IntroductionOne of the greatest imagined communities of our nation-state, the United States of America, has culminated throughout history to identify today today 72.4% of our current population (“State and County Quick Facts”). Whiteness, America's largely imagined identity, is seen as both a class identifier and a racial identifier. Its “culture”, like all cultures, is very dynamic and varies in space and time. My goal is to either falsify or reinforce the stereotypical norm of white Southern culture and their presumed adoration of Western clothing, country music, and beer. To do this, I studied the community that frequents Midnight Rodeo, a country western dance hall and bar. Throughout the course, we were introduced to representations of indigenous and foreign anthropological practices through lecture presentations and outside readings of assigned ethnographies. . When selecting my topic and research site, I took both of these processes into consideration and sought to combine the two. I chose to study the idealized norm of whiteness in the American South and theorize this “unmarked” category in terms of its culturally constructed ideas about race, gender, and social stratification. As a “racially” categorized “White” person who owned a pair of cowboy boots, I was able to study Southern white culture from an insider’s perspective. However, growing up in the North and simply learning, through research, the ins and outs of “Southern culture,” I experienced the obstacles and rewards of being a cultural outsider. I was able to practice objectivity while receiving inside information, but I may have lost some knowledge by not being raised in the culture and having certain aspects of the idi...... middle of paper......norms for this specific community, including a general love of country music, dancing, and beer, but what varies is their experiences based on the intersectionality of individuals in matters of race, class and gender. Works Cited Bensaddi, Judith. “A tale”. The literary messenger of the South. Ed. White. Richmond: White, 1839. 469-501. Print.Charles, James. Redefining Southern Culture: Spirit and Identity in the Modern South. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1999. Print.Gregory, James. The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America. United States of America: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Print. Shanklin, Eugenia. Anthropology and race. United States of America: Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1994. Print. “State & County QuickFacts.” Census.gov. United States Census Bureau, 2010. Web. November 26. 2011.