arizona southern style sweet tea revisited, or fecundmellow checks email

back before i was the blogstar you have grown to love, i wrote a piece about arizona sweet tea. see, there was a time when i was hopelessly addicted to the drink, and i used to spend a great deal of my money on it. one day, i critically observed the can of sweet tea i was drinking. if anything, i found it a bit problematic, and thought it an interesting exercise to write arizona an email about the image. honestly, i was hoping they'd send me a coupon for some free tea. but they didn't. instead, i simply posted the message i wrote arizona on my blog.

just yesterday, fecundmellow got a long comment about this entry. since that entry was written sooooo long ago, i thought i'd pull it out of the archives and give a more public response to "robert's" recent laments about my little piece. if you wanna see the original post to get more context, go here. (unfortunately, due to an error on my part, the original comments are no longer available.) if not, feel free to read robert's comment and my response below.

I was doing a Google search on Arizona Sweet Tea. Trying to find this stuff in New England is hard. Anyway, I came across your Blog and I was disappointed. I and three generations of my family were born and raised in the Deep South and let me tell you what; there’s more racism and prejudicial attitudes amongst the supposed elite and enlightened New Englanders that we live among than my family EVER experienced growing up in the South. What disturbs me is that I can’t believe a person of your obvious intelligence would pull “The Race Card” over a picture on a can of Tea. When people of ANY color think of Sweet Tea and the Deep South, the images that come to mind are Weeping Willow trees, lazy rivers, cotton & tobacco fields, Honeysuckle & Magnolia trees and yes; Plantations - big, white, beautiful, stately-looking Plantations. So, what picture did you think Arizona would print on their can for Southern Sweet Tea; the Sears Tower? Get a life, girl. One based on what's happening in THIS century would be best. Robert

robert: let me dignify your comment with a response.

I and three generations of my family were born and raised in the Deep South and let me tell you what; there’s more racism and prejudicial attitudes amongst the supposed elite and enlightened New Englanders that we live among than my family EVER experienced growing up in the South.
1) this post wasn't about racism. in fact, it was about an image on a can of tea and the loaded implications of that picture. in a nutshell: i deconstructed a tea can. now since you're a newbie, i'll go ahead and inform you that this blog is a whole lot of tongue-in-cheek. that said, the point of the post was to consider problematic pictures we let go unnoticed, and further to consider why we still hold onto images that 1) (continuously) position the south as some temporally stagnant other, and 2) affectionately look back at a time without considering everything that occurred during the period. meaning: what was necessary to construct this idyllic image?

2) no one is playing the 'what region is more racist?' game except maybe you. obviously there is racism everywhere. and in no way was i intimating that new englanders (or anyone not southern for that matter) were/are more or less racist than southerners. arizona's headquarters are in new york (a union state, or not the south last time i consulted a map), and they're the ones who ok'd the can, not southerners. but since you so mistakingly think i'm calling southerners racist, let me just say: i have plenty of venom for southerners, new englanders, middle westerners, and anybody else who dares discriminate on the basis of race. and, i'm not from nor have i lived in new england. but frankly, like i've said before, that wasn't the point of my post. stay on topic, playa.

What disturbs me is that I can’t believe a person of your obvious intelligence would pull “The Race Card” over a picture on a can of Tea. When people of ANY color think of Sweet Tea and the Deep South, the images that come to mind are Weeping Willow trees, lazy rivers, cotton & tobacco fields, Honeysuckle & Magnolia trees and yes; Plantations - big, white, beautiful, stately-looking Plantations. So, what picture did you think Arizona would print on their can for Southern Sweet Tea; the Sears Tower?
3) you're right, my intelligence is pretty obvious, so no argument there. and i wasn't pulling "the race card," i was critically observing a piece of merchandise. oprah calling her hermes denial her "crash moment" is playing the race card. me considering the societal undertones of an image on a can? hardly.

4) um...maybe that's how you and your three generations of family regard the south. but for others, that part of the country was a space for rampant terrorism for, like, lots and lots of years. so while you and huck finn ride down the fucking mississippi eating catfish and shit, others had experiences that were, i dunno, super waaay worse than nigger jim's, and were trying to get the fuck out of that bitch.

5) no, i wouldn't suggest the sears tower be on the can of some sweet tea. that'd be, like, i dunno, stupid. and since you've already claimed to see my alleged intelligence, i've no clue why you'd assert i'd make such a stupid suggestion. but your other options--the magnolias...lazy rivers...blahblahblah are all fine with me. it's just those "stately" plantations i have a problem with. because, like, you know, there was an institution put in place so that such "beautiful" and "white" places could exist.

Get a life, girl. One based on what's happening in THIS century would be best.
6) first of all, next time you call me girl i'ma jump through this computer and kick your dumb ass. i'm fucking 25, i've been getting visits from aunt flo for some time now. therefore, you will refer to me as a grown ass fucking woman. if you cannot remember to call me grown ass fucking woman, asshole will suffice.

while i'm out getting a life, why don't you get a clue? even if i tried my damndest to concentrate on the 5 years that make up this century, i'd prolly have to go back, iono, maybe to like the 1990s to explain some things going on in this young century. seems like you go to the robert richards skool of race in america. because it seems to me, in order to take your advice i'd have to ignore the historical issues that explain why people are in their present positions. besides, like i said, i was talking about a fucking tea can, not contemplating whether or not the south is (still) racist. but you went there, so i played along.

and instead of signing off by telling you to suck my dick, how about you go pick some strange fruit to nibble on from that there magnolia tree?

did you get that last line?

point: fecundmellow
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p.s. i know this response was a bit harsh, but i fucked up my knee rather badly, and it's making me wish i had a girlfriend, and therefore i am crankier than usual.

(yes, that was a shameless attempt at eliciting sympathy.)