Letters from Mississippi/ Reflections on Mississippi Today

In "At Home in a Black World" participants in the 1964 Freedom summer describe their experiences living and interacting with the black populations in Mississippi. One of the most interesting excerpts was one which detailed the barrier which he felt existed between himself and the black people he was there to help. While many of the letters express relief and comradery with the black community in Mississippi, this letter written by a man working in Batesville expresses his inability to get close to black people because of the racial divide. In his letter he says,

"Sometimes you feel you've crossed the color line when a woman tells us about her fears and how she lies to the white folks but secretly hates them. She has probably never talked lie this to a white man before; for a moment you believe you're turning black. Yet there are still long silences and the incomprehensible phrases. Women still call me Mr. Geoff instead of Geoff, and old men offer their chairs. That doesn't disappear when they start to talk about their fear. And neither does your secret belief--which the old men and women encourage--that you are, after all, superior." (67)

This quote stood out to me because it somewhat captures what I believe is still the problem with racism in the South today: tradition. As Geoff said in is letter, even black people reinforced the tradition of racism and white superiority in Mississippi. Still today, it is evident, even on Ole Miss campus, that the legacy of racism and slavery still exist here. All of the maintenance and cleaning staff at Ole Miss are black, while the majority of higher-up positions are held by white people. I think that tradition is so hard to escape in the South specifically because so many people here are directly tied to the land and the tradition. Unlike in northern and western regions of the U.S. where immigration has in someways disrupted tradition, the South and southern people are still grounded in tradition. Some of the traditions like the food and pride in one's town or state aren't bad, but they're inextricably tied to racist tradition. I think Southerners struggle to erase racism without erasing what makes them Southern.