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 CULTURE: 

What do you define as the South culturally?

People who consider themselves NOVA:

 

  • ...I think the south is very, like, homey foods, of course. I think that they’re like one big family, just a generally nice group of people, unless you get really rural then it might get a little crazy.

    -Kalea (Manassas, VA)

  • Culturally the south…probably good food, good music. I know that in southern Virginia there are confederate flags, and that’s a big issue recently.

    -Maya (Manassas, VA)

  • Oh! Camouflage hats, everyone wears those. I know this is a stereotype, but the Confederate flag too. -Abby (Ashburn, VA)

  • SoVA is more rural and traditional. -Madalyn (Fredericksburg, VA)

  • Accent, flannels, cows, tractors, and country music. -Claudio (Stafford, VA)

  • I don't really know much about Southern Virginia because I haven't really been there. Radford is kind of in southern, not really. I never really considered myself southern because Northern Virginia really isn't the south. You don't find accents, we're so close to DC, it's not the south. Stereotypical southern culture. -Kacey (Woodbridge, VA)

People who consider themselves SOVA:

 

  • Where I live? Confederate flags. I have like 6 within walking distance of my house and I live in a pretty diverse neighborhood, but it gets pretty bad.  -Eliza (Newport News, VA)

  • Lots of y’allls and biscuits, and butter.  -Faith (Richmond, VA)

  •  Big obnoxious trucks and, like, home-cooked, really fatty food. [...] I would usually think of a cozy environment, small towns, more fields and cities.  -Charlotte (Radford, VA)

  • We (as Southerners) still have suburban areas, but there are also a lot of farms.  -Meryl (Mechanicsville, VA)

  • Fried Chicken, fish, cook-outs, kind of hick slang. -Jacob (Williamsburg, VA)

  • Not to stereotype but I definitely think of sweet tea and southern hospitality. I definitely feel like that part of the nation is just warmer in a way and their actions are more friendly. -Grace (Monterey, VA)

People who consider themselves Central:

 

  • Country - Anonymous (Virginia Beach, VA)

What do you define as the North culturally?

People who consider themselves NOVA:

 

  • I think that the North is a little harsher. People are more defined in their political views, whether rural or what not. We’re accepting of who you are, but not necessarily not what you believe in. -Kalea (Manassas, VA)

  • I think the north doesn’t have one set culture, it’s a lot of different cultures coming together. It varies. -Maya (Manassas, VA)

  • The stereotype for the North is that everyone's super preppy and super rich and, like, snotty. [...] For me, I identify Northern Virginia as a melting pot because it's all kind of people just going in and out. Usually the people that stay there are pretty preppy; I would say that stereotype is really accurate. -Abby (Ashburn, VA)

  • NoVA is more urban and up to date. -Madalyn (Fredericksburg, VA)

  • Sweaters like this [stands up to show sweater]. Mainstream music but also not mainstream. I don't know, it's pretty diverse. -Claudio (Stafford, VA)

People who consider themselves SOVA:

 

  • For me, the North is more liberal, big cities, fashion, a lot of boutiques and stuff, a lot of family-owned stores. -Eliza (Newport News, VA)

  • Aggressive driving. -Faith (Richmond, VA)

  • More urban...  I kind of want to say an unfriendly environment, but that makes me sound mean! I feel like people in Northern places are a lot more open-minded than those in the South because those in the South are very "home tradition" kind of people and Northern people are "do whatever you want". -Charlotte (Radford, VA)

  • The north is more city, but suburban areas, too. -Meryl (Mechanicsville, VA)

  • I don't know, I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it... Mountains. -Jacob (Williamsburg, VA)

  • More northern tends to be more business and professional tone. I guess more industrial and more put together, a guy in a suit. -Grace (Monterey, VA)

People who consider themselves Central:

 

  • I've never really thought about it. -Anonymous (Virginia Beach, VA)

Where do you get your information about southern and northern stereotypes?

