CHAPTER
1: THE HILLBILY
“I am just a dumb
hillbilly.”[1] As
an educator in Eastern Kentucky, sadly I have heard this phrase many times when
personally listening to students share their fears and inadequacies. Rusty
Justice, founder of Bit Source, an
innovated computer coding company for those who are unemployed in the coal
industry, tells a story of when they launched their initial hiring of 11 coders
to be the first class of change agents in the region. These well-paying jobs
were advertised and were so popular that Bit
Source had to cut the application process a week early because the site had
crashed, and they had already received 950 applications. Out of these 950, they
chose 11 and on the first day of work, only 10 showed. This stunned Rusty and
his leadership team so Rusty personally called the 11th candidate
and pleaded with him to come to work and embrace the exciting future of coding.
The man however wanted to keep his ten dollar an hour job and said, “Who am I
kidding, I am just a dumb hillbilly from up the holler, what do I know about computers,
I will never learn coding like they need me to”[2]
The sinister shadow of the hillbilly image crushes many in Central Appalachia.
Most Appalachian scholars agree that the stereotyping
of Appalachian people has evolved over time. The first cultural images of the
Appalachian person/region were the brave and courageous mountaineers who like
Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett blazed new territories and paved ways for fellow
pioneers to inhibit the mountains. Of course, this first “American” image
discounts and entirely ignores the fact that some of the first Appalachians
were the Shawnee and Cherokee, among many others. The brave mountaineer was
blasted in newspapers as mountaineers helped win the Revolutionary War and even
Gen. George Washington said that if he were going to have a last stand, he
would want it with the mountain boys of Tennessee.[3]
Later, however, when the revolution was won and the
industrial revolution took off, the Appalachian Mountains were a region filled
with profitable resources that could be picked as fuel for the advancement of
the new nation. The land, however, could not simply be taken as was the case
with the expulsion of the first peoples. The mountaineers were a rugged and
brave bunch who could not be fought and killed for their land. Unlike the first
peoples, the mountaineers had guns and were more than willing to use them to
protect their family and homeplace. This national invasion had to be softer and
subtle. This is when the national imagery shifted from the brave mountaineer to
a wild region filled with primitive, violent, and backwards people.
The word hillbilly is believed to have first appeared in
print in the US in 1900 in a New York
Evening Journal article describing the “hill-billie” as “a free and
untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to
speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets
it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.”[5]
The first known photograph labeled as hillbilly was in 1899 when describing a
group of people in West Virginia as “Camp Hillbilly.”[6]
The Encyclopedia of Appalachia lists
the hillbilly as
the dominant icon of Appalachia…the
hillbilly image is consistently a lanky, black-bearded, white male who lives in
a cabin in the mountains with an outhouse out back. He wears a battered slouch
hat, totes a shotgun and a jug of moonshine, and holds little regard for the
law, work, cleanliness, or book learning. He has loose morals and is decidedly
dangerous.[7]
The origins of the hillbilly are as complex and dynamic as
the people it describes. Following the Civil War, tensions were high as the
nation began to reconstruct its identity as a union. Due to the border stance
in the war, Kentucky and the newly-formed state of West Virginia were left
without a future identity. Although West Virginia had stood up to the Southern
plantation owners who were leading Virginia’s dive into Civil War, the mountain
people of West Virginia were tired of being told what to do. They were
politically disempowered and disenfranchised. Dennis Frye, chief historian at Harpers Ferry National State Park, when
discussing West Virginia, says, “They were a state born of conviction. They
were a state born for advocating for and defending the United States of America.”[8]
Rather than being seen as heroes after the war, the courageous and loyal mountaineers
were relegated to the status of “other.” This is the birth of the Appalachian
“peculiar people” narrative. The mountaineers become the sacrificial offering
to help reconcile the North and South as they become the mutually agreed upon ostracized
mountain people.
