There are few places people like to shit on more than Florida. Florida jokes are low-hanging fruit that aren’t in any way enlightening, and never authored by the person spouting them. They are old prejudices, intentional prejudices – some of the same prejudices fostered in the Jim Crow era to get whites hating Blacks
Neko, thank you. I am a Floridian and it’s disheartening to be lumped into a very small fraction of idiots with big voices. Just as everywhere else, we have our stinkers, but by far, we are a very liberal and accepting state with many MANY lovely people. All over, not just in our cities. I’ve lived here since the 80s and although things have changed, it’s a beautiful place filled with beautiful hearts and minds and we deserve a little bit of love, too ❤️ It floored me after the pandemic how many of my favorite bands won’t even consider coming here. Bands I’ve supported forever made jokes about us! We have always supported musicians. We are some of the biggest fans out there. Just please don’t ignore us because we need what music has to offer, as well. Thank you again Neko. We saw two of your shows last week, Clearwater and Orlando and will catch you again next time, as we always do ❤️🙌🥰
Neko, I grew up in the Dotte (Kansas City, KS) and we were always the subject of insults and putdowns growing up. So thank you for seeing all of us from places that seem undesirable to those who believe themselves elite. We're all people and doing the best we can with what we've got.
I seldom comment on anything because I don't feel like I have anything to offer over the chatter, but I want to thank you. I'm a third-generation Floridian. Folks forget the first incorporated Black city in the United States is Eatonville, the place Zora Neale Hurston loved dearly and wrote about. I grew up less than five miles from there.
"Springtime in Florida is not a matter of peeping violets or bursting buds merely. It is a riot of color in nature—glistening green leaves, pink, blue, purple, yellow blossoms that fairly stagger the visitor from the north."
I hate feeling slightly embarrassed to admit I'm from Florida because of the reactions I've received. I worry about my people because a minority is imposing its will on the majority. But mostly, I wish people knew how special and unique the state is.
My first experience of America was six months spent in Florida in 1993. Lifelong friends made. I absolutely loved it and still do. I know there are problems, but I live in Bolton: a town consistently rated as the worst in England. My hiking photos beg to differ. Don't believe the hype...
I, too, spent a lot of time in FL (Miramar, to be precise) while growing up, and my mother and brother (both retirees) now live there full time. There are things I love about FL, and things I hate. You capture a number of those in your post. A critical one that you missed is that a few years ago Florida voters approved a resolution that restored voting rights to felons following their release. Kudos to Florida voters! But, almost immediately, the FL legislature and governor imposed all kinds of bizarre regulations that effectively negated the will of the voters (and the rights of the formerly incarcerated). Truly despicable.
A great reminder, for all folks who judge states by the biggest assholes. I live in Montana, a state everyone loves to project their Western fantasies onto, currently in the midst of some real growing pains. The working class is getting squeezed hardcore and it's tough on our communities. People are doing good work everywhere. So thanks for this message that good people are just trying to live and get by. Solidarity not division.
Thank you for this truth! I'm from and live in Orlando still. The number of jerks is increasing, just like it has all over. This isn't new--it's just that people's suppressed assholery has found permission to emerge from the stinking pit thanks to people like Don and Ron. But there are plenty of folks like those you wrote about who continue to inspire, fight for what's right, and DGAF what stands in their way. That's what keeps me from falling into despair. We've only got each other! Appreciate your voice.
I live in the neighboring state of Georgia, another shit-on state. We have all kinds of lovely people here, and a lot of them are suffering. Forgotten people, camping out under bridges and taking shelter anywhere they can, and caring people who try like hell to get things to change. It sets my skin on fire when I hear lazy shit talk spewed out everywhere about the people of Florida. I know my neighbor, dear Florida, and I love the people there. Do we shit on the people of other countries whose leaders run ripshod over them? Anyway, this has been a big giant Great Dane of a pet peeve for me most of my adult life. Thank you for addressing it!
Thanks Neko, so much. I didn’t know you’d lived here. Many of us are torn between staying where we were born and trying to fix things, or running away to somewhere else that might be slightly less...exciting, but where we won’t see the manatees and the shore birds and the ghost crab parade, or fall asleep listening to the waves. There’s also a really generous community of kind and accomplished musicians here who are heavily invested in kids. Now I can tell mine, “Neko Case lived here.”
I went to Florida a lot growing up because my grandma lives there (in Jacksonville, btw). While I live on the East Coast now, I spent my first 30+ years in St. Louis, a city that routinely gets shit on but has a lot of lovely people trying to make things better (including my cousin Anne, an alderwoman in the City of St. Louis, and my friend Sarah, a BLM activist who just became a city councilwoman in a St. Louis suburb). Missouri, like Florida, used to be considered a bellwether state, but has swung further to the right in the last fifteen years, mostly because of gerrymandering. I hate it when people in blue state cities (all of which have their own red parts) think people from red states are all ignorant, racist people, when it's much more complicated than that (plenty of ignorant, racist people in blue states, too!). I could go on, but this comment is getting super long, so I'll just end it here.
