Little poll for all the Texans here

[SouthernMustang]

Texas is NOT apart of "the South"... it's a Southern state geographically, and was loosely involved in the Civil War, but culturally- it is nothing like the Southeast/Dixie/The South. There's a reason there is a movie genre about your state called the "Western."

The South = Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia (Atlanta excluded), South Carolina, North Carolina, Northern Florida (S. Florida is as yankee as Boston), Tennessee... then Kentucky, Virginia, Arkansas, and Louisiana (to some extent).

Go out to school in the Deep South and tell them you're from Texas and consider yourself a Southerner, and then sit back and enjoy the lecture I don't feel like giving.

Texas is it's own different world ... be proud of that. You don't drink sweet tea-- and hardly serve it anywhere, and you claim that beef is BBQ -- when clearly, it is Pork.

And I wouldn't be so quick to judge Mississippi and Alabama ... Birmingham is a great little city. And if you've been to the delta of Mississippi, it's a great place as well. Yah, there's some hillbillies -- but east Texas has more than its own fair share.

[PK]

Texas doesn't have hillbillies...we have good ole boys and rednecks...and some times they are the same people.

[friarwolf]

8th generation "Texan" whose family came over with Stephen F. Austin. My family originally hailed from Alabama and Kentucky. My sainted Grandmother in her "southern" accent would definitely lecture "ya'll" that we are Southerners. I would venture to say the majority of us that have grandparents that were born here would hear them say that they were Southerners. Why? Our forefathers were primarily farmers and ranchers, up until the last several generations our ancestors tended to come from the South, our food and the preparation of it is primarily Southern, our accents are Southern in nature, and we tend to be conservative. Are there differences? Sure, just like there are differences between South Carolineans and North Carolineans (I know, I lived in both and listened to the arguments). We have had the "western" influence as well as the hispanic influence to give us our unique culture but we are Southern by nature.

It has become politically correct to distance from our friends to the East and claim total independence from them IMO. As I stated earlier though, for us lucky enough to have multiple generations of Texan ancestors, we would have gotten stern lectures if we had distanced from our Southern heritage back in the early part of last century.

[mustangkip]

Texas is just Texas. It is not a "southern" state and it is not really a Southwestern state but it is just Texan. Unique and simply not like any other state or region. As the only state that was an independent country for nine years before joining the United States, Texas is a one of a kind.

[MrMustang1965]

Texas doesn't have hillbillies...we have good ole boys and rednecks...and some times they are the same people.

In the Hill Country, they're called cedar hackers.

[DixieTech]

Whatever your motive is here, I respect it... but you seem schocked by our response.... where did you grow up? In Texas... or in the South?

How do I seem shocked? It's about what I thought, moving toward 50/50. My only motive is to find out what y'all think. The fact that some of you seem defensive or upset is strange to me. I had a discussion with a friend and I figured that taking a poll here would be interesting (which it has been)

Southern, I have tried it, or AM trying it. I am a grad student at Ole Miss and have never once recieved a lecture. I think the fact that Texas has unique characteristics doesn't negate its Southernness. Louisiana is hardly the same as North Carolina, but both are Southern. As for sweet tea, it's the only kind I've ever drank. Most places don't serve it in Texas, but a lot do. It's tough to find in New Orleans as well, does that mean New Orleans isn't Southern? I agree with friarwolf. I also think it depends on where you have grown up and how you have grown up.

Southern, in which ways is Texas "its own world?" I know it's a popular expression, but why then, is Mississippi so much like Texas in culture, accent, food, mannerisms and speech patterns, not to mention other things and history to boot? Brisket and the lack of sweet tea at some restaurant chains (because it is at many private joints) does not the South negate IMO.

Thad, interesting post. If you grew up in Dallas and never heard a Southern accent, you're the first. I worked in Dallas for a couple years and could not go an hour usually without hearing a distinct accent.

Anyway, good thread. I just wanted some feedback, because I can't see how Texas isn't Southern, as some of you can't see how it IS.

Looks like the poll is nearing 50/50 which is what I expected.

[SouthernMustang]

Southern, I have tried it, or AM trying it. I am a grad student at Ole Miss and have never once recieved a lecture. I think the fact that Texas has unique characteristics doesn't negate its Southernness. Louisiana is hardly the same as North Carolina, but both are Southern. As for sweet tea, it's the only kind I've ever drank. Most places don't serve it in Texas, but a lot do. It's tough to find in New Orleans as well, does that mean New Orleans isn't Southern? I agree with friarwolf. I also think it depends on where you have grown up and how you have grown up.

