An Ole Miss football game

Subject line should be An Ole Miss football game 60 years ago. 

The takeaway from the article is: "Today many white Mississippians of my generation—and even more of the younger generation—are eager to change. Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” We can’t undo what we didn’t do."

Los Angeles was a lot different in 1962, San Francisco was a lot different in 1962, London was a lot different. Algeria was still fighting for it's independence in 1962.  

I lived in Mississippi through 1st grade (1968). Went back to visit my grandparents more than once/year until I returned there to finish college. Marred a Mississippian. Pretty sure that there was only one year of my life that I didn't at least visit the state. 

When I was a child, the Nword was forbidden in our house. It was forbidden in the Sunday school at our little Southern Baptist church. My dad was a football fanatic, having been the football hero at his college. But, we weren't particularly Ole Miss fans. Ya, I cheered Archie Manning's successes, but would have if he'd gone to State or Southern. The point being, that what the author describes is a super specific, Ole Miss experience. It's one of three D1 schools in the state. It's not like Ohio, where everyone is an OSU fan. Loyalties are very much divided. It's a bad analogy, but if someone described going to sc games in 60's, that no one would project that experience onto every Californian in the 60's. 

And, the quote you posted is from almost 60 years ago and represents a small segment of the state. Yes, things were horrific in Mississippi in the 60's. 

But, James Meredith lives in Jackson. Why does he stay? 

I wouldn't just ask Michael Oher about going to Ole Miss. Ole Miss, from what I can tell, recruits about as well as UCLA. There are a whole bunch of black athletes at Ole Miss who had other choices. Ask them, too. If Mississippi were so awful now, I can't imagine that they'd be recruiting so well. 

I'm hopeful the flag will be changed. I have tons of facebook friends from Mississippi. I haven't seen one defend the flag. I've seen several post about the need to change the flag. The president of the small So. Baptist college I graduated from posted on the schools website that the flag needs to be changed. 

"These were not football games but celebrations of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy." That guy knows his audience and knows how to get his article sold, I'll say that. 

I post this because your subject line was "an Ole Miss football game." Not, the experiences of a 10 year old, from a die hard Ole Miss family at an Ole Miss football game 57 years ago, who now almost certainly is a grandparent. 

As an aside, as a rule, I can't stand Ole Miss people. I've got a saying "there's always a king of the shit pile." No matter how crappy a place is, there is someone at the top of the heap. And, that someone, those people, are at egotistical as the king of the pile anywhere. It's almost as if, the shittier the pile, the more egotistical the king is. Ole Miss people are kind of the king of the shitpile in Mississippi. They are as bad as sc people, or worse. 

Ole Miss gets a TON of students from California. A neighbor girl went there. We were talking to the mom, saying "are you surrrrrrre she's going to like Ole Miss?" Ole Miss females are the embodiment of negative southern white women stereotypes. You are ranked on who your family is, how much money you have, and your looks. That's kind of everywhere, but it's in a way that is incredibly rigid and petty. Sure enough, she's transferring. 

State people aren't like that. Southern people aren't like that. Judge the state by what happens at Ole Miss, even currently,  at your own peril. 

As I've oft said, Mississippi State has (by a stretch) the highest African American % of its student body in the SEC. I think it's safe to assume, it's the hightest in the country. 38%. Right at the % of African Americans in the state. If you want to cheer for a school because of what they do for equality, the Bulldogs are your team. 

Also, State's star running back, Kylin Hill,  is refusing to play this season unless the flag is changed. Here's a brief article about Hill, which also references Mike Leach and the university president supporting the SEC's decision not to hold any championship games in Mississippi until the flag is changed. www.newsweek.com/kylin-hill-refuses-play-mississippi-state-flag-changed-1512704

Here's the letter posted by the President of Mississippi College: www.mc.edu/news/state-mississippi-flag-open-letter-mc-family

Absolutely. 

But, the vote was 19 years ago. And, Mississippi isn't the only place where nooses have been used to terrorize. I posted a couple of months ago the top results of a google search for Noose campus. An incident at Stanford was right at the top. They hits were from various parts of the country. Try it. 

I wanted to add..... I always had an arrogance about California along the lines of "man ….. wouldn't you hate to be an immigrant to the U.S. that landed in Mississippi." 

I was in Alexandria, LA about a decade ago for a cousin's wedding. Went to the convenience store that was on the highway (literally ran across the interstate to get to it). It was owned by 3 brothers, immigrants from India. Me "how'd you end up in this town?" Them "what do you mean?" Wouldn't you rather have immigrated to, like, California?" them "we love it here, the people are great." 

I was at a water park in Philadelphia Mississippi. I stopped in the bar to grab a beer and watch part of a soccer game. 2 guys next to me were latinx, one wearing a Chivas shirt. Turns out they were brothers who moved to Mississippi from LA in the 80's. They love Mississippi, would never move back. 

Same story w/ waitress at Mexican restaurant. 

I had a client who was a Chinese immigrant. He started life in the U.S. in Auburn. He loves Alabama. One day, he said, Sam, it seems like there is some kind of negative perception in California about the South. I replied, well, it does have a history of slavery, and racism after that. He said, well that's a long time ago (his words, not mine). He ended up saying that the sentiments toward the South are their own kind of bigotry. 

My wife has a friend from H.S. who was a Vietnamese refugee and ended up in Mississippi as a 14 year old, speaking no English, with no family. He's still there, and loves it. He has a brother who ended up in Holland. They've gone to the WC together, him in his USA gear, brother in his orange. 

I post all of this, to say, I always thought "man, it would suck to be an immigrant that ended up in Mississippi of all places." But, that's not how the immigrants feel. Not the ones I've me. 

You make some good points, Floppy. The South is changing. But they still have clung to the memories of the Confederacy. It was only last year the stopped playing "Dixie" at Ole Miss games.

That isn't to say the north doesn't have tons of racism. And California's history of eugenics and Chinese exclusion is pretty awful, too.

Floppy,

I appreciate your long response. I wore one of the Ole Miss masks you sent me and a woman stopped me at Costco to say, "Ole Miss"? It took a moment or so to realize she was commenting on my mask. She said she was from Mississippi, and I told her that a friend sent it to me and I wear it because I love the logo.

Have you read William Faulkner's works? I tried to get through one of his short stories, and just couldn't. A friend who is an avid reader agrees. I read somewhere that he was a huge hit in Europe of all places. Maybe I will try again.

I remember seeing a David Duke commercial that touted James Meredith's endorsement when Duke ran for Senate. What was that about?

The statement from my alma mater in Mississippi re changing the flag: www.facebook.com/mississippicollege/videos/328719651454210