Mississippi has been the whipping boy of the liberal media for decades. When the states are ranked in terms of education, healthcare, or quality of life, Mississippi is often ranked near the bottom.
Moreover, white Mississipians are often caricatured as narrow-minded, uneducated, and racist. Hilary Clinton would probably say the people of our state are at the very bottom of her “basket of deplorables.” And the media elites might well point to Mississippi as the state where all those “white Christian nationalists” are clustered.
I think the widespread prejudice against Mississippi is unfair. Mississippi has a rich literary and musical heritage, which is too often disregarded. The state has produced several famous writers, including Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Richard Ford, and Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner. The state is the birthplace of the blues and boasts such famous musical artists as Elvis Presley. Tammy Wynette, Jimmy Buffett, Sam Cooke, Muddy Waters, and Faith Hill.
Even in the field of education, where Mississippi is almost universally disparaged, the Magnolia State is doing pretty well. A California organization recently pointed out that Mississippi’s NAEP reading scores were slightly better than California’s, even though California’s per-pupil expenditures are twice as high as Mississippi’s.
Of course, every region of America has distinctive attractions, but Mississippi’s are often overlooked. The state’s cost of living and housing costs are below the national average. The climate is benign, and the Mississippi legislature recently passed a law phasing out the state income tax.
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