Roasted Mar 10, 2026114 views114 pts
We're sorry. Actually, no we're not.
The town is majority Black with a poverty rate north of 30%, but tourists gush about it being "just like Mayberry" because HGTV carefully curates what makes it on camera. These tourists aren't paying to hear about racism or structural poverty - they came to bask in the glow of their favorite feel-good television show, while the real Laurel stays conveniently out of frame.
Laurel was home to a business owner and Sunday school teacher named Sam Bowers, who was also the imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi and ordered the 1966 firebombing of voting-rights activist Vernon Dahmer's home, killing him. Then the town went quiet about it for decades, and apparently y'all took that silence to heart since tourists now think this is Mayberry.
Deep-frying peanut butter and banana is not peak culinary innovation, but sure, put it on a menu and call it a signature. Mac and cheese and fried chicken are not exactly a culinary revolution either, which is fitting because your restaurant scene has about as much sparkle as costume jewelry from a gas station.
At one point, Laurel was known as the Yellow Pine Capital of the South, but once the trees were gone, you had to rely on tourism that brings in money for outside investors. You have tour buses coming because of the HGTV show, which means your entire economic revival depends on people who think a town with Sam Bowers in its history is just charming period decoration.
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