The State
of our State:
Like, Such As... by Caitlin Bradley and Malia Griggs Illustrations by Erin Chiet If you watched “The Daily Show” a few months ago, you remember the twelve minutes host Jon Stewart spent bashing the Palmetto State and his subsequent proclamation: “South Carolina has stepped up its game—from its Appalachian-trail-fabricatingPatagonian-gorp-munching Governor to its colorfulSocialist-fearing-Urkel-quoting Senator DeMint.” And he’s right. South Carolina has successfully found a place in today’s news. From the Cocks to FU to BJU, from Mark’s mistress to Miss Teen South Carolina, from Borat’s bus ride to Phelps’ bong bust, the state of South Carolina is infamous for its embarrassing blunders that, too often, make national headlines. Before you start grumbling about how we’re hating on your state (and this is your state, dear reader), let’s get the facts straight: Both authors were born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina. Our parents took us to Riverbanks Zoo before there was a botanical garden and we bubbled in the same circles of the PACT test for eight years. We know that real barbecue sauce is mustard based, and we know the correct pronunciation of Huger Street. We may not wear Lilly Pulitzer dresses or even claim to have Southern accents, but when we travel outside of the state, we are proud to call it our home. Ever since our state’s secession during the Civil War, we’ve gotten a bad rap from the media, and every time we slip up,
we make the front page. The tone of any story about our state is “Oh, there goes South Carolina again.” But here’s the thing—you see, we recognize the faults of our state and accept the consequences, but we are able to laugh at them too. The state of our state is something we love to hate. If you take a closer look at the way the media presents South Carolina, you’ll find that we are generally portrayed as a conglomeration of ignorant, redneck, Confederate-flag-flying, pickup-truck-driving, grammatically-challenged, conservative fools. And by golly, there is a portion of our population that drives muddy trucks and flies flags that look like distorted Union Jacks. They’re happy with their lives, and that’s fine by us. But that leads us to wonder—are we merely playing into stereotypes we have been given or have we always been this way? Why are we the way we are? Do we deserve the attention we receive from the media, and above all, why do we laugh along? In order to better answer these probing questions, we embarked on a spiritual and intellectual journey through Russell House University Union to ask some of our classmates how they view South Carolina. What we found is that people generally think of this state in three different ways: as either fun, familycentered, or more than a little backwards. Jillian Pulverenti, a sophomore from New