Ask someone outside of North Carolina what they think about the state and the first things that come to mind have are negative stereotypes that have been broadcasted all over media, especially recently. We North Carolinian's have been getting a bad rep, due to causes that most of us don’t even agree with, and I’m here to address the bad stigma we’ve been getting. Such a large percentage of those in North Carolina do not following the stereotypes the state has been given lately. Here are a few things to which I defy the stereotypes of being from North Carolina.

I’m not full of hate and discrimination.

North Carolina has been in the limelight recently since the governor Pat McCory passed HB2, more popularly called the bathroom bill. This law has made our state a joke and quite frankly it has taken our state back in time, I cannot believe that something so discriminatory was even passed. So please do not judge all of us for the actions of our politicians, they do not represent the views of a huge majority of our state’s population.

I’m not a redneck.

Now I understand this is a blanket stereotype given to most southern states, but I am shocking not one. Seriously, there are rednecks everywhere in the United States, they are not unique to North Carolina. So we do have rednecks, but it’s not a unanimous trait for everyone. We don’t go tromping around in boots and cowboy hats, I feel like this is probably more of another states stereotype (cough, cough Texas), unless you’re at any, I do mean any, country concert then there will be literally hordes of boots and hats. Oh and we have teeth, nice ones at that, we have great dentistry schools (actually two now) so our teeth shouldn’t be a stereotype for whatever reason that is.

I’m not uneducated.

Now I do understand where this stereotype could be coming from... our public education system does seem to be a mess. We have some seriously underpaid teachers and a school system that does kind of suck, but there are some truly amazing public education teachers out there who work very hard to educate NC’s youth. With the amount of colleges and universities in the state, (hello Duke and Chapel Hill), higher education shouldn’t even be an issue (however, intelligence is highly debatable).

It’s important when you think about the stereotypes of North Carolina, that you remember that they are in fact stereotypes, that are usually based off of false generalizations. I love the state I’ve grown up in and it kills me that people have such negative views of the state that they would consider boycotting it. North Carolina is a beautiful state and is somewhere I have loved my whole life, and putting the bad rep behind you should give yourself a chance to love it, too.