A lot of your “southern manners” read “slavery-adjacent “ to us up top so we don’t do them.

It’s not a drag; it’s our reality. We were told not to call nobody no damn sir or ma’am

And we learned this from our southern grandparents who moved up North

Gram was from Spindale, NC and she said “don’t u call nobody ma’am or sir”

The first time I heard someone answer their mom “Ma’am?” I was like get me the fuck out of this “yessum” state

Before the low readers tweet from their dry throats—listen. I do not give a fuck.

Im saying that a lot of things southern ppl do were denounced by our southern grandparents who moved up North.

It reminded them of that racism so they didn’t teach it to us.

My grandma was adamant about never moving out the way for anyone. Why? Cus in the 1930s she had to step off the sidewalk if white ppl were on it

So a lot of things ppl think we do that aren’t polite come from out southern grandparents who migrated north and was fed the fuck up

When you do anthropological research you find that almost all of our behaviors are derived from the response to either being in slavery or getting out of it. Those behaviors evolve over time

Example: you always had to hurry for massa. Couldnt walk slow. They told us don’t rush for nobody especially not no white ppl. We begin saying things “I’ll take my sweet time dont press me!” So then u see we ain’t jumping up for nobody cuz that reads “yessa massa” to us

But the children think slaves who drove the chariots were paid as uber drivers

I won’t even touch on how a lot of southern family practices were denounced because the black man emulating massa in his family dynamic