<p>@flossy. Agree.</p>
<p>It is an issue of the misuse of power, not having wealth itself. </p>
<p>Wealth shaming a successful podiatrist is not exactly going after the power brokers. </p>
<p>I find the phrase “critical of wealth” to be amusing. That is like saying “critical of nice hair”. Some people with nice hair cut it off and donate it to cancer victims. It is not what you have, it is what you do with what you have that matters. </p>
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<p>It feels/felt condescending to me, too. I don’t know why the Southern accent is still considered shorthand for ignorant or unsophisticated. Sometimes I’ve used my accent as camouflage - as in, who knew that this supposed redneck hillbilly is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa? </p>
<p>And Bay, my people come from a long line of farmers and textile workers, too - just from a different state.</p>
<p>The words “redneck” and “hillbilly” are still tossed around by many people in an insulting way. That “redneck” couple driving a pickup with a gun rack might be the loving caregivers for their elderly parents. That old “hillbilly” sitting on his mountain porch with a pipe in his mouth may be a World War II veteran who fought his way through Europe. Anyone who pays attention to a label rather than the human is the one with the problem.</p>
<p>scout59 – I’ve been treated in a condescending manner by people from other parts of the country because of the way that I talk. More than once I have said, with a smile, “When you’re in the South, YOU are the one with the accent.”</p>
<p>Outside academia, academia–shaming, professor-shaming, intellectual-shaming, art-shaming, and reading-big-books shaming is still very popular.</p>
<p>^^ Now that you mention it, that’s VERY true. </p>
<p>That old hillbilly may be a business person, down the hill. My kids spent some time in Appalachia- later we realized an in-law is from the same town and his family are all pipe-smoking porch sitters- on weekends.<br>
My MIL never lost her accent, despite decades in the north. She got the same occasional stereotyping. Ironic, because her family was long time city folks. </p>
<p>But, you have to realize, there’s lots of common stereotyping. How many times does CC mock “liberals?” Or make assumptions about how all Northeasterners are so desperate for an Ivy- and everyone else is reasonable? Or even well-intentioned long time posters make assumptions about lower SES kids, what they can and cannot do. In my mind, we all have to watch ourselves. </p>
<p>I don’t think that is the “last acceptible prejudice inacademia” by a long shot. A lot of biases, out right bigotry and much snobbery in academia, for all the rep of being so accepting. In my opinion, mental acuity would be the last accept prejudice and will so remain as that is what defines a lot of academia. I hear all kinds of talk about how “stupid” people are from those who consider themselves quite enlightened. </p>
<p>@scout59, @Bay,@PackMom - Welcome to my world, won’t you come on in! “Appalachia-shaming” is the last acceptable prejudice everywhere. My father was transferred to West Virginia from Cincinnati when I was four and even then, I picked up on the fact that we were moving to an what was considered to be an inferior place. I’ve lived my entire life with my Indiana relatives making fun of every word that comes out of my H’s, my Ss’s and my mouth. S1 just graduated from a regional university with a degree in sports broadcasting and my uncle can’t get over the fact that he doesn’t have a West Virginia accent on the radio! At my parent’s 50th anniversary in 2005, I gave my Ss permission to deck any of my cousins’ kids who made fun of them or WV in any way - something I was never allowed to do as a child. When I lived in Ohio briefly after college, I never heard the end of it! I had lunch with my boyfriend du jour and his parents and his mom was so pleased that “You certainly don’t sound like someone from West Virginia!” I liked the guy at the time so I let it go, but it still rankles. Ironically, though, as far as religion and education go, I’m about as “un-West Virginian” as they come and the minute I get out of the Huntington-Charleston area, people hear me talk and say “You’re not from West Virginia are you?” And I also not a WVU Mountaineer fan - but that’s another rant.
