"the south is everything its revilers have charged, and more than its defenders have claimed.  it is racist, violent, hypocritically pious, xenophobic, false in its elevation of women, nationalistic, conservative, and it harbors extreme poverty in the midst of ostentatious wealth.  the only point i have to add is that the united states as a civilization embodies all of these same qualities.  that the south possesses them with more intensity simply makes it easier for the nation to pass off its characteristics to the south, leaving itself innocent and righteous."
--howard zinn, the southern mystique, 1964