The making of the “peculiarity” storyline took time to saturate
the American psyche. Between 1870 and 1890, local colorists published more than
90 travel sketches and 125 short stories about the region, as one of the first
pieces was the work, “A Strange Land and a Peculiar People.”[9]
This article accelerated the idea of Appalachian otherness and set a precedent
for Appalachia to be seen as strange.[10]
Late-nineteenth-century local color writer John Fox,
Jr., willfully created these images to birth an Appalachian otherness thus
serving his own economic interests. His family were major coal developers in
Central Appalachia and John served as their public relations voice. His images
became perceived reality and have endured for almost 150 years.[11]
John Fox has proven that stereotyping is a profitable business. The agenda of
making the mountaineer less was solidified as a feasible and successful
campaign right after the Civil War. The creation of a cultural and class
stratification was imperative to gain control of the natural resources and as a
bonus there came the control of the people. As the nation was transitioning
into an industrialized global power much was changing in the country. These
changes invited many in the country to harken back to the good old days of a
simpler pioneering time. Local color writers were happy to meet this need by creating
an image of mountain people as savages,
barbarians, and bloodthirsty people, thus proving to be very popular.[12]
The shift from a mountaineer stereotype to the
savage barbarian began to give way to a more permanent and lasting type. In the
1870s publications like the New York Times started to frequently publish
stories of Appalachian feuds that captivated the nation. From 1874-1902, the New
York Times published no fewer than 14 different feuds from Eastern Kentucky[13] and of course the most popular and deadly was
that of the interstate rivalry of the McCoys from Kentucky and the Hatfields of
West Virginia. Often among the
marginalized, dominate powers seek to disempower these people by creating a
hierarchy within the ostracized ranks. This “divide and conquer” strategy is
seen in the way the nation embraced the Hatfield/McCoy feud storyline. It is
critical to know that this famous family rivalry had more to do with land
rights, local economic issues, and remaining left over tension from the Civil
War, than any falsely created cultural story of savages. In 1889, the same year
that Rev. David Blythe founds UPIKE, Theron C. Crawford for the New York World newspaper wrote a
collection of stories published as a book, called American Vendetta, in which,
he colorfully painted an image of a backward hillbilly who loved to fight and kill
to settle scores. He mocked the mountain dialect, adding fuel to the fires of the
hillbilly stereotype.[14]
Through yellow journalism, national storylines were embellished to sell papers.
For example, a New York Times story
datelined from Catlettsburg, Ky., in 1888 called the feud a “war of extermination”
in the “wilds of West Virginia.” [15]
These images served well to control the people
of the region.[16]
Rev. David Blythe, said when performing his initial work in Pikeville in 1889,
that the way that the national media shared the stories of the feud would do
unchecked harm on the Appalachian region for generations to come.[17]
The feuding lawless mountain person gave birth to the hillbilly. The hillbilly
has been the lasting cultural image and destructive icon for nearly 150 years.
This has become the controlling image of the region. Stereotypes have a way of
guiding behavior and hiding elements that contradict it. stereotypes shape
one’s self-perception and lead to self-fulfilling behavior.[18]
The hillbilly allows greater American society to dehumanize a people and
feel good about themselves. The fueling of the
stereotype drown out all the potential for a valiant and gutsy mountaineer
image to triumph. The history of dispossession
of the Appalachian people has been a cultural project over 150 years in the
making.
Casting a stereotype on a people has long lasting and
various facets of impact. Stereotyped people are hyper aware of their behaviors
and are worried that their actions or words will support and confirm the stereotypes.
It is a constant threat to live within the parameters of a stereotype and it
has been shown to create anxiety and damage performance.[19]
The image of the hillbilly, see appendix
three, is an important element of oppression in Central
Appalachian society and is at the heart of what hollering theology must
challenge and seek to transform. Although not as apparent and fierce as a
brutal dictator or dominant as a corrupt forestry corporation, the hillbilly
creates space for colonizing of the mind, fueling a culture of “feeling less
than” and empowering society to oppress mountain people. This 150-year cultural
propaganda assault leads to breakdowns in education, health care, social
stratification, and ultimately allows a major gap to occur between the space of
Central Appalachia and the rest of the US. As Dr. Stephen Stoll, the author of Ramp Hollow, chillingly asks, “What made politicians and investors think that they
could do whatever they wanted wherever they wanted?”[20]
Through the systematic and intentional devaluing and denigration of the
Appalachian person into a hillbilly caricature, systems justify misusing and
manipulating the people.
