Dying for Dixie

Grant Garrity

Per. 1, 3

In “Dying for Dixie,” author Tony Horwitz travels to the town of Guthrie Kentucky to explore the murder of Michael Westerman. Many events involving hate crimes and racial disputes had been occurring for a long time in this town, but even more  after the death of Mr. Westerman. It seems as if the “war” never ended. The war I am talking about is the war between blacks and whites. This all started after the south’s grave defeat in the Civil War. They are thought to have never recovered from this terrible loss. Instead of seeking out a war between states again, the war has developed into a war against race.

             When 4 black teenagers were at a local gas station, Michael Westerman drove up in his truck, with a confederate flag flying off the back. What were his intentions of flying this flag, other than to provoke violence? Or was he trying to provoke someone? When Mr. Westerman was supposedly shouting racial slurs to the black teens, they began to chase after him in a car. This resulted in Damien, the oldest of the four, pulling out his gun and shooting Mr. Westerman in the heart. Someone doesn’t pull out a gun unless they are provoked. So what this comes down to is that verbal harm can result in physical harm.  The KKK is a good example of this. They harm people that are different to them. During they day, they are average people. By night, they are completely different people.

Maria Eskridge was the clerk at the front desk at the local motel where author Tony Horwitz stayed for a majority of his time in Guthrie. He ends up talking to her about the Westerman shooting, and finding out a lot about the town before it all happened. He finds out that the town was not very fond of blacks. The pool at her motel used to always be crowd on the hot summer days, and it was where all the whites would hang out and cool off. Well one day she said, two black kids decided to jump in the pool and it was like someone sent an electrical shock through the water, because all of the whites jumped right out, she exclaimed.  There were many instances where verbal abuses towards blacks were exchanged. One instance, was when Mr. Westerman supposedly used racial slurs towards the black kids in the gas station. There are two sides to the story, but I can see him doing that to aggravate someone. Another instance where racial slurs were exchanged, was when Tony chose to go into a local bar, and one of the locals was very short tempered and was sort of bullying Tony. When tony asks one of the locals what “FTW” was, he stood up off his stool and got in Tony’s face and said, “who’s asking” in a violent manner. Another man who is looking over his shoulder as he writes down what the other man said rips a couple of pages out of his notebook. The people in the town don’t like outsiders coming into their town and getting in their business. They like to keep to themselves.

            The war that is going on is not a fighting war and it may not be a verbal war. It is about different types of people that have different opinions. Good examples of a group of people that have different opinions are the KKK. “ I WANT YOU FOR THE ALMIGHTY KU KLUX KLAN!” the words of the Klan members as Tony comes across a rally to get people in the town to join. During the day they may come across as nice people when they are dressed in nice church clothes but at night, its like those robes have a part of the devil in them making the bad flow right through their veins. From the cross burnings to the lynching’s the outbursts of these members would surprise anyone who saw. The Klan in the past was not as bad as they are now but it’s amazing to see what they have become. Groups like these are often not supported by many people because people want change and want to try and pave over how bad we treated people in the past.  Racism is still a large problem here in the United States to day and racism is one of the main reasons why this war is still going on.

Verbal and physical abuses are two possible ways how a war can get started. In the town of Guthrie these two things are still going on. People are still aggravated about what happened and others still think the same about the other race. I personally do not think this will ever change in the south or anywhere else for that matter because not every person will always get along.

Horwitz, Tony. Dying for Dixie. Confederates In The Attic. Pantheon, 1998. Print.