Response: Dying for Dixie

I was actually really surprised when reading this chapter. Although I was fully aware that racial conflicts were still prevalent in modern society, it still came as a shock to read about the violence and prejudice between the races, predominantly that of the white folks.

In my eyes, there was a huge difference between the way in which both racial groups handled the murder of Westerman. The whites took the situation to the extreme by glorifying Westerman's death as that of a Confederate who died for the "cause". Further, the fact that Westerman was hardly affiliated with any of the Confederate groups, let alone the Confederate cause, made even more ridiculous the fact that whites deemed Westerman a martyr. Throughout reading the passage, I was infuriated with the righteous attitude the whites displayed after Westerman was shot. No politeness and no civility. They didn't even think about the idea that maybe Westerman could have been half at fault.

Not only was I surprised at the behavior of the whites after the incident, the way the blacks acted was dumbfounding. Contrasting to how the whites acted, the black community, at least according to Horwitz, were civil and quiet in there response to the murder of Westerman, the conviction of Morrow and the hatred to them expressed by the whites. Morrow seemed to be sorry for his murder of Westerman and although the community didn't condone the actions of Morrow, they supported him as best they could, without being rude to the whites.