Civil War and NASCAR
The last battle of the Amercia Civil War is being fought in of all places Staten Island, the forgotten borough of New York City. That middle and class working enclave famous only because it is just a ferry ride away from Manhattan Island. Staten Island is rarely thought of, no TV shows and movies are set there. No comic book superheroes call it their home. As far as I know only a couple of movies have been partially set there, "Working Girl" and a "Law and Order" spinoff. In both films, the real action took place in New York.
Yet action of a kind is now taking place on Staten Island, a battle over NASCAR, the stock car racing combine is planning to build a track on of all things an abandoned oil field on Staten Island. The plan is generating considerable opposition from island residents, working class Italian Americans it seems prefer the Yankees and Jets to Jeff Gordon. Yet NASCAR is pressing ahead with plans for the multimillion dollar track. Why? It makes little business sense, New York is a center of intellectuals and first generation immigrants hardly stock car racing fans. Even if there is stock car fandom there, it'd probably be cheaper and more sensible to build a track in New Jersey or somewhere upstate. That way all the NASCAR fans who drive around in those big RVs wouldn't be clogging up city streets.
From a practical point, a NASCAR track on Staten Island makes no sense. But it has lots of emotional appeal to Southerners. NASCAR is a Southern institution, it was born on the dirt tracks when the moonshine runners wanted something to do on Saturday nights. Now NASCAR is modern and it's big business, the most profitable sport in America, a hightech money making machine with a bottom line that NFL would kill for. A Southern success story, a small town pastime retooled as a high speed symbol of the New South. Sure NASCAR's roots are pure but it's as hip, as post modern, as sophisticated and as cool as anything from the Big Apple. Naturally, Southerners are proud of it, and the Southern boys who run NASCAR want to rub their success story in the face of the big boys up north. In the most northern place of New York City (after all it's beloved baseball team is called the Yankees). NASCAR only wants to build a track in Staten Island because it's in New York.
That's where the Civil War connection comes in. New York has long been an obsession of Southerners. Clear back to the Gettysburg campaign in the Civil War when the Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania. Forget Southern chivalry the real objective of that campaign was to burn the great Northern cities, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston to the ground. To destroy the heart of the North. When Southerners couldn't destroy the North on the battlefield they tried other means. Shortly after Gettysburg much of Manhattan went up in flames during the Anticonscription Riots when mobs of Irish immigrants obstensively protesting unfair draft laws burned and looted much of the city. The mobs were largely made up of gang members egged on and led by Confederate agents. One of the mobs' main tragets was freed blacks many of whom were savagely lynched in a manner reminiscent of the worst outrages of the Klan. After the war, the Southern obsession with New York continued
rich southerners who made it in business or some other field wanted to move to New York and rub it in the faces of the Northerners or at least build cities and business enterprises that rivalled or exceeded those of the North. The South has finally succeeded in that dream, Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas now rival New York as great cities. Southern corporations dominate the American business scene and the South rules politically. Yet those damn New Yorkers don't seem to notice and continue with the delusion that they run the country. So once again the South wants to rub it in the face of those damned Yankees up there in New York City. Or more precisely make the Yankees smell their exhaust fumes. Will it work? I don't know but I do know one thing New Yorkers won't like NASCAR anywhere in their city, even in Staten Island. A state of affairs that amuse the populace down in Dixiland no end.
Yet action of a kind is now taking place on Staten Island, a battle over NASCAR, the stock car racing combine is planning to build a track on of all things an abandoned oil field on Staten Island. The plan is generating considerable opposition from island residents, working class Italian Americans it seems prefer the Yankees and Jets to Jeff Gordon. Yet NASCAR is pressing ahead with plans for the multimillion dollar track. Why? It makes little business sense, New York is a center of intellectuals and first generation immigrants hardly stock car racing fans. Even if there is stock car fandom there, it'd probably be cheaper and more sensible to build a track in New Jersey or somewhere upstate. That way all the NASCAR fans who drive around in those big RVs wouldn't be clogging up city streets.
From a practical point, a NASCAR track on Staten Island makes no sense. But it has lots of emotional appeal to Southerners. NASCAR is a Southern institution, it was born on the dirt tracks when the moonshine runners wanted something to do on Saturday nights. Now NASCAR is modern and it's big business, the most profitable sport in America, a hightech money making machine with a bottom line that NFL would kill for. A Southern success story, a small town pastime retooled as a high speed symbol of the New South. Sure NASCAR's roots are pure but it's as hip, as post modern, as sophisticated and as cool as anything from the Big Apple. Naturally, Southerners are proud of it, and the Southern boys who run NASCAR want to rub their success story in the face of the big boys up north. In the most northern place of New York City (after all it's beloved baseball team is called the Yankees). NASCAR only wants to build a track in Staten Island because it's in New York.
That's where the Civil War connection comes in. New York has long been an obsession of Southerners. Clear back to the Gettysburg campaign in the Civil War when the Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania. Forget Southern chivalry the real objective of that campaign was to burn the great Northern cities, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston to the ground. To destroy the heart of the North. When Southerners couldn't destroy the North on the battlefield they tried other means. Shortly after Gettysburg much of Manhattan went up in flames during the Anticonscription Riots when mobs of Irish immigrants obstensively protesting unfair draft laws burned and looted much of the city. The mobs were largely made up of gang members egged on and led by Confederate agents. One of the mobs' main tragets was freed blacks many of whom were savagely lynched in a manner reminiscent of the worst outrages of the Klan. After the war, the Southern obsession with New York continued
rich southerners who made it in business or some other field wanted to move to New York and rub it in the faces of the Northerners or at least build cities and business enterprises that rivalled or exceeded those of the North. The South has finally succeeded in that dream, Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas now rival New York as great cities. Southern corporations dominate the American business scene and the South rules politically. Yet those damn New Yorkers don't seem to notice and continue with the delusion that they run the country. So once again the South wants to rub it in the face of those damned Yankees up there in New York City. Or more precisely make the Yankees smell their exhaust fumes. Will it work? I don't know but I do know one thing New Yorkers won't like NASCAR anywhere in their city, even in Staten Island. A state of affairs that amuse the populace down in Dixiland no end.
posted by great one at 5:12 PM
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