For every loudmouth sucking all the oxygen out of the room -- or the state -- I'd like to think there's countless more trying to live the most constructive lives possible, despite the increasing hardships. They're the true Floridians.
Didn't know about your recent Florida shows, although I took Amtrak to Orlando for your soul-satisfying 2009 gig. Know it's a bit of a chore reaching Fort Lauderdale/Palm Beach, but if enough of us raise our hands, would you please consider a future show that far down?
Thank you for always seeing more. I'm a Californian and my partner, a geologist who lost his job in the pandemic, moved to Florida for a job nearly two years ago. At that time, it was all about self-preservation, but he also grew up in Gainesville and did his undergraduate work there, so it was like going home in a way. In South Florida, he's about as far away from me as he can be in the continental U.S., and of course I was disheartened for several reasons at the time. But I was, and will always be, more disheartened by the incredulous and smug reactions my announcement garnered in some of the most "tolerant" corners. "Ew, Florida????!!!" I try not to get too defensive (my friends know who I am and what I value) but, rather, via photographs and stories, keep sharing the beauty and magic I experience when I'm there - beauty and magic anyone can experience with a curious mind and open heart. One huge boon for this long-distance relationship is that I now work from anywhere (another result of the pandemic), so I'm heading there in early March for a month. All you beautiful Florida birds (looking at you, limpkins), I'm coming for you - with binoculars! Neko - may I recommend a favorite, passionate botanist who is based in the Florida panhandle. I'm thinking you'd enjoy her work. Her IG page is a favorite. https://www.instagram.com/lilliumbyrd/
As a person who hails from Alabama (and my sister grew up in Cocoa Beach, too!) I appreciate this sentiment. I'm always defending the south. It's full of amazing people of all types, and certainly the rednecks make a lot of noise (and influence policy decisions), but that doesn't mean they are the majority. The sad thing is that a lot of the wonderful folks in the south do get isolated and targeted by the shitty policies and cultural norms in place around them. It's enough to make you start to lose hope. But then you visit a place like Wakulla Springs like I did last summer, and everything feels magical and wonderful again.
Neko, thank you. I am a Floridian and it’s disheartening to be lumped into a very small fraction of idiots with big voices. Just as everywhere else, we have our stinkers, but by far, we are a very liberal and accepting state with many MANY lovely people. All over, not just in our cities. I’ve lived here since the 80s and although things have changed, it’s a beautiful place filled with beautiful hearts and minds and we deserve a little bit of love, too ❤️ It floored me after the pandemic how many of my favorite bands won’t even consider coming here. Bands I’ve supported forever made jokes about us! We have always supported musicians. We are some of the biggest fans out there. Just please don’t ignore us because we need what music has to offer, as well. Thank you again Neko. We saw two of your shows last week, Clearwater and Orlando and will catch you again next time, as we always do ❤️🙌🥰
love this message of compassion! you rule!
Neko, I grew up in the Dotte (Kansas City, KS) and we were always the subject of insults and putdowns growing up. So thank you for seeing all of us from places that seem undesirable to those who believe themselves elite. We're all people and doing the best we can with what we've got.
I seldom comment on anything because I don't feel like I have anything to offer over the chatter, but I want to thank you. I'm a third-generation Floridian. Folks forget the first incorporated Black city in the United States is Eatonville, the place Zora Neale Hurston loved dearly and wrote about. I grew up less than five miles from there.
"Springtime in Florida is not a matter of peeping violets or bursting buds merely. It is a riot of color in nature—glistening green leaves, pink, blue, purple, yellow blossoms that fairly stagger the visitor from the north."
I hate feeling slightly embarrassed to admit I'm from Florida because of the reactions I've received. I worry about my people because a minority is imposing its will on the majority. But mostly, I wish people knew how special and unique the state is.
My first experience of America was six months spent in Florida in 1993. Lifelong friends made. I absolutely loved it and still do. I know there are problems, but I live in Bolton: a town consistently rated as the worst in England. My hiking photos beg to differ. Don't believe the hype...
A particularly interesting post, Neko!
I, too, spent a lot of time in FL (Miramar, to be precise) while growing up, and my mother and brother (both retirees) now live there full time. There are things I love about FL, and things I hate. You capture a number of those in your post. A critical one that you missed is that a few years ago Florida voters approved a resolution that restored voting rights to felons following their release. Kudos to Florida voters! But, almost immediately, the FL legislature and governor imposed all kinds of bizarre regulations that effectively negated the will of the voters (and the rights of the formerly incarcerated). Truly despicable.
