The ugly mask of prejudice can neutralize even the most beautiful person. Prejudice-based tensions are always getting better, Americans like to think, slowly but surely. Sexism is suffering; supporters have already thrown the names of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton into the 2012 ring. Racial epithets are echoed mostly in whispers behind cupped hands. Public figures refrain from using anti-homosexual language or they must prepare to face a certain firestorm. But there is one minority that still endures open ostracizing. This minority remains, as Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts wrote last June, voiceless. The punching bag for the masses, the group everybody loves to hate, is the rural white poor.
You know them as rednecks. White trash. Trailer trash. Hillbillies. Bona fide hicks. Residents of Jesusland. And to northeast progressives living in a liberal Bubble, that's all they are. Making fun of African Americans? Making fun of homosexuals? Off limits, as they should be. They get this right in the Bubble.
But redneck jokes? More, please! More about the freak who is shacking up with his sister, who has got no teeth, who has got no college education, who likes huntin', whose favorite sport is driving in circles. More misapplication of the grotesque stereotype portrayed on shows hosted by the likes of Jerry Springer and Maury Povich. The rural white poor are people too? Nope, the bounds of tolerance in the Bubble don't stretch this far. But the worst part is the failure of Bubble-dwellers to recognize this for what it is: unabashed, unapologetic prejudice.
A glance at the prevalence of this brand of bigotry, and it's easy to understand how racism flowed so freely in white-dominated states. In a bubble, people face the disadvantage of one-sided information. They are fed lies and stereotypes about people not like them, people not in the Bubble. And because the targets of the prejudice are on the outside, denizens of the Bubble have limited interaction with anyone who could rebut what the agents of hate say.
It matters not that people outside the Bubble know these people and their souls. They know that the rural white poor, many of whom proudly call themselves rednecks, are just as good-hearted as anyone else. They bleed just as red when you cut them. They put their pants on one leg at a time, even if it's Wranglers instead of Dockers. And they are just as much victims of prejudice as any minority, only with more openness than most.
But inside the Bubble, people say they're bona fide hicks, so they can't possibly have a college education. They don't have a college education, so they can't possibly think for themselves. They were force-fed their narrow-minded ideas with which they are "perfectly happy."
And the funniest part of it all? Self-professed tolerant people run around repeating this force-fed, unchallenged, narrow-minded idea.
You know them as rednecks. White trash. Trailer trash. Hillbillies. Bona fide hicks. Residents of Jesusland. And to northeast progressives living in a liberal Bubble, that's all they are. Making fun of African Americans? Making fun of homosexuals? Off limits, as they should be. They get this right in the Bubble.
But redneck jokes? More, please! More about the freak who is shacking up with his sister, who has got no teeth, who has got no college education, who likes huntin', whose favorite sport is driving in circles. More misapplication of the grotesque stereotype portrayed on shows hosted by the likes of Jerry Springer and Maury Povich. The rural white poor are people too? Nope, the bounds of tolerance in the Bubble don't stretch this far. But the worst part is the failure of Bubble-dwellers to recognize this for what it is: unabashed, unapologetic prejudice.
A glance at the prevalence of this brand of bigotry, and it's easy to understand how racism flowed so freely in white-dominated states. In a bubble, people face the disadvantage of one-sided information. They are fed lies and stereotypes about people not like them, people not in the Bubble. And because the targets of the prejudice are on the outside, denizens of the Bubble have limited interaction with anyone who could rebut what the agents of hate say.
It matters not that people outside the Bubble know these people and their souls. They know that the rural white poor, many of whom proudly call themselves rednecks, are just as good-hearted as anyone else. They bleed just as red when you cut them. They put their pants on one leg at a time, even if it's Wranglers instead of Dockers. And they are just as much victims of prejudice as any minority, only with more openness than most.
But inside the Bubble, people say they're bona fide hicks, so they can't possibly have a college education. They don't have a college education, so they can't possibly think for themselves. They were force-fed their narrow-minded ideas with which they are "perfectly happy."
And the funniest part of it all? Self-professed tolerant people run around repeating this force-fed, unchallenged, narrow-minded idea.
Oh come now, Mr Richman. Lucky I took your piece into the bathroom to read because it sure helped out when I used the toilet.
First of all, what "white-dominated states" are to refering to? If you care to do a little research (remember that word?) you'll find that all states, with the exception of Hawaii are "white-dominated." So if you attempt to make a distinction but find that there isn't any, what's your point?
We now have a third bubble to join the techno bubble and housing bubble. Who knew?
Of course, it's only relevent if one's magical thinking promotes the idea that there is only a liberal bibble and never a conservative bubble and that all the national prejudice is bottled up within the liberal agenda. If one were to seriously believe that, one must also ignore the conservative agenda beginning with Newt Gingrich and his defunt Contract With America, through Tom DeLay and his corruption to the present leadership (or lack there of) from McConnell. All the good guys are Republicans and all the bad guys are Democrats, right Mr. Richman? To think in absolutes like that is a sure sign of a weak mind pretending to be smart. Frankly, if I wanted to hear crap like that, I'd listen to talk radio.
What this piece shows me is a pathetic lack of research needed to build your case. It cries out that Mr. Richman would rather put his groundless prejudices on display for everyone to see that to do the work necessary to write a substantive piece. You probably have feasted on the ego trip of getting this trash published in Viewpoints when, in reality, all the York Sunday News was interested in was to get a FREE piece to fill the page. So much for your overblown writing skills. If I was your college writing instructor, I'd be very disappointed.
It's time for you to get off your fat butt, Mr. Richman. You may think that you're York's version of George Will, but you're not there yet. A columnist or editorial writer HAS TO PROVE HIS CASE but all we're getting from you is entries in your diary. Grow up, sir. The world isn't black and white but a collection of grays. For once, get out of your comfort zone why don't cha'
JB