y'all ain't so bad

Two weeks in Baton Rouge, and I have already begun adopt speech patterns of the southerners. Most notably, I've embraced the wonderful pronoun that is y'all. Though generally plural, it can be used in the singular, it is easily possessive (y'all's), and is non-gender specific. It can also be converted a verb as in y'aller. (usage: Y'aller going to the store? Y’all’s beer is gone, get some more.)

That said, it has been described to me that South Louisiana is not the south, not in the Deliverance sense, anyway. There isn't very much overt racism (though I did hear someone use the term "Chinaman" for the first time in years), and the vast majority of people have all their teeth.

The state can be split in half, the northern half dominated by the Baptists, the southern by Catholics. There is a strong French influence, not only in New Orleans, but in Baton Rouge as well. There is a sizeable gay community here, something met with indifference by most people in the state. Certainly not what I would have expected. If I’d been sent to Mississippi, I suspect my experiences would be very different.