Mississippi Cliches

The Netflix documentary series Last Chance U offers a behind-the-scenes look at the players, coaches, and staff members at the most successful junior college football team in Mississippi, the East Mississippi Lions. The show sugar coats nothing: players’ troubled pasts, coaches’ reliance on expletives to make their points, the degree of support required to get some players through classes–all these things form the nucleus of each episode. The pacing is good; the cinematography is graceful; the overall impression is positive.

However, the show’s produces couldn’t resist dipping into land of cotton cliches every once in a while: there are obligatory scenes of a gospel choir, for instance, and there’s the occasional smattering of blues. So I’m curious: what would make your list of Mississippi cliches?

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24 Responses to Mississippi Cliches

  1. Brianna Ladnier says:

    1. The Confederate Flag
    2. Trucks
    3. HillBillies/ People with REALLY heavy Southern Accents
    4. The Churches
    5. Hatred in our state

    Literally, if you type just Mississippi into YouTube, the top things are as follows:
    -a heritage vs hate video
    -a song
    -a documentary full of the things I listed above
    -States are Banning Travel To Mississippi

    More include:
    -Mississippi’s Slavery and Secession*
    -Righteous Defiance in Mississippi**
    (Opening scene in this is a Christian girl complaining that she is being oppressed and other religions shouldn’t be able to “tear down what all the founding fathers built”)
    -Mississippi Delta Poverty***
    -Mississippi Anti-Gay Tourism Video!****

    *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3CFD2RRF80
    **https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCqecsNQE6g
    ***https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-pkSu9ORo0
    ****https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqASSN5S2CI

  2. Kendall Wells says:

    1. The land mass between New Orleans, LA and Mobile, Al.
    2. Being apart of the “Bible Belt”
    3. “Uneducated, obese hillbillies”
    4. Not a cliche, but it wouldn’t be Mississippi without cold sweet tea.

  3. Pal P says:

    1) Uneducated
    2) The confederate flag
    3) Racism
    4) Red necks
    5) Obesity

  4. Vera L. Taire says:

    When I think of a typical mississippi cliche, I think of all the run ins I’ve had with northerners. They almost always expect me to be uncivilized, illiterate, and extraordinarily polite. Newsflash- you can’t **** on a southerner because of stereotypes you assume to be true and accept them to take it. It’s also inexplicable that racism will be brought up, as well as the weather. Common clichés also include a church on every corner, as well as an active KKK branch. The food we eat is all fried- and we invented fried Oreos and fried butter. There’s a reason we have an obesity epidemic.
    Teen pregnancy rates are rising, mostly due to our complete lack of any other form of entertainment- excluding hunting and fishing.
    I think it’s interesting to see all of the cliches laid out, because there’s a grain of truth in every stereotype.

  5. Mariana Strawn says:

    There are many things that are stereotyped in the south, these are just some of the few I have heard of from my trips up north.
    1. Extremely heavy accents
    2.Extremely polite
    3. Fried food
    4. Obesity
    5. Racism
    6. Supporters of the Confederacy
    7. ‘Backwards’ or slow with technological advancements
    8. Terrible education
    9. High teen pregnancy
    10. Churches everywhere (The Bible Belt)
    11. The Blues music

  6. Sabrina Solomon says:

    In my opinion, typical Mississippi cliches would include:
    1. southern hospitality
    2. a huge amount of racism
    3. the food that apparently makes us fat
    4. and finally how “Godly” we are

  7. Leigh Motes says:

    1. Mud riding
    2. Four wheelers
    3. Hunting
    4. Uneducated people
    5. Racism
    6. Accents
    7. Farms (cows, horses, and donkeys)
    8. Sweet Tea

  8. Kenadi Freeman says:

    So many clichés exist in Mississippi. A few of the most typical are as follows:
    1. Everyone is obese because we fry everything.
    2. Every white person in Mississippi is racist.
    3. Rednecks’ catch phrase is “Hold my beer, watch this.”
    4. Sweet tea is the house beverage.
    5. Highest teen pregnancy rate.
    6. You can recognize Mississippians from their heavy southern accents.
    7. Jacked up trucks.

  9. Devon M says:

    There are many things that I think of when I hear the words “Mississippi Cliche.”
    1. There is no such things as sweet tea… if you even say the words unsweet tea you are shunned
    2. BIG LIFTED PICKUP TRUCKS
    3. The Bible Belt
    4. Fried everything- from okra to chicken to pickles
    5. Rednecks that do nothing but drink and go to football games
    6. Obese people that have children in their teens
    7. The thought that everyone has been to visit Elvis Presley’s birthplace.
    8. Deep southern accents that get mistaken quite normally for the cliche Texan
    9. Everyone here is racist
    10. We all have a 1.5 GPA
    11. The word “ya’ll”
    12. The THOUGHT of even saying “maam” (from the thoughts of a northerner)

  10. DeeDee says:

    Well, where do I start?

    1. Racism, is a big one, and also one of the truer ones.
    2. Excessive use of sugar, salt, hot sauce, and fried foods.
    3. Illiteracy and poor education.
    4. Being “behind the times”.
    5. Being FAT.

