re: Does anyone really have "Southern Pride"?

I definitely think its a "defense mechanism" or rather just standing up for yourself. People can drop comments like southerners have low IQs and its perfectly acceptable, but if you did that about certain other groups you'd be a bigot. I've talked to black people about race relations in the south, and although we deserve some crap for the history we've had, they've stated that they see no difference in the way they are treated in the North or the South. In facte the only time I've talked to someone about being called an n-word to their face, the girl said it happened in Michigan, yet the South will always be more racist. There's some religious zealots that i dont care for here, but the upbringing sometimes leads to a better person (sometimes its just a hypocritical arse).

Not to mention the North DESTROYED the South after the war. One way to make a group ban together is to do something like that then constantly belittle them for the next 150 years