It seems that things still haven't quite changed in Statesboro. Peach Pundit and Safe As Houses brought up the topic, and I have to say, this is funny...
So, I'm posting my thoughts here. I'm having trouble sorting everything out; that's the problem I have when my vision suddenly clears what was once only smoke and whispers. Despite that, I feel as though I was standing in the eye of a hurricane back in '95-'96, and am only now realizing it.
I apologize for the super-long post. I've been laughing at Erick's criticism of Statesboro; it's along the lines of a cat pouncing on its own tail.
The people who run Statesboro and Bulloch county don't hate the students, that's too personal. Those people regard the students as a specialized type of migrant--to be contained, milked of whatever capital and/or cheap labor they offer, for as long as the migrant remains for the milking, while ensuring that economic conditions support the social structure, and vice-versa.
Statesboro's economics and politics worked that way when I was there, and every time I hear news from that town, I'm reminded that Statesboro still works that way. If you don't have the right pedigree, you're an outsider of some form. "Outsider" could be one or more of several classifications, "migrant" is the relevant category for this discussion.
Looking from the plantation point of view, everyone else is a migrant:
- GSU's current enrollment (14000 back in the 90's) each year.
- Yearly waves of migrant workers to the fields in the state.
- Semi-permanent waves of migrant workers to the factories and businesses in the state.
- The city of Atlanta, and most of the 4 million or so people that have settled in the suburbs.
The common denominators here are the participants in (and advocates of) the plantation system, who together form the core of the Southern red-state, and to whom most of the above people are disposable, transient migrants. Accordingly, policy and politics at the local and state levels involves containing and milking the migrants for as long as they'll stay, while never losing control of the economy or government (as protected in tandem).
So, Statesboro is a red state within a red state, and it has had an immigration problem of its own for some time now. Since the alcohol issue is actually being fought in council now, I'd say the graduates, faculty, and staff who've elected to stay in Statesboro are proving more difficult to control than any Mexicans who happen to settle. And this all makes Erick's criticism fairly comical, in light of the parallels between 'college life' in Statesboro, and the "plague of illegals" [my term] that have befallen the country.
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I think I've struck close to the source of why it sucks to live in a Red State. |