Nationally, the hillbillly is seen as a dumb mountaineer
who historically sold their land for nothing, now is lazy, and naively uses a
backward belief in a fatalistic God. Hillbillies are dirty, eat disgusting
things like roadkill and wild animals, while having poor health and especially
poor dental hygiene.[21]
These mountain people can be laughed at and as Loyal Jones says, “political
correctness fades away when the subject is a poor hillbilly. Therefore, they
make wonderful scapegoats. We are really haunted and troubled by the poor in
this affluent land.”[22]
These poor mountaineers are at times barely surviving and many have creatively figured
out how to use the federal social security income system as a way to live. From
Cletus Spuckler[23]
on The Simpsons to the negative energy surrounding the blaming of
Appalachian people for the rise and election of Donald Trump,[24]
stereotyping and shaming is all around. J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, who many claim only
fuels the negative stereotypes, argues that stereotyping nearly stopped him from
personal success. He says, “Surrounding me was another message: that I and the
people like me weren’t good enough; that the reason Middletown produced zero
Ivy League graduates was some genetic or character defect.”[25]
Dr. Ruth Frankenberg,
sociologist and leading scholar in whiteness studies argues that the “hillbilly” is created to birth a “white other”
to help lift the white culture of the USA, as the hillbilly is “less than white.”[26]
Hillbillies on one hand are faithful and patriotic people who have simple lives
showing the beauty of whiteness yet are also seen as feudists who lazily live
off of government handouts and refuse to be educated and are perpetually
suspicious of the outsider.[27]
Through this creation of the “white other,” the hillbilly has been used to appease
the guilt of the oppressive economic forces and fuel the partnership of fellow
regional oppressive forces of Appalachian people who dominate their neighbors. Dr.
Kai Erikson, former president of the American
Sociological Society, sees the stereotype as extremely dangerous by saying,
“It helps breed a social order without philosophy or art or even the rudest
form of letters. It brings out whatever capacity for superstition and credulity
a people come endowed with, and it encourages an almost reckless individualism.”[28]
The Appalachian person, the hillbilly, is seen as other and less than, which
then fuels the internalizing of shame and self-loathing.
Those studying Central Appalachia have sought to find
patterns of oppression to explain the painful statistical realities of Central
Appalachia which form diseases of despair. Diseases of despair are illnesses
which result from a lifetime of despair and may include things like addiction,
substance abuse overdoses, suicides, and alcoholic liver disease. Through
brilliant historic studies like Ramp Hollow and the work of Catholic
Committee in Appalachia people have been shown the damning impacts of
mountain top removal and the heartless capitalistic exploitation from an
extraction economy. This project, however wants to look at a system of oppression
that cannot be seen in the streams and mountains. The primary oppression of
Central Appalachia is the colonized mind of the hillbilly. This enslaving
stereotype has ignited missionary endeavors and enflamed a War on Poverty, which unintendedly birthed a crushing federal
dependency, see appendix four. These realities have become an invisible barrier for Appalachian
student success. Painfully, the hillbilly has taken root into the hearts of
many Appalachian students. Today the hillbilly stereotype rears its ugly face in
the self-fulfilling prophecy of lower performing students. The dumb hillbilly
is used by many to perpetuate the need to funnel money and resourcing into Central
Appalachia, which actually keeps the people enslaved. Scholar activist, Dr.
Helen M. Lewis, was the first to argue for Appalachia as an internal colony of
the US because it has been economically exploited, politically dominated, and
culturally denigrated.[29]
This model, in addition to the work on colonization by philosopher Frantz Fanon,
who had a four-phase colonial model as it has been applied to understand
oppression and internalized oppression, sets the stage for the argument of
internalized oppression as the primary oppression point.
