Does Alabama Even Matter?
A few years ago, I read this line in Reader’s Digest:
The Alabama Booksmith, tucked within a maze of country roads, might be tricky to find, but the trip is worth it for literary enthusiasts.
Do you see it? Do you see what made me explode?
Alabama Booksmith is a local Birmingham bookstore stocked with only signed first editions. The line “tucked within a maze of country roads” made it sound as if the shop was in the middle of the woods instead of snug against one of the city’s most traveled six-lane highways, Highway 280.
The author didn’t think Alabama mattered enough to get the facts right.
Much of Alabama is rural, but we have five large metropolitan areas. The Birmingham-area alone makes up over a million people and encompasses 99 neighborhoods. It’s also home to a nationally recognized research and academic institution called the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
“A lot of people, when I told them I was going to Alabama, they kind of wrinkled their nose like, ‘Alabama? Really? You’re gonna go there for education?’ ”
This is Raizel Coiman, my former classmate and coworker. She was raised in Michigan but earned her bachelor’s degree at UAB.
“One thing I really wanted was to go somewhere totally different, totally new. The school was in an urban city that wasn’t too big. It was a school that offered a lot of diversity and a great variety of programs for me to study,” she said. “It was a bit random to my friends when I told them that I applied and got accepted. And even more so when I told them that I was going.”
UAB — not to be confused with the home of the Crimson Tide — is known for being one of the largest academic medical institutions in the nation and offers 161 degree programs from bachelor’s to Ph.Ds. In Fall 2018, UAB reported having enrolled 21,923 students from more than 100 countries.
She began her professional career in Birmingham and lived in the state for seven years before deciding to move to Philadelphia. Even though she was raised in the North, she now identifies as an Alabamian.
Raizel described this night to me over the phone: “I was at a bar with a friend, and I was telling this one guy that I was from Alabama, and he was like, ‘Oh, where?’ And I said, ‘Birmingham.’ He’s like, ‘Birmingham?’ and he turns to his friend and says, ‘You know when a state doesn’t matter when you don’t know a single city in the state.’ And I got red for a second because, how dare he say that the state doesn’t matter?”
She grew up, received her college education and became a young professional in Birmingham. She was an outsider when she came here, unhappy when she left, but she says her time here was invaluable.
“I definitely try to be a positive ambassador for Alabama. Even though I chose to leave, and I was unhappy when I left, I don’t want people to think that I’m some uneducated hillbilly because I’m from some state that ‘doesn’t matter.’ Because it does.”
Prior to moving to the South, Raizel lived in Michigan where she learned about Alabama and the civil rights movement. She wasn’t taught about the state’s connection to NASA in Huntsville, the recording artists in Muscle Shoals, the iron and steel boom of pre-civil war Birmingham, the ecological diversity of the Alabama Gulf Coast, or the birthplace of Mardi Gras — Mobile.
“It wasn’t mainstream information,” Raizel said. “For some reason, the only stuff I learned about Alabama in my history textbook was the bad things. Which, kind of sucks.”
Northerners have preconceived notions about the South, especially Alabamians. We’re racist, incestuous, hillbillies, cousin lovers, toothless, dumb.
“And that’s not all true, I learned that when I moved here. People might talk a little slower. They might have a southern drawl or they grew up on a farm — but that doesn’t make them any less intelligent or capable,” Raizel said.
Raizel is Venezuelan and the first natural-born citizen in her immediate family, a family who immigrated to the United States in 1991. Alabama, known for its past segregation, its current systemic racism, and its religious conservatism, raised concerns at home.
“I definitely was scared before I came to Alabama because of what I heard,” she said. “I had a lot of friends and family that were concerned for me as well knowing that I was gonna come to the South, but Birmingham is like a progressive island, an oasis in a state that I feel has a lot of work to get done.”
Raizel shared a story about a micro-aggression she experienced from a good friend’s grandmother while visiting them in Cullman, Alabama.
“She said I’m a really great influence on her granddaughter because I worked really hard despite where my family’s from and that I’m very well-spoken. Those are backhanded compliments,” she said. “Saying that I’m well-spoken because I’m Venezuelan yet I was born in the United States. It was odd to me. I knew that the grandmother didn’t mean any ill will, but I saw her be outright racist towards other people.”
She shared other stories of racial aggression with me, noticing an increase after the 2016 election. This observation emphasizes a need for Alabama cities to retain citizens yearning for change instead of losing them to places like Atlanta and Nashville.
According to the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA), talent retention has been on the upswing since April 2012 when Birmingham began recovering from the recession, but unemployment is currently at 2.7 percent — a similar figure in surrounding metros.
“However, this low unemployment rate indicates a tightening labor market, emphasizing the importance of increased labor force participation and talent retention and attraction efforts,” BBA Interim President and CEO Fred McCallum. Now, BBA is focussing on building an affinity for Birmingham within the next generation of professionals to increase retention.
While Raizel enjoyed her time at UAB, things changed after she stepped into her career as a music promoter in 2016. She felt as if she was living in a fishbowl — unable to evolve professionally or socially.
“I feel like a lot of Birmingham’s top citizens are leaving, going elsewhere. Alabama’s not retaining the people that it needs to become successful. So it’s a never-ending cycle,” Raizel said.
To break the cycle, she believes the state needs to progress politically, grow economically and improve education. Alabama does matter, but if it wants to become an incredible state, it needs to retain and foster educated and empowered voting citizens.
“I learned so much about the world. I learned about different cultures and different people that I never got to see in my small hometown in Michigan,” Raizel said. “I say those negative things, but I have to highlight the positive. There were just as many wonderful experiences and wonderful people during my time there. That made it worth it for me.”
What would you tell someone who’s never visited Alabama?
Gulf Shores is incredible. The beaches are incredible. The seafood is awesome. Birmingham is such a cool, unique little-big-city with great food, great music. A lot of really cool, important museums like the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Civil Rights Institute, and 16th Street Baptist Church.
Where are your favorite places to eat/drink in Birmingham?
Restaurants
- Oven Bird
- Delta Blue Hot Tamales
- Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint
- Trattoria Zaza
- Red Cat Coffee House
- Saw’s BBQ
- Mile End Delicatessen
Breweries
You can find Raizel on the internet as @RazzleisDazzled.
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Note: Read this Atlas Obscura feature if you’re interested in learning more about Alabama Booksmith.
