A few weeks ago, the Biloxi School District’s decision to remove Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” from its eighth-grade language arts curriculum made news throughout the nation, inviting criticism both here in the state and beyond.
It’s the “beyond” part that a lot of Mississippi folks have trouble with.
When Joyce Carol Oates, an acclaimed New York novelist, took to her Twitter account to mock the state for the sins of the Biloxi School District, some Mississippians became as upset with Oates’ criticism as they were to the incident that provoked it.
Oates’ tweet read: “So funny! If Mississippians read, Faulkner would be banned.”
Suffice to say, it did not seem “so funny” to a lot of Mississippians, who have been weary of outsiders criticizing our state since, oh, about 1817.
Mississippians took to both social media and traditional media to blast Oates for using what they believe to be old stereotype to mock the state.
And, predictably, the main argument used to refute Oates’ claim was to point out all the famous authors Mississippi has produced.
That tactic has been so long relied upon that it became part of the state’s tourism marketing campaign called “Mississippi. Believe It.” The most famous ad of that campaign, printed in magazines and newspapers throughout the country, included photos of more than a dozen famous Mississippi-born writers, accompanied by a simple text: “Yes, we can read. A few of us can even write.”
Another ad in the campaign addressed the state’s perceived lack of sophistication: “Yes, we wear shoes. A few of us even wear cleats” with a collection of photos of notable athletes the state has produced.
There is no doubt that the campaign is an effective marketing tool for tourism, I am not at all convinced that it much of a rebuttal to Oates’ claim, though.
That would be like saying Mississippi cannot possibly be an obese state on the grounds that Walter Payton, Archie Manning, Jerry Rice, et al, are from Mississippi.
I take great personal comfort in this rebuttal. When, I step on my bathroom scales, the numbers may suggest I am 15 pounds overweight, but the NFL record book says Brett Favre went to the Pro Bowl 11 times. Then, content in that indisputable fact, I eat fried chicken for breakfast.
Mississippi is 49th among the states in obesity and 48th in adult literacy.
I feel kind of sorry for all those great athletes and writers, whose coattails are weighted down by such an abundance of the sedentary and willfully ignorant.
So Oates’ criticism should be considered more of a generalization than a stereotype. In other words, she is far closer than the truth that we care to admit.
While we continue to do everything we can to dismantle public education in our state, we proudly cling to the Three Ws — William (Faulkner), (Eudora) Welty and (Tennessee) Williams — to deflect the criticism we rightly deserve.
Faulkner, in particular, is a poor choice. Of all the great Southern writers, he was perhaps the most critical of his home state, of its ignorance and injustice..
Now, just about every Mississippian over the age of 18 will say they have read Faulkner. For a Mississippian to admit not having read Faulkner is a shameful thing, like saying you prefer bagels to biscuits.
Faulkner is, quite possibly, the most quoted and least read of our great authors.
So we invoke Faulkner without really knowing much of what he wrote, what he did or didn’t say, what he did or didn’t believe. He has become something we stand under when it rains and ignore when it’s sunny.
I am speaking in generalities, of course. A great many Mississippians have read Faulkner. But the vast majority have not and don’t intend to, either.
So Oates’ comments, while unflattering, are not in error, generally-speaking. If I were to say that Mississippi is a rural state, people in Jackson or Gulfport or any of our more-urban areas would not dispute it nor would they be offended by it.
It should be the same way with Oates’ comments.
It’s not that Oates’ comments are wrong.
It’s that we don’t like them.
And, also, she’s a Yankee. Generally-speaking, we know how Yankees are.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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