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[takapa]

I found this a particularly interesting and important paper.  I currently live in Richmond, VA (outside of the state's Appalachian areas) and see the kind of mockery Mr. Biggers on an all too frequent basis.  I also agree that it is one of the last bastions of such publicly acceptable slurs.  I recall once at a conference just a couple of years ago, I was attending a session on cultural diversity.  The presenter made a joke about something as a simple ice breaker (something about the food at the conference hotel), and then - why I'm not sure - began to make jokes about the "inbreds" of West Virginia.  Just about everyone in the room laughed, and many tossed in jokes of their own.  The jokes were not nice; indeed they would have drawn boos and complaints had they been made about a different group.

I had gone to the presentation to see if the author would include people with disabilities (another group often overlooked and undervalued with which I have a personal interest) and left quite amazed and disturbed at the whole scene.

Thoughts?

[t_r_b]

link?

[bacardiandlime]

Sounds like an interesting article - unfortunately only Chronicle subscribers can read it...

[takapa]

Sorry!!  In my haste, I didn't paste the link.  I think its public currently.

http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i37/37b01601.htm

[bacardiandlime]

Unfortunately no. I got the 'you need to subscribe to read this' page.

[moderator]

It's free now.

 http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i37/37b01601.htm

[bacardiandlime]

thanks, moderator dude!

[jrscholar]

There was a big stink a couple of years ago when, at the UVA-WVU football game, the UVA students put on a half-time show that involved a few "hillbilly" stereotypes, so they are alive and well.  (Perhaps if WVU students would stop burning couches, the stereotypes might die more easily.)

On a scholarly note, I find this sort of lumping together to be a little too much like namedropping.  What, does the author believe, holds Appalachia (a region that spreads from New York to Georgia) together as a cultural unit that one can generalize about?  So what that these people were from Appalachia?  Was there something about being raised there that shaped their ideas or identities?  Why is it that people assume there are no black people from Appalachia?  (As Tom Joyner put it on the eve of the West Virginia primary, he knew plenty of black people from West Virginia, but not many who are there.)  And doesn't this sort of hagiography of a region largely turn the coin over: they're not clannish, suspicious people who will kill strangers at the drop of a hat, they're fiercely independent people who fought ferociously at King's Mountain (and, later, Blair Mountain) in defense of liberty.

I agree with the argument that stereotypes are terrible - one of the best men on earth I know is a pipefitter from West Virginia - and should be challenged, but I guess I'm just a little fed up with books the titles of which purport that some oft-neglected group need to be credited with saving civilization.  (Besides, didn't the Irish do that?, or was it Jim Webb's Scots-Irish?)

[t_r_b]

On a scholarly note, I find this sort of lumping together to be a little too much like namedropping.  What, does the author believe, holds Appalachia (a region that spreads from New York to Georgia) together as a cultural unit that one can generalize about? 

Well, they vote against Barack Obama by percentages unheard of in the rest of the country. That seems distinctive to me.

More generally, the long history of Appalachian people (their ancestors colonized the region over 200 years ago), and the relatively low levels of immigration since (with the exception of the big steel towns like Pittsburgh and Wheeling) have facilitated the emergence and preservation of a more distinct regional and ethnic culture than you find in most other regions of the country, which were either colonized significantly later or else have experienced far more turnover of population. So yes, Appalachia is different. Not "Deliverance" different, but still different.

[sad_goat]

This is the area in which I teach. Some of the jokes are true, most are not. If I had to chose someone to watch my back in a bad situation, I would look there before I would look here.

Oh, and I am not from the region, just to clear that up.

[born2late]

I am from the region. Tennessee to be precise. I did in fact grow up in a log cabin (an original, not some modern imitation). I raised chickens, ran a trap line, and learned to drive in a 1946 Chevy truck. That same house also included LPs of great symphonies, alongside my daddy's banjo and momma's dulcimer. We had the Bible, as well as Plato, Aristotle, and numerous others of the several hundred books. We did, and still do, go to family reunions. I've known some people who couldn't read or write very well. But I have three degrees. When I go to teach, I drive the same truck that I take when I go deer hunting. I even accidentaly made moonshine once, but that's a different story. "Hillbilly" and "redneck" are stereotypes and there are often elements of truth in them. The difference is when it becomes acceptable to see someone else as less than human, or of less worth than another person, simply because of what I look like, where I come from, or any other elements of my identity.

[dmzman]

I am originally from Alabama, and I was pleased to see this article published in the Chronicle.  Far too often, the negative stereotypes of Appalachia are all that receive attention.  Fortunately, in the last few years, more of the positive qualities of the region are being publicized.  My own interest in "mountain folk" has been reinvigorated over the last few years.  I plan to attend a sacred harp singing convention back home this summer to learn to sing some of the music I heard on the radio as a child.  Also,  I recently saw the 1970s documentary Harlan County, USA on television, so I plan to add some material about the coal mining strikes of this time period into my U.S. History II class.  I spend a lot of time talking about the Vietnam War protests and Watergate to emphasize the political and social unrest during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but I have neglected to mention much about the labor unrest of the period.  I thorougly enjoyed this article.

Dana Zimbleman
Jefferson College
Hillsboro, MO

[born2late]

I am originally from Alabama, and I was pleased to see this article published in the Chronicle.  Far too often, the negative stereotypes of Appalachia are all that receive attention.  Fortunately, in the last few years, more of the positive qualities of the region are being publicized.  My own interest in "mountain folk" has been reinvigorated over the last few years.  I plan to attend a sacred harp singing convention back home this summer to learn to sing some of the music I heard on the radio as a child.  Also,  I recently saw the 1970s documentary Harlan County, USA on television, so I plan to add some material about the coal mining strikes of this time period into my U.S. History II class.  I spend a lot of time talking about the Vietnam War protests and Watergate to emphasize the political and social unrest during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but I have neglected to mention much about the labor unrest of the period.  I thorougly enjoyed this article.

Dana Zimbleman
Jefferson College
Hillsboro, MO

Sacred Harp music is otherworldy when you sing it. Regarding labor issues in Appalachia, check out the warfare that went on between government and striking miners. I believe it's the only time in history when the US used an airstrike against their own people.

[takapa]

Sacred Harp music is otherworldy when you sing it. Regarding labor issues in Appalachia, check out the warfare that went on between government and striking miners. I believe it's the only time in history when the US used an airstrike against their own people.

Yeah, I think you're right about the airstrike.  You hear about the the injustice of police attacking workers trying to unionize in northern cities and the Japanese Internment in WWII (both wrong), but you never hear about the bombing of American citizens by the U.S. Army Air Corps in West Virginia.  Another way the people are minimized. 

[jrscholar]

At the risk of raising the dead, I thought this was apropos of the thread.

Headline: Cheney Apologizes for Inbreeding Joke

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24939201/