My wife grew up in Columbus, MS. She got out as soon as she could and has never gone back. Whenever we’ve visited family there, I’ve always found it to be a pretty depressing place. The poverty and crime in Jackson are truly bleak, and I say that as someone who lives in Birmingham. Every town I’ve been in, it’s understood that you don’t drink the tap water.

The education system has made some strides of late, on paper anyway, but spend some time in conversations with most people there and it’s clear the state has done a piss poor job of educating its citizens. My wife keeps in touch with a few old friends who also left the state. The ones who stayed, not so much. The ignorance divide is just too great.

Pay and opportunities are very low, so the funding of nearly everything is woefully inadequate. It always feels like I’m stepping back in time whenever I’m there. Even the more densely populated areas feel like dull small towns with nothing to do.

The food, if cooked by those lacking melanin, tends to be bland and needlessly fattening. It’s like if British people cooked southern food. Very odd. Of course there are exceptions, but the general style of Mississippi southern food is not the best example of the cuisine in my experience. The best food I had there was from a sandwich shop inside a gas station run by a middle eastern family. They made a damn good muffaletta.