Numerous small towns in Dixie have undergone the tragic process of Americanization in recent decades. A short time ago there were thousands of culturally, architecturally and ethnically distinct Southern towns which reflected the regional and local culture and distinguished it from other regions of North America. Today far too many are shells of their former selves with just deteriorating Antebellum homes on Main Street as a reminder of better days. They have been wrecked by Americanization.
The transformation often begins with local, homegrown industry outsourced to the Third World. Sometimes it is replaced with an international company which brings in foreign executives and a chamber-of-commerce Republican-type value system. Generally though outsourced jobs are not replaced at all. Small local business dry up. Dollar stores catering to EBT customers appear. Indian-owned gas stations replace local stations. If there is a hotel invariably it also will become Indian-owned. Local restaurants are phased out and replaced by national chain fast food joints and cheap Chinese places. The local working poor population is put on the dole and replaced in the service industry by Mexican workers.
This is a sketch of the troubling and destructive process ravaging small Southern towns – a process which must be stopped and reversed if the South is to survive.
The pictures below are of New Ellenton, South Carolina. To be fair, the town has the best BBQ restaurants in the State: Carolina BBQ and Duke’s BBQ. They are the exception in that they have survived the destructive process of Americanization.
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