The Bitter Southerner is an online media-space that publishes feature length stories and photographic essays about an often-overlooked aspect of Southern culture: the progressive South. In addition to its magazine-style content, the organization also produces a podcast, compiles videos, and curates a folklore project. The organization also maintains a social media presence. Its Facebook Group is an invitation-only space where contributors, who refer to each other as Cousins, gather to discuss everything from their affinity for Duke's Mayonnaise to regional music, literature, and art. Reece says that he and his colleagues launched The Bitter Southerner because they got "pissed off...Bitter as it were." Oddly, it was the lack of inclusion of a single Southern drinking establishment on Drinks International's list of the Top 50 bars in the world that pushed them to launch the publication. Of course this exclusion was not the only reason behind the site's creation. Instead, the perpetuation of Southern stereotypes was at the heart of the team's bitterness. With that in mind, the publication set out to do two key things: own the truths inscribed in those stereotypes while demonstrating that they conceal the region's diversity.
Mission
To more clearly articulate the publication's purpose, the organization crafted a set of "7 Tenets of a Better South" in 2018. Those tenets are:
In a Better South, every child would learn the true story of the American Civil War, unlike their ancestors. They would know our region fought to maintain one of the foulest, most unjust practices ever to pollute God’s earth. They would see no nobility in an ignoble fight. And they would know, consequently, the work of reconciliation must continue through their generation and beyond.
In a Better South, every person would respect the individuality of every other person. We said it this way when we wrote our vision statement four years ago: “The Bitter Southerner exists to support anyone who yearns to claim their Southern identity proudly and without shame — regardless of their age, race, gender, ethnic background, place of origin, politics, sexual orientation, creed, religion, or lack of religion.”
In a Better South, people of different colors and cultures would be unafraid to have difficult conversations, because they would know the bond of friendship requires true understanding — and some risk-taking to get there.
In a Better South, no credence would go to anyone who comes from a place of racism, homophobia, transphobia, or gender discrimination. An intolerant South, one that does not accept the basic equality of all people, can never be a Better South. Nor can it be a prosperous South — not when the fastest growing parts of its economy depend on a generation of young people who refuse to countenance intolerance.
A Better South would give no quarter to anyone who believes others — simply by nature of who they are — are inferior. We would see every human as equal in God’s eyes.
In a Better South, religious intolerance would have no place. No one ever wins when we fight about which God to pray to, or whether to pray to none at all.
In a Better South, our greatest celebrations would be reserved for the people who crossed old barriers to create the South’s greatest contributions to American culture. Folks like the black and white kids who mixed it up to invent soul music in Memphis and Muscle Shoals. Folks like the ones who first threw the okra into the gumbo.
Awards
for Foodways Writing: Shane Mitchell, “A Hunger for Tomatoes” 2019 James Beard Award for Profile Writing: Michael Adno, “The Short and Brilliant Life of Ernest Matthew Mickler” 2018 James Beard Award / M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award: Shane Mitchell, “Who Owns Uncle Ben?” 2016 James Beard Award for Profile Writing: Wendell Brock, “Christiane Lauterbach: The Woman Who Ate Atlanta”
