The Culture
The culture of Birmingham encompasses so many unique things that make it a one-of-a-kind southern city. I can envision the children outside playing and riding their bikes, while the old folks are sitting on the porch in their rockers swapping stories about “the good ol' days.” Also weaved into the culture of Birmingham is the food. Birmingham is just far enough south for the best fried chicken, and nowhere near the north so it definitely will be seasoned well. It is a place where the word “ain’t” followed by “no” is socially acceptable. In writing about Birmingham, one has to address the Southern religious association there is with being a Bible Belt city. Growing up, I didn’t know much about the Bible Belt, but I knew church. It was a culture for my family. I could remember all those Saturday nights when I would ask my grandma, “MaBetty, you going to church in the morning?” She would respond, “Yeah, I will be there if the creek don’t rise.” While none of us ever knew what that meant, we just knew we better be in church that next morning.
I don’t dwell on the history of my city, because it only makes me unwilling to acknowledge progress. The sound of the blast still echoes in the minds of some people who lived here during the time of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. The significance of that day will always have a pulse that beats in the heart of the city. The history books have taught me about the racial separation my city once saw. I will never forget the day when I was sitting at my grandmother’s house and we were talking about her love for the city. “I love it because even though at one point the city was segregated, now, I’m living through times when I can begin random conversations about anything with anybody when I go to the clinic at Cooper Green,” my grandmother said. “I don’t care what color they are, I will talk to anybody.” Times have changed here and people have not forgotten the history of my city, but have learned from it to continue to progress.
On First 48, the crime show, they portray homicide after homicide and disguise the beauty here in a televised mask. These are the things that some may find discouraging about my city, but growing up I began to see past them. I chose to instead focus on the medical research efforts of the doctors at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the efforts of the Division of Youth Services to place high schoolers in summer jobs. The people here know the definition of struggle and soon I began to understand it more and more. As a child in Birmingham, the city gave me people that changed my life. It is the hometown of my father, whose facial features I can’t even begin to construct in my head. It also has given me hope by seeing the beauty of the struggle from those around me including my mother.
The next post talks about family and I give some personal reflections...CHECK BACK SOON!!!
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