The South’s Billboard Holy War

[cbayer]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/the-south-s-billboard-holy-war.html

GUNS BLAZING
01.14.15
Samantha Allen

There’s a weird war happening on Southern freeways. Evangelicals and atheists are taking up dueling billboard space, leaving us wondering: what’s the point?

For those who live in the American South, the news that white supremacist billboards are appearing in and near Birmingham, Alabama does not come as a surprise. Last summer, a billboard reading “Anti-Racist is a Code Word for Anti-White” appeared on I-20. Earlier this month, another on I-59 warned that “Diversity Means Chasing Down the Last White Person.” The secessionist group League of the South claimed to have made the former, and the latter, owned by a private citizen, appears to take its talking points from the white supremacist White Genocide Project. But alarming as these billboards may be, they are, unfortunately, par for the course below the Mason-Dixon line.

I didn’t pay much attention to Interstate scenery myself until I moved to the South five years ago. Now, it’s hard to keep my eyes off the roadside. Not only are there countless cars bearing Confederate bumper stickers, there are also prominent Confederate flags flying over I-75, one north of Tifton, Georgia, another just outside of Tampa, and others scattered throughout the region. Alongside I-95 on the way into North Carolina, there are dozens of billboards featuring a racist caricature of a sombrero-wearing Mexican named Pedro, who urges me to stop at the infamous eyesore of a tourist trap known as South of the Border. One of these billboards features a large three-dimensional sausage and promises, “You’re always a wiener at Pedro’s.”

If I drive west on I-40, I will eventually pass a 19-story tall cross outside of Amarillo, Texas because apparently some local Christians interpreted “Everything’s bigger in Texas” as a commandment rather than a cute regional saying. And wherever I roam in the South, doomsday proclamations and manipulative anti-abortion messages about fetal heartbeats are so commonplace that they barely register anymore. The “I’ll Be Back” billboards, however, are particularly arresting. My favorite—if I can call it that—is an absurd, poorly Photoshopped mélange of Jesus, troops, tanks, and helicopters below the emblazoned reminder “I’m Still in Control,” with an explosion in the background completing the mise-en-scène.

When an average road trip in the South involves driving past plantation gift shops behind a truck with a birther bumper sticker, a billboard that explicitly endorses white supremacy is really just filling in the blanks.
Against this backdrop, white supremacist billboards don’t stick out in the South—they fit right in. Local leaders in Alabama can denounce the billboards all they like, but paranoid predictions of white genocide are a logical addition to the tapestry of ideologies that is already on display on Southern highways. When an average road trip in the South involves driving past plantation gift shops behind a truck with a birther bumper sticker, a billboard that explicitly endorses white supremacy is really just filling in the blanks. The Southern Interstates have one and only one redeeming sight: the “Peachoid” along I-85 in Gaffney, South Carolina, which got its well-deserved 15 minutes of fame in an episode of House of Cards. But peach-shaped water tower aside, what is going on down here, y’all?

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[Bad Granny]

1. Too many "people" in the old slave states just will not accept their loss in the War of Treason

in Support of Slavery that the rest of the nation has (somewhat) learned to live with.

All the bullshit about "heritage" and "tradition" is just that - bs in support of a disgusting and discredited and shameful belief system.

We all know that racism is not restricted to the Confederacy.
It's just that it is an institution and tradition there that many are desperately clinging to as a crutch against progress.

This too, like the racists themselves, will pass.
Sooner than later, we all hope.

[cbayer]

2. Hello Bad Granny. Welcome to DU and to the Religion group.

[edhopper]

3. Too true

imagine what people would say if a bunch of Germans dresses as Nazis to re-inact the Battle of the Bulge.

But dress like pro-slavery, treasonous assholes, it's a weekend about tradition.

[Fumesucker]

9. I've watched liberal Northerners move down here and shortly you can't tell them from the locals

Being a liberal in the South is damn hard, there's a huge amount of conformist pressure, not so much in the larger cities but get into the suburbs and *everyone* is conservative and Christian.

[cbayer]

10. One of the things I found most unsettling was the casual use of

racist words and the ease with which people told racist jokes.

This was new to me, having been raised in pretty protected liberal enclaves.

I never did get at all comfortable with it or with saying something about it in some situations.

