Shattering ‘White Rural Rage’ w/ West Virginian Garrett Ballengee

Cultural and media elites are it again with the book 'White Rural Rage'. Garrett Ballengee, President and CEO of the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Public Policy joins me to dissect this issue. From the coal mines to the hills, Garrett shares personal accounts and historic wisdom that reveal the multi-layered reality of rural life, one that defies the media's narrow portrayal of racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. In this episode, we shatter the notion of 'White Rural Rage' as we delve into Garrett's experiences and insights, showcasing the resilience and inclusivity that characterize many rural communities. Together, we peel back the layers of these complex narratives, emphasizing the significance of genuine understanding and the richness of communal bonds that often go unseen.

Follow the page on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/overcoming_the_divide/?hl=en

With the landscape of vaccination attitudes in Western Virginia as our backdrop, this episode also confronts the destructive effects of societal disdain, with a particular focus on the COVID crisis. The sting of a scornful comment by Jimmy Kimmel serves as a case study for the broader theme of ridicule on regional pride and identity. It's a candid look at the real emotions behind what's been coined as 'white rural rage', and an exploration of why empathy and constructive conversation are more critical now than ever. If you're ready for a thought-provoking journey that champions better public discourse, this is a dialogue not to be missed.

Chapters:
00:00:00 Challenging Stereotypes and Building Understanding

00:12:23 Attitude Towards Vaccination in Western Virginia

Recorded: 3/26
Intro: Metropolis Nights- penguinmusic 
Outro: Powerful Beat- penguinmusic 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Today we're dispelling with the myth that rural populations are more likely to be racist, homophobic, xenophobic and much more. That is really outlined in the book White Rural Rage. We're also tearing down cultural elitism that is so often perpetuated in pop culture and mainstream media. And if you enjoy the following conversation, please make sure to subscribe and throw a like. Welcome to Overcoming the Divide, a platform dedicated to insightful political discourse and debate. The following episode is with Garrett Ballingy, the president and CEO of the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Public Policy. This conversation is part one of a larger conversation that will be released next Tuesday, april 9th. If you want to take a listen to that and watch that, make sure to subscribe to never miss a beat. And, without further ado, welcome to Overcoming the Divide.

Speaker 1: 0:57

One thing I want to bring up kind of in this cultural tensions is a book that was recently released. It's called White Rural Rage by Paul Waldman and Tom Schaller. I'm curious on your thoughts on that. One if you heard of the book, but two if you had like. Think of it. And in essence it seems the book appears to draw concern, or alleges to draw concern, of white rural populations that it concludes the book that is are more xenophobic, racist and more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. That's what the book alleges and finds. But is you know? These people have made appearances on mainstream media and is being talked about quite a bit. Yeah it's.

Speaker 2: 1:40

I've certainly heard of the book, although it's one of those things that I see the title and I just kind of roll my eyes. It's. It is one of those. First of all, it's probably the only group of people that you could get away with saying something like that and still be welcomed into a mainstream television studio for an interview, right? That's one of the reasons, frankly, why we actually started the Forgotten America podcast, because it was right after the President Trump election in 2016.

Speaker 2: 2:10

And all of a sudden, you saw the New Yorker and the Atlantic and the New York Times and the Washington Post kind of all sending out their reporters out to the hinterlands trying to figure out how this happened right, trying to figure out how and why Donald Trump had been elected for the first time. And I was just reading a lot of these stories and it was so obvious to me that these people were trying to tell a story about a group of people with whom they had nothing in common. There was no sort of mutual understanding or affection or sort of understanding where these people were coming from, or maybe they were manifesting their frustrations through a man like Donald Trump, and so we wanted to start a podcast where we could actually talk about these stories and these people and their trials and tribulations from a place of understanding, right? Maybe you don't agree with it, maybe you do agree with it, but we want to at least tell it from our own perspective, because we were kind of tired of being treated like animals and the sort of the coastal safari was coming through on tour, and so I think a lot of times, more mainstream to center left, to hard left, individuals are looking for excuses or convenient reasons why people don't vote the way they vote or why they don't sort of see the world the way they see the world.

Speaker 2: 3:39

I'll give you a little anecdote here. So in Southern West Virginia that entire economy was built on coal mining and as a result, it attracted immigrants from all across the world. So Eastern Europe, southern Europe, and then also a lot of Black Americans went down to work in the coal mines, and my father-in-law was a coal miner for about 25 years. And you talk to people that were in that industry, daniel, these were not, these were. You would think. Oh, southern West Virginia, middle of Appalachia, scots, irish, this has got to be some of the most racist places in America, right? West Virginia Senator was a Ku Klux Klan member, robert Seabrook, this would just be awful, you would talk to these people, daniel, and there was no tinge of racism.

Speaker 2: 4:26

There was no tinge of the in-group and the out-group or hostilities or anything like that. You know why? Because these people worked and died together in the mines. So there was a mutual respect and mutual understanding that has really permeated a place like West Virginia over the generations.

