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“We Just Feel Like We Don’t Belong Here Anymore” - Mother Jones

K

kirblar

Member
“We Just Feel Like We Don’t Belong Here Anymore” Think it’s hard for the white working class in rural America? Try being a person of color. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/we-just-feel-like-we-dont-belong-here-anymore/

This is a great piece from Mother Jones featuring 5 stories of people living in a rural county that swung to Trump heavily. The author (who is white) went back to his home county in Tennessee to get testimonials about how life has changed since the election and the stories are pretty stark. Would recommend reading in full-it's not really a long read and there are 5 people profiled in total.

Since Trump’s election, there has been ample coverage of white people—the rise of white nationalism, the white working class that makes up Trump’s core constituency, the 53 percent of white women who voted him into office. Much less has been written about the people of color who live and work amid the rising tide of white nationalism in rural red states.

I grew up in a town called Bells, one of the five small towns that make up Crockett County in West Tennessee. The county is 83 percent white—I am also white—14 percent black and 10 percent Hispanic. (For comparison, according to 2016 Census data, Tennessee’s population is only 17 percent black and 5 percent Hispanic.) The median household income is $35,000, and 19 percent of the county’s 14,411 residents live below the poverty line. Most of the people I went to school with are still there. The area is deeply rural—the main highway that winds through the county is framed by cotton fields and pastures where cows keep a lazy watch over passing cars. Friday night football reigns supreme; game attendance is only second in importance to church. Many families have been here for generations, passing down their farmland and businesses to their children and grandchildren.

It can be a lovely place to live, but in counties like Crockett, it’s hard to be anything other than white. So I decided to go back home and talk to the people I should have been talking to all along—people of color who live and work and go to school with white Trump supporters. They told me how it feels to live among neighbors who voted against their best interests and—worst case—their basic existence.
Click to expand...
Turner tells me that over the past year, life for her family has changed. She hints that her parents have been in West Tennessee long enough to know which families fought against civil rights “back in the day.” Since Trump’s election, they’ve warned her to steer clear of a list of people that is too long for comfort.

The day after the November presidential election, Turner went with her mother to the store, and they both kept their heads down. “We just feel like we don’t belong here anymore,” she says.

Turner’s mom, who cleans houses in town for a living, went to work a couple of days after that, and her employer, an older white woman, brought up the results of the recent election. The two had talked politics before—Turner’s mom is a Democrat, and her employer is a Republican. “Well, you might as well come and live with me now,” the employer said. “You gonna be mine eventually.”

She called her daughter in tears. Turner immediately got in her car and picked her mother up to bring her home.

Last year before the election, a young woman Turner described as one of her best friends casually mentioned she hoped for a Trump victory so that he might “do away with some of these African American people.” She quickly clarified that she wasn’t referring to Turner’s “type,” but when Turner sharply asked her what she meant, she couldn’t answer. Another friend assured her that it would be okay if Trump won the election because she would convince her parents to purchase Turner’s family as their new slaves. In a place where a few large plantation-style houses remain scattered through the county, the “joke” feels a lot like a threat.
Click to expand...
 
W

WiiredShawn

Member
They're joking about making slaves out of these people.

They're joking about making slaves out of these people.

It's crazy how much parts of rural America are just itching to bring back 1862.
 
T

The Living Tribunal

Member
kirblar said:
Turner’s mom, who cleans houses in town for a living, went to work a couple of days after that, and her employer, an older white woman, brought up the results of the recent election. The two had talked politics before—Turner’s mom is a Democrat, and her employer is a Republican. “Well, you might as well come and live with me now,” the employer said. “You gonna be mine eventually.”
Click to expand...

WHAT. THE. FUCK.
 
Robot Carnival

Robot Carnival

Member
racist old white woman said:
 “Well, you might as well come and live with me now,” the employer said. “You gonna be mine eventually.”
Click to expand...

WTF!? that's some shamelessly open racist shit! I know it's rural America and all but for crying out loud that's just fuck up!
 
E

eizarus

Banned
What the actual fuck? This is literally frightening stuff. I can't grasp how bad it must be to be a POC out in that part of America. God!
 
K

Korigama

Member
Turner's mom, who cleans houses in town for a living, went to work a couple of days after that, and her employer, an older white woman, brought up the results of the recent election. The two had talked politics before—Turner's mom is a Democrat, and her employer is a Republican. ”Well, you might as well come and live with me now," the employer said. ”You gonna be mine eventually."
Click to expand...
Another friend assured her that it would be okay if Trump won the election because she would convince her parents to purchase Turner's family as their new slaves. In a place where a few large plantation-style houses remain scattered through the county, the ”joke" feels a lot like a threat.
Click to expand...
Yeah, go ahead and keep thinking that Confederate is a wonderful idea for a new show, HBO...
 
T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
They should have named that old white lady.
 
C

cdyhybrid

Member
These are the people that black people are told to just have civil conversation with and to try and understand where they're coming from.
 
