Wes B. Gilchrist '98, an Alabama resident, was having dinner one night with a friend. In the middle of the conversation, his companion suddenly couldn't contain himself any longer.

"He just blurted, 'I hate the South,'" Gilchrist says. "He said he can sense that all Southerners are racist and hate people from the North."

At Harvard, where students have spent years protesting against sexism, racism and homophobia, there is still one bias many feel free to flaunt: regional prejudice.

"That offended me--that he would make a blanket statement like that," Gilchrist says.

While some students say they face prejudice based on their geographical origin, others find regionalism a source of solidarity and a starting point for friendships. Like ethnic or religious groups, people from the same region have common bonds, students say.

"I bond with people from the Midwest," says Lisa L. Streyffeler '97. "We look at life in the same way."

Like race, region can be a basis for tension and controversy. In 1991, as an expression of Southern pride, Bridget L. Kerrigan '91 put a Confederate flag in her window, drawing protests from several campus groups.

Kerrigan said at the time that she felt oppressed because her fellow students did not acknowledge Southern "honor and grace and dignity."

Regional Prejudice

Today, no one is protesting over regional sentiment, but students say prejudice based on region can be a serious problem.

"I've had people joke, and it's a jest, but still, you can tell," Gilchrist says. "They have these preconceptions."

The problem is often particularly acute for Southerners, who say their accents often draw scorn from fellow students.

"Some people are determined that you must be a redneck and you have 14 uncles named Joe Eddie," says Audra A. Hale '98, who is from Mississippi.

But stereotyping doesn't just happen to Southerners, students say.

"I have a good friend from down South who insists he would never marry a girl from the North," says Allison M. Villafane '98, who is from New York. "He says we're rude and domineering."