New book explores what the American South is and isn’t
“It’s too easy in this society to be willing to sacrifice people in the service of our aspirations,” says a Princeton University scholar.
Professor Imani Perry. Courtesy of Wiki Commons.
The American South is intertwined with the North. The economy, culture and music often blend together. That blending can also become complicated when it comes to racial issues.
A new book explores the history of the south, the stories that are told there, and the ways they are contrasted with perceptions in the north and beyond.
“There’s an intimacy that took place across the boundaries of the color line that shapes who we are that I think is also worth acknowledging, even, you know, alongside obviously the pain.” — Imani Perry, Princeton University
Listen: “South to America” explores the stories of the south, and what they say about all of us.
Guest
Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of “South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation.” She says her book explores how deeply intertwined we are, despite the complications presented by America’s cultural past and present.
“There’s a common culture there,” says Perry, “even with all the sort of anguish. And there’s an intimacy that took place across the boundaries of the color line that shapes who we are that I think is also worth acknowledging, even, you know, alongside obviously the pain.”
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