Anyway, all that being said, I’ve told my older S he should look for a job in Cincinnati, because people of Appalachian origin are a protected class there …</p>
<p>@sorghum - I have to agree with you. Here in Appalachia, that is our “acceptable prejudice.”</p>
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Condescending? If a person of color had been asked to do the same thing, they’d have grounds for a lawsuit! Can y’all tell I feel very strongly about this? ;-)</p>
<p>I was raised in central and southern Illinois and Indiana. My “twang” (which sounds “southern” to most people) has been moderated by years of living in and near Chicago. Replaced, I would assume, by an amalgam of Chicago southside (thanks to H), general Great Lakes dialect, and some vestigial rural cornbelt pronunciations. But my family says my accent gets noticeably more “southern” the minute I travel south of I-80. I’m always afraid people will think I’m mocking them. I’m not. I’m just settling back into the speech patterns I grew up with. </p>
<p>I remember fondly discussions in college about our different accents, and how we pronounced words differently. It’s not necessarily condescending to do this.</p>
<p>^^^ I agree that is not condescending if it is done in the spirit of all sitting around kidding about “paaking the caa in the paaking lot” (hello Boston roommate!) and “ya’ll come back know ya here” (hello Southern roommate!).</p>
<p>But if it is done as described earlier by Scout, I think that is very condescending and mean spirited.</p>
<p>The last acceptable prejudice in academia is really against dumb people. There are many colleges that will charge one kid 50 grand to go there, but will allow another kid to go for FREE just because he is smarter. Where’s the outrage?</p>
<p>When done in a group like this, it isn’t. Being singled out in a crowd as being the only one who is “different” is. Appalachian accents even came up in S1’s commencement speaker’s comments last week. He is the chairman of Intuit, and in his first job, his boss wanted to send him to diction classes to rid him of his West Virginia accent. He refused, and is proud of his accent - he feels it sets him apart and make him memorable. </p>
<p>From the article:
“Terms like “hillbilly” or “redneck” demean, she said, yet they are used all the time in most parts of society, including academe. Kent places much of the blame on Hollywood, which makes films and television shows that play off the stereotypes.”</p>
<p>I grew up with The Waltons, Where the Red Fern Grows and October Sky which would lead one to believe that people in Appalachian country are all strong, proud, wise, temperate and really the backbone of our nation. I guess Deliverance didn’t do much for image and the current crop of ‘reality’ shows don’t either. However, I get the sense that northeastern and ‘left coast elites’ aren’t the target audience for those. It sounds like the prejudice is coming from areas that are close enough to feel superior to the neighbors.</p>
<p>Taking this in another direction . . . our area has lots of transplants from that region who came to work in the resource based economy. Like where they came from, where they settled is more isolated and dependent on big extraction industry. For me it is a ‘check my privilege’ topic because I am fortunate to live in an area with geographic, economic and social mobility. Jobs aren’t all tied to one industry. Watching forest product folks in my own state and mining folks in Appalachia I do find myself wondering about Stockholm Syndrome. How can you so strongly support the companies and deregulatory policies that are dumping chemicals into your water, dust into your lungs and causing the rivers to back up with silt and hillsides slide down? It is less a cultural prejudice than an urban environmentalist thing I guess. I get the fiercely independent spirit part and pride in a lifestyle that flies in the face of much of what we think of as modern and “now”. At the same time a often feel like that independence has been co-opted for gain by politicians and companies who really have a profit interest. Then I am torn . . . “How can they not see this, are they stupid?!” vs “I need to check my privilege and understand how it must be to weigh a job in the short term against all those other farther term concerns.” I can only speak for myself but I wouldn’t be surprised if the sentiment is shared.</p>
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Family and tradition play a large part in all this too, Saintsfan. There’s an old Appalachian saying -* “Don’t get above your raisin’.”* It can mean nothing more than “Don’t get to big for your britches,” or “Don’t forget those that helped you on your way up.” But many interpret it as “Don’t improve yourself. Don’t seek a better life. The coal mine was good enough for your Paw-Paw, it ought to be good enough for you. No, you can’t go to college. You can stay home and help your mother keep house until you marry Johnny from the next holler. If you go to college, etc, you’re betraying your family history and our entire way of life.” Joining the Armed Forces is acceptable, as long as you come back after your initial enlistment to live. This is not how I was raised, but I’ve come into contact with a lot of people who were. Women in this area tend to do things bassackwards - they marry out of high school and have all their kids by age 23 or so, then go to college in their 30s and 40s. The nursing program at the community college in the southern part of the state is one of the most popular and difficult to get into - many women see it as their ticket out, and many of their men do anything they can to sabotage them. </p>
<p>@saintfan Well, Hollywood also gave us the Beverly Hillbillies. </p>
<p>BFgirl, I mean this nicely, but you realize you just stereotyped those folks? Of course, I don’t know exactly where you are, but there are strivers in many corners and sometimes it does take a generation or two to make big leaps. I love the south- there may be idiosyncrasies in some pockets, sure.</p>
<p>The thing about staying true to your roots could apply to many locales- including up here in parts of the NE. </p>