People who consider themselves NOVA:

 

  • I think it’s portrayed a lot in the movies we watch and in television shows. I think there’s stereotypes in everything; whatever race you are, whatever cultural ethnicity; there’s something that defines you from someone else. I think that it’s just how the media portrays it. It’s also what your parents grew up learning. That really defines them. -Kalea

  • I usually get them from experiences. It’s not something that’s talked about on social media or the news, it’s just generalizations about a group of people based upon things you’ve experienced in real life, face to face.    -Maya

  • I think I get stereotypes from pop culture. I think that's where a lot of people get stereotypes from. When you think of the South you kind of generalize it and put it all into one category. Being here at gov school and going to the lake I got to see a snapshot of how different people act and live. -Abby

  • I would say it's just a culture thing... I've visited both parts of Virginia. -Madalyn

  • Twitter. It's allllll twitter. -Claudio (Stafford, VA)

  • I never encountered them until I got here [gov school]. -Kacey (Woodbridge, VA)

 

People who consider themselves SOVA:

 

  • Pop culture, movies and stuff. Also people I know. My god parents are from Alabama, and their literally like y’all, biscuits, butter. That’s them. -Faith (Richmond, VA)

  • Social media -Meryl (Mechanicsville, VA)

  • I form stereotypical opinions from the media and from other people’s opinions -Eliza (Newport News, VA)

  • A lot is televised. So if they make a TV show specifically about a Southern family there’s a lot of, like, Southern accents and home stuff that’s just- I don’t know. They make the South seem uneducated and that’s a stereotype that I get from people that I know from NOVA; they’re like ‘Oh Southerners are stupid and they don’t know what they’re talking about because they have this Southern accent’. I form assumptions based on what other people have told me and cultural stuff on TV.  -Charlotte (Radford, VA)

  • Through friends. -Jacob (Williamsburg, VA)

People who consider themselves Central:

 

  • From people that I know who live in different places. -Anonymous (Virginia Beach, VA)

Why are these stereotypes prevalent among teenagers

People who consider themselves NOVA:

 

  • I think it’s portrayed a lot in the movies we watch and in television shows. I think there’s stereotypes in everything; whatever race you are, whatever cultural ethnicity; there’s something that defines you from someone else. I think that it’s just how the media portrays it. It’s also what your parents grew up learning. That really defines them. -Kalea (Manassas, VA)

  • As teenagers we’re just trying to figure out who we are ourselves, and it kind of upsets us, or maybe it doesn’t, that there’s these stereotypes which place us into categories based on where we are, what we do, what we look like, and we just kind of want to find who we are outside of that. -Maya (Manassas, VA)

  • Most people aren't exposed to actual southern states or people that live in these places. Our generation is so infused with pop culture and we confuse that with reality; everyone is really quick to judge. -Abby (Ashburn, VA)

  • Especially for the South, my school classifies them as rednecks and stuff like that. For the North, my high school is very modern, so there isn't really a stereotype for us. -Madalyn (Fredericksburg, VA)

  • Virginia is the dividing line so there is a clear divide between Northern and Southern Virginia. We are just continuing the divide as our parents had. -Kat (Alexandria, VA)

  • Teenagers like to separate themselves, kind of. Teenagers like to stereotype. -Claudio (Stafford, VA)

  • I don't think it really matters. I mean it's good to know where you're from. -Kacey (Woodbridge, VA)

People who consider themselves SOVA:

 

  • I think that it’s important to have an identity as a teenager, and where you’re from is a big part of that. It influences how you act and what you like. -Faith (Richmond, VA)

  • You hear north and south, and north you think city and south you think country. I’ve been to D.C. before but never to the areas around it, where you’d consider NoVA, so I only know what it’s like by following people and from talking to people here. -Meryl (Mechanicsville, VA)

  • Probably because there is some truth in each of the stereotypes. Just as teenagers, we like to take things to a certain degree of extremity that we kinda lose track of. -Eliza (Newport News, VA)

  • Because if you’re different, [teenagers] like to bring out your differences and bring them to extremes. -Charlotte (Radford, VA)

  • Most likely because they don't always know what they're talking about but they like to think they do. -Jacob (Williamsburg, VA)

  • I guess, just, cause where we are raised, I don't know. I'm used to a community that isn't diverse. We all look a like and our parents work the same. I guess it's just cultural inbred in a way. I definitely think those boundaries are breaking and people are more open in a way. I guess the southern is more limited whereas the north is more populated so I guess you get more types of people. -Grace (Monterey, VA)

People who consider themselves Central:

 

  • People are just so used to living in one spot, with that one stereotype. And then you come here and it's a bunch of different stereotypes and they clash. -Anonymous (Virginia Beach, VA)

How should we increase understanding between northern and southern virginians?

