Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Christmas in Branson, Missouri


The White Flight exhibit at Branson, Missouri’s Butterfly Palace provides a rather unique twist on the meaning of white flight. Now regular dear gentle readers know that last summer we moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to Springfield, Missouri. When you mention white flight down South, it certainly doesn’t mean pretty black and white butterflies flitting around Poinsettias. I never thought I could say white flight is pretty.

10 comments:

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

oh they are beautiful!

smiles, bee

Jackie said...

Truly amazing. Thanks for the link. I have always loved butterflies but sadly see very few these days...probably pollution.

Anonymous said...

"White flight" is an unhappy phenomenon not only in the South. I wish they had chosen a better title.

Sarge Charlie said...

tell miss bee we need to go to branson, I have wanted to for a long time.

Sheila said...

Well, Sarge, I hope you and Miss Bee get to Branson one of these days. There's a lot to see. You can even go in the Titanic Museum but you might want to avoid that since y'all love to take cruises.

Jackie,
We saw so many butterflies this summer and early fall at the lake. Beautiful creatures making their way across a huge lake. Now I'm wondering if they hadn't escaped from the Butterfly Palace, which is nearby. On second thought, I imagine they were migrating.

Jay,
I'm sure the thought of the kind of white flight you and I are thinking about never crossed the marketing folks' mind.

Anonymous said...

On the other hand, it might have, at least subconsciously.

I've been to some of the tourist attractions in Branson. Not many people of color around them.

Tim said...

I can't say I've ever seen such a butterfly!

Sheila said...

Jay,
Springfield is over 90% white with hardly any diversity of race. Branson reflects this too, but I just wonder why there aren't more black tourists--not unless black people don't like the big focus on country music. However, there used to be more black people in Springfield. There were some incidents and I will have to research to see exactly what happened.

Tim,
I haven't either, but there are so many types of them.

Marion said...

I have never heard the term "white flight" before. I gather it has something to do with racism in the South?

The term sounds very pretty to me, and I'm glad it's used in a different manner in Springfield!

We have a Butterfly Garden here...there are thousands of different colours flitting amongst orchids. It's a very cheerful place!

Sheila said...

Marion,
The white flight Rev. Jay and I know so well is a reality of some Southern cities and can be found elsewhere as well. Whites move away from cities and neighborhoods once a few black families move in and over time the neighborhood's color can change completely or nearly so. I've heard the term environmental racism applied to white flight.