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I live in Brooklyn now, but the first 23 years of my life were spent in the Palmetto State. I was born and raised in Anderson; I'm a graduate of T. L. Hanna High School and then Clemson University. I lived two summers in Charleston, the first in 2001, as an attendee of the South Carolina Governor's School, and the second in 2002, working as a caterer and Chinese-food delivery guy on Mount Pleasant. I like my tea sweet and my chicken fried. The sound of a twangy guitar, or a gospel choir, has been known to move me. I can drawl as convincingly as anyone. I'm familiar with the term "South Cackalacky"; I know who the Swamp Fox is and what "sandlapper" means. And my parents still live in Anderson, where they've lived for over 40 years.In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, there are certain shops I know better than to walk into, shops with the words Dixie or heritage on their signs, rebel flags in the yard—places that sell T-shirts and hats with M-16s over a Stars and Bars background with the message/threat: 'Come and take it.'
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The culture of possession isn't going away anytime soon. But why would it? It's been here since the inception of this country, from the days of slave-owning founding fathers to the creation of federal laws to cheat, pillage, and exterminate Native Americans, to the present day, where a professional sports team in our nation's capital can continue to use an ethnic slur as its official moniker. In order to break all this down, we need to keep the conversation going beyond the shootings to chip away at a culture that helped create the monster who pulled the trigger.I'll be going back to South Carolina sooner or later—I have to. My mother's still not well, and a friend from high school recently told me she's getting married. When I do go back, will I see any of those guys from before, on the highway, in the Huddle House, or at the hospital? In Anderson, there's a coffee shop I like to go to, downtown. Will those same kids be there? When they heard the news this week and saw Roof's face, what was going through their minds? Could it have been anything like recognition?Follow James on Twitter.On VICE News: South Carolina Executed a 14-Year-Old Black Boy in 1944—Now He's Been Exonerated