Fanon states that
colonization happens when a dominant/foreign group exploits an area’s natural
resources while denigrating its labor force. In Harry Caudill’s shocking and
damning work, Night Comes to the Cumberlands, he lays out the case for these 150 years of exploitation by
the timber and coal industries. As early as 1880, the boom and bust of the coal
industry started leaving a meteor sized hole in Appalachia. In 1920, almost 80 % of Eastern Kentucky lived in coal company-owned
towns.[30]
Dependence on the mine became the way of life. Although much smaller in 2021, coal
is still devastating people. In 2019, the coal company BlackJewell created a painful situation for many miners when it
closed its doors, declared bankruptcy and refused to pay the workers for labor
they had already worked.[31]
In a span of months, coal companies were dropping their mines and liquidating
their companies in hopes of saving millions. Meanwhile miners were pushed to poverty and the community was left with
nothing.[32]
Beyond private
industrialists, the federal government also did serious damage to the people. Dr.
Ron Eller, distinguished Appalachian professor of history, argues that the War on Poverty was inadequate because it
failed to see/address the injustices caused by the generational domination of
extracting capitalism. He says that the War on Poverty was negligent in dealing
with problems of inequitable land ownership and capital outflow. Opportunities
to advocate for landscape and water quality, investment in infrastructure, and
multifaceted avenues of economic growth were missed.[33]
Eller argues that there was a behind the scenes violent takeover of the region
by greedy capitalists seeking to exploit the region for profit.
A step in the colonization
process for Fanon is a violent takeover of the land yet violence is not always
necessary as some people can be captured through other means. Through the
promise of money and goods for mineral rights, many Central Appalachian
families were colonized. The plundering the land for its resources in pursuit
of American colonial expansion was justified by the use of the hillbilly stereotype
of mountain people.
As Barbara Ellen
Smith, a professor of women’s and gender studies, says of the stereotype, “The
imagery sends the message that, ‘It’s only a region of trash, so why not trash
it?’"[34] According to Fanon, the colonizer seeks to deprecate
the local culture/people in combination of making the locals more civilized to
match the image of the colonizer. The colonized are pictured as primitive,
savages, less than, inferior, and needing to be modernized. Dr. Rodger Cunningham, Appalachian professor of English, argues
that the psychological consequences of the internalization of such narratives
has a blanketing impact that reduces the beauty and complications of Appalachia
into a caricature that is fixed and full of despair.[35]
Dr. Amanda Slone, assistant provost at UPIKE and Appalachian scholar, states
that first generational Appalachian students have a loss of self-confidence due to the stereotype. This loss,
when coupled with the greater national assumptions of the poor as lazy, drug
addicts, ignorant, and deficient in various ways, does damage to students’
self-esteem. This damaging impact often provokes an intentional distancing from
Appalachian identity. Dr. Slone uses personal narratives from Appalachian
students to reveal how negative stereotypes impacts academic performance. Dr.
Slone provides student Philip as an example. Philip typifies the way that
stereotypes are used as a colonizing and oppressive force. While talking about
his Appalachian identity and stereotypes that surround it, he said,
When people bring up stereotypes like that
or point them out about you, you kind of think well, what if they do see me
like that? What if to them I’m just some stupid redneck? And then you start to
think, if they see me like that, what if I am like that? I mean, even if it’s
not true you might subconsciously start to believe that what people say about
you or how they see you is the truth, even if it’s not. And that can really do
damage to self-esteem.[36]
The oppressed can begin
to be owned by the narratives placed on them. The oppressed have a duality of
longing for freedom from the oppression yet also fear this freedom.[37]
After the appearance of inferiority becomes the ethos, Fanon
argues that it is imperative that the colonizer impose structures, culture, and
standards that encourage and reward those who transform into the image of the
colonizer. In Central Appalachia, when a person is changed from an uncultured
hillbilly to one who speaks without a mountain accent, this person is celebrated
as a hero of success. This imposition happens through formal and informal
structures/institutions such as schools, churches, advancement programs, and
especially folk schools.[38]
At times in its history, UPIKE
has also used the images of transformed hillbillies as a way to connect with
outside donors and national grants. After concluding this research project, I
must admit my own educational work has primarily operated in unconscious biases
stemming from this oppressive step.
