Winston-Salem Is Against Removing ‘Dixie’ from the Dixie Classic Fair

After Winston-Salem, NC, Councilman James Taylor informed FOX8 that some of his constituency claim the “Dixie” in the Dixie Classic Fair’s name offends them, the news station took to the streets to test Taylor’s assertion and found a quite different response.

On Monday, speaking after a meeting of the city’s finance committee, Taylor had said, “We do know that the word Dixie was a Confederate battle term and there are a lot of people who are just not OK with that being the premier name of our fair in Winston-Salem.”

Taylor told FOX8 that he believes the city should change the fair’s name, which has remained the same for nearly 60 years. He said that the name elicits anger, and the city should replace the word “Dixie,” which can refer to the eleven states of the Confederacy or the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy, with a name “everyone can appreciate.”

FOX8, taking at face value Taylor’s claim that he wanted to speak to the people first, interviewed various residents of the city and found unanimity: leave the name as it is.

Some sample responses:

It’s just a political thing. I don’t think they named it that because of anything to do with race. Leave it alone. It [isn’t] bothering me going over there, so I’m all right with it.

It doesn’t make me any different because I’m going whether they change the name or not. Different things for different strokes, [nobody is going to] go along with everything.

OK, take the (Confederate) flag, that’s OK; put it in a museum or something. But they’re making too much of it.

I just think it’s just overkill from what’s going on right now. Dixie doesn’t have anything to do with being offensive towards what anyone’s belief is.

It’s just a name. I don’t find it offensive. If they didn’t let certain people go in, but, everybody goes.

I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, there’s no reason to change the name of the Dixie Classic Fair. I mean, it’s a Southern name, but there is nothing racist about it.

I don’t see anything wrong with that name. Not at all. Not one bit. It’s not one of my main problems that I see needs to be solved right now.

Last year, the fair drew over 300,000 visitors.