{"id":5377,"date":"2021-10-03T22:19:28","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T03:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=5377"},"modified":"2021-10-03T22:19:28","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T03:19:28","slug":"the-souths-struggle-to-build-community-without-glorifying-slavery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2021\/10\/03\/the-souths-struggle-to-build-community-without-glorifying-slavery\/","title":{"rendered":"The South’s Struggle to Build Community Without Glorifying Slavery"},"content":{"rendered":"

CW: This post discusses the use of a term that many consider to be problematic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the many great gifts of music is that it is a tool through which we can build community. After all, community is an innate human need. Unfortunately, however, in some of our attempts to form community, we forget or blatantly disregard the groups that we may be excluding from our community, and the harm that may be caused by our conscious or unconscious exclusion.<\/p>\n

Below is the first verse of a 1915 song1 <\/sup><\/a>that clearly aims to build community:<\/p>\n

Hello there, stranger! How do you do?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something I\u2019d like to say to you.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be surprised; you\u2019re recognized!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m no detective but I\u2019ve just surmised.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re from the place where I long to be.<\/p>\n

Your smiling face seems to say to me,<\/p>\n

You\u2019re from my own land,<\/p>\n

My sunny homeland,<\/p>\n

Tell me can it be!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The first verse is innocent enough. I imagine that many would be able to relate to its sentiment. I remember hearing someone\u2019s accent during my first year at St. Olaf and asking them if they, too, were from Memphis. We both lit up with excitement at the realization we could connect over our hometown. In the first line of the chorus, however, which also happens to be the title of the song, lies the song\u2019s problem:<\/p>\n

Are you from Dixie?<\/p>\n

I said from Dixie?<\/p>\n

Where the fields of cotton beckon to me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad to see you.<\/p>\n

Tell me how be you<\/p>\n

And the friends I\u2019m longing to see.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re from Alabama, Tennessee, or Caroline,<\/p>\n

Or any state below the Mason-Dixon line,<\/p>\n

Then you\u2019re from Dixie.<\/p>\n

Hurray for Dixie!<\/p>\n

\u2018Cause I\u2019m from Dixie too!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The term \u201cDixie\u201d is\u2026 complicated. Some believe that the term came from Jeremiah Dixon, after whom the Mason-Dixon line was named. Others believe it came from New Orleans, where some $10 bills were called \u201cdixies\u201d. Others, still, believe it came from a minstrel song that later was known as an unofficial Confederate anthem.2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The origin of the term is not as important as the harmful ways in which it was used. Whether the term originated with its links to the Confederacy or whether those ties developed later, the Confederacy and the term \u201cDixie\u201d became intertwined. This led to the term being largely used by white people to refer to an image of their idealized, pre-Civil War South, a South in which white people lived on large, rich plantations built off of slave labor, and in which Black people were seen as synonymous with inferiority.<\/p>\n

In the second verse of \u201cAre You From Dixie\u201d, this glorification of the Confederate South is more obvious via the positive reference to plantations:<\/p>\n

It was a-way back in eighty-nine<\/p>\n

I crossed the old Mason-Dixon line.<\/p>\n

Gee! But I\u2019ve yearned, longed to return<\/p>\n

To all the good old pals I left behind!<\/p>\n

My home is way down in Alabam\u2019<\/p>\n

On a plantation near Birmingham,<\/p>\n

And one thing\u2019s certain,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m surely flirtin\u2019<\/p>\n

With those southbound trains!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then the cheery, catchy chorus5 <\/sup><\/a>is repeated. While the previously discussed term is still widely used in the South, and is in the names of Memphis fast food chains<\/a>\u00a0and famous TikTokers<\/a>, it is slowly but surely being recognized as a glorification of horrific history and phased out. Dolly Parton removed the term from her Stampede dinner show3<\/sup><\/a>. The country music band The Chicks removed the term from their name4<\/sup><\/a>. Each attempt at the term\u2019s removal seems to be shrouded in controversy, but my hope for our country is that we can prioritize the inclusion and welcome of all over our nostalgia for a past that wasn\u2019t so nostalgic for everyone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Footnotes<\/p>\n

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1 <\/a>Cobb, George L, and Jack Yellen.\u00a0Are you from Dixie?<\/cite>. M. Witmark & Sons, New York, 1915. Notated Music. https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/ihas.100005133\/.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2 <\/a>Britannica Academic, s.v. “Dixie,” accessed October 3, 2021,\u00a0https:\/\/academic.eb.com\/levels\/collegiate\/article\/Dixie\/30701<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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3 <\/a>Garcia, Amanda. \u201cDixie Stampede Name Change Sparks Reaction From Fans.\u201d WATE 6 On Your Side<\/i>, WATE 6 On Your Side, 11 Jan. 2018, https:\/\/www.wate.com\/news\/local-news\/dixie-stampede-name-change-sparks-reaction-from-fans\/.<\/p>\n

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4 <\/a>Tsioulcas, Anastasia. \u201cDixie Chicks Change Band Name to The Chicks.\u201d NPR<\/i>, NPR, 25 June 2020, https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice\/2020\/06\/25\/883328370\/dixie-chicks-change-band-name-to-the-chicks.<\/p>\n

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5 <\/a>Cobb, George L, Ernest Errott Thompson, Ernest Errott Thompson, Jack Yellen, and Ernest Errott Thompson.\u00a0Are you from Dixie?<\/cite>. 1924. Audio. https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/jukebox-673527\/.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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