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ing the personal and social environment, produce changes in the way
people think.
When Zinn applies this body of theory specifically to the race
problem in the South, his optimism is supported by many specific exam–
ples of changes already wrought in that region. Though the white
Southerner, Zinn tells us, does care about segregation, he cares about
other things more-about his job, staying out of jail, the approval of
his neighbors, community peace, keeping educational and entertainment
facilities open. Furthermore, the mystique which sees the South as
utterly different from the rest of the nation, is mistaken. The South
may be racist, provincial, conservative, fundamentalist, nativist, violent,
conformist and militarist, but these are national not merely regional
qualities, American not Southern genes. Sectional differences, in other
words, are differences of degree not kind.
Zinn argues this position brilliantly and with solid evidence. Only
one reluctant reservation is necessary. That is, whether his optimistic
diagnosis is applicable everywhere in the South. When he says the white
Southerner has "no special encumbrances that cannot be thrust aside,"
I doubt
if
this is equally true for all Southerners. Perhaps Atlantans
have "no special encumbrances," but can the same be said about the
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