  11. Kayla Patel says:

    1. Fried everything
    2. Uneducated
    3. Rednecks
    4. High teen pregnancy
    5. High high school dropouts
    6. Sweet tea

  12. AK Mynatt says:

    All you need to do is think of a family gathering here in Mississippi. You have Uncle Jerry grasping a glass of iced tea in his right hand and a can of Copenhagen in his left. Grandma Margaret is baking her award-winning pecan pie in the kitchen. Oh, and you can’t forget the abundance of grandchildren running around barefoot with fat bellies and incoherent accents.

  13. Aurelia Caine says:

    Common Mississippi Cliches
    1. Sweet tea
    2. Anything Fried (including vegetables)
    3. Everyone’s obese
    4. No education/ illiterate
    5. “Country” accent
    6. Racism
    7. Rednecks
    8. Bible Belt

  14. Briana Johnston says:

    When I think of Mississippi cliches, I think of sitting and relaxing in a rocking chair on the front porch (the most important part of the house here) drinking some sweet tea. There are negatives cliches too, such as the low education level, the rednecks, and the racism.

  15. Steven says:

    Just for the pure fun, I will treat a cliche the same thing as a stereotype. Most stereotypes arose from the reason that they used to happen, and I believe they are worth mentioning.
    Some cliches include fat, uneducated, bigoted people. These people may embrace the Confederate culture, proudly hanging their flags while claiming that there is no racist sentiment embedded in it. They also have an affinity for big trucks and boots. Religious fundamentalism is also commonly traced to places such as Mississippi, where homophobic rhetoric is often thrown around. Some other “cliches” include people being insufficient in the number of teeth they have. When southern jokes are being told, another common theme is the incestual nature of hillbillies. While many view the south as a joke or the butt of many jokes, it is only when one experiences the south that they know that all these things are true and quite depressing.

  16. Kamal Bhalla says:

    I consider sweet tea, saying “y’all”, eating fried chicken and catfish, loving (college and high school) football, rednecks, people that are mostly obese, and Bible-“obsessed” people everywhere here in Mississippi. But honestly, people around my age usually say how Mississippi is a living “hell” yet I think that it being in Mississippi can encourage one to see the other things outside and comparing and contrasting them.

  17. Jagger Riggle says:

    When I think of Mississippi clichés/stereotypes, I usually think of things similar to this.
    1. Thick Southern Accents
    2. A lot of farm land
    3. Churches everywhere
    4. Racism
    5. Deep fried and double deep fried food that should not be deep fried at all
    6. Overweight people
    7. Little education
    8. “FOOTBALL!”
    9. No shoes
    10. Pickup Trucks
    11. Four wheelers
    12. Mud, mud, and more mud
    13. Rain and humidity
    14. High heat

  18. Amber Jackson says:

    Mississippi cliches do hold a lot of truth in them. Of course, there is always an exception to something but for the most part, I’ve seen most of these cliches everyone’s mentioned below during my childhood. There are reasons as to why we are one of lowest educated states and one of the highest rates of obesity and teen pregnancy. Majority of the people I’ve went to school with in the past years face these problems because their parents faced and never overcame these horrible realities. The parent had a child at a young age and saw it unnecessary or physically impossible to pursue a higher education. The child, looking up to the parent, sees nothing wrong with the situation and therefore strives(or eventually becomes) their parent. This turns into a vicious cycle that is complicated/ very difficult to escape without being properly informed or exposed on how to do so. I don’t think that it’s necessarily anyone’s fault that these cliches exist. It truly depends on the environment you’re raised in and the amount of opportunities that were presented for you to succeed.

  19. Brent Styles says:

    My list of Mississippi cliches includes:
    Racism
    Obesity
    Lack of wealth
    Poor education
    and, in summary, behind the times
    I realize that all of the cliches listed are negative, and I believe that most of the country truly sees Mississippi this way. Even though most of these are partially or even completely true, I see some good in Mississippi>

  20. Raymond Z says:

    Usually cliches in Mississippi are mostly negative. Obese people, uneducated, racists, STD infested state, poverty, and rising teen pregnancy rate caused by electing conservative politicians who try the same policies that has failed in the past. However, there are positive or neutral cliches of Mississippi that gets overlooked by the negative aspects of Mississippi. One example, the rivalry between the rebels and the bulldogs. The rivalry between these teams is pretty strong, especially seeing a bunch of logos of Ole Miss or Mississippi State. Another example, everyone is religious in Mississippi. Most of Mississippians are religious, and most of those religious people are Christian.

  21. Erin Owens says:

    Common things I’ve heard in reference to Mississippi
    -obese
    -Confederate flag waving rednecks
    -uneducated
    -devout church goers
    -constantly lagging behind in everything
    And finally “Do you wear shoes?”

  22. Jackson Sparkman says:

    Mississippi Cliche’s are
    -obesity
    -constant church going
    -older peoples
    -lots of camouflage, and other “redneck” signs
    -illiterate peoples

  23. Shuchi Patel says:

    – bad education
    – high illiteracy rates
    – obesity
    – RACIST
    – thinking people drink sweet tea all the time (I drink it like twice a year)

    Also, I agree with Jack.

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