The category I'm going to write about, as if you couldn't guess, is culture.
Obstacle:
We ask others not to stereotype us, but we stereotype each other.
Solutions:
Change comes first from within. We cannot inspire others to see us differently until we choose to see our state differently ourselves. No longer should it be acceptable for any West Virginian to believe "the real hillbillies" live in some other part of the state. That type of thinking only supports the belief that there are stereotypical hillbillies in West Virginia, and enables others to think of West Virginians in a buffoonish cartoonish way.
That type of thinking is accepting a stereotype for your fellow West Virginians while rejecting it for yourself. That way of thinking only leaves all West Virginians looking as less than a regular person in an outsider's eyes. Rejecting the stereotype for yourself while blaming it on people who live in certain counties or certain parts of the state only supports the stereotype.
We must ourselves learn to see all West Virginians as West Virginians—nothing more, nothing less—regardless of whether that person came to be a West Virginian by birth, by choice, or by chance.
People who live in the southern part of the state or in the state's coal fields do not look or act like this as a matter of course:
Nor do they live as if it still the Great Depression, lack indoor plumbing, lack teeth, lack intelligence, or live in splendor such as this:
Sure, you would be able to find examples of everything I listed above in any county in West Virginia. Hell, you could find the same examples in New York City. It wouldn't make those individuals hillbillies any more than it makes ours so. Instead, it shows those individuals are likely poor with limited access to heathcare and further education (whether in the coal fields or any other region in this country).
By the same token, people who live in the northern part of the state do not live in "South Pittsburgh" and are no less West Virginian than any other soul who lives in West Virginia.
While we're at it, the Eastern Panhandle is not "Little D.C." or "The D.C. Annex" or any other number of names that labels it and those who live in that area as anything other than what they are: West Virginians.
For that matter, there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that the western edges of West Virginia are really parts of Ohio or Kentucky that pay West Virginia taxes. They're in West Virginia. How could they be anything but West Virginians?
If we, West Virginians, don't learn to look at each other as individuals (rather than as representatives of the state that either "make everyone else look bad" or "think they're better than the rest of us"), we can never begin to have others recognize West Virginia and West Virginians for what they really are: A truly diverse group of people who came from (and continue to join us from) many cultures.
Our biggest secret is our diversity. So many of us have bought into the whole notion that "Appalachians are all Scotch-Irish (which should be Scots-Irish, by the way, because Scots are people and scotch is a drink)" that I have known people who have learned later in life doing family trees that they had not a single Scot or Irish ancestor, but had been raised to believe we were all "Scotch-Irish." Talk about having an identity crisis, huh?
When the land barons were moving in to swindle poor folks out of lucrative land at a bottom-dollar price, and the coal operators needed to populate areas where there was coal to be mined, but not nearly enough people to mine it, they got people to come here from Greece, Italy, England, Poland, Hungary, Wales, Germany, you name it. I could go on and on.
When West Virginia first became a state, the town of Helvetia (also known to us West Virginians as "Little Switzerland") became a populated town because the land owners ran ads in Swiss newspapers looking for people who would buy land sight unseen and move across the ocean to live in other mountains. They figured people who were used to living in mountains would like living in mountains more than others. They were right, I guess, because Little Switzerland is still there (and made us all look good on Andrew Zimmern's show not too long ago, I might add...the beginning segment of that episode leading into the squirrel-eating at Snowshoe was the best, most accurate, most giving description I've ever heard of West Virginia on television; heck, even the squirrel-eating looked good, and I was pretty sure no one could pull that off in a way that reflected well on anyone). While it's not the introduction to West Virginia, you can find another spot from the show in which Zimmern speaks highly of West Virginia here.
We need to stop buying the notion that we are all alike (or those of us certain regions either are "real West Virginians" [meaning they fit the stereotype] or "aren't real West Virginians" because their populations have been influenced by neighboring states and regions...how can a population not be influenced by its neighboring populations, I ask). That only makes it easier for others to see us all as a representation of a caricature that none of us truly is...not even those who try their hardest to live up to the stereotype because they've been raised to see hillbilly as part of their identity.
