RushTok season is back and I was a social media professor at the University of Alabama for seven years.

I no longer work there, so here are some thoughts that I couldn't say before while they still sign my paychecks. If you're new here, hi, my name is Jess, and I'm a social media professor, researcher and teacher. And if you're like, RushTok is fun, just let the girls enjoy it, then this video and sociological analysis is not for you, please keep scrolling. And that's because I want to talk about gender, race and white supremacy in RushTok. And you may be thinking, well Jess, of course, it's Alabama. What do you expect? Not so fast. Nearly 60% of the undergraduates at the University of Alabama come from outside the state of Alabama, and I can confirm this from my own experience. I was more likely to have students in my class from Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey than really, I ever was to have students from Alabama. It was not uncommon for me to have students with very thick Southern accents. And then when I would see them, you know, at an alumni thing, years after graduation, suddenly they've completely lost their accent. And I'm not talking about it has kind of faded. It is a night and day 180. My favourite memories would be the raised pickup trucks with the New Jersey plates. And it was very well understood among professors that students from around the United States would come down to Alabama and perform what they believed Southernness to be for clout. So basically, there are a lot of students from blue states coming to Alabama and performing what they believe a good white southerner is. I recommend this book for more information. And my point in this video is aligned with this book that I think should be required reading and it's called The Myth of Southern Exceptionalism. And this book challenges the idea that many people have, which is that the United States could be a perfectly progressive, liberal blue nation if it were not from places like the South. And as the authors of this book say, quote, that Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan did not need to learn their political strategies from Southern demagogues such as George Wallace. They honed their conservative platforms in the segregated suburbs of postwar California and each secured 49 states in his presidential reelection campaign. They go on to say quote, that the South is not an antithesis of a progressive America, but rather has operated as a mirror that reveals its fundamental values and practices. And this is how I have always seen RushTok but could not say before. White supremacy is a hell of a drug and people from liberal, blue states often salivate at the chance to perform it. I have publicly said before that BamaRushTok specifically, is a phenomenon of allowing people to ogle something that they are not necessarily familiar with. Sociologically speaking, it also serves as a little bit of wish fulfilment. I've been on the internet to know that there are probably blue state people who are like, but the South, still in my comment section. Let's dance. Let me know what questions and comments you have down below.