The Voltage Gate

Marietta is a strange place. It's rather large and spread out, housing posh bedroom communities, shiny office buildings, chain restaurants and old, poverty-line neighborhoods all wrapped up together in noisy ribbons of highway. I drive through a portion of Marietta every day.

One turn off of my daily drive, some old button-pusher is selling Obama '08 tee shirts complete with a picture of Curious George eating a banana from his bar in Marietta. His intent is obvious, equating African Americans (or at least this particular African American) with monkeys, but the crank denies it, claiming he just sees a resemblance between the cartoon character and Obama. (You can hear more about it from other Sciblings here, here and here.)

I've been down here for a little over two months now and I'm still baffled by this area sometimes. To and from work I see a massive diversity of young professionals in and out of the city. There's also a huge and thriving gay community in the city and the surrounding area. All things considered, the supposed conservatism of the south has not really made itself apparent to me as of yet. Granted, most of the people I have met so far are not from Georgia originally. They're imports from the north like myself.

Still, I encountered much more racism and backward thinking in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and not just in the rural areas. I have spent equal time on both sides of these states and within their cities, and by far have encountered more of this kind of play innocent, "I'm not a racist but..." kind of attitude that this bar owner is selling. It's not just the south folks. I would expect to see something similar right smack in the middle of Fell's Point in Baltimore or at some dive in Norristown.

That said, there's obviously a lot of folks in this area who agree with the bar owner. Two reasons: Until yesterday, the majority of votes were "yes" in the poll at the AJC website that asked if the tee was okay and the bar owner has completely sold out of the shirts and is currently filling a waiting list of orders.