"To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi." -William Faulkner (allegedly)
This well-known Faulkner quote just has a good ring to it, huh? I think so too, and so does everyone else and their mom in Mississippi. Lately, I've noticed this quote used just about everywhere. It's been proudly written as captions on Instagram photos, as titles of Pinterest boards, painted on canvases, used in speeches and essays, stamped on countless t-shirts, and I'll bet you a million dollars it's crocheted on a pillow somewhere.
Well, I don't like our use of Faulkner's quote one bit.
*Disclaimer before anyone gets their panties in a wad: I love Mississippi. I love the people, culture, and hospitality of the Magnolia State. It has been my home for the past three years and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Now, let me continue.
Understanding the world is not something to take lightly. Actually, I think we should ask ourselves if that's even truly possible. Even if you traveled to every continent and country, would it be possible to know and understand the passions and conflicts of every tribe and nation of our world which is made up of more than 7 billion humans? And what about everything that took place in our world before now? Could anyone ever know and understand all the things that happened over the past 200,000 years that archaeologists say humans have been on Earth? (Mississippi has only been around for 197 of those years.) And could anyone ever really comprehend the gravity (no pun intended) of the fact that our tiny little dot of a planet is part of a gigantic universe that’s outer edge is 15.5 billion light-years away? (One light-year is over 5 trillion miles, by the way.) My answer to these questions is “no”.
But more importantly, the way of thinking that stems from most Mississippian’s interpretation of Faulkner's quote is dangerous. The way we use this quote on our XL t-shirt frockets screams, “We’re center of the world! We’re most important! We know what we’re doing! So everyone else look at us so y’all can learn a little somethin’ about livin’ right.” That mindset is not healthy, and to be honest, not true. Education Week ranks Mississippi dead last in quality of K-12 education, U.S. News reports that Mississippi is the most obese state, and Poverty USA names Mississippi the poorest state with an overall poverty rate of 24.2%. And I should not even have to mention the role Mississippi played during the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. So no, we do not have it all figured out.
As I was doing research for this article, I sadly stumbled across this blog post written by Mississippian Alicia Barnes. She found that there is no hard evidence that Faulkner ever said or wrote these famous words. Another Mississippi writer named Willie Morris included the words in a New York Times book review as a paraphrase, not a quote. There is a chance he could have found that Faulkner said those words from a secondary source, but Morris and Faulkner were never in the same room together.
So, sorry to burst your bubble. But whether or not Faulkner did say (or convey) those words, I think there is something to take away from his famous quote. We just need to look at it differently.
To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi. Yes. If you want to get closer to understanding the world, you first have to understand what’s right in front of you. Before you try to understand the world, try to understand a place like Mississippi. Try to understand the complicated web of hospitality and hate, generosity and poverty, thoughtfulness and ignorance, good will and discrimination. If you can understand that, then move on to the world.