Dr. Teemon
Williams, in his groundbreaking work on internalizing oppression, see appendix five, shares the process of how
step three in Fanon’s model works through the concepts of process, state, and action.
This work is both internal, psychological, and spiritual whereas it is
supported through the systematic use of the media, language, lyrics in music,
cultural practices, and cultural assumptions. This cycle produces fruits of the
oppression such as learned helplessness and an acceptance of the dominant
narrative. This acceptance, which uncritically integrates the lies, oppressive
structures, and worst insights of the stereotype, can seep into the fundamental
aspect of one’s person and especially in the larger communal identity.[39] Although
Dr. Williams’ model was initially designed for black women it is applicable for
hillbillies. In this model, the stereotype images of the ignorant hillbilly,
the poor hillbilly, and the dependent hillbilly shine forth. Internalized
oppression also seeps through in subtle ways in the lives of Appalachian
students. Inner oppression manifests when hillbillies need help but do not ask
for assistance due to a sense of shame, fearing that the cultural assumptions
of stupidity or neediness will be confirmed. Also, a hillbilly may be afraid to
try a new adventure because of the sense of not being able to do it or that the
outsiders will already see them as less than. So often, a hillbilly does not
venture away from the mountains because of concerns of being misunderstood.
In applying
Williams’ framework of the process, one sees the way in which the hillbilly starts to own and
integrate the cultural negative stereotypes. This leads to the state used by
the dominant oppressive force to victim blame. Victim blaming in hillbillies
occur when it becomes easier to simply label a people lazy and bad rather than
considering larger historical and systematic causes that shape a person’s
situation.[40] The state
is the negative and broken qualities, traits, and characteristics within the
Appalachian region, which are then attached to the character of the hillbilly. In
reality these are the fruits of internalized oppression. Next, Williams
highlights the spiritual state, which is profound for discussing hollering
theology. The spiritual state of internalized oppression is the way that
damning stereotypes are married to soul of the hillbilly. The realities of
internalized oppression can and will run so deep that it will permeate one’s
relationship with and image of God.[41] Ultimately the internalized oppression leads
to negative action and the damaging way of life becomes the daily
activities of the hillbilly. These actions fuel the stereotype, playing out the
narrative of the oppressor.[42]
Toxic behaviors in
Appalachia are due to internalized oppression. Dr. E.J.R. David, professor of
clinical-community psychology, argues in his work, The Psychology of
Marginalized Groups, that internalized oppression is related to high rates
of crime, especially violent crimes like domestic violence and self-harming
behaviors such as drug abuse, school dropouts, and sexually transmitted
infections.[43] The
higher rates of such things in Central Appalachia can be linked to internalized
oppression. The traits and characteristics of internalized oppression can be
passed generationally, and it can exist and be communicated automatically
beyond intentionality or awareness.
Internalization also
leads to a false consciousness, it breaks up the collective power of a people
into differentiated groups, and pushes hillbillies to start hating themselves.
This rage and despair turn outward to seek alliance and purpose in things such
as white nationalist groups, proclaiming the confederate flag as a symbol of
heritage, and verbally disparaging of immigrants and Muslims while supporting
political candidates who pride themselves on insular and isolating policies.
Long term impact of internal colonization is the self-hatred of being
Appalachian and feeling stuck in Appalachia. It also can create a sense of
being embarrassed to have an Appalachian dialect or being known as a hillbilly.
UPIKE student Allison, echoes this,
It’s the first thing people notice and
it’s really a downfall because no more than you open your mouth and they hear
your accent, they’re thinking ‘oh wow, nothing intelligent is going to come out
of their mouth.’ Sometimes people just ignore the conversation, ignore what
you’re saying, or they just think you’re stupid. They think you’re just a
hillbilly from the mountains.[44]
Appalachian
students report a high level of embarrassment and code switching that happens
with their accent especially as they deal with non-Appalachian people/settings.