Most people DO consider New Orleans it's own world ... similar to Texans considering it it's own country. My whole entire family went to Ole Miss, and we're from Alabama. Ole Miss loves Texas students. Have you gone around telling everyone that Texas is a member of "The South" and that being from Texas makes you a "Southerner?" They're not going to hate you if you're from Texas -- but they won't consider you a "Southerner" ...
you're Texan.

In regards to sweet tea, you say "Most places don't serve it, but a lot do?" That makes no sense. The only places that I have been to that serve it are places that also properly serve Pork as their main BBQ. And they claim to be Memphis style.

Southern, in which ways is Texas "its own world?" I know it's a popular expression, but why then, is Mississippi so much like Texas in culture, accent, food, mannerisms and speech patterns, not to mention other things and history to boot? Brisket and the lack of sweet tea at some restaurant chains (because it is at many private joints) does not the South negate IMO.

Cowboys, ranches, mexican food, rodeos? The Alamo? Actually being your own republic? Having your own wars?? You want to call Texas the South because Texas wanted slaves. As a Southerner, that's very offensive. There's more to Southern culture than one particular issue in the Civil War. If you've really lived in Oxford, MS and can't see the different between Mississippi and Texas ... I really don't think you ever will.

Place "Gone With the Wind" in any Deep South state, and it doesn't seem odd. Now put it in Texas -- you get the show "Dallas." Quite different. Take any of your cowboy Westerns -- and put that in Mississippi. A bit odd...

The accents are sort of similar; we have a drawl and Texans have a twang. The food is similar b/c of the geographic region -- similar weather usually means you grow and raise similar animals and crops. I'm not disputing that Texas isn't a southern state geographically, and b/c of that it will have some similarities. But it isn't "The South."

I think Texas is awesome. If I were you, I'd be proud to be from here. It's one of the coolest places in the US -- and I was glad to spend 4 years here. I just think you putting Texas in with "The South" would be like some Ohio person saying he's from the "North East."

[ponyboy]

MM65, I disagree. This is a great thread!

As KnuckleStang said, Texas is a whole other deal and, other than the use of "y'all," has as much in common with the south as New Hampshire has to New Mexico.

And Thad, if you grew up in Dallas and didn't hear a Texas accent until you were 13, well that's just strange. I'm guessing you're younger than me (I'm 39 on Wednesday) and that you never made it out to Town East Mall as a kid. Seriously, there is a very real sense in which Dallas has been sort of extra-Texas. Fort Worth's real Texas. Houston's real Texas. Same with Austin, San Antonio, Amarillo. Dallas is in ways more Kansas City than Fort Worth. My family came to Texas in 1888 and I was never proud of that facet of my home city.

[MrMustang1965]

I read about a study where the image (outline) of Texas was shown to different people/cultures around the world...yes, the WORLD...and in EACH ONE OF THEM the test subjects ALL identified it as TEXAS! That's how unique we are as a state.

I don't think you could show the shape of any Southern state to the same folks and get the same response.

TEXAS IS TEXAS! WE ARE *NOT* SOUTHERNERS! WE ARE *TEXANS*!

[DixieTech]

TEXAS IS TEXAS! WE ARE *NOT* SOUTHERNERS! WE ARE *TEXANS*!

Well, from the poll, about half of the Texans disagree with you. Yes, I do live in Oxford, and no, I haven't heard anyone tell me that I wasn't from the South. In fact, recent polling of the students at UNC - Chapel Hill shows that 75 percent of the students there consider Texas "the South." If you think it's any different here, you may be mistaken. Hell, the head of the Southern Studies department here at Ole Miss is a Texan from UT.

As for the differences, the Alamo, revolution etc. are definite unique things to Texas, but the fact that by and large the state of Texas was settled by Southerners in the Southern tradition with slaves, culture etc. is a fact. How many cowboys ever drove cattle in Texas? Compare that to the 200,000 slaves on farms and plantations in Texas and see which had the bigger influence. Antebellum Texas was no different than antebellum Mississippi by and large - same people, same speech, same food, same economy, same workforce.

