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Maybe we've been brainwashed by 130 years of Yankee history, but Southern identity now has more to do with food, accents, manners, music than the Confederate past. It's something that's open to both races, a variety of ethnic groups and people who move here.

You know, Southerners are pretty cool.

I think we Southerners have talked a fair amount of malarkey about the mystique of being Southern.

It's really rare that you come across a Southern character that's not stereotyped, vilified or aggrandized.

Southerners smile more than other Americans.

I'm a Southerner.

You know, I'm from the South, and I wasn't interested in perpetuating a stereotypical southern character.

There's something about Southern women that is so unique yet so universal. Strong southern women are allowed to be soft and feminine and have a sense of humor. But what I love about Southern women in particular is their universality.

It's the South that maintains the idea that they're different, which is interesting because nobody else really cares.

I can see why many Southerners, black ones in particular, don't like the implication that Southernness and the Confederate heritage are one and the same, because they're not. On the other hand, there are people who want to extirpate that completely and want folks to spit on the graves of their ancestors.