Often students will start to exhibit signs of this internalization when they
say, “I am just a hillbilly.”[45]
Shame is a key
fruit of internalized oppression and shame often can fuel things like
disempowerment and lack of meaningful community engagement. Disempowerment and lack of meaning fuel addiction at
greater rates than Big Pharma especially as the Central Appalachian region is
shamed by the images and caricatures of the listless poor mountain man on his
front porch with nothing to do. [46]
Addiction is the deadliest result of the hillbilly image. Addiction is a system
of oppression fueled in part by corporate greed and existential pain and hurt.[47]
As more and more companies are leaving the region and good paying and
meaningful jobs are drying up, there is an existential crisis in Central
Appalachia. There is much less likelihood of addiction when people can provide
in meaningful ways for themselves and their families. Eastern Kentucky native, Tim
Robinson, CEO of Addiction Recovery Care,
says,
That is what our brothers and sisters in
addiction need: an opportunity. An opportunity for treatment, transitional
housing, and workforce development that leads to a meaningful career path, and
when the opportunity is given...I have seen us not just survive but thrive. Our
current human capital and labor shortage can be solved at the same time we
combat the drug epidemic as we take those struggling with addiction from crisis
to career.[48]
Through the hapless hillbilly and the powerless victim,
addiction continues to skyrocket. J.D. Vance shares a similar truth when
talking about his mom’s cycle of addiction and recovery.
When Mom
came home a few months later, she brought a new vocabulary along with her. She
regularly recited the Serenity Prayer, a staple of addiction circles in which
the faithful ask God for the ‘serenity to accept the things {they} cannot
change.’ Drug addiction was a disease, and just as I wouldn’t judge a cancer
patient for a tumor, so I shouldn’t judge a narcotic addict for her behavior.
At thirteen, I found this patently absurd, and Mom and I often argued over
whether her newfound wisdom was scientific truth or an excuse for people whose
decisions destroyed a family. Oddly enough, it’s probably both: Research does
reveal a genetic disposition to substance abuse, but those who believe their addiction
is a disease show less of an inclination to resist it. Mom was telling herself
the truth, but the truth was not setting her free.[49]
The complexity of drug addiction is as multifaceted as the
Appalachian region itself, yet addiction is ripping a hole in the soul of the
people with daily newspaper reports of crime and overdose. In the summer of
2019 in Pike County, Ky., 91 % of grand jury indictments for the Commonwealth
of Kentucky, were drug related.[50]
The addiction and criminalization cycle is destroying the poor and hurting of
the mountains because most addicts are people who have already been
victimized/traumatized.[51]
Leading addiction specialist, Dr. Brue Alexander, has made
a compelling argument for the role of dislocation and disempowerment in addiction.
Dislocation is happening in Central Appalachia due to the loss of meaningful
identity, work, and achievable goals in an area where so many are loyal to land
and family but are faced with a crisis due to lack of opportunities. Addiction
is used to satisfy the soul pain caused by dislocation.[52]
Getting high and finding the next fix gives at least a pseudo meaning to each
day. The search for meaning is a push against the despair that many feel in the
region. Many are so crippled by a meaningless life that even the religious
offerings provided to them feel empty and trivial.[53]
A painful reality is the glaring sore of
boredom and lack of engagement. [54]
One can see the pain of decay and debilitation in many of the formerly booming
coal producing towns. From Jenkins to Phelps, from Harlan to Lynch, Eastern
Kentucky is lined with areas that are greying, disabled, and shells of once
vibrant camps.
