There is widespread racism in rural areas for sure. I'd like to chalk it up to mostly a feature of material conditions, but that would be a lie. I grew up in a 99% white, chuddy town in a rural part of a solidly "blue" state. There were maybe two people darker than cream cheese in our whole community. It was pretty much exclusively white people competing with white people for jobs, land, state or federal benefits - you name it. Didn't matter. Hate for other races was and is pretty universal. The BLM discourse in my hometown boggles my fucking mind. People hate the movement so much despite it having absolutely no impact on their lives at all. There are pockets of libs, mostly transplants from urban areas. If your family has been in the area for three generations, though, then you're almost certainly a proud racist.
Where does the racism come from? I honestly don't know. Maybe part of it has to with being from being such a homogenous community that your whole experience of other races comes from movies and cable news and maybe that one time you took a trip to a city. Part of it could be the forces beyond their control that cram propaganda down their throats to protect financial interests. Part of it could be that the rural people in America feel their political agency decreasing more every year and hatred helps them feel powerful again. Part of it could be that people are just really, really shitty.
That said, I do think there is an untapped well of leftism in the boonies - but you have to know how to speak the right language. If you hold a community meeting in my hometown and say "hey comrades, wanna read Marx? Did you know China good? Who wants to do praxis with me? Mutual aid?" you will get ignored or punched. But if you say "people here don't have enough food to feed their kids and the Deep State/rich elite don't give a shit about us, so let's start a community garden and take money out of their pockets," I think people would be really into that. There are very few issues that can't be recast in terms of sticking it to the libs and the satanists. Q and Trump have given us a gift by showing us how to reach these people. It's not about the facts. It's about feeling good.
There is widespread racism in rural areas for sure. I'd like to chalk it up to mostly a feature of material conditions, but that would be a lie. I grew up in a 99% white, chuddy town in a rural part of a solidly "blue" state. There were maybe two people darker than cream cheese in our whole community. It was pretty much exclusively white people competing with white people for jobs, land, state or federal benefits - you name it. Didn't matter. Hate for other races was and is pretty universal. The BLM discourse in my hometown boggles my fucking mind. People hate the movement so much despite it having absolutely no impact on their lives at all. There are pockets of libs, mostly transplants from urban areas. If your family has been in the area for three generations, though, then you're almost certainly a proud racist.
Where does the racism come from? I honestly don't know. Maybe part of it has to with being from being such a homogenous community that your whole experience of other races comes from movies and cable news and maybe that one time you took a trip to a city. Part of it could be the forces beyond their control that cram propaganda down their throats to protect financial interests. Part of it could be that the rural people in America feel their political agency decreasing more every year and hatred helps them feel powerful again. Part of it could be that people are just really, really shitty.
That said, I do think there is an untapped well of leftism in the boonies - but you have to know how to speak the right language. If you hold a community meeting in my hometown and say "hey comrades, wanna read Marx? Did you know China good? Who wants to do praxis with me? Mutual aid?" you will get ignored or punched. But if you say "people here don't have enough food to feed their kids and the Deep State/rich elite don't give a shit about us, so let's start a community garden and take money out of their pockets," I think people would be really into that. There are very few issues that can't be recast in terms of sticking it to the libs and the satanists. Q and Trump have given us a gift by showing us how to reach these people. It's not about the facts. It's about feeling good.