Among the Cabin Fanatics of Mississippi’s Giant Houseparty

> The fair’s inaugural picnic took place twenty-four years after the end of the Civil War. One of the founders was a Confederate veteran. In 1928, the second-place winner in one of the races was a horse named Ku Klux Klan. The pavilion has hosted a succession of segregationist governors and congressmen, and open support for the “Lost Cause” more or less continues to this day. On backstreets at this year’s fair, at least six cabins flew the Confederate flag. The fair allows it.

Why is it confusing that people talk about racism, when it flies free at the fair?

>What's going on with your blatantly racist comments throughout this thread?

Pointing out racism is not racism. It is received as such by racists though, (calling a white person racist is the closest they have to what hearing the N word feels like).

Sorry for the lack of a "/s". But yes, this hit a nerve unfortunately.

This fair is all about continuing a culture and heritage (both the good parts and the bad parts, unfortunately), whereas Burning Man is about creating a new society with radically different social mores and rules.

All the classic Southern mores are in force there. The generous hospitality, terrific food, stories on the porch, and the unsavory parts as well. Most of it (but only most) is a beautiful thing. But it isn't trying to do anything progressive in any way.

So although I see the similarities, these feel very different to me. I guess "big on community with everyone around you" is the biggest similarity, and perhaps a big difference between those two and Octoberfest--where people are friendly, but doesn't have community as front and center as the other two.

There definitely is something great about these traditions, family, food etc. The article does a great job covering it. I was raised in the south, mostly southern Louisiana, and make no mistake many of these events are not "white-trashiness" celebrations. Owners of these cabins and the traditions that surround them are decidedly run, managed, and participated mostly by the "ruling families" of the rural south. And like I said, there are a lot of uncomfortable truths that accompany those families. It definitely is easy for "coastal elites" to look at this as simply a gathering of racists, but that paints an enormously broad brush.

I'm definitely not going to sit here and decry the tradition of the events, because they are a great time. But at the same time, I grew up around a lot of these families and I know what's up. The rural areas of the south are absolutely no different than the 1950s other than federal law.

Fairgoers wear that "sordid history" on their sleeves, and keep it alive. Why not talk about that?

There is no way to ignore the history of a place. It should be remembered, because, when people forget history, they end up repeating it, which would be terrible in this specific case.

I grew up in a racist country, Brazil. We don't talk much about it, we don't have laws singling out races, and we are, on paper, very egalitarian, but make no mistake: existing while dark-skinned (Brazilians have and are aware of all shades of brown - I'm a very white Caucasian, my first wife was Moorish-Italian, our son is a mix) will get you searched by security and kicked out of places. I was caught doing things that would land anyone darker than me, my son included, in jail. I am aware of my privilege, even if I wasn't while growing up.

It's everyone's responsibility not to repeat these errors and to do our best to break the cycles that perpetuate them.

So you are saying this grew out of a tradition that is specific to some ethnic group. Tell me what is the "tradition" in the south that excluded black people while white people are having a party?

The answer might give you some clues.

They shoulnd't. But it's silly to pretend that context and history don't matter.

This is a state where white people historically enslaved black people, where many of the white residents are descends of slave owners, and many of the black people are descendants of the enslaved. This is hours from where black 14-year old Emmett Till was tortured and murdered by a group of white people for the crime of (allegedly) whistling at a white woman.

This is a state and county where the Klan was active and murdering civil rights workers in the 60s, and enforced Jim Crow Laws that made black people legally second class citizens until the voting rights act of 1965. This is a state where a Jim Crow Era voting restriction that disproportionately disenfranchised black voters was just struck down this year[1] by a very conservative supreme court.

This is a state that celebrated the confederacy - an institution that existed for the purpose of enslaving black people - in its very state flag until 2020.

I could of course go on, but you get the picture.

Comments like yours ignore the reality and impact of this history and context.

When a state where the white population has a history of around 200 years of first enslaving, and then attempting to subjugate the black population, it's worth pointing out (as the article does) that perhaps it's a little suspicious that they've now created a de facto whites only get-together.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/mississippis...

This is the same state that hosts "Black Spring Break" and I haven't heard anyone complain about the lack of diversity or racial overtones of that event.

here's a tldr why race matters in the context of the neshoba county fair:

this is the same county where chaney, schwerner, and goodman were murdered. at the fair that year, the kkk dropped pamphlets from an airplane in response to their murder. clearly targeting the fair audience. this was during the freedom summer of 1964 if you know what that is?

ronald reagan did a presidential campaign speech at the fair. a presidential candidate speaking there was unheard of at the time, but he was clearly following the "southern strategy". he proclaimed his belief in states rights, which has been a dog whistle since the civil war. the fair is a popular place for dog whistle political speeches.

there are racial dynamics about who is allowed at the fair. none of the cabins are owned by black people. the owners of cabins are largely the ruling class in mississippi. during the day, spaces within the fair are segregated. most black people at the fair are workers or horse racers, etc.

there are more reasons why race matters, but i have to work. you should read the article.

no, they wouldn't publish it without exploring the racial dynamics, because race is central to understanding the neshoba county fair. therefore, they wouldn't publish it because it wouldn't be interesting to read.

> a completely unracist thing

you clearly do not know what you're talking about.