Draft:Southernification

• Comment: I think we need to see more widespread use, and more to the point discussion, of the term. What we have now are sources providing passing or no mentions, and some of them are blogs and opinion pieces at that. The Stubstack one seems to provide the most extensive coverage of the term, but it alone isn't enough, and in any case it seems to fall under the exclusion clause of 'sites specifically intended to promote the neologism'. DoubleGrazing (talk) 18:14, 6 January 2023 (UTC)

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Not to be confused with Southernization

Southernification is an American neologism for the adoption of cultural practices, symbols and language from the Southern United States by rural white Americans in other regions of the country, particularly the Midwest and Pacific Northwest.

Origin of the term

The term "Southernification" was coined by writer Will Wilkinson in 2021. In an article examining America's urban-rural political divide he claimed that regional differences between white, rural populations had gradually been erased and subsumed into a "placeless, homogeneous... culture", which took the majority of its cultural signifiers from the South.

Analysis

Southernification has been linked to America's increasing political polarization and stark urban-rural divide, which some suggest has eclipsed the traditional North-South divide as the major division in American politics. Until the mid-20th Century, the two major parties had support among both urban and rural populations. However, in recent decades Americans have tended to gravitate towards politically and ideologically homogeneous communities, resulting in a Republican party which is overwhelmingly white and rural, and a Democratic party which draws the majority of its support from cities. This, combined with the racialization of American politics whereby minority voters generally support the Democrats and white voters tend to support Republicans, has tied rural and white identity to the Republican party and the conservative movement.

Although this explains why rural white Americans are more likely to share conservative cultural values and form a single political constituency, it does not in itself explain why a single culture would form, or why it would primarily take influence from the South, rather than combine elements from multiple regions. Several theories exist to explain this phenomenon:

• Increasing consumption of pop culture either created, featuring or influenced by Southerners and Southern culture in other regions of the country, i.e. country music, Southeastern Conference athletics and reality television such as Duck Dynasty;
• The Lost Cause myth making the legacy of the Confederacy more palatable and acceptable to those outside the South;
• Cultural backlash to visible social change, i.e. the election of U.S. President Barack Obama, and nostalgia for a bygone era among rural whites which synergises with Neo-Confederate attitudes about heritage and history;
• Conservative politicians and media figures deliberately exporting Southern-style racialised politics to other areas as a means of energising white voters (the Southern strategy);

Evidence for "Southernification" thesis

No formal studies have been conducted on the phenomenon of "southernification", however, there is some anecdotal evidence to support its premise.

One commonly cited example of "southernification" is the increasing adoption of the Confederate battle flag by whites in Northern and Western states, which either fought for the Union, or had not been admitted as states, during the American Civil War.

A survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute found that support for the removal of Confederate monuments was strongly correlated with race, religion and education level but not geography. Levels of support for either retaining or removing monuments was nearly identical between Southerners and non-Southerners. This suggests that sympathy for the Confederacy among whites is not dependent on historical links to the Old South.