In celebration of March Madness, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon debuted a witty little rap recognizing 15 teams in the “Sweet 16.” You read that right, 15 teams in the “Sweet 16.” Even incorporated 15 team mascots. In the “Sweet 16.” If you doubt me, you can see it here.
Really, it's not that surprising. See, the 16th team is the University of Houston Cougars and this omission of recognition is not an isolated incident for my beloved city.
The Houston Comets, (RIP) professional women’s basketball team, won the first WNBA championship. It’s like they didn’t even exist nationally. Perpetual underdogs, the Houston Rockets won back-to-back championships and it took (local) media outrage to compel Sports Illustrated to publish a championship edition. The Houston Astros have won two World Series—both times against teams with multiples of the Astros payroll. Crickets
 |
| This is known fact, oh, and Sam Houston. |
The fourth largest city in America, Houston is more diverse than Los Angeles and NYC, (Migration Policy Institute, 2023). We had the first out-lesbian mayor in the nation. But that’s not what we’re known for. Not our college communities, (we have five universities and over 40 colleges) or diverse employment opportunities, or sports teams, either.
See, for most outsiders, (means “me”) if you say “Michigan,” they/I think “Detroit.” Nevada is Las Vegas. New York is the five boroughs. Conversely, if you say “Dallas,” or “Austin,” or ~sigh~ “Houston,” most outsiders hear one thing: Texas.
 |
| Only (ever) a selling point in Texas. |
It might be the weather: hot with brief periods of freezing or drowning. It might be the time difference. You set your watch back 25 years when you come here. It might be our geography: far, we’re far from everywhere. Bands on world-wide tours, skip us. Regularly.
It may be our economy that is largely built on high gas/heating oil prices, pain, and suffering. But mostly, it’s just Texas. We're really hard to love, by folks who entertain critical or self-reflective thought.
What’s this have to do with writing?
Regional biases can round out your protagonist/antagonist personality and character. There’s a long tradition of regional “attitudes” fleshing out a character.
 |
| "Do I look like I'm from Reseda?" |
Every dramatization of playwrite, poet, and duelist, Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac—from Rostand’s play to every successive film—has depicted Cyrano as a gregarious, boisterous, and pugnacious Gascon. Gascons, (closer to the Basques than the Parisians) were the “bamas” (bumpkins, hicks, yokels) of France. It really "butches up" the world’s most famous unrequited lover.
Yet, in the greatest of writing traditions, Rostand stole the idea of the head-strong, fearless, (and guileless) Gascon.
 |
| Yep, 'bama... |
Alexandre Dumas first used the bama-hero for his do-right man, d’Artagnan, the world’s most famous musketeer. He is the mold for generations of heroes born of meager—but proud, ig’nant, strong, dumb, I can go on—beginnings who stand up to the sophisticated but ultimately corrupt villains.
 |
| Maybe it's just about hats... |
Raylan Givens, Elmore Leonard’s U.S. Marshal from the mountains of Kentucky is a contemporary example. If you’ve never been to the mountains and valleys (hollers) you still have an idea of the folk who live there from other books and movies. Same when Hannibal Lecter tells Clarice Starling (and I paraphrase, badly) “Good nutrition has given you some length of bone…And that accent that you’ve tried so hard to shed? That’s pure West Virginia.”
The mountain people of the eastern United States are known as recalcitrant nonconformists. They are the spiritual descendents of the afore-mentioned Basques and closer to the indomitable Spartans than the southern colonels and dixie princes. These points of origin lend a gritty toughness as well as a baked-in backstory of desperation with minimal exposition.
But why should the good guys have all the fun?
W.A.S.P. (noun) an acronym which stands for White Anglo Saxon Protestant. Considered the first enduring colonists of the north-eastern United States. Most commonly associated with New England.
Also, almost immediately a villain. Why? Oh, regional-specific terms like “old money,” and “triangle money,” and "prep-school." Kidding! Mostly...
Then there’s the middling-guys. Not good, not bad, just meh-guys. You want to paint a picture of them with just a few strokes? Give them a point-of-origin identity.
 |
| Maintaining a theme... |
There is however, a thin line between cultural identities and stereotypes.
For several hundred years, the (penny-pinching) Scot and the (ignorant/lazy/dishonest, I can go on) Irish were the ne’er-do-well butt of most English jokes. For several decades it was the (dumb) Polish in the north-eastern U.S. (as well as a certain Tennessee Williams' play) the cajuns in Louisiana, the Aggies in Texas, and the Texans everywhere else.
We’re the perpetual bamas and every year, in ways large and small, we perpetuate the stereotype.
But please remember, in all instances, we’re dealing with living breathing people. If you find yourself slipping into invective or hurtful stereotypes, just remember the Cougars.
A whole team of hard-playing, kids from all over the country entered into the NCAA’s March Madness in University of Houston Cougar jerseys. They made it all the way to the end. For their trouble, the national press only mentioned them in reference to the Florida Gators—who defeated them in the championship final.
 |
| Shasta stating facts |
I own none of the photos here. All are used for instructional/educational purposes as covered by the Fair Use Doctrine.
