Appalachian Narratives: A Student Podcast

The novel "Uneven Ground" by Ronald Eller explores how the consumption of Appalachia's resources during the Industrial Revolution led to the region's poverty and stereotypes. The author argues that these stereotypes allow society to avoid confronting uncomfortable truths. The media often misrepresents Appalachia, portraying its people as uneducated and racist. However, there is diversity within the region, and its rich history of labor and community resilience is often overlooked. The stereotypes have harmful effects on individuals and communities. The Appalachian community is more than what the media portrays, as shown by resources like the Appalachian Service Project. The movie "Mine 21" sheds light on the worst mining disaster in Tennessee and offers a new perspective on Appalachia. The decline of the coal industry has led to the abandonment of the region and a regression of communal bonds. Nonprofits like Mountaintop and GRACE work to rebuild these communities. The novel, Uneven Ground, Appalachia since 1945, by Ronald Eller, chronicles the consumption of Appalachia's frontier life throughout its history, which led to the backwardness of its perception that we see today. In the years following the Civil War, the lush forests and mines that made up Appalachia were swept up in the Industrial Revolution, and many of its material goods were stripped from the land to be shipped off to areas in the urban Northeast. As Appalachia's human and natural resources were utilized to fit the needs of a modernizing world, mountain people were left dependent and poor due to the newfound barrenness of its landscape. Almost half of the mountain population laid claim to some kind of public assistance during the Depression, and Appalachia emerged as one of the most impoverished regions in the nation. Regions like Appalachia were considered backward and lacking in development because they didn't exhibit the statistical indicators of progress, both in terms of material wealth and cultural advancement, that were seen as markers of success in modern society. Holistically, we must consider the idea Eller proposes when attempting to understand the stereotypes often associated with Appalachia. He writes, we know Appalachia exists because we need it to exist in order to define what we are not. Essentially, thinking of Appalachia as different from the rest of society lets us avoid dealing with the uncomfortable truths of its story, revealing about our lives and our society as a whole. But Appalachia isn't just an idea, it's a real place where government policies meant to make society better have had mixed results. Throughout my time living in Appalachia, I have noticed certain stereotypes not only applied to myself but others. I live about 35 minutes from the heart of Nashville, Tennessee. This area is vastly different from the city because of its rural aesthetic, offering many different displays of farm life. When talking about where I live to my peers who know the area, they often refer to my town as unfinished and unpolished because of its active farm life and lack of city life. They continue to stereotype those in the community by generalizing them into prejudiced names such as Hillbillies, Rednecks, Backwards Folk, and the lesser of the two. My experience with Appalachia has been almost entirely centered on Grundy County, which is just to the east of Suwannee, 17 minutes to the Tracy City, and then maybe five minutes just across the county borderline. I work with an organization known as Mountaintop, whose mission is to alleviate the substandard housing issues of the residents in seven different counties surrounding Franklin County. I also met a variety of knowledgeable people who, in more developed areas, could apply their skills to make a good, decent living. But considering the history of the region, these people have been living in generational poverty, and this makes it so that their skills don't take them as far as they would otherwise. Growing up, my family moved around a lot, so I've lived in different areas of Appalachia. I spent most of my childhood in Danville, Kentucky, so most of my experience in Appalachia comes from the small town, what some might consider a hick country lifestyle that I was surrounded by. I attended the Independent District High School, which rivaled the neighboring county school. It became clear to me and my family that the two schools were split due to the student body demographics. The conflicts between my high school and our rivals almost served as a symbol for the negative stereotypes that surrounded Appalachia, as my high school was seen to be full of Rednecks in opposition to the majorly wealthier, highly esteemed county high school. I was able to see firsthand how the stereotypes against Appalachian people automatically put them at a disadvantage, giving them little room for growth. Could these stereotypes be because of a misinterpretation in media and or a singular encounter that caused someone to generalize a group? A story from Caitlin Thomas titled, Stereotypes of Appalachian Dialect, can help us answer this question. In the media, we see Appalachian stereotypes as uneducated hillbillies. Specifically when watching movies or TV shows, Appalachian people and their dialect are often depicted in a negative light. Although the mockery of Appalachian dialects is less extreme as it has been in the past, the stereotype that Appalachian vernacular is not a proper accent is still prevalent. The Appalachian Regional Commission states that 26.1 million people call Appalachia home. This means that there are 26.1 million unique lives, stories, and experiences. The diversity within Appalachia is something remarkable and people's perceptions of it can vary widely from its true essence. Another firsthand encounter with Appalachian as representation in media comes from an article by R. Geringer titled, Telling Tales, How the Media Fails Appalachia. It really goes over how Appalachia has been misrepresented in media. One of the