Debunking Appalachian Stereotypes

Within the past year, certain high-profile "neocons" have seen fit to pick on mountain people for some reason.   About a year ago, for example, commentator Bill O'Reilly made a scornful statement about Appalachian culture that honestly was uncalled for and just reprehensible.  In April 2012, for instance, he said "The culture in Appalachia harms the children almost beyond repair.  Their parents are screwed up. Kids get married at 16 or 17, their parents are drunks.  There’s a culture of poverty and ignorance there...You know, I don’t want to rebuild the infrastructure of Appalachia I want to leave it pristine, it’s beautiful." (Lisa King, "Bill O'Reilly's Scorn for Appalachia Still Echoes in the Mountains," at http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/appalachian-chronicles/2012/apr/24/bill-oreillys-scorn-appalachia-still-echoes-mounta/) This stupid, ignorant rant of O'Reilly, the son of a drunk Irishman (no offense to the Irish, but O'Reilly's grandfather was a bootlegger), still reverberates like the aftershock of an electric fence in a rainstorm for many of us, and had he said that against Blacks, he would have had Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson suing the crap out of him (Jackson and Sharpton have no credibility with me either, as both of them are racist plantation pimps).  Also, despite being supposedly "pro-life," it is scary that O'Reilly almost sounds like Margaret Sanger, the eugenics-driven, gold-digging hussy who founded Planned Parenthood and called Appalachian people and others "human weeds."  But, if that wasn't enough, then we have a couple of months back Pat Robertson, who made similar statements when he said this - "That's the big problem, especially in Appalachia. They don't know about birth control. They just keep having babies.  You see a string of all these little ragamuffins, and not enough food to eat and so on, and it's desperate poverty."  (http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pat-robertson-says-birth-control-very-important-to-limit-appalachian-ragamu).  The tragic thing about Robertson's statement is that he is supposed to be a Christian minister, but I am not seeing much Christlikeness in his attitude when he more or less wants to eradicate a whole population of people.  What is even worse is the fact that much of those stereotypical comments and idiotic statements are wrong, and I am living proof that they are.  Bottom-line is, it seems as if "hillbilly bashing" has become popular today among conservatives and liberals alike, and I for one am about sick of it.

Bigot #1 - Bill O'Reilly, the bootlegger's grandson

 

Bigot #2 - the compromising, hypocritical and half-senile televangelist Pat Robertson

 

Bashing mountain people and their culture is nothing new for the "upper crust" in society, as they have been doing it for generations.  Dr. Loyal Jones, the noted Appalachian scholar and retired professor of Appalachian Studies at Berean College in KY, notes this when he talks about the way that Appalachian people are often portrayed when he sums it up well by saying it this way - " Poor rural people are about the only ones in the country that you can make fun of all you want to with near impunity. Political correctness fades away when the subject is a poor hillbilly. Therefore they make wonderful scapegoats." (Loyal Jones, "The Poor In Rural American Are Not Laughing," at http://www.ruralstrategies.org/poor-rural-america-are-not-laughing)  Jones, in his excellent book, Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999) notes that this type of bigotry was often carried out in the name of "religion," in that many early "missionaries" were not sent so much to proclaim the Gospel, but rather as "agents of uplift" in order to 'civilize the savages."  He writes on page 4 of the book the following:

"In my view, no group in the country has aroused more suspicion and alarm among mainstream Christians than have Upland Christians, and never have so many missionaries been sent to save so many Christians as has been the case in this region.  Mainline Christians believed strongly that Appalachian people had to be saved from themselves - not only from their ignorance of standard educational matters but especially from their cultural values and native religion."

