“I identify with the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree. To these folks, poverty is the family tradition—their ancestors were day laborers in the Southern slave economy, share-croppers after that, coal miners after that, and machinists and mill-workers during more recent times. Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family.”
J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy
Harper Collins, New York, 2016
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I’m reading Hillbilly Elegy right now.
I must admit to having very little prior understanding of this culture.
The book is compassionate and enlightening.
Thank you for your comment, Regina. I was born into that culture, of course, but things weren’t as rough as they are these days — what with unemployment drugs, etc., in all the small towns. And the author, two generations younger than me, at least had the advantage of a “tough love” grandmother. The movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter” depicts a world closer to my experience in those mountains. Can’t wait to see what Hollywood does with this story . . .