I was not born in Mississippi. I was born in Detroit. However, living in Mississippi for 12 years is long enough to become influenced and entranced by the culture, or the traditional way things are supposed to be.
However, as nice as Mississippi is to the people who are around me, there are still some pros and cons to living here from the perspective of a non-native.
Pro: Mississippi has a slow pace and calm lifestyle
If you come from a fast-paced lifestyle, like Detroit, you were probably surprised by how different living here is. The streets are not always backed up; they have highways instead of five-lane freeways. A suburban area is clearly suburban and quiet. You can find that suburb in close proximity to downtown and inner city areas. It only takes 15 minutes to get from inner city Jackson to almost any suburb. You cannot find a suburb that close in downtown Detroit. You have to drive at least 30 minutes before you get to one.
Suburbs also look different in Michigan than in Mississippi. Michigan suburbs are open; Mississippi suburbs are closed off and intimate. So if you want to raise a family in a nice calm neighborhood and you don’t want to stress about waking up extremely early every morning to get to work on time, then Mississippi is perfect.
Con: Mississippi has a slow pace and calm lifestyle
The lifestyle in Mississippi is so slow and calm that I noticed a lot of people in Mississippi that I meet -- who have long since graduated from college -- have never left, and if they did, it took years because they got comfortable. The lifestyle here is not good for people of certain talents and skills because Mississippi does not provide the means for it, for example, a career in the film industry. You can make some movies here, but you cannot really have a thriving film business because of the lack of diversity. Jackson’s downtown, compared to major metropolitan areas like Detroit, is not much of a downtown. It is more like a quiet Southfield, Michigan. Downtown Jackson is more like a business district than a busy bustling downtown area.
Pro: Meeting people is easy
Nine times out of ten, the people you meet in your area in Mississippi probably know each other. In a bigger city, it’ is not that easy for people to know someone from different schools and different cities. You don’t get the option to make many friends and find that close group that will stick with you for a long time. Mississippi is much more intimate, and the slow life style helps that.
Con: Although there is intimacy, there is little to no diversity
If you want to live in a place that is diverse, or you want your kids to grow up and attend schools with a diverse atmosphere -- and by diverse I mean cultural backgrounds and ethnicities -- Mississippi is not the place. When I was in Detroit, the schools I went to had Detroit natives of all cultures and ethnicities. However, the majority of the schools that I went to in Mississippi were 90 percent a one cultural background. This goes for colleges in Mississippi, as well.
Although there is a little more leg room for diversity, the diversity seems to come from non-natives and exchange students. High school in Mississippi is where I started to see race, instead of people with different cultural backgrounds. It is easier to see a person’s socioeconomic status based on their race, and to dislike that person for the same reason.
Pro: Tradition is strong
Detroit does not have that many traditions -- except maybe sports, theater, and buildings that they won’t tear down -- compared to Mississippi. Mississippi, on the other hand, has a ton of traditions they stick by. They are proud of their traditions, and pass them down through generations. However, Detroit is very verbal about their love for the city though, hence the phrase “Detroit vs. everybody!”
Con: Tradition is very strong
Traditions are really strong in Mississippi, and that makes it really hard for people to accept change, when change is needed. This even goes for things related to race. I know it is unspoken, and a lot of people have moved passed that, but if you have ever wondered why your high school only has five Black people and two Asians, or five white people and two Latinos, it is because segregation is an unspoken tradition. Not many people have chosen to merge with one another in schools or neighborhoods.
Even a person’s view of socioeconomic status is based on a tradition that the majority of one race lives in really nice homes and apartments, and the other does not. There are wealthy people of every culture in Mississippi, don’t get me wrong. That is just not the traditional way of the culture down here, and because of that, people grow to hate someone who has more, or think less of someone who has less. Even I have become guilty of seeing myself as inferior. That is not something I would want my kids to end up thinking as they grow up.
Socioeconomically, Detroit is much different. If you don’t believe me, visit apartment complex’s around Riverfront. If you want your kids to grow up in a neighborhood where positive traditions are stronger than negative traditions, I suggest any place, but Mississippi.
I hope this wasn’t too negative, and maybe some people have had similar experiences as I have. Maybe this might open some people’s eyes to what is around them. I may not return to Michigan, and I may not move to Georgia where my mom has relocated, but I know I do not want to spend the rest of my life in Mississippi.
