Confederates in the Attic Essay

Confederates in the Attic

           

In the excerpt “Dying for Dixie” author Tony Horwitz quotes David Westerman, father of murder victim Michael Westerman, who says “They say that war ended a long time ago. But around here it’s like it’s still going on.”  War is still going on in the south, because of your job, where you work at, or who you work for.  Also, because of your ethnic group or ethnicity.  But mostly, how your ancestors were treated or how their views and ideas were passed onto you.  Therefore, that quote by David Westerman about war is still going on in the south is still very true.

           

In the south, there was a large amount of animosity when our parents and their parents grew up.  For example, in “Dying for Dixie”, Tony Horwitz, went into a town called Guthrie.  While he stayed there, he went to a hotel and the manager there told him about the time when a group of young African American boys paid money to go in the pool.  “It was like we sent an electrical charge through the water.” “As soon as the blacks got in, all the whites got out.”  The whites demanded that Eskridge tell the blacks to leave.  Her response was “kiss my grits”.  She was standing up because she didn’t want to discriminate against those young men but the whites didn’t like the way she ran the pool, so in result she ends up filling the pool full of dirt.  She did not want it become a scene of racial strife (conflict).

           

If you worked at a Christian church back then, and you were white, then you were assumed to be a white supremacist, being in the KKK.  Like in the excerpt, Tony Horwitz, the author, saw a man and a woman passing out propaganda, and the propaganda said “The only Reason You are White! Today is Because Your Ancestors Practiced & Believed in Segregation YESTERDAY!” then the second one said “I WANT YOU FOR THE ALMIGHTY KU KLUX KLAN!” Clearly this shows how back then when their ancestors were slave owners or white supremacists they past it on down to their children and so on.  Even looking at that headline proves that this statement is true that being a certain ethnicity/religion and where you work prove that you are apart of some cult or some gang or group of people.

 

When you are just a child and you hear your parents say something, which catches your attention, you start to say it.  Even though you don’t have a clue about what it means, if it’s a good thing to say or if it’s offensive you say it.  Just like when you see your parents doing something.  Like when in the story, Hannah Westerman, the murder victim, went home after court and went to watch the Oprah show. Her twins came in and one of them wore a rebel-flag shirt saying: ‘American by Birth, Rebel by the Grace of God.’  It seems like she is sending her children the wrong message.  Her child wore a rebel-flag shirt but sat there and watched the Oprah show.  See those are the types of things that get carried down through generations, but every generation loses a piece to the puzzle.  Believing in a certain thing or fighting for something that they don’t even know the whole entire truth about it.  Which causing more unanswered questions which results in more chaos.  This is exactly why there is still a lot of controversy and animosity in the south.

 

So as you can see in the excerpt “Dying for Dixie” author Tony Horwitz quotes David Westerman, father of murder victim Michael Westerman, who says “They say that war ended a long time ago. But around here it’s like it’s still going on.”  That statement is very true because of your job title, where you work at, or who you work for. Also, your ethnic group or ethnicity, even though you should be able to be judged by your character, not by the contents of your outer appearance.  Also, the main point is that, how your were treated or how their views and ideas were passed onto you.  It’s a hard burden for others who are affected by this on-going war because they don’t get to see what really is going on.  They just know what their parents tell them.  Nobody knows the real truth, unless you were there when it started and you have experienced it, because there will always be some sort of vital key information that wasn’t what they wanted to say so they left it out.  Therefore, the war is still going on in the south.