I've said it before but it bears repeating. If Fred Hampton could swallow working with white Southern labor blocs who still sometimes held backwards ideas about race, the rest of us Yankees can sure as Hell suck it up and reach out to create ties with Southern organizers.
Northern attitudes toward the South are too often dismissive, reductive, and arrogant. Those are our people down there fighting to be free from gerrymandered political domination and exploitation. We should be arm in arm with them, not sneering that they get what they deserve for living there.
LGBTQ people get born in Tennessee every day. refugees get placed here. people grow up surrounded by conservative shit and just can't swallow it. and damned if there ain't MORE conservatives moving here due to climate migration and all the "business-friendly" bullshit. we're TRYING
Oddly enough, this is how I feel towards Brexit voting areas. Amongst them are the poorest parts of the UK, and that poverty is a root cause of their discontent.
No shade here at all because your sentiment is right-on, but I am not sure what there is for Yankees to suck up in order to reach out to us Southern organizers. We are on the same page ideologically. We just need more people and money.
Check out downhomenc.org
Folks here in Arkansas got enough signatures to get abortion on the ballot in November, if the Secretary of State doesn't screw us over. 100,000 signatures with no outside help. Imagine what it could've been with outside help.