People who consider themselves NOVA:

 

  • Just meeting people, because this [Gov school] has really opened up my perspective on how everyone from the south isn’t like “Hey y’all”. Small towns are new to me too. My best friend now is from the smallest town ever and I’m from a huge city, so it’s just meeting people that really helps. -Kalea (Manassas, VA)

  • I think just raising awareness that everyone from everywhere are human beings, and that they all do things their own way, whatever that way may be, and it doesn’t have to be related to where they’re from. It’s important to increase that sort of awareness. -Maya (Manassas, VA)

  • We need to stop forming opinions before we interact with each other. If we acted more like a whole state rather than by emphasizing this big border that separates us, we would be a lot more happier and we would be united. Virginia would not just be NoVa and SoVa it would be Virginia! -Abby (Ashburn, VA)

  • I would just say appreciation since Virginia is a very historical state -Madalyn (Fredericksburg, VA)

  • We don’t interact very much. Things that could join us could be like social media. -Claudio (Stafford, VA)

  •  It doesn't really matter to me. If you're from Northern Virginia, great. If you're from Southern Virginia, great. -Kacey (Woodbridge, VA)

People who consider themselves SOVA:

 

  • I don’t think that there’s a lack of an understanding in a bad way; no one’s hostile. I just think that there’s a lack of knowledge. People from NoVA think that Richmond’s very down home southern, and don’t know what grits are, but sometimes people just don’t ever think. -Faith (Richmond, VA)

  • I think that it’s important but I don’t really know how. I want people to know… Radford’s in southern Virginia and a lot of the Nova kids here think that it’s like a bunch of hicks and it’s not like that. Even here in Radford some of the people are really southern but I want people to know that that’s not how all of southern Virginia is. We don’t all talk in thick southern accents. I think that talking about it more is important because it’s not talked about. You hear about the differences and don’t question it. People just leave it alone. -Meryl (Mechanicsville, VA)

  • Let everybody know that we are all from VA and we’re not much different historically. -Eliza (Newport News, VA)

  • I don’t know. I guess big things, like Governor’s school. State-wide and country-wide events where you get to interact with people on a personal level to discover that, oh, not all NOVA people are stuck up and not all Southern people are stupid. So just interacting with people from other places. I don’t really think you can do anything about social media or TV because TV does it to entertain people and then on social media people will say what they want to say. -Charlotte (Radford, VA)

  • Organizations that bring kids together, like Gov School, from all over the place. -Jacob (Williamsburg, VA)

  • First step I would think would be politics. Politicians could work better and serve as role models. I guess, mixing more, in a way. -Grae (Monterey, VA)

People who consider themselves Central:

 

  • We just have to learn to accept others opinions and where they're from and their cultures. And just be nice. - Anonymous (Virginia Beach, VA)

Politically, do you tend to lean left or right? Democrat or Republican? And does this match with your community?

People who consider themselves NOVA:

 

  • Left. Most people around me are liberal. -Kalea (Manassas, VA)

  • Liberal, it matches where I'm from but everyone has their own opinion. -Maya (Manassas, VA)

  • In my area it's more Republican but personally I'm more Democrat. -Abby (Ashburn, VA)

  • Politically, right. Fredericksburg is mostly half and half. - Madalyn (Fredericksburg, VA)

  • Definitely Liberal. -Kat (Alexandria, VA)

  • Democrat, and I think for the most part it matches, I'm not sure. -Claudio (Stafford, VA)

  • I'm a moderate. No preference. I don't think that either side is completely right. I think that my area is more liberal to be honest. -Kacey (Woodbridge, VA)

People who consider themselves SOVA:

 

  • Left, it matches Richmond; there’s conservative, rich, old money people, but there are also super liberal hipsters, so it matches. -Faith (Richmond, VA)

  • Right, most people in my school are republicans. -Meryl (Mechanicsville, VA)

  • Left, but that doesn't always align with Newport News. -Eliza (Newport News, VA)

  • Left, doesn't match where I'm from. -Charlotte (Radford, VA)

  • Farther left than right but I still have some things that I'm conservative with. I live in an area that is pretty much extremely conservative. -Jacob (Williamsburg, VA)

People who consider themselves Central:

 

  • Definitely Democratic, and yes. -Anonymous (Virginia Beach, VA)

© 2015 by the 2015 Governor's School of Humanities at Radford University

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