Southern Hospitality? More Like Southern Hostility: Facing Injustice in the Writings of Grimke and Chesnutt Mary Pugh College

The history, culture, and territorial boundaries of the Confederate States of America summarize the fundamental aspects of the South. It is typically described as a region that unwelcomes change and is close-minded towards beliefs that disagree with their own. While the South eventually accepts unfamiliar ideologies, it is often a very slow process of social acceptance, placing them many steps behind the North and rest of the World. These narrow-minded tendencies can be traced back to the days of slavery. White supremacists were extremely intolerant and hateful towards African Americans, enslaving and dehumanizing them. These prejudicial inclinations shape the South of today because close-minded Southern elders often fail to break the cycle, reflecting this learned behavior onto their children, who then pass it down and so on. With that being said, not all people in the South are significantly lacking in terms of wokeness. Some realize, though not often enough, the heinous social environment the South created and stand up for these social injustices. Unfortunately, on the basis of literary accounts, those who are more aware and accepting of socially outcasted ideologies are typically looked down upon by the rest of society....