Fifty years ago, white American poverty was synonymous with rural Appalachia, just as black American poverty was (and still is) with urban despair; LBJ's "War On Poverty" was a two front war. The worst Appalachian poverty was in eastern Kentucky. Nobody writes about that much anymore--instead we learn about it from shows like Justified.*
An ugly face was put on the people there sometime ago, perhaps after the movie Deliverance --mountain people become derisional characters, all too much to blame for their own misery.
I googled "Appalachian poverty" and the first hit is National Geographic piece called A Fresh Look At Appalachia--50 Years After The War On Poverty. If you're like me, you no longer trust National Geographic for impartiality. This is sad because the magazine was a part of our growing up. Sure enough, the first photo does not disappoint:
The father of the young woman writes in the comments to the hit piece:
My daughter is the young lady getting out of the racecar, Kealey Lowe. She is not a hillbilly or a red neck. She races cars and she is also a member of the cheer leading squad at her high school. She has been involved with a ballet studio right here in Cumberland County since she was 2 years old. We have lived in Cumberland County all of our lives. I think parts of this story are great, but I feel as if there is not enough positive involved. There is still a lot of poverty in this area, but we are not backwards hillbillies. I work at Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Admissions. We are a technical college. We have the technology to educate people and the students to prove it, but the jobs are just not in the area. We need to start showing more of this side of Appalachian areas and the growth that has come and stop dwelling on the negative. We need to help the area grow with positive images and industry to attract companies to our area.Bravo, dad!
[Added] I think the banjo player shuns the guitar player in the Deliverance scene because the latter breaks the 3rd Commandment (twice).
