I’m Appalachian–it’s an invisible ethnicity
Catherine Vance Agrella, Asheville, NC. I’m white, and by definition am associated with some of the worst perpetrators of racism. But I also come from...
Hillbilly – the wrong kind of white.
TR Kelley, Swisshome, OR “White trash” is a hip cultural joke. “N*****” is “hate speech”. Why?
Name of cemetery doesn’t change history
Lonna Jo Bowen-AlMoctar, Louisville, KY. I am from a clan of hillbillies in Eastern Kentucky. My family has a swath of land, called Bowen Farms,...
Double standards and mutual racial fragility
Lily, UK I don’t understand why people on all sides of the racial debate, despite wanting equality, suddenly splutter and get defensive when people criticize...
White is not a single race
Slaton Anthony Mount Vernon, IA My last ancestor came to America before 1800 all from England, France and Germany. My ancestors fought and died in...
Do hillbillies have white privilege too?
Anonymous, Knoxville, TN. I’m from the Mountain South, where white privilege and racism take on a range of meanings outside the mainstream. I’ve heard our...
Hillbilly White Trash? I’m Oxford educated.
C. B, WV. I grew up poor in a rural West Virginia. My race, the way I talk and where I’m from immediately make people...
We Hillbilles are people too, really!
Cathy Jo Deusenberry, Davis, CA. No matter where you land in life, if you come from the hills of West Virginia you will always be...
Wow! You’re so articulate!
S Woods, Los Angeles, CA. This is something often said by White people to Black people, when they are amazed that the Black person is...
Appalachian does not always mean “hillbilly”
B. D. R. Huntington, WV While I was born in Appalachia, I am not a West Virginia native. Still I tend to get my dander...