[Fumesucker]

11. When I get in those situations I just tell this joke..

The bartender was washing his glasses, when an elderly Irishman came in, with great difficulty, the Irishman hoisted his bad leg over the barstool, pulled himself up painfully, and asked for a sip of Irish whiskey. The Irishman looked down the bar and said, "Is that Jesus down there?" The bartender nodded, so the Irishman told him to give Jesus an Irish whiskey, too.

The next patron to come in was an ailing Italian with a hunched back, who moved very slowly. He shuffled up to the barstool and asked for a glass of Chianti. He also looked down the bar and asked if that was Jesus sitting at the end of the bar. The bartender nodded, so the Italian said to give Him a glass of Chianti, too.

The third patron to enter the bar was a redneck, who swaggered into the bar and hollered, "Barkeeper, set me up a cold one! Hey, is that God's Boy down there?" The barkeeper nodded, so the redneck told him to give Jesus a cold one, too.

As Jesus got up to leave, he walked over to the Irishman and touched him and said, "For your kindness, you are healed!" The Irishman felt the strength come back to his leg, so he got up and danced a jig out the door. Jesus touched the Italian and said, "For your kindness, you are healed!" The Italian felt his back straighten, so he raised his hands above his head and did a flip out the door.

Jesus walked toward the redneck, but the redneck jumped back and exclaimed, "Don't touch me! I'm drawin' disability!"

It never fails to crack them up and surprisingly often they even get my point in telling it.

[cbayer]

12. Well done and I know the south well enough to know that many will get it.

I will have to try it sometimes.

[Bad Granny]

13. The real schism in the US is urban versus rural, and race is NOT the major piece of that. As long

as we have a rigged system in which vacant land gets more representation in government than the densely-populated cities, we will never make real progress.

That is the sad truth of our situation.

[Fumesucker]

4. The author didn't mention the "Totally NUDE!" billboards..

There are more than a few of those around, sometimes right next to the ones with Jesus and the explosion.

If it were not for the internet I would feel totally alone as an atheist living down here, seeing a sign that said I wasn't alone (which I haven't yet and don't expect to) would be a positive experience for me.

[trotsky]

5. And the ones for adult stores.

Apparently a lot of people love Jesus AND French ticklers.

[Fumesucker]

6. Hypocrisy is practically the defining characteristic of fundamentalists

For instance Mormon Utah is the state with the highest per capita number of subscriptions to online porn services.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705288350/Utah-No-1-in-online-porn-subscriptions-report-says.html?pg=all

I have yet to encounter a Christian that can (or maybe will) accurately answer the question: What sin did Jesus Christ most often and most forcefully denounce?

[msongs]

14. or what sin did he commit most often himself? and what about his sex life? nt

[cbayer]

7. Are those advertisements for strip clubs?

I think some of the atheist billboards are good and disagree with her that they are useless. The ones that reach out to people who are feeling isolated are generally positive.

[Fumesucker]

8. Yes, strip club ads

The frothy mixture of extreme fundamentalism and titillation solicitation is quite amusing sometimes.

[Leontius]

15. Well it is close to the time for the yearly regional bigotry show around here.

[cbayer]

16. What is that?

[edhopper]

18. You don't think it's harder

to be an open atheists in many parts of the South?

[cbayer]

19. Oh, I thought he was talking about where he lived.

Like there were going to be civil war reenactments or something. I really misread that.

[edhopper]

20. The South bashing

is an ongoing theme on GD.
Not that a large part of the South doesn't suck, and not that the GOP would not be in the majority without the South.
There are arguments that are similar to the Christians/All Christian arguments here.

[cbayer]

21. I also object to the south bashing

and, in particular to statements like "not that a large part of the South doesn't suck", but this is about a phenomenon that is particularly obvious in the south. I have also seen it in the midwest and portions of the northwest, but mainly in the south.

I don't think that is south bashing.

[edhopper]

22. I meant

not that a large part of the South doesn't suck politically.

Lovely areas and some good people, though not enough of them that vote.

[cbayer]

23. It is a tough place politically, but I have a deep love of the south.

All of my children were born there.

[edhopper]

17. I think some atheist billboards

can serve a purpose, especially in the South. Telling a closeted nonbeliever that they are not alone is a helpful thing to do.

[mmonk]

24. Not many probably view South of the Border

signs as having racist intent since the eateries and shops have a Mexican theme. I may be wrong. Just a thought.