It pains me to type the title of this post using the word color not colour but when in Rome...
Along the route were areas filled with people lobbing paint at you and at the end of the run everyone just went crazy and used up all the left overs...
Eveie even managed to get a cheeky pic of us next to the state house with the confederacy flag flying loud and proud (still trying to get my head around the flag being up in such a prominent place and this supposedly being ok).
Speaking of southern pride, after the run we were headed to the farmers market in search of the infamous cronut (the mission was completed and I can confirm cronuts are well and truly worth the hype) and we ended up walking through the LGBT pride event that was on that day. Post-food we walked back the same way and I commented that I was a bit surprised about quite how liberal Columbia seemed that day and maybe it is more progressive here than I'd previously assumed. There was rainbow-printed stuff everywhere and flags up on all the street lamps as well as lots of people browsing the stalls and waiting for the parade that was happening later on.
However when we got to the end of Main Street, standing in front of the State House and therefore directly underneath the confederate flag was a fairly sizeable group of middle-aged, mostly bearded and overweight men, all wearing t shirts emblazoned with sayings about Jesus and holding placards protesting the pride event. Bearing in mind the fact that at this point we were three girls still covered in brightly coloured paint, leaving the street that the Pride Festival was taking place on; they didn't exactly give us friendly looks. Not everyone here is so backward though (obviously) and unfortunately it's only people like these, who represent the extremes of society, that get noticed, (or that people like me end up writing about in their blog....) and the stereotype is reinforced, even though it's not representative of the majority.
When we crossed the road toward the statehouse and the scary men we just kept our heads down. There was a group of four girls walking beside us, who all looked about fifteen. When they saw the protesters ahead of them they proudly coupled up, linked arms and walked right through the middle of them which I think disproves the assumption that everyone in the South is overbearingly right-wing and anti-progressive.
Before I came to South Carolina I believed in the popular stereotypes that often dominate views of the region and whilst a few people here have confirmed aspects of them, for the most part they haven't at all been true indications of Southerners. I've also learnt a lot about what is expected of a British person, apparently being boring, serious and sarcastic are all key, but also honesty and loyalty with regards to friendships. So it's not all bad (although they do think it rains every day in England and apparently all our food is brown stodge - people refuse to believe me when I argue that Fish and Chips are amazing or that English summers do exist).
I realise I've gone off on a bit of a tangent with this but yesterday was the first time I'd really seen anything that strongly reinforced my pre-assumed stereotype of South Carolina, and it was instantly reprimanded by the defiance of the four girls. I think I'm just trying to say that stereotypes are never representative of typicality and for the most part they are just oversimplified and outdated, which I think is something that really everyone knows, but we carry on believing them anyway! There's no where in the world where everyone can be shoved in one box when it comes to beliefs and values, and South Carolina is no exception to this.
Unfortunately It's now hideously late, I'm yet to begin my reading for the morning (I think I hate mondays even more here than I did at Warwick), and I cannot think of anything much else to say because this all got a bit deep for this time on a sunday evening.
Actually, I've also been told that a stereotype of the British is that the only time they are comfortable talking about 'deep' stuff is when they're drunk and as I'm STILL not 21 that's obviously not the case right now. So that explains the abrupt ending to this post.
xxxxxx
When we crossed the road toward the statehouse and the scary men we just kept our heads down. There was a group of four girls walking beside us, who all looked about fifteen. When they saw the protesters ahead of them they proudly coupled up, linked arms and walked right through the middle of them which I think disproves the assumption that everyone in the South is overbearingly right-wing and anti-progressive.
Before I came to South Carolina I believed in the popular stereotypes that often dominate views of the region and whilst a few people here have confirmed aspects of them, for the most part they haven't at all been true indications of Southerners. I've also learnt a lot about what is expected of a British person, apparently being boring, serious and sarcastic are all key, but also honesty and loyalty with regards to friendships. So it's not all bad (although they do think it rains every day in England and apparently all our food is brown stodge - people refuse to believe me when I argue that Fish and Chips are amazing or that English summers do exist).
I realise I've gone off on a bit of a tangent with this but yesterday was the first time I'd really seen anything that strongly reinforced my pre-assumed stereotype of South Carolina, and it was instantly reprimanded by the defiance of the four girls. I think I'm just trying to say that stereotypes are never representative of typicality and for the most part they are just oversimplified and outdated, which I think is something that really everyone knows, but we carry on believing them anyway! There's no where in the world where everyone can be shoved in one box when it comes to beliefs and values, and South Carolina is no exception to this.
Unfortunately It's now hideously late, I'm yet to begin my reading for the morning (I think I hate mondays even more here than I did at Warwick), and I cannot think of anything much else to say because this all got a bit deep for this time on a sunday evening.
Actually, I've also been told that a stereotype of the British is that the only time they are comfortable talking about 'deep' stuff is when they're drunk and as I'm STILL not 21 that's obviously not the case right now. So that explains the abrupt ending to this post.
xxxxxx
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