 

This sentiment is echoed by other capable scholars, such as Dr. Ralph Hood, professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga who has also worked extensively among the serpent-handling Christians of the region, when he notes in his book, Them That Believe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008) that in particular regard to the serpent-handlers there has been a lot of misrepresentation and unfair treatment by the secular media (both liberal and conservative, I might add!) and unfair, unjustified stereotypes abound (Hood, p. 3).  What Hood says about serpent-handlers in particular applies as well to Appalachian culture in general.  One stereotype in particular is this whole stupid thing that we are "inbred" or something, and honestly, that does get old to many of us who are native to the region.  One of my own family's genealogists, Carolyn White, addressed this in the family history she authored of my mother's folks from Dry Fork, WV, entitled The Family Album - Dry Fork District (Aurora, WV:  Bookmakers, 2005) in a section entitled "A Word About Kissing Cousins" on pages 5-6.  Carolyn says (rightly) that the circumstances of the time - isolation, limited transportation, etc. - may have facilitated some "kissing cousin" marriages to happen, but by and large they were often distant cousins who were not closely related (lest Appalachia gets a bad rap for that, it also happened in the European aristocracy with more frequency, so there!).  Like she says, I too am tired of Appalachia in general - and my home state of West Virginia in particular - getting a bad rap for this and being the object of jokes and judgemental allegations.  And, for those who make those jokes and allegations (including you, O'Reilly!) I say this - shut up, grow up, and do something more constructive with your time.  And, I give some of those wags the ultimate insult - some of our relatives married their cousins out of necessity, yet some of the critics molest their own kids out of choice, so what is their excuse??  

Now that I have stated the case, it is time for my commentary.  When Trayvon Martin, who was a common street thug, was shot by George Zimmerman here in FL when Martin attacked him, the press made a huge stink out of it - Zimmerman might as well have been Hitler, because the "race card" was played to the extreme.  Many Blacks and others can do anything they want, get away with it, and if you question them, you are called "racist" for doing so.  Yet, I don't hear people doing the same for poor Appalachian people when they are maligned - where are Jesse, Al, and all the other plantation pimps there??  Take for example my good friend Verlin Short.  Verlin lives in the town of Mayking, KY, and he is a hard-working, devoutly Christian man who loves his family, minds his own business, and is just a good guy.  Yet, he has been arrested on many occasions, and you know what his crime was?   It was taking up a rattlesnake in a church service!!  Seriously??  You have Islamic terrorists blowing up buildings, Black street thugs killing their own people even, and yet Verlin gets a bad rap for practicing his religious convictions???  Obama, our worthless President who wants us to attack a country (Syria) which poses no security threat to us, had his nose all in the Trayvon thing, but where was he when Verlin was unjustly imprisoned?   My guess - he was out playing golf and sipping Mai-Tais on a beach in the Caribbean somewhere (at taxpayer expense I might add!) and could have cared less.  Well, here is what I have to say about that one - if I had a brother, I would be honored if he was half the man Verlin Short is! What I have said here is not going to be considered "politically correct," and quite honestly, I could care less.  Every race of people, and every culture, has its good and its bad individuals - there are good Blacks, and there are others for whom the "n" word fits, and there are good Appalachian-Americans and others who would be considered "White trash."  Problem is, this day and age the bad behavior of some groups of people is glorified, while the good people of other groups are villified.  Really??   A little consistency might be nice here, folks. 

I was born and raised in West Virginia, a fact I appreciate more as a get older.  I regret however that in my younger days, due to the idiotic stereotypes of our people I have addressed above, I was actually ashamed to say where I was from - often I would tell people I was from western Maryland (I grew up 14 miles south of the Maryland state line) or from Pittsburgh.   Looking back on that now, I was stupid in doing that, and when we West Virginians have to lie about where we are from, it reinforces idiots like Bill O'Reilly and Pat Robertson in their accusations and stereotypes.   If you are from West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, western North Carolina, northern Georgia, or southeastern Ohio, be proud of who you are and stick up for the place of your birth!  God put you there for a reason, so there is nothing to be ashamed of.  This is especially for younger Appalachian kids and youth - your friends may make fun of who you are, but you have nothing to be ashamed of;  who you are is a person of rich heritage, strong resolve, driving ingenuity, and good values, something much of society lacks today.  I am politically conservative too, like O'Reilly and Robertson claim to be, but I also remember who I am.  It is time all of us who are from the Appalachians do likewise.  God bless until next time.