Letters to the Editor
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I used to be a "little blue dot" in southern WV and I couldn't disagree more.
I grew up in southern West Virginia on the Ky border, so I'm also very familiar with the area (and my dad was a little Obama "dot" there last week). Usually when people there get bashed as ignorant hillbillies, I'm outraged and believe the stereotype is unfair. But this time, they had it coming. You can't argue with the tons of ignorant and or/racist comments people there gave the media for ammunition. No one had to make up or exagerrate anything.
So I find it hard to understand why this is Obama's fault and why his supporters and black people aren't entitled to be angry about it? Why is it that instead this makes you all angry at him?
I'm not sure what he was supposed to do. A presidential campaign has to engage in cost/benefit analysis. They can't be everywhere. And if people from this area are going to show themselves to stubbornly hold to racial prejudices and insist on believing anonymous emails about Obama's religion in the face of all evidence to the contrary, why should his campaign waste his time there when there are obviously many states in play where people will give him a fair chance?
And as for little blue dot's snotty missive to him to "show some interest" in helping people there, I kind of thought that's what both Democrats' campaigns and our party are really all about. What exactly about his policies demonstrates to you that he's not interested in helping the working poor? Would he have been able to gain Edwards' endorsement if he weren't?
I'm again disappointed in Salon, Joan, and my decision to cancel my Premium membership has been further confirmed. Normally, I would think that a candidate's difficulty with racial prejudice and ignorance would spark sympathy in the media for his plight. But for some reason, this has become Obama's fault for much of the press.
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@ marksheperdstown
"I moved to Shepherdstown, West Virginia, 65 miles from the Beltway, with my partner, from downtown Washington, DC, about 7 years ago. This is technically the Shenandoah River Valley, not Appalachia, per se."
It is technically the Potomac Highlands, which means it borders the states of MD and VA or as you put it more clearly is an hour or so from the Beltway. Shepherdstown has an excellent private school for this reason, and the locals are more cosmopolitan than the average West Virginian. The term "Appalachian" refers to the mountain range and the culture of people who live in that area. "Shenandoah River Valley" indicates a John Denver song and a real estate ad, just a broad agricultural region.
Most of the "uneducated, working class people" go into a trade school while in high school and start work immediately upon high school graduation. Either that or they join the military. There is no affirmative action for them, so they aren't looking realistically toward getting into a good school unless they've got some athletic achievement to get them a scholarship. They are not stupid or lazy, just used to their lives and unmoved by the pretty speeches of politicians. They are pragmatists and even skeptics. You could even say they are part of "forgotten America."
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For what it's worth...
I'm little blue dot...and I'm more than a little amazed at how what I said has been taken in some cases. That was my first letter to Salon, even though I have lurked for years. I was moved to write because I want Obama to win. I want it because...because in short,I believe in him. I know it's discouraging to see those videos and the polls showing people admitting to voting against him because of his color. I'm TRYING to help get him elected. I'm TRYING to convince those around me to see how he can make life better here. It makes it easier to talk to people about how Obama can do that if I don't have to spend 20 mins clearing the air about the elitism charge. And it's not necessarily always HIS perecieved elitism that I'm talking about. It's the appalling snobbery of the sort that I'm witnessing on this board--snobbery that then gets put at the door of all Democrats.
To those who suggest that by being not actively derisive that we are somehow validating racism or selling out, I'm not sure how that follows. I'm just suggesting that we try to be more imaginative in how we "sell" the democratic brand. That doesn't mean changing the "product" or altering our principles.
As far as people arguing again that these people don't deserve to be saved, or they're too racist to be saved. No one is asking you to actually DO anything. I was simply asking if we could hold back on the derision. It costs you nothing. It takes NO EFFORT on your part to NOT BE A JERK. I don't know if being kind to people will make them want to vote for Obama. I DO KNOW that being a jerk probably doesn't change their minds. It doesn't change their minds about ANYTHING. All you do is get their backs up and they become more deeply entrenched in the very position that you find distasteful! Can there be anything more self defeating than that? And yes, I know you have the right to say whatever you want...but that doesn't mean that you always should. Most of you have the advantage of an education. You live where there's easy access to healthcare and dental care. The schools are good. Many of you are well read and well traveled. Can you not be the bigger person?
My beautiful mother grew up literally as a sharecropper's child in the mountains of North Carolina. My grandmother went to school until the 4th grade. My grandfather never went to school at all. He was needed on the farm. He still doesn't know how to read. My mother was actively taught to afraid of black people. She went away to college and learned a different way. Mama came back and through LOVE and PATIENCE and GENTLENESS taught them a new way of looking at the world and looking at people. If she had come back angry and belittling, full of hurtful words and derision...she would not have been able to change their hearts or the hearts of my aunt and uncle. Should you HAVE to be nice to someone who feels that way? Maybe not. But then,we shouldn't HAVE to do a lot of things that we do. Will that approach work with everyone? I know it won't. But it might work with enough. And then each person can work on the people around them...and so it goes. Are we going to wait until people are perfect until we help them, or to include them in the Democratic party? A party full of perfect people? That's an awfully small party.
I'm not trying to fan flames or defend the sin of racism. I know much of the ugliness on this topic comes from a place of deep frustration, and that you would never make those cousin humping comments to my face or to anyone's face if you knew how hurtful they are. I know you're mostly good people and that your want a change for this country. I was just essentially throwing out some suggestions on how to obtain what we all want-and being from Appalachia, I thought maybe I could provide a different perspective.
Janei-It was not my intent to come off as snotty when I said that we should show some interest to rural voters...I was speaking of Democrats in general, not Obama in particular. But I'm happy to broaden that to Americans in general. Certainly, much has been done, but do we quit now? There is much to be done for the poor in this country, both the urban and the rural poor. I highlighted the rural poor because that is more in line with the discussion.