deep thoughts on a Saturday morning again...

[orangerful]

So, I'm about halfway through Hillybilly Elegy by J.D. Vance which is all about issues in rural America and the culture that exists there. It became a bestseller after Trump was elected president because it was implied that these were the people that voted for him so everyone is reading the book in the hopes of making sense of it all.

I saw this article in the Washington Post about rural Americans and disabilities and unemployment and it echoed a lot of the issues that Vance talks about in his book. And it all just blows my mind and I struggle to find any way we can all understand each other. This culture, the entire way the families function, it just is so alien to how I grew up, how I was raised, the values instilled in me.

And, the irony being that you could read about some of these situations they go through - the broken homes, the scraping by etc. and if you saw it out of context, you might think it has to do with inner city living and "minority" groups. And this is probably what makes the divide worse because most of us fight for equality for different groups, trying to figure out how to fix a broken system, but these rural poor white groups end up getting ignored because, technically, they are part of the majority?

I dunno, it is all so hard to even grasp because that world is just so alien to me having grown up in middle class suburbs. And I'm sure that is a huge part of America's problem right now because there is no way to have a dialogue that makes any sense because the culture of both sides is so different.

I had to return the book without finishing it, I'm back on the waitlist (only 100 people ahead of me blurgh!) but I wonder what each person is getting out of this story. Living in Maryland probably gives a unique perspective too since it has a large transient population due to military and government contractor jobs, but at the same time there are people who have always been here. And Virginia and Pennsylvania aren't that far, so I'm sure people who grew up in that society have migrated across the states to start anew like Vance did.

Has anyone read the book? Thoughts? feelings? reactions? Obviously his life story isn't the ONLY story of someone growing up there, but the news coverage of the unemployment issues and opiod crisis are making it seem like perhaps his story is more average than we would ever want to believe.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I haven't read the book but I wanted to respond to this:

if you saw it out of context, you might think it has to do with inner city living and "minority" groups. And this is probably what makes the divide worse because most of us fight for equality for different groups, trying to figure out how to fix a broken system, but these rural poor white groups end up getting ignored because, technically, they are part of the majority?

That's the problem with racism, it affects everyone even if not everyone realizes it -- just the same way that a feminist society would be beneficial to everyone but because a sexist society benefits some (usually at the top) then it continues. Poverty has been racialized and the poor are blamed for their own poverty so that no one in that class bands together to do anything about it. It's like a form of union busting. If you can keep the affected groups feeling shame about their condition rather than anger about the groups who perpetuate it with an unfair system, then the current system can go on unchallenged.

[orangerful]

YES! It's also part of the "American has no class system but actually yeah we totally do" issue because this group is really stuck and I don't see them becoming unstuck in an easy way. There's so much distrust of authorities, so much taking matters into their own hands, so much distraction at home that keeps children from excelling at school...

...I was thinking about all this surrounding the healthcare debate too because here is a group of people that is constantly unemployed or in a job without good insurance so of course they don't really understand what good insurance could do for them. They distrust doctors, they try to pull through everything, which might work sometimes but when it doesn't and they finally are forced to see medical attention, the bills are so astronomical that they are put into debt for life even with minimal insurance coverage. They don't think to use the coverage that lets them get a check up or get that cold checked out because they were not raised that way and it becomes a cycle...it's such a huge cultural shift in a way of thinking.

Then again, if they don't have jobs that pay decent wages, the idea of giving anything to "Uncle Sam" to help cover healthcare probably sounds terrifying.

[yourlibrarian]

it's such a huge cultural shift in a way of thinking

That's likely true particularly in cases of generational poverty. Being able to take time off work, use money for transportation to get to appointments, being able to afford medications even if prescribed, it all conspires to make it an option to be avoided rather than pursued.

Speaking of that, I did a brief review of The Casual Vacancy miniseries which in part revolves around the removal of a community center used for, among other things, drug recovery treatment. The alternative would be paying for an infrequent bus ride to a larger city for meetings, something which ends up spelling disaster.

[orangerful]

I didn't even know the Casual Vacancy mini-series had happened! That sounds like a storyline that will resonate with many people. I've also heard that the drug that can be used to save people when the overdose on opiods has become insanely expensive - not sure if it is due to a shortage or greed or a bit of both, but if the government begins to pass that bill on to the addicts and their families...the hole will just keep getting deeper and deeper.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, it ran on HBO. And I expect it may be a shortage given rising demand but greed is always in the picture when it comes to pharmaceuticals. And with the government being hamstrung by being unable to negotiate pricing, those pharma companies will be the only ones benefiting.

[herself_nyc]

I read it, and found the autobiographical aspects somewhat interesting, though the conclusions he draws are IMHO totally wrong-headed, and it was frustrating (but not so surprising) to see that coming from that background and managing to be one of the very few who succeeds in climbing out of that social class, he takes on the hard-right viewpoint which blames the systemically poor for their poverty and despair.