Quote:
Originally Posted by jmecklenborg
A
If anything, anti-West Virginia sentiment is pretty much the strongest and most acceptable regional and cultural bias in the United States because the name "West Virginia" is synonymous with low-class whites of English, Scottish, and Irish decent. If the state had been a half or majority black or native american place, the national media would run non-stop stories about WV's countless social and environmental problems.
The fact is not only is there a pronounced bias in England against the low-class residents of Northern England, Scotland, and Ireland, that sentiment was absorbed by the descendants of continental Europeans in the United States and continues to be directed toward the descendants of those same people.
|
I kind of agree... though there have been quite a bit of state, regional, and national initiatives and LOTS of media attention to the plight of Appalachia over the decades.
From New Deal programs in the 1930s to the formation of the Appalachian Regional Commission in the 1960s by JFK (basically a region of the country with its very own FEDERAL economic development agency), West Virginia and its neighbors have gotten a hell of a lot of attention and $ for its economic, educational, social struggles... much more than the Mississippi delta, for instance... hmmm.
But yes, this bias against lower class people in the hills has existed for a very long time and is pretty much acceptable to poke fun and denigrate.