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The Singular Life - Petronella Wyatt
... But most of our notions about the South come from old romances and films such as The Virginian. We deplore the fact that plantation owners kept slaves and sometimes abused them, but in general we have forgiven. As Disraeli rather flippantly remarked when questioned about the outcome of the civil war, ‘The South will win because it has better manners.’
I was inclined to agree with such assessments until I went to live in Virginia. During the four months I spent there, I found it an alien and sometimes frightening place. Middle-class whites remain polite if insular. There is always the feeling that they still long for the good old days of Anglo-Saxon supremacy. But working-class whites, those who used to be called ‘white trash’, constitute some of the most terrifying creatures on this planet.
Lynndie England and her fellow soldiers come from poor redneck backgrounds. In my limited experience, rednecks seem to live on hate. They are dirty, overweight, rude, drunken and drive (recklessly) big trucks with the Confederate flag on the bonnet. They are brought up on a deeply racist gun culture. There are probably more gun shops in Virginia than in the rest of the US put together. And in their hearts, most rednecks would like to point them at a coloured person. They still blame freedom of the slaves for their impoverished lives. Indeed, the worst thing that could happen to the average Virginian would be for their daughters to take up with people they still call niggers.
This is the world Lynndie England has lived in all her life. Iraqis are regarded as no better than blacks, their ancient traditions dismissed as savagery. Whenever I argued for more understanding with regard to the ‘peace’, I was met with stares usually reserved for child-killers. There is no respect for foreign cultures in rural Virginia. No one would bother to read about them anyway. If any literature is perused, it is the local gun manual. This cocktail of disrespect, violence and ignorance is a lethal one for Iraq. Obviously, the US army has to take what it can, but, if anyone had asked recruits like Miss England for their opinions of Iraqis, they might have thought twice about sending them overseas.
Actually, I feel sorry for Lynndie England. She stood no chance in a Middle Eastern war zone. The fault lies not with her but with her world. Her world of stolen pigs and turkeys roasted on the roadside, of callous beliefs and revanchism. Very few young women in present-day Virginia grow up to be Southern belles; they grow up to be harridans who, given the opportunity, take their grievances out on helpless people with dark skins. The South once had a veneer of glamour and civilisation. Sadly, it has it no longer.
Why do I have the impression that Ms. Wyatt recently received a ’Dear Pet’ letter from a fat, dirty, fast-drivin’, pig-stealin’, turkey-roastin’ Virginian? |