“I’m a Tar Heel born, and a Tar Heel bred, and when I die, I’m a Tar Heel dead.”

Those fight song lyrics have been sung by generations of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, fiercely fought athletic contests, pep rallies and parties and quietly in their own hearts.
Increasingly, though, we are not a state of “born and bred” North Carolinians, much less of individuals who attended UNC-CH.

According to researchers at UNC-CH, 44% of us are not North Carolina natives, and that percentage is growing. North Carolina is what demographers term “in migration” over the last decade, nearly 10%. And North Carolina is now the ninth largest state in the nation, with an additional seat in Congress to show the strength of our growth.

Those of us who are “born and bred” take pride in and love to share our Tar Heel culture with newcomers — our barbecue with its competing eastern and western factions, our music encompassing both James Taylor and Nina Simone and why we are a “vale of humility between two mountains of conceit.” (A modest and independent colony and early state between the wealthy and aristocratic cultures of Virginia and South Carolina.)

Sadly, we also have aspects of 21st-century culture that are far less attractive and appealing and have embarrassed us before the rest of the country and beyond.

Think the so-called “bathroom bill” passed by homophobic legislators in Raleigh and ridiculed on late-night talk shows. Think the more than a decade of extreme gerrymandering that guarantees legislative and

Congressional seats to the party in power. Think the war on public schools that has seen teachers fleeing classrooms across the state. Think the racism and venom aimed at “the other” that stained us in conflagrations over “Black Lives Matter” and improper law enforcement actions.

A recent opinion piece in The News & Observer caught my attention. Sara Pequeno is apparently North Carolina “born and bred” but writes that she once wanted to leave our state, considering it “boring” and “backwoods.” Instead, she attended UNC-CH and decided to stay in North Carolina as a journalist. She sees our growth and its potential, and she also sees our warts and scars, many stemming from the past and rarely addressed because they are so entrenched and so painful.

Couple our past as a “vale of humility” with our current reality of highly educated and booming metropolitan areas and less educated and economically challenged rural areas.

The resentment of folks who feel left behind is clear and understandable. There is an element of “how ya keep ‘em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?” at work here. Families and communities want their young people to stay where they grew up, but career opportunities and cultural amenities draw them elsewhere. North Carolina now falls squarely into the narrative of “the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer,” both as individuals and as communities.

That said, we are an original state with an old, rich and deep culture with strong traditions, families who have been here for generations and enthusiastic newcomers, and an economy that is strong and growing in certain sectors. In other words, North Carolina has a lot going for her and us.

Sara Pequeno put it this way: “North Carolina is home to people who want this state to be better, who have been fighting the good fight for decades. It’s home to people who love this state, in spite of its flaws, because they see the place it could be. We’ve been working on our own to make this state better for decades, even though there is still work to be done.”