kind area. Whenever some locals try to protect a certain area from development, these outsiders write these concerns off as ‘emotional’ and push their way through the city gov’t to get their way. They are very good at the practicing the manner of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do. In reading the following brief article below, it just reaffirms what I already knew to be true. Yankees are 100% hypocrital. Tell me, have you seen any Yankees protesting development in the Georgia area? Better yet, the entire South? See below. Credit goes to the Clinton News Network.

On Monday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated Vermont an “endangered place” because of plans for seven more Wal-Mart “Super Stores,” that include a full grocery store. The company was criticized for not talking to residents before building huge stores that the National Trust report said distort the fabric of small communities.

End Article.

Now, see my point? By destroying what makes an area special, that area becomes special no more.”

Tim Enloe, May 2004, The Force Arena

“Here we go again. Once again those who have moved to the South love to try and change things instead of assimilating. The following article is yet another example of how pathetic many transplants views are. The sad thing about it is that many true Southerners are actually standing up and listening to these individuals pathetic banter. In closing, while Yvette Remice Thomas might be offended, I would like to respond in saying that I am offended knowing such ignorant stupidity lives in my home state. Credit goes to www.ajc.com.”

Tim Enloe, May 2005, The Force Arena

Slavery connection takes Dixie out of favor

By Marcia Langhenry

While it took a firestorm to mothballed the Confederate flag in Georgia and elsewhere, scholars say the name Dixie is disappearing quietly, on its way to becoming as disposable as, say, a paper cup.

How did the word “Dixie” come to refer to the Southern states? If you guessed that it comes from the Mason-Dixon line, the traditional geographic boundary between the North and South, you’d be wrong.

Experts say the name was adopted by Southerners to describe the region based on the song “Dixie” by Daniel D. Emmett. The song is considered racist by some for its idyllic depiction of the days of black slavery in the South.

Since the University of Georgia cut it from the playlist and the name of its Dixie Redcoat Marching Band in 1971, use of the word has dwindled.

The Great Georgia Air Show in Peachtree City was called the Wings Over Dixie Air Show until 2001, when organizers were afraid the name would cost corporate support.

This spring, Pride of Dixie became the North Atlanta Antiques Show, a move to better describe its nature and location.

Nobody has hard numbers, but Southern expert John Shelton Reed noted a decline in 1988 based on a count he took in 1976. The sharpest drop was in the South’s urban centers like Atlanta.

Now, in all of Georgia, there are a scant 600 corporations registered with “Dixie” in their names.

Sociologists and economists predict that will plummet as businesses realize that minorities’ buying power is far outpacing whites’.

“In the big picture, their days are numbered unless they’re individually wealthy or just want to make a point,” said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Dixie Diner in Alpharetta is a recent victim, closed as part of a redevelopment project.

Since 1964, it had been the landmark place to “hang a right” or stop for a sausage breakfast or fried chicken lunch.

Despite an influx of northerners and minorities, “I never had a call from anyone saying, ‘Y’all need to change the name of that,’ ” Alpharetta Mayor Arthur Letchas said.

Chung Kim, who owned the diner from 1988 to 1995, said a customer objected to a Confederate flag hanging inside the diner in 1990, so he took it down.

Some black customers were regulars, including Bobby Golden, 71, who said he never gave the name a second thought.

“I just know what I want and go in and eat. The people were nice,” he said.

Since learning it would be torn down soon, about 100 people have asked for mementos including the sign’s clock or a square of wallpaper.

It still has its fans, but no one knows how many potential customers might have boycotted quietly with their wallets shut.

One is Yvette Remice Thomas, a 54-year-old black woman who moved to Lawrenceville from Queens in April after visiting metro Atlanta a few times each year since 1990.

Thomas said she loves living in metro Atlanta, but would never set foot inside the place.

“The name itself is derogatory and offensive to me,” she said.

Georgia had the nation’s fourth-largest African-American market in 2004, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.

Blacks held 20 percent of the state’s total buying power last year, amounting to $49.5 billion. By 2009, that figure is expected to rise to $71.7 billion, far outpacing the gain in whites’ buying power, the report said.

That growth means that no matter why they drop words that offend, businesses stand to gain, said Ferris, who co-edited the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and was chairman, 1997-2001, of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Atlanta is home to Southerners with “contested memories,” Ferris said.

“Increasingly the South is addressing these, not only through Civil War monuments and trails, but civil rights monuments and trails, accommodating a different perspective in history textbooks, public spaces and, increasingly, in commercial enterprise,” Ferris said.

Though it may offend, does a business named Dixie really holler with the passion of “Yankee, go home” or deserve to be mothballed with the Confederate flag?

Kathy Lake has owned and run the Alpharetta-based company Dixie Electric for more than 20 years, and said it never occurred to her that the name might be offensive.

“I’ve always associated Dixie with a geographical area and not a term of Civil War days,” Lake said.

If she had heard complaints, Lake said she would have to weigh them against the good reputation the company has built with customers under a name it has had since the end of World War I.

Jim O’Hanlon, co-owner of Boy Dixie Arts and Restoration in Roswell, is happy with the unusual name.

It came from a photograph his partner saw once of a barn painted with an advertisement for Boy Dixie Flour.

O’Hanlon, who is from Long Island, N.Y., said it’s catchy but also means “old” and “Southern,” a positive reflection on personal service for customers who want their heirlooms restored.

“It was a conscious decision to go backward, and believe me we’re still here,” said O’Hanlon.

Among those who won’t be there, though, are Yvette Remice Thomas, the transplant from Queens, and others who are offended by any use of the word.

“I can’t change the past,” Thomas said, “but I don’t have to continue to patronize it or do anything to keep it alive.”