Stereotypes can cause massive pain and alienation. Laura
Green, counselor at Virginia Commonwealth University, in her research on
stereotypes has shown that one must call out the stereotype and define it as a
problem. She argues that it is critical to know the ways in which the
stereotype developed so that the thought patterns can be disrupted. She argues
that it is vital to provide challenging information and images that confront
the stereotype.[55] In
light of her research, the way forward in Central Appalachia, is a new way and
lens to view oneself, the region, cultural identity, and the shadow of the
hillbilly. Dr. Rodger Cunningham chisels away at the stereotype by
trying to honestly define the idea of Appalachian. Appalachia is,
a systematic structure of meanings implying
orientation to the cosmos; in short, a folk ideology and at the same time a
specifically spiritual phenomenon thus empowering to see the complex nature of
the region and people so that one can begin to silence stereotypes of a poor,
whites only Appalachia. Understanding Appalachian culture as complex and
diverse narrative and region can help Hillbillies to not only resist their
oppressors, but if properly made known to the world, it can help shape thought
on these issues in general.[56]
His definition invites questions regarding an honest and critical look at the people of its region. Internalized
oppression is insidious by nature but also a learned and conditioned behavior.
The hopeful reality is that if it is learned, it can be unlearned.[57] Unlearning
starts with critical pedagogy and liberative theological work especially the hollering
theological work of recasting of the hillbilly through the framework of a
hillbilly Jesus and other such contextualized theological concepts. Undoing of internal
oppression can be enhanced by giving some control to a higher power such as the
collective power of the community or God.[58] When
one claims their cultural identity and makes known the positive and prideful
aspects of being a hillbilly, they are resisting. From the simple acts of
proudly calling oneself a hillbilly, one is choosing to push against the
internalized oppression. The best way to push against the internalized
oppression is to unapologetically live out and make known the diverse and
complex narratives of the region. From the Affralachian
members to the County Queers, and the
Islamic community center in Prestonsburg, all are Appalachian, and all are a
part of the hillbilly story.[59] A
proud and diverse hillbilly is the biggest challenge to the damning stereotype.
Hollering theology can provide an image of a liberating God
who does not fatalistically create the hillbilly with inherent deficiencies but
empowers a co-creative mountaineer who has the inner force to make all things
new. It can also be used to invite renewed theological language and operate as
a lens to critique oppressive structures of mental oppression. Also, critical
pedagogy addresses the stereotype and creates new spaces in the realm of Appalachian
self-awareness. One must be aware however, of how subtle and powerful the
systems of power are within the mountains of Appalachia as no one is immune to
hegemony.[60] In
the process of this project, I became very aware of my own narrow view of
Appalachia and for many years I only saw Appalachia as a Scotch-Irish region
that struggled with poverty and despair. So then this project is a movement of
which both myself and Appalachian students at UPIKE are growing together. As
Confucius has said, “education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope
breeds peace.” Liberation in Eastern Kentucky will happen when the shame of the
hillbilly is crucified, and the pride and boldness of the mountaineer is born
again.
The hillbillies of Central Appalachia
are an oppressed people. One cannot be neutral or apologetic in this stance. Appalachia
is a distinctive region, and the people are a distinctive people group. For the
sake of unchecked profits, a dependency model was created which started as an
external force. Today this dependency model is now an ingrained and cemented
inner reality operating as internalized oppression through the hillbilly
stereotype that shapes a way of life for many in Central Appalachia. This
dependence model is a key source of oppression in the region and therefore must
be a starting place of hollering theology. Also, the God of the mountains is
more than enough to meet the needs, heal the broken, and empower the poor to
speak life to the region without waiting on outside support or salvation from
beyond the mountains. I conclude this chapter with an act of resisting in
partnership with father Hugo Assman’s of whose poetic work I adapt to the
context of Appalachia.
God of the Miner
You are the God of the hillbilly,
The human, unassuming God,
The God who sweats up the holler
The God with a weathered countenance
That is why I speak to you,
As my people speaks
Because you are God the laborer
Christ the Miner
You go hand in hand with my people,
You struggle in the countryside and the mill,
You line up there in the camp
So that they will pay you your day’s wages
You eat, scratching there in the park,
With Michael, John, and Junior Ray,
And you complain about the biscuits
When they don’t put much gravy on it.
I have seen you in a grocery store,
Sitting on a stand
I have seen you selling lottery tickets
Without being ashamed of that job
I have seen you at the strip job
Fixing the tires on a truck
And even blasting underground
With leather gloves and glowing stripes.[61]
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[36] Slone, 105.
[38] David, 19.
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[50]
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[51] Pickard,
169-180
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