Sunday, November 8, 2015

An essay on the rural Mississippi Delta

Here's the lede from today's New York Times Sunday Review piece, "Sweet Home Mississippi" by Richard Grant.  
TO move from Lower Manhattan to rural Mississippi is probably the most extreme culture shock available in this country.
The essay features many observations on race, like this portion of one paragraph:
Contradictions are like oxygen here, part of the air itself. The Delta is arguably the most racist, or racially obsessed, place in America, and yet you see more ease and conviviality between blacks and whites than in the rest of America. It’s not uncommon to find close, loving, quasi-familial relationships between black and white families who have known one another for generations. They weep together at one another’s funerals, and sometimes name their children after one another
Read more to decide if you agree about that "extreme culture shock" assertion, and to ponder lots of information about the complicated race relations.  

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