Thank you for this enlightened piece. I too feel my teeth gnashing at the twang of southern speech, even though I spent most of my youth living in the South, born of a southern mother who attempted to infuse all her religious and racist biases into her kids. I taught myself to speak without a trace of that accent. It's very difficult to "change one's mind" this way, and I'm still working to get over this. My southern friends will appreciate it! Nice work. Thank you!