To say that each state in the South has the exact same history is ludicrous. Each state has a different story, by and large. Texas' uniqueness is one part fact and one part myth. Why is Texas so "southern" in nearly every way from speech, accent, food, manners, dialect, history, weather, politics, religion etc. And why have I grown up completely Southern if Texas is not the "South" as you claim? Some unique attributes does not negate the fact that Texas is still basically Southern.

I do notice differences form Texas to Mississippi, but not a whole lot. People dress the same. We both have the same manners and sayings. Both like southern cooking and bbq (although pork and beef differ) Back home, half of the restaurants had pork as well on the menu. Beef, lamb, pork etc. BBQ is still BBQ and a Southern original. I feel right at home in Miss and I don't in New Mexico. Why? Because I'm Southern - from Texas.

P.S. You should watch some Texas movies that reflect the Eastern 3/4 of the state, not the westerns that depict the far western portion of the state where noone lives. Also, those films were primarily shot in Arizona. I've never related to the "western" film as a Texan. Maybe because where I have lived, there is no cactus, but there are tea rooms, fried chicken joints and confederate monuments. "Western" is not a Texas movie type, but is it's own genre.

As I figured, the people who see the poll and say "duh, I'm Southern" simply vote and leave. However, those of you who seem to slice 90 percent of Texas' history out of the book for some reason have more tendency to yell your opinions to everyone else.

I have no doubts that Texas is a large state, but to say that Texas is not the South, makes no sense to many Texans, myself included.

Thanks for the responses. I didn't mean to upset anyone, just to take a poll.

[Grider]

I think it also depends on what part of the state your in. I've heard the saying before that DFW is where the south ends and the west begins. I'm in deep east texas and I would venture to say that it has more similarities to the south than to, say--the hill country. Oh well, interesting thread.

[MrMustang1965]

This topic could be argued ad infinitum.

I'll ask you this, though: when you go on a trip (out of country) and someone asks you where you're from, where do you say? If you're from Texas you proudly say "Texas!". The next question you're asked is "Where in Texas?" because almost everyone knows the major cities of Texas. If you're from any other state in the Union and are asked the same question, you just say "America" or 'the United States'. No other state has residents who proudly boast their residency (or heritage) like Texans. When was the last time you heard someone boast that they were from Rhode Island or Vermont or West Virginia?

There's a reason for that bumper sticker that says "I Wasn't Born in Texas...But I Got Here As Fast As I Could!"

[ThadFilms]

Thad, interesting post. If you grew up in Dallas and never heard a Southern accent, you're the first. I worked in Dallas for a couple years and could not go an hour usually without hearing a distinct accent.

-and-

And Thad, if you grew up in Dallas and didn't hear a Texas accent until you were 13, well that's just strange. I'm guessing you're younger than me (I'm 39 on Wednesday) and that you never made it out to Town East Mall as a kid. Seriously, there is a very real sense in which Dallas has been sort of extra-Texas. Fort Worth's real Texas. Houston's real Texas. Same with Austin, San Antonio, Amarillo. Dallas is in ways more Kansas City than Fort Worth. My family came to Texas in 1888 and I was never proud of that facet of my home city.

I am 27...

It was late at night when I wrote that, and should have bee more specific. I did not hear a Texas accent in Dallas until I was about 13. I grew up in Lake Highlands, where most everyone were transplants. There was a guy with a drawl in our school, but his famil was Mississippi. I heard a Texas accent, plenty, when I got outside of town. But for the most part it was an almost mid-west accent that I grew up hearing.

Now, I might have heard one, in Dallas, before said time... but I started to take notice that I never heard a Texas accent in Dallas. SO I kept track and it was about, somehwere betwwen, the ages of eleven and thirteen.

And maybe, to be more specific, I think I was more thinking about the kids I was going to school with. None of them had accents (except the guy from Mississippi, and the girl from France).

[bubba pony]

"If you're from any other state in the Union and are asked the same question, you just say "America" or 'the United States'. No other state has residents who proudly boast their residency (or heritage) like Texans."

people from NYC, when outside the USA, proudly say they are from New York City. they get respect, trust me on this one.

[MrMustang1965]

"If you're from any other state in the Union and are asked the same question, you just say "America" or 'the United States'. No other state has residents who proudly boast their residency (or heritage) like Texans."

people from NYC, when outside the USA, proudly say they are from New York City. they get respect, trust me on this one.

Post 9-11, yes. You are correct.