most common and easiest ways to represent Appalachia is as a bunch of racist people who don't have much education. Now, if you have been to Appalachia, you'll understand that the majority white population of it can be off-putting. But if you get to know people, they generally don't care who you are. Rather, you are a nice person, you're kind, and you're honest and real with them. And when people try to talk about their lives, being from Appalachia and the outside world, it needs this response where the outside world isn't ready to hear what they have to say. Now, there's been a major focus on stories that do support the stereotypes that we've all grown to know, but there's many, many more stories that we don't necessarily hear about that don't exactly fit the narrative. One of the ideas that really stands out in this article by R. Geringer is the rich history of labor in Appalachia. Now, Appalachia does have probably the lowest GDP in all of America, not necessarily due to their fallout, but more due to their history. They've been routinely exploited, which is, in itself, is a strange way that doesn't fit the main idea for exploitation for us. But they've been exploited and they've counteracted this with their labor unions and working together. In the local area nearby Suwannee, maybe about 10 minutes away, there's this place called the Highlander School. Now, its main focus was to inform people, mostly local people, about movements they can join or how to start a movement or how to build their labor union and run it. Now, that's not necessarily why it's known in national media. Its main interaction with national media is being a communist hub, a place where people could come together, you know, subvert the American ideal. And this led to the building actually being burned down, I believe, but it's mainly to its relocation to eastern Tennessee, nearby Knoxville. But when we discuss Appalachia, we do tend to ignore these stories that really give to the rich history of the region. The reality of some of these stereotypes can have harmful effects on those who are placed into such generalizations. It affects the person and the community as a whole. The Appalachian Service Project, a site that gives access to Appalachian cultural resources, shows us the Appalachian community is more than these stereotypes portray them to be. They have a diverse area of food, agriculture, history, and culture. They are more than how the media portrays them. Another accurate and in-depth depiction of this can be seen in the movie, Mine 21. This movie focuses on what we know as the worst mining disaster in Tennessee since the introduction of modern safety precautions. On December 8, 1981, Mine 21, one of the several underground coal mines operated by Grundy Mining Company in the unincorporated area between Palmer and Whitwell, Tennessee, exploded and killed 13 miners. This event, entangled with the stories of those who are involved, gives those on the outside a new perspective on Appalachia. Now going back to Appalachia's strange history of exploitation, coal companies or other companies would come in and provide the local people with jobs, houses, schools, and shops. Now if you're particularly keen, you might realize that all this coming from one source can be very dangerous. And in the end, it did prove to be the undoing of Appalachia, or at least the communities. As far as people were concerned, they were thriving. A very unique comment made by a recruiter in the Mine 21 film was that he would tell people, you can buy your houses, you can buy your cars, specifically Lamborghinis. Now that's a pretty bold claim, and I doubt that any of the people really got any of that. But as far as they were concerned, I mean, they're living the life. But as all things, the passage of time found better and more efficient sources of fuel and energy. Coal was on the out and, well, atoms were on the in. This led to the almost entire collapse of the coal industry and abandonment of the Appalachian people. Now today, in Western Virginia and Virginia, there are still some coal mines that ship out to China, but those are very, very, very small considering the tycoon that the coal empire used to be. So if we consider all that and then the drop-off in jobs, young people probably go out and seek more opportunities outside of the area. The communal bonds begin to regress. Now a specific indication of this regression would be non-profits and charities coming in to help the communities rebuild. As I mentioned earlier, I work for one named Mountaintop. Mountaintop works with another organization known as Grundy Recovery Alliance Community Endeavor, GRACE for short. Of course, I'm sure they had to jump through a bunch of hoops just to get to call it that. But GRACE works with many different non-profits like Mountaintop and government agencies and local officials, which I was surprised to find out, to strengthen the community and aid recovery from the destructive life events. Now, life events could go back to the coal mining days or to more modern days with the modern drug problem in Appalachia. They work together, all these different non-profits and government organizations to help alleviate some of that stress and just kind of almost depression of the people to help bring them out. Now, I hesitate to say depression in that case because they meet in Appalachia. They are very lively and they are very hardy. Next, we are going to interview Dr. Silver, who teaches and conducts research within the domains of psychology of religion, attitude formation, and prejudice and discrimination here at Sewanee. First, I would like to ask, what is your personal experience living in Appalachia? Okay. So, I was born in Chattanooga, actually, but other than being born there, I was raised in the Sequatchie Valley, which is a part of the Appalachian Mountain region of Tennessee. So, culturally, that area is very similar to like what you all have probably seen in Grundy, Franklin, a lot of mountain folks. What is interesting about my small