Sarah's Thoughts
Stereotyping from the Left
I read a short article today on CNN’s website sharing the big lead that Hillary Clinton is enjoying in West Virginia. The latest polls have her up 66% to 23%. What could be the reason for such a disparity in support? Why, it has to be that the hillbilly white people who populate West Virginia are racists and would never vote for a black man, right? (Let’s put aside the fact that West Virginia became its own state largely in protest of slavery) It couldn’t be that the message of Barack “Clinging to Guns and Religion” Obama just doesn’t resonate with the hard-working folks in those magnificent mountains.
My mom’s side of the family is from West Virginia, and I have quite a few relatives who live in that fine state. They all own multiple pairs of shoes, are literate, and enjoy friendships with every color and creed. Bizarre, isn’t it?
I had to see if the “Comments” section following the article was filled with the ridiculous, hateful stereotypes that many people hold for the people of West Virginia. Here is a sampling of the posted comments, maybe of which ended with something like “OBAMA ‘08!!”. (Way to unify, by the way)
Remember the movie ‘Deliverance’ ? Need I say more ?
Wrong state … wrong part of the country. This movie took place in Georgia … a state that went for Barack Obama.
Well of course she holds a 60% lead in WV, their all related to one another over there…
First of all, I don’t get the connection. Why does Clinton naturally get the inbred vote? Second, your argument loses more water when you confuse “their” with “they’re”. Apparently even those without jumbled genetic compositions encounter difficulties with grammar.
I’m so glad the bigoted WVs dont’ represent the rest of this wonderful country.
Again, a proofreader would have serious issues with this post. And, I am so tired of the assumption that a person is a bigot if he chooses Clinton over Obama. Is the African American population bigoted for choosing Obama in overwhelming numbers?
What the people of WