40. Louisiana

And we’re finally out of the bottom 10!

Louisiana is kind of an enigma to me. Like it’s in its own little bubble, but still very much a part of the Deep South. And when I say Deep South, I mean DEEP South.

Louis Armstrong, born and raised in New Orleans

Louisiana’s culture is so mixed with so many different origins, that it comes together to be truly unlike anywhere else in America. New Orleans is a city with so much great history, great food, and great culture. Despite the city being neglected by the state and the country over and over again, it’s impact on the US is so important. It truly is so sad that we are seeing New Orleans wrecked by rising sea levels and high intensity hurricanes, all while the state government does not want to see the people and city succeed. This city invented jazz for crying out loud! And its importance to the US army was instrumental to the Union winning the Civil War. 

But, and it’s a pretty big but, outside of New Orleans has it’s own history that I alluded to earlier. Louisiana, has a history of some of the most intense racism in the county. From slavery, to Jim Crow laws, to lynching, to former leader of the KKK running as the Republican nominee for senate in 1990 and only losing by 10 points! Yes, he lost, but the fact he won a nomination and received over 600,000 votes is troubling enough. I know I said I would try to keep politics out of my rankings, but this is beyond what I can ignore. And I can’t ignore Louisiana’s history and ongoing racism when considering the state, especially when the state is trying to remove one of the state’s black majority districts as we speak.

As you can probably tell, Louisiana makes me very conflicted. I would really love to visit New Orleans again especially since I worry we could one day lose the city to time once the next natural disaster occurs. But outside of that, I think I won’t spend much more time in everyone’s favorite swampy state.