Are the Western states more "transplant-friendly" than the Southern states? (transplants, real estate)
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Are Western states such as AZ, CA, CO, NV, OR, WA, et al. more "transplant-friendly" than Southern states such as FL, GA, NC, SC, TN, TX, et al.?
IMO, the South seems less welcoming of outsiders and, in turn, less "transplant-friendly" than the West. I can't tell you how many stories I've either heard or read about in which folks from the Northeast, Midwest, or West Coast move to the South and have a difficult time adjusting to the culture and/or fitting in with their new peers.
Also, I've yet to hear the term "Yankee" being thrown around in a derogatory manner in the West like I did when I was in FL. Nothing ticks me off more than that. Believe it or not, in FL, I would hear things like, "Oh, he's a pain in the *** because he's a Yankee," or, "She's hard to live with because she's a Yankee." The funny thing is that almost everyone in FL younger than 30 years old, whether they were born there or not, has parents who are from up North. Therefore, these folks are hardly qualified to throw around insults like that. I could understand if a fourth-generation Georgian or Alabamian said something like that, but not a first generation South Floridian. LOL.
FL has the highest concentration of non-natives of any Southern state. If you hear things like that in FL, then I'm assuming you're going to hear them much more often in the other Southern states.
I've never heard nor experienced anything like that in AZ.
I'm originally from New England. However, I don't really fit the mold of your average New Englander: Republican, fiscally/socially conservative, pro-2A, guns, country music, lifted pickup truck, and so forth. You get the picture. LOL.
That being said, for some reason or another, I just seem to click more easily with people from out West vs. people from down South. I can't seem to put my finger on the reason why either, to be honest. It just seems as though I'm initially more compatible with people from the West vs. people from the South right from the get-go. Again, I'm originally from the Northeast. Do any other Northeastern or Midwestern transplants share this sentiment? I'd really like to hear your stories, especially if you transplanted to the South first and then moved out West.
I am a Midwestern transplant to the PNW and I have heard people say "Oh so-and-so is from "Back East" in the same derogatory manner as you have heard Southerners use the term Yankee when they didn't like someone from east of the Rockies.
I think it's all relative. Some people from one place sometimes just don't take to people from another.
I'm from CA and moved to WA. I heard lots of derogatory things about Californians, because of CA transplants driving up the cost of real estate. If you move there, change your license plates in a hurry LOL!
I lived in TN for 5 years in the Nashville area, and did hear the Yankee word a lot.
I have to say that Texas has always welcomed me, even though I'm democrat and the friends I met in Texas were republican. Texans are amazingly welcoming people. Maybe I get along with them because even though I'm a democrat, I have no problem with people owning guns LOL!
I had the same experience in FL. I didn't think of FL as being the south, but it is. We would vacation there from TN in the Destin area. For some reason I thought all of FL would be like Miami Vice. I didn't expect rednecks and southern accents. It just depends where you are, i guess.
My theory about the south v north, v the west, is that the north and south suffered through the civil war. Those feelings get passed down and are part of the culture.
Whereas the west was populated from people from all over the place. There was no "old money" here. And there was no civil war fought here.
These are generalizations, obviously, but that's my take on it.
I did meet a lot of people out on the west coast ex. Los Angeles who talked as if they were superior to me because I was a southerner( I'm from Atlanta)...the whole hick town backwoods type of view towards me and it was only after I told them where I was from...I don't really have an accent. I have heard native friends from suburban atlanta complain about yankees, but you don't really hear it brought up at all near itp or just otp due to many many transplants. Overall though I guess because of the shear diversity out west it would be easier for transplants out there.
I did meet a lot of people out on the west coast ex. Los Angeles who talked as if they were superior to me because I was a southerner( I'm from Atlanta)...the whole hick town backwoods type of view towards me and it was only after I told them where I was from...I don't really have an accent. I have heard native friends from suburban atlanta complain about yankees, but you don't really hear it brought up at all near itp or just otp due to many many transplants. Overall though I guess because of the shear diversity out west it would be easier for transplants out there.
I don't know what it is, but Californians are absolutely the worst when it comes to stereotyping the South and southerners.
I've heard more prejudicial attitudes about southerners coming from California than about any place in the nation. Perhaps it has to do with their more isolated location and being more liberal relative to the South. I think that a lot of the negative stereotypes from northerners have wained a lot over the past twenty years, yet they still seem to be somewhat strong out in California.
I don't know what it is, but Californians are absolutely the worst when it comes to stereotyping the South and southerners.
I don't think it's just a "liberal yuppie" thing, either. As a teenager in SoCal, I had friends who lived in trailer parks who would badmouth the South. Make fun of the accent, crack jokes about inbreeding, make references to lynchings and whipcracking, etc. etc.
people talked as if they were superior to me because I was a southerner( I'm from Atlanta)...the whole hick town backwoods type of view towards me and it was only after I told them where I was from...I don't really have an accent. I have heard native friends from suburban atlanta complain about yankees, but you don't really hear it brought up at all near itp or just otp due to many many transplants. Overall though I guess because of the shear diversity out west it would be easier for transplants out there.
people talked as if they were superior to me because I was a southerner( I'm from Atlanta)...the whole hick town backwoods type of view towards me and it was only after I told them where I was from...I don't really have an accent. I have heard native friends from suburban atlanta complain about yankees, but you don't really hear it brought up at all near itp or just otp due to many many transplants. Overall though I guess because of the shear diversity out west it would be easier for transplants out there.
It's funny you mention Atlanta, kiran ghimire.
I go to school in AZ. Last fall, I was chatting with two classmates of mine about Atlanta: one was from Phoenix and the other was from Southern CA. Neither of them mentioned anything about Atlanta being a "hick town" or being "backwoods." They were both complaining about the nightmarish traffic on the freeways and the congestion at the airport. My classmate from Southern CA seemed to be more familiar with Atlanta than the kid from Phoenix, and she kept reiterating that it takes forever to do anything in Atlanta. That being said, neither of them seemed to care for it all that much.
On the other hand, I have an African-American friend who grew up in a small rural community in the FL Panhandle who hates Atlanta. That was shocking to me because I've never met an African-American person who hated Atlanta, especially one from the cultural South. I have another friend from South FL who's half-white, half-Hispanic and has family in Atlanta. She doesn't like it either. To me, it seemed like most people in Florida, especially white and Hispanic people, didn't really care for Atlanta and had a stronger affinity for places like Asheville, Raleigh, and Charleston. Maybe Atlanta is just too sprawling and landlocked for most Floridians? Maybe they expected it to be more like the cities in FL when it's markedly different from just about every FL city? I don't know.
That being said, if I ever move to the cultural South, I'm heading for Raleigh.
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LOL.
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