Indulge me for a moment, if you will. For the next few seconds, I’d like to play a little word association game with you, the reader. Just say out loud the first thing that pops into your head as you read the next few words. Just say them to yourselves, if you’d like to not disturb your neighbors (or if you don’t want to convince nearby strangers that you are, in fact, insane).
Here we go:
- Australia
- South Africa
- Afghanistan
- The Pacific Northwest
- The Bible Belt
- Utah
- Detroit
- Hal Greer Blvd.
If I were a gambling man (which I am, as my proclivity for Texas Hold ‘Em will show), I would wager that each of those distinct locations brought different images of your mind – except for that last one, for all the non-Huntingtonians in the room. Were those images good? Bad? Did you picture the natural environment or scenic landmarks for which those locations are known, or the people we assume live in those locations.
You can probably guess where this is going.
What do you think of when you think of West Virginia? Your answer will probably differ depending on whether you live here or not. Expansive coal fields? Looming mountains? Fantastic folk and bluegrass music?
Or did you imagine its people – in a flattering or unflattering manner? Did you picture friendly, hospitable, hard-working people? Or did you imagine slack-jawed, inbred, overalls-wearing hillbillies?
Painting West Virginia in a negative light seems to be a time honored tradition in this country. Many a joke has been made at the expense of the Mountain State, and many an unattractive label has been applied to its people. Uneducated, poor, prejudiced, uncultured, and generally behind the times – these are some of the less colorful titles we’ve earned since our states inception. If you’re an out-of-stater, it’s probably a safe assumption that you’ve cracked a number Appalachia-related jokes during your lifetime.
I’ve found that Mountaineers are usually pretty good about letting these titles roll off of their backs. Maybe we know better – maybe it’s like an old joke, retold repeatedly at parties until it lacks all humor and meaning. Perhaps a newer, fresher insult would cut us a bit deeper than this oft-repeated stereotype.
You’re probably wondering, then, why I decided to write a post on our unpleasant depiction in the minds of outsiders if said depiction doesn’t really bother me. True, it doesn’t – though a recent flare-up of anti-West Virginian sentiment following our state’s primary has made me… well, disappointed, in those who turned their analytical eye on our voting habits. I’m speaking, of course, of our siding with current underdog Hillary Clinton by nearly a two to one margin – an endorsement we’re still receiving flack for a week later.
I’ve been a fan of The Daily Show since the days of Kilborn, back before I knew what the jokes were about (but I laughed most of the time, regardless). For more than ten years now, I, as well as the better part of my generation, have been enjoying the satirical, lighthearted look on the decidedly heavyhearted news media for more than a decade now. I completely understand that it is not one of the “serious” news outlets that Stewart so often viciously lampoons, and that their commentary must be taken with a grain of salt.
However,their episode on the Wednesday following our primary electionwas less than fair, to say the least.
I’m aware that taking the views of any media outlet to mind and heart simply lends that outlet power, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the view of West Virginians offered by The Daily Show is still the typical view of our state’s people in the minds of those who have likely never met a West Virginian in their life.
Again – it’s a comedy show. I get it. They have writers who come up with jokes at people’s expenses – it’s what they do, and they’re good at it. However, Stewart’s seven-minute reaction to the previous day’s primary results was anything but humorous – focusing on the archaic stereotypes applied to Mountaineers, it wasn’t “fresh” material. Instead, Stewart reinforced said stereotype through conveniently placed sound bites – because if three people in West Virginia didn’t vote for Obama because he’s black, or because they think he’s Muslim or somehow related to the former president of Iraq, then certainly, all West Virginians must also think so.
Stewart goes on to pick on the state due to the fact that many of the demographics focused on by the news media and Clinton’s campaign were white, working-class voters. This seemed unusual, considering nearly 95 percent of West Virginians are Caucasian, and the fact that with most of our workforce in industrial and agricultural fields, a vast majority of West Virginians are working-class. That’s an archetype that Hillary has won over with ease in previous primary contests -- by Stewart’s calculations (or Stewart’s writer’s calculations), are these working-class citizens automatically stupid (and to further explore Stewart’s coverage, do only stupid people vote for Hillary)?
That episode spawned a frenzy of message boards and YouTube videos depicting West Virginia in a similar fashion – sickeningly racist or mind-bogglingly uninformed. One online news outlet, cleverly titled “The Real News”, posted a video during our primary titled“Obama faces racism in West Virginia”. Contained within the video are a handful of West Virginians who state their different reasons for not wanting to vote for Obama, though most simply have no logical reason to speak of (one woman admits her decisions were based on race). The video received more than 250,000 views.
I could go out and collect a thousand sound bites from people across any state, then use five of them to create an unfair, inaccurate depiction of that state’s citizens if I really put my mind to it – just as Stewart, “The Real News”, and countless YouTube users have following our state’s primary. Alternatively, I could go to just one small location within that state, and canvas the citizens of that area, then present their views as the popular views of the entire state.
Sure, it can be funny (when the jokes aren’t being made at your expense, that is), but fair, accurate and, well,journalisticit ain’t – not that anyone’s accusing The Daily Show with being actual journalism (though many a progressive political science professor might disagree with that statement).
To play the role of the Devil’s advocate, is there any truth to the stereotype exhibited in these videos? Yes, we’re one of the poorest states in the nation with a median family income of about $40,000. Yes, only 80 percent of West Virginians possess a high school diploma, placing us 47thin the nation. Are we racist? That’s difficult to judge – we certainly lack any form of racial diversity, and therefore the lack of exposure to multiple races and cultures could cause one to shy away from said cultures. And yes, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, one of our state senators and the oldest U.S. Congressman, used to be in the KKK – though he has since repented for his involvement, and recently endorsed Sen. Obama for the democratic nomination.
However, those statistics cannot, and should not, define the people of a state. There are certainly a number of things worth making fun of when it comes to the news media – but their attribution of Clinton’s West Virginia win due to her continued support from working-class citizens, as well as her tireless campaigning in the Mountain State in the weeks preceding our election… well, that’s not one of them.
If your view of West Virginia mirrors that of Stewart’s, or any of the other online entertainers who took a shot at our state following our primary, I personally invite you to come take a look at the state yourself. I can guarantee you can drive great distances without ever seeing a banjo, or a KKK rally, or a moonshine distillery. Who knows, you might actuallylike it here, as many of us do – though the vast majority of Mountaineers, including myself, are simply wishing for some fresher jokes on our behalf.