town, too, is you have got, in some cases, five, six, seven generations of families that have lived there their entire lives. So, yeah, it was interesting growing up there and now I am a professor at Sewanee, which is kind of strange. Did you have any negative experiences outside of or in Appalachia? Oh, gosh, yeah. So, if you lean fairly liberal, which compared to my own town, most people are fairly liberal, there is a bit of tension around political perspectives. Although, honestly, though, y'all, it has only been in the past 10 years that that political divide has kind of been a thing. The other thing is that in Appalachia, of course, religion is very, very key to people's identity. So, a lot of Protestants, particularly Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Church of Christ, Church of God, those all play a pretty big role in the culture there as well. So, I don't see that as a negative thing, just to set the context. But my hometown, until about 15 years ago, was primarily folks that were born and raised there. And then, all of a sudden, they opened up a four-lane highway between Dunlap, Tennessee and Chattanooga. And so then Dunlap started shifting to being a suburb. And that definitely created some different cultural tension and some negativity. Dunlap was also all white when I was a kid. There wasn't any diversity. Other than Native American, of course, I had Cherokee descendants that lived there. But other than that, there wasn't any diversity. And so now, my small town that I'm from is becoming much more diverse. And so that's created some tension as well. So, the good kind of tension, where they kind of start coming out of their isolationism, or? More of a concern with... So, my dad's a county commissioner there, actually. So, one of the things that happened was a lot of the local folks getting really upset with the amount of migration coming into my hometown. So, there's a large Hispanic population that has grown there over the years, a lot of farming. So, that explains that. But then also, a lot of people wanting to move out of Chattanooga, but want to still be close enough they can commute. So, a lot of people have been moving there from other parts of the area, the region. But then also, a lot of people are nationally moving there because they're standard living so cheap. So, a lot of folks from California, the Northeast. So, this is really putting that identity, I think, in some definitely probably negative tension, to your point, Aiden. That's really one of the challenges that I think they're going through pretty rapid growing pains right now. So, yeah. They haven't experienced something like this before in quite a while. So, I'd imagine there's a lot of uncertainty that really plays into their reaction to it, and how to interact with these new people. Yeah, yeah. I think that's absolutely a fair point. Has your personal experience altered how you feel about those either within or outside of Appalachia? It's funny, I guess, in one sense. There's an old saying in my hometown, you can take the trailer park out of the boy, but you can't take the boy out of the trailer park. I think I make that as kind of a half joke, but there is actually some really salient cultural identity in that. I think that when you grow up in an environment like that, there's so many things that you just don't realize are baked into your worldview. And I'm no exception. That, for example, honor is a really big thing where I'm from. Like, you respect people and their stuff, and they have a very specific ethical playbook. And so, if you violate what they perceive as that ethical playbook, it's very easy to end up on the fringes of that society. And so, for example, you don't talk crap about people, those kinds of things. I mean, it's a lot of times things that we all kind of ascribe to anyways, but it's definitely that view has been increased. There's a whole literature on this actually called the culture of honor. I think the scholar's name is Nesbitt, I think, is the social psychologist, I believe, who actually studied this stuff and found that emotional arousal increases when people feel slighted. And particularly among Southerners who grew up in rural Appalachia, that's where you would really see that perceived slightedness get really emotional, right? Or use the scientific terms, we see increased affective valence. And do you think some of these stereotypes, positive or negative, have changed the way today's society views Appalachia as a whole? Yeah, there is absolutely a stigma around being from Appalachia. So to give you a case example of this in my own life, it's anecdotal. But once I went to a conference where I was a grad student and was presenting on some research I'd done, and there were two scholars on the panel along with me. I think one guy was from Oxford in the UK and the other one was from Harvard. And they both were kind of making fun of my accent, right? And so I have a Southern accent, but it's not like a thick Appalachian accent. I actually had to lose that when I went to Canada because people couldn't understand what I was saying. But I had two colleagues, two fellow academics make fun of the way I talked. And they were basically insinuating I was stupid because of the way I spoke. And so that was pretty disconcerting. And then when I went to grad school in Canada, I understand they couldn't understand me. But it felt at the times like they were almost kind of picking on me a little bit. I suppose that's the way I'd describe it. So there is this stereotype of people being from the Appalachian Mountain region as kind of being stupid or not smart. And so sometimes you do end up challenging those norms of what people expect from you when they find out you're from that area. And even in my own career, I've had people say, wait, you're from Dunlap, right? Like they're surprised when I tell them, especially even now when I'm an academic and I work at Swanee, they're like, wait, you're from the area? I was like, yeah, I grew up just down the road from here, right? It