Friday, June 22, 2018

The Attack on “Dixie” in Sports and Music

 

Sound was the first victim of the attack on southern heritage. In October 1971, the University of Georgia’s “Dixie Redcoat Marching Band”  dropped the word “Dixie” from its name and discontinued playing the song “Dixie” after the National Anthem. Many people, even to this day, will argue that “Dixie” was played and perpetuated to uphold white supremacy. But the tradition goes much further back in college football history, specifically to when the University of Alabama defeated the University of Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl. The Atlanta Georgian labeled the 1926 Rose Bowl victory as “the greatest victory for the South since the first battle of Bull Run.” The Atlanta Journal argued the football team belonged in the pantheon of Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson: “The Crimson Tide no longer belongs exclusively to Tuscaloosa and the state of Alabama. It belongs to the whole South just like the Stone Mountain Memorial.” In addition, after the Alabama Crimson Tide returned to the Rose Bowl in 1927, the marching band performed the song “Dixie” as the players stormed the field.

4 comments:

  1. Iceland is apparently a controversial soccer team, because for one thing it's supposed to be (I'm not a soccer fan) the whitest team. And for another, they celebrate their Viking heritage, supposedly.

    I just heard several talking of Iceland. It apparently has an exceptional soccer team despite the tiny population. Iceland is also good at some other competitions, maybe weight lifting.

    This post just made me think of that.

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    Replies
    1. To be clear, I didn't mean Iceland is neat only bc it's white.

      It's neat, bc it's provincial, homogeneous, not the usual global team with meaningless mass values.

      Most every team is little different from Pepsi vs. Coke, but Iceland seems real.

      And it's also neat to cheer on a small nation, as opposed to a massive one. 300K people!

      So, that's more why it made me think of the South.

      The South, for a time, didn't take in nearly as many immigrants. So, the whites here were Southern whites. And that made us different. The North and Midwest seem to have taken in many more European immigrants, post Civil War.

      Today of course, much of the South is inundated.

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    2. And it's also neat to cheer on a small nation, as opposed to a massive one. 300K people!

      We seem to always be for the underdog.

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