#That's what minority-rule looks like.
A great reminder, for all folks who judge states by the biggest assholes. I live in Montana, a state everyone loves to project their Western fantasies onto, currently in the midst of some real growing pains. The working class is getting squeezed hardcore and it's tough on our communities. People are doing good work everywhere. So thanks for this message that good people are just trying to live and get by. Solidarity not division.
Thank you for this truth! I'm from and live in Orlando still. The number of jerks is increasing, just like it has all over. This isn't new--it's just that people's suppressed assholery has found permission to emerge from the stinking pit thanks to people like Don and Ron. But there are plenty of folks like those you wrote about who continue to inspire, fight for what's right, and DGAF what stands in their way. That's what keeps me from falling into despair. We've only got each other! Appreciate your voice.
I live in the neighboring state of Georgia, another shit-on state. We have all kinds of lovely people here, and a lot of them are suffering. Forgotten people, camping out under bridges and taking shelter anywhere they can, and caring people who try like hell to get things to change. It sets my skin on fire when I hear lazy shit talk spewed out everywhere about the people of Florida. I know my neighbor, dear Florida, and I love the people there. Do we shit on the people of other countries whose leaders run ripshod over them? Anyway, this has been a big giant Great Dane of a pet peeve for me most of my adult life. Thank you for addressing it!
Thanks Neko, so much. I didn’t know you’d lived here. Many of us are torn between staying where we were born and trying to fix things, or running away to somewhere else that might be slightly less...exciting, but where we won’t see the manatees and the shore birds and the ghost crab parade, or fall asleep listening to the waves. There’s also a really generous community of kind and accomplished musicians here who are heavily invested in kids. Now I can tell mine, “Neko Case lived here.”
Thank you for coming back! You promised a few years ago in Ybor that you wouldn't wait so long to return and fulfilled it with an amazing show!
I went to Florida a lot growing up because my grandma lives there (in Jacksonville, btw). While I live on the East Coast now, I spent my first 30+ years in St. Louis, a city that routinely gets shit on but has a lot of lovely people trying to make things better (including my cousin Anne, an alderwoman in the City of St. Louis, and my friend Sarah, a BLM activist who just became a city councilwoman in a St. Louis suburb). Missouri, like Florida, used to be considered a bellwether state, but has swung further to the right in the last fifteen years, mostly because of gerrymandering. I hate it when people in blue state cities (all of which have their own red parts) think people from red states are all ignorant, racist people, when it's much more complicated than that (plenty of ignorant, racist people in blue states, too!). I could go on, but this comment is getting super long, so I'll just end it here.
For every loudmouth sucking all the oxygen out of the room -- or the state -- I'd like to think there's countless more trying to live the most constructive lives possible, despite the increasing hardships. They're the true Floridians.
Didn't know about your recent Florida shows, although I took Amtrak to Orlando for your soul-satisfying 2009 gig. Know it's a bit of a chore reaching Fort Lauderdale/Palm Beach, but if enough of us raise our hands, would you please consider a future show that far down?
Thank you for always seeing more. I'm a Californian and my partner, a geologist who lost his job in the pandemic, moved to Florida for a job nearly two years ago. At that time, it was all about self-preservation, but he also grew up in Gainesville and did his undergraduate work there, so it was like going home in a way. In South Florida, he's about as far away from me as he can be in the continental U.S., and of course I was disheartened for several reasons at the time. But I was, and will always be, more disheartened by the incredulous and smug reactions my announcement garnered in some of the most "tolerant" corners. "Ew, Florida????!!!" I try not to get too defensive (my friends know who I am and what I value) but, rather, via photographs and stories, keep sharing the beauty and magic I experience when I'm there - beauty and magic anyone can experience with a curious mind and open heart. One huge boon for this long-distance relationship is that I now work from anywhere (another result of the pandemic), so I'm heading there in early March for a month. All you beautiful Florida birds (looking at you, limpkins), I'm coming for you - with binoculars! Neko - may I recommend a favorite, passionate botanist who is based in the Florida panhandle. I'm thinking you'd enjoy her work. Her IG page is a favorite. https://www.instagram.com/lilliumbyrd/
As a person who hails from Alabama (and my sister grew up in Cocoa Beach, too!) I appreciate this sentiment. I'm always defending the south. It's full of amazing people of all types, and certainly the rednecks make a lot of noise (and influence policy decisions), but that doesn't mean they are the majority. The sad thing is that a lot of the wonderful folks in the south do get isolated and targeted by the shitty policies and cultural norms in place around them. It's enough to make you start to lose hope. But then you visit a place like Wakulla Springs like I did last summer, and everything feels magical and wonderful again.
I needed to hear this. THANK YOU.