He's not a native, he said, but sometimes he feels like one.
Peter Applebome-Trinity '71, reporter for The New York Times and a deprecatingly self-described Yankee-paid a visit to his alma mater Friday to take part in a day-long retreat comprising an afternoon panel discussion, which was closed to the media and public, that focused upon race relations and an evening speech that centered around his recently published book, "Dixie Rising: How the South is Shaping American Values, Politics and Culture."
The retreat was the third event of a four-part series that Campus Community Development, a division of the Office of Student Affairs, began last semester in an effort to maintain a healthy on-campus dialogue about race relations. Last semester, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and esteemed Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy spoke to members of the University community.
Although a New York City native, Applebome, former arts editor of The Chronicle, has lived in and reported on the South for the past 20 years: He began his career at a small-circulation newspaper in Corpus Christi, Texas. From there, he moved to Texas Monthly to The Dallas Morning News and, in 1986, to The Times as its Houston Bureau Chief. Ending his long-term stint in the Lone Star state, he moved about 10 years ago to Atlanta, where he took over as head of The Times' Southern Bureau. He assumed his current position as national education correspondent two years ago but remained in Atlanta.
During his 30-minute talk-originally slated to take place in Page Auditorium, but moved to a first-floor lounge in the Flowers Building because of a small audience size-Applebome, standing behind a high-backed chair covered in faded green upholstery, touched upon a number of aspects of southern culture.
Unequivocally, he said, the South is the "dominant gene of the body politic." Currently, he pointed out, the line of succession to the Office of the Presidency is chock full of southerners: President Bill Clinton of Arkansas, Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.).
"It's striking how much the country looks like the South," Applebome said, noting that both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were written by southerners and that 66 percent of the nation's first 13 presidents called the South home.
Applebome attributed the ubiquitousness of southern customs to large demographic shifts to the North and to abnormally high population growth rates along the southern tier. Between 1970 and 1990, for example, the South grew at twice the rate of the rest of the country. Today, Applebome analogized, if John Kennedy and Richard Nixon were to recreate the 1960 election, Nixon would emerge victorious due to the increased number of southern residents and, thus, electoral voters.
Despite the prominence of certain caveats of southern life, Applebome said, the South remains culturally "a colony of the rest of the country." Los Angeles and New York City lead the way in fashion and style, while southern cities harbor "slower, saner" mentalities. "I think it's a real problematic thing for the South to come up with its own identity," he said.
One area in which the South has led the way, however, is race relations, Applebome said. Although the South has plenty for which to atone, it knows better than the North how to think consciously about the racial dynamic. "People in the South know in their bones" that race relations are problematic, he said. Northerners may be able to identify racial constructs intellectually, Applebome continued, but they have a difficult time applying that knowledge to tenable situations.
John Reed-professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill whose book, "A Thousand and One Things Everyone Should Know About the South," Applebome referenced continually-said he enjoyed his friend's work not only because of its readability but also because of its thoroughness.
"He has wonderful conversations," said Reed, whose wife, Dale, co-authored their book. "He put in one book what people have been saying in bits and pieces for a long time. He put it all together and put it in a form that people want to read."
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