'Bama

I am faced with the prospect of moving to Alabama within the coming year. I have to admit that I’m not excited about this, but I am trying to keep an open mind (it is a significant other that I will be following down there). I’ve never had any desire to live in the Deep South. And over the years I’ve built up a stockpile of prejudices and stereotypes about the South. From my Midwestern perch the South looks conservative, republican, Christian (the extreme kind), racist, sexist, uneducated and bigoted. I have a hard time taking people seriously when they have a southern accent.
Now I know that there are plenty of people with all of those bad qualities here in the North, but they just don’t show it as much, and it doesn’t seem as if there are as many. They’re the minority and you don’t hear from them that often because they know they’re outnumbered.
I’m afraid it’s going to be a great culture shock for me. I’m liberal, democratic, agnostic and educated. I support gay rights and a woman’s right to choose. I can feel that the South and I are not going to get along. But I am trying to keep an open mind, I promise.