Speaker 2: 4:45

And so one of my favorite episodes of Anthony Bourdain's no Reservations was West Virginia and he kind of tackled this subject head on and even kind of admitted he had certain stereotypes about the states before he got here. But he talked about kind of the social cohesion, the racial cohesion that was in a place like Southern West Virginia. And towards the end of the episode he said I've been to a lot of places in this world but none has touched me the way West Virginia has. Now I don't think Anthony Bourdain would say something like that about a racist hellhole, right, I think it's fair to say somebody like Anthony Bourdain is sort of calling it like he sees it. And so I see these books like White Rural Rage and I just wonder the spirit in which they were written, because I don't think it's from a magnanimous spirit and I certainly don't think it's from a spirit that seeks to understand the other.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Quick PSA. This country needs you. The goal of the show is to retake the public square and fill it with insightful political discourse and debate that is beneficial to people's lives and helps them make more informed decisions and think about issues in a more holistic sense, and the only way to do that is having conversations at scale. So if you find value in this conversation, enjoy it. I please ask you to hit that little link button, copy it and share it with a friend who may, like it, become part of the movement to improve public discourse in our society and in this country. Thank you. Now back to the show.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Interesting, well said and a couple things that immediately come to mind that you mentioned. The one was with Anthony Bourdain and he said what a beautiful place this was, or something of that sort. Yep, and I'm curious. Why do you think that was? Why do you think he said that? Because he, to my knowledge, was your typical liberal left person. He was a celebrity and I agree that someone of that sort would not just loosely throw out such a deep compliment. But I am curious for someone who lives in the state, works in the state, why do you think he said that?

Speaker 2: 6:50

I think it's because the state is fundamentally welcoming. Said that, I think it's because the state is fundamentally welcoming. Most people do not put on airs about who they are in a place like West Virginia. Of course I am generalizing, but there's an authenticity here. There's a lack of judgment about who people are just because they look a certain way or they talk a certain way or something like that. And in a lot of places you just don't get that.

Speaker 2: 7:21

And I think that's the thread throughout the entire episode, which is come as you are and we'll take you as you are. As long as you treat us with respect, we'll treat you with respect. As long as you come to us with a sense of understanding and curiosity, we'll approach you with respect. As long as you come to us with a sense of understanding and curiosity, we'll approach you with a sense of desire to understand and curiosity, and that's a very rare thing these days. We like to concretize people right, we like to fit them inside our boxes and the way that we see the world, because it's easier to do that. But we don't really do that as much here in west virginia. It's again, it's a, it's a desire to understand other people, and I think bourdain picked up on that throughout the entire episode one, one another.

Speaker 1: 8:03

Another thing that kind of pops up there too is the openness to curiosity, and you would only know that if you've been there you wouldn't know that off of a image most likely not movie or anything else really besides just going there.

Speaker 1: 8:21

And I think that's kind of a microcosm for just different parts in the world just in general where you wouldn't, you'd be advised not to go somewhere, maybe like you shouldn't go there, like maybe that's an accurate thing or recommendation not to do.

Speaker 1: 8:37

But I also get a sense that there's a lot of times like you recommend not to talk to someone but really not to go somewhere because of some stereotype that probably has truth, but little truth nonetheless, and then you go there like that's not really what this is at all, and so I think you can get real fluffy with being like open-minded and you know I don't care about anything as long as everyone's happy. But there is something to say about actually going somewhere, meeting the people, talking to them, understanding like their background, their culture, you know what they value and having an appreciation for that, even if you disagree I think you mentioned that earlier even if you have different values or different dress, different beliefs, but like approaching it from a curiosity and open point of view and just kind of learning along the way, and I think it's incredibly valuable.

Speaker 2: 9:30

No, it absolutely is, and that's you.

Speaker 2: 9:34

Just, you're no longer able to indulge your prejudices whenever you're talking to somebody face to face Right, because you're, you're meeting somebody, that is, you're talking to something that is just like you, right, on a very fundamental level. Right, you know this is another individual. If you're religious, you believe this is another individual. This is another son of God, made in the image of God. Right, this is another ensouled human being, and you begin to appreciate just how similar folks are to one another and you begin to sort of consider that, instead of again indulging your prejudice which is very easy to do from very far away, or it's very easy to do if the only thing you've ever seen about a group of people is some sort of movie depicting them a certain way, right, which is something that West Virginians have dealt with for a very long time. Or the only time you ever hear them discussed or brought up is by a late night comedian cracking a joke powerful antidote to prejudice, and that's something that you know, I think would do a lot of people well.

Speaker 1: 11:02

MSNBC. They were discussing the results of the Republican primary in Virginia and exit polls show that the number one issue for Republican voters was immigration. And Jen Psaki made the joke the sour joke, poor joke that Virginia is thousands of miles away from the border. What do they really care about? However, I know we do share a border with West Virginia, so kind of just once again insulting intelligence, sliding the state and yeah, and that was that there was no kind of like pushback or anything and there never really is.

Speaker 2: 11:37

No, of course not. And that kind of stuff really kind of rallies people in West Virginia together. I mean, if you're on X, it's so funny. Whenever that happens you see progressives and conservatives and libertarians all sort of ganging up and kind of holding hands and kind of pushing back on this kind of national, back on this kind of national, this national down the noseness that we often get our direction. And I saw that clip and I don't remember what I remarked. But I do want to say for the last two years West Virginia has had more people moving into it than leaving it, and I do not believe our friends to the east can say the same thing, and so maybe they ought to be concerned about migration going the other direction for once.

Speaker 2: 12:20

But that's exactly what I'm talking about, daniel. It's that sort of sneering attitude that really gets people kind of just irritated and angry. I remember it was during the COVID crisis. I think it was Jimmy Kimmel, but don't hold me to that.

Speaker 2: 12:37

Anyway, western Virginia had the highest rate of people getting the vaccine. It was something you know within six months after the vaccine came out, regardless of what you think of the vaccine, and a lot of people at that time in particular were like proud of that right, like well, this is great, we're getting out, they're getting vaccinated, whatever. And somebody said again I think it was Kim always said something to the tune of well, that's because they're handing out free opioids or free Oxycontin or something like that, and it was just another, just another notch in the belt in terms of people looking down on a proud, good group of people, and people just kind of get tired of it after a while. Maybe that's the white rule rage. People are uh, people are talking about as we get mad for people making fun of us, which I think is a natural reaction.