The Faceless Master

The Faceless Master

Member
wow, so these well meaning Black Woimen just whined and cried and let those teachable moments pass them by?

words don't hurt!

all they had to do was talk to these people with polite and well reasoned thoughts.
 
N

Nelo Ice

Banned
Thanks for sharing. I can't even began to imagine what it's like living in Rural America. The closest I've been is living Bakersfield and pretty much every day I got asked what the hell are you?!.
 
C

Chmpocalypse

Blizzard
No.

NO.

It's the racists and bigots who don't belong here. I will fight to the death for that ideal to be true across the country.

They are not taking our lives from us. I will not stand for it.
 
S

Sianos

Member
alleged humor once again being used to normalize these ideas

"haha, wouldn't it be funny if you were my slave????" they say, as they gaze deep into your eyes for a hint that you also secretly approve or will submit to them

anyone paying attention or even remotely aware of the context or atmosphere can detect the difference between a flippant joke among spicy mates on level footing and an attempt to use plausible deniability as cover for promoting heinous ideas

talking about literally owning someone should be a giveaway by itself
 
L

LegendofJoe

Member
You are sheltered and naive if you don't believe this story.

I grew up in the rural south. My father won't let the home healthcare company that cares for my 88 year-old grandfather send anyone that is black to his house because he knows they would be abused. I wouldn't put it past him to say the exact same things that were quoted in this article, especially now that my grandmother has passed away.
 
F

FinalStageBoss

Banned
Turner’s mom, who cleans houses in town for a living, went to work a couple of days after that, and her employer, an older white woman, brought up the results of the recent election. The two had talked politics before—Turner’s mom is a Democrat, and her employer is a Republican. “Well, you might as well come and live with me now,” the employer said. “You gonna be mine eventually.”
Click to expand...

Are these the people we're supposed to have a conversation with?

Fuck that. I'd rather they get punched in the head tbh.
 
T

The Wart

Member
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

We need massive increases in affordable housing stock in urban areas so people can get the fuck out of these places.
 
PJV3

PJV3

Member
That quote about eventually owning the woman made me a little sick in the stomach, I don't know how you could say that to anyone.
 
S

sturgboski

Member
Guys we need to sit down and have a conversation with them and understand why they are such miserable moronic cunts and how we can finally classify the Republicans and their supporters as a hate organization.

"But not all Republicans, Dems will lose if you have that view point" you might say. And to that I say "Trump and his ilk are the heads of your party. His whole schtick was telling it as it is. You knew what he and a swathe of his supporters were and are before voting for him and you still did. You are complicit and supportive of him and his actions by virtue of the action you took in November. You are just as bad."
 
S

Strike

Member
Yeah, that's why that economic anxiety argument never rang true with me. Minorities have been dealing with that shit forever and still never vote (if they get the chance) in a way that's so self-sabotaging, malicious, and destructive as rural whites do. So no, I don't feel sorry for Trump/GOP voters. I feel sorry for those who don't vote for them in these areas that still get fucked over by gerrymandering and voter ID laws.
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
Caelus said:
This is what I think of when people tell me about the "white rural american working class".
Click to expand...

You should.

These people are practically beyond the point of debate and reason. The only solution is to drag them into being progressive.
 
V

Verelios

Member
I would be scared out of my mind living there in what I can only assume is amidst people who keep rope and lather in their basement for the return of 'the good old days'.
 
N

Nepenthe

Member
I don't know what kind of conscious you need to have to have voted for the man that empowered these fuckbois and still sleep at night.
 
D

dragonchild

Banned
They keep saying "so much for the tolerant left". Right back at you assholes with SO MUCH FOR SOUTHERN "DIGNITY" YOU INBRED KNUCKLE-DRAGGERS.

You want me to take that back then behave civilized and then we'll talk. "You gonna be mine" my ass.
 
E

Evening Musuko

Black Korea
Sianos said:
alleged humor once again being used to normalize these ideas

"haha, wouldn't it be funny if you were my slave????" they say, as they gaze deep into your eyes for a hint that you also secretly approve or will submit to them

anyone paying attention or even remotely aware of the context or atmosphere can detect the difference between a flippant joke among spicy mates on level footing and an attempt to use plausible deniability as cover for promoting heinous ideas

talking about literally owning someone should be a giveaway by itself
Click to expand...

Ah yes, the Trolling excuse, but IRL.

"It's OK. Just ignore these people. They just want your attention. They'll go away eventually..."
 
B

bobbychalkers

Member
The rural area I live in Alabama is still pretty red but there is a sizable black population. I wouldn't be caught dead 15 minutes north at night though.
 
S

Skilletor

Member
This is one of the things that always bothered me about the ECONOMIC ANXIETY argument. Like...ya'll acting like there ain't no POC in these rural areas.
 
N

Nista

Member
Even if people slam the big cities for crime and violence, I'm so damn glad I grew up there instead of in rural America. Those comments are beyond the pale, even as "jokes". And to have all your friends outwardly turn on you like that as a kid...
 
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