Category: Stereotypes
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A Letter to J.D. Vance
Dear Mr. Vance, I read your book Hillbilly Elegy last year. Actually, my family and I listened to it as a free trial on Audible while traveling back and forth to visit my grandfather in the hospital. He was a career coal miner by the way. Several friends and colleagues had advised me not to…
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The Problem with Environmental Activism in Appalachia
June 5, 2025: I wrote this not longer after defending my undergraduate thesis on negative environmentalist stereotypes in Appalachia. I later continued this course of study at Virginia Tech as a master’s student in sociology. There, I learned about the non-profit industrial complex and that some larger environmental organizations actually thrive on creating division between…
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The Religion of Coal
I usually avoid religion in my posts, but I can no longer ignore how I’ve hearing some folks apply it to coal and coal mining. “If God didn’t want us to use coal, he wouldn’t have put it here!” I’ve heard it a dozen times from friends and family back home.1 It’s even been preached…
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Fueling the Fires of Ignorance
If you take time to frequent a pro-coal Facebook page such as Count on Coal, you may or may not be surprised by the statements you find there, most of which aimed at the EPA. What is most disturbing however, is the amount of blind support they receive from the coal mining families. There is…
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Are We Ignorant Hillbillies?
Previously titled “Ignorance – Fighting the Appalachian Stereotype” Appalachians have been looked down upon, made fun of, and dehumanized as “uneducated,” “backwards,” or just down right “ignorant.” I myself would often denounce such stereotyping, but as of late I cannot help but acknowledge that many Appalachian people are fulfilling the descriptions placed upon them. The…
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True Appalachians
We are finding more and more ways to overextend ourselves in Appalachia. Our wants create debt; our debts force us to work dangerous environmentally destructive jobs. Nice homes, nice vehicles, nice this…nice that. Happiness is no longer admiring the small things—happiness became what people on TV told us it should be, it became what salesmen…
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How do you convince a coal miner?
People keep asking me, “How do we convince coal miners we need change?” My answers vary from week to week and I do not pretend to be an “expert” on the subject. What I know has come from my own experiences and observations of the many social, economical, and cultural issues impeding change within the…