I grew up in the southern coal fields in the mountains. I do think of myself as a hillbilly, but not in any buffoonish cartoonish way. To me, hillbilly reflects a strength to live through hardship, a close bond with extended family, the instillation of a set of values where fairness reigns supreme (because fairness wasn't the case at all for a very long time in those land baron and early coal operation days), the bravery to not back down when I'm fighting to keep someone (anyone) from having power over me, a fine appreciation for the sublime joy that is sometimes just letting it all hang out when having a good time, a fine appreciation for laughter even if it is at my own expense, and an upbringing that taught me not to judge others based on anything other than how they treated me because, even living in small-coal-town West Virginia, I had friends whose families came from many ethnic backgrounds.
We must embrace ourselves and our fellow West Virginians in all their diverse glory (whether their ancestors came here 200 years ago or they've just immigrated from half a world away). We cannot expect people from outside West Virginia to see her people as diverse and modern with access to technology and everything (even up in the hollers these days) until we start to appreciate that we are all just plain West Virginians regardless of what part of the state you live in, how you ended up being here, or how long you've been here.
We cannot half-heartedly reject a stereotype by blaming it on other people in other parts of the state and have any real impact on the stereotype. And, we cannot expect others to look at us differently until we stop looking down on each other. The only person that you truly have the power to change is yourself. Then, how you conduct yourself (including telling someone they're wrong when you see them stereotype us whether that comes from without or within) might inspire others to change their own views.
What do you think?
8 comments:
Great post, but it fails to take into account the slawless hot dog heathens of the north. :P
What a good writer you are!! The state should hire you to write. I am going to send the link to this to every former WV'ian I know.
Excellent as usual. I argued last year and will again that for one thing, a stereotype is a DISTORTION of truth and shouldn't be the goal, and that you can't just plant positive over negative without addressing the seeds of the negative environment. The professional and creative classes can work to have all kids sheltered and fed and people working, but they have to put aside their degrees and look at the social conditions and history/ PR work that got us here.
but you get that, Buzz ;)
Your like the Bill Cosby of Hill Billies!
Chris, LOL. I love slaw, but I cannot stand slaw smushing up with bread in my mouth. Not on dogs. Not on a BBQ sammich. I stand before you (well, my screen) a heathen myself.
Kenju, Why thank you! Seriously. You're like making me blush and shit and that's very unredneck of me. And thanks for thinking highly enough of it to pass it along.
Maura, Thank you, and you couldn't be more correct that addressing the ugly truths rather than trying to purdy them up for company's sake will not work, but I think this year's point is to highlight those seeds and offer solutions.
Malach, I know you know I'm not a buzzard wearing a hillbilly hat, but that is all you've seen of me, save some fingers, a bruise, and a t-shirt, so I'll clue you in that I am a middle-aged lumpen housewife who sucks at all forms of housewivery. Because of my Native American great-grandmother, my skin is more light orange than white. Why do you always see me as a black man? First Al Sharpton; now, Bill Cosby. Well, at least I'm moving up the respectability ladder there, huh?
Malach, I forgot to add that I'm short and have a general distaste for fashion, make-up, and fussy hairfoolery.
Ah, the diversity - yes one of the greatest myths of all says the Irish German Cherokee African American English (and probably a bunch more I don't know about) hillbilly diva.
Really, BB, we need to set a date for the wedding. Or at least meet face to face. Ya know?
I am writing a Masters thesis for a Master of Science in Journalism degree at WVU. The nature of my research involves how the film and television industry can be a catalyst to both economic development and positive social change in West Virginia. I am quoting this blog as a source. If you are interested - anyone - I will be glad to share the completed work. - Sam Steele, Morgantown, WV (via Queens, NY)
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