surprises people sometimes. So it's like there is this kind of baked-in assumption about Appalachian folks. And like a lot of stereotypes, there is sometimes a little bit of truth in the stereotype. I mean, a lot of education in my hometown was not respected. So we kind of end up reinforcing some of that, too. You know, a lot of folks wanted to trade jobs, which I deeply respect because that is not something I can do, you know. So, you know, there is some of that that plays out, I think, in society. So, yeah. When the people interacted with you and they met you and they learned a little bit more about you, did they kind of base their interactions off of what they would assume you would have been like? Yes. Okay. Yeah, 100%. I mean, that's what ties into sort of the stereotyping, right? You make an assumption about a person based on an entire group that they're assumed to be a part of, right? And so I think... So here's a good example, too. So a lot of people graduate from high school didn't go on to college, or if they did, they went into a very trade-like position. Except my graduating class, which is weird, we had three people get their doctorates in my graduating class, which is crazy. So one guy got his degree in exercise science, another one, she got her degree in criminal justice, and I have my PhD in psychology. And we're all three from the same graduating class. And it's already unheard of to have one of us do it, much less three in the same class. It's strange. I don't know why that happens. Welcome to statistics. Weird things happen to data all the time. So, yeah. But there is that assumption. I think that, yeah, that there's kind of this view that we're somehow not smart or something. Yeah. And I'd like to take a bit of a different direction with it. So if they saw that their assumptions about you were true, were they more likely to interact with you and, you know, converse with you? Or anything different than that? It's a weird double-edged sword. And the reason I say that is, when I go home now, so for example, about eight months ago, a friend of mine from high school passed away suddenly. So a bunch of us got together to honor her. And it's strange, because in my hometown now, I'm considered an outsider, even though I grew up there my entire life. Right? And part of it's because I went on and got this education and went on and did other things. I had a career. I even had a career before I was an academic. I was in IT. So, like, I've had two careers in my life. And I think because around the time I was 18, I got out. Right? I moved away, moved to Chattanooga. And so I think the time being removed made it where, you know, they started seeing me as not being local. Like, when I go, so it's like, imagine going home, but people don't think it's your home anymore. It's kind of weird. And by the same token, while everyone at home thinks I'm an outsider, a lot of people in the greater region, when they hear where I'm from, will go, oh, well, you're from Dunlap. So they assume that I'm still the same guy that I was growing up. So it's like I don't really fit in anywhere, which is kind of strange. Right? So, I mean, I think I'll leave you with one tidbit for some interesting data, hopefully. I think that one of the challenges that a lot of folks from Appalachian make, both among themselves, but then also about the outside world, they're not very trusting of the outside world. And so when somebody doesn't fit in or somebody has left that world to go do something else and comes back, that same mistrust gets applied to them as it does to others. Right? And so you do have to kind of overcome that a bit. The other thing I would say, too, is that when you're on this journey of sort of casting off what you grew up with and embracing a new way of thinking and those kinds of things, it's also a very lonely place to be in. So, you know, you just got to be okay with believing what you're doing is the right thing and that you're following your goals and dreams kind of thing. And, yeah, it's, you know, so many people just assume that Appalachian folks are all sort of homogenous. But the reality of it is, y'all, there's quite a bit of diversity given in Appalachia. I study snake handling, by the way. It's one of my research areas. You guys know what snake handlers are, right? People handle snakes for the religious service. And one of the churches I went to, which was in West Virginia, in the middle of the mountains, middle of nowhere, named Jell-O-West Virginia, there were African Americans there, which challenged the stereotype of what you would assume would be in Jell-O-West Virginia. So there's quite a bit of diversity in Appalachian of itself. Socioeconomic diversity, racial diversity, gender diversity. In fact, you know, there's just as many LGBTQs in Appalachia as there is anywhere else. But we sometimes don't think of that diversity. So there's your tidbit of the day. Now, as we come to the end of this, did either one of you like to make any comments or any other observations on anything we've talked about so far? I think you see stereotypes in a lot of different places. And I think, especially when looking deep into it, as we have for Appalachia, it's important to understand that there are people involved. That you're kind of assuming something about one person as well as the collective population. So it's important to just understand and give a little bit of research into actually what you're considering true or false about someone before you give them a stereotype on who they are. And actually, it's a little fun fact. Most of that coal from West Virginia, or in Virginia that goes to China, actually goes into making solar panels. It's a very cheap and quick way to make solar panels, as opposed to the US, who it's a lot more costly. But it's also safer for the environment in how they make solar panels. That was a fun little fact. And so we headed out to find the cause of death, just to wrap the nation's arms around it. With nothing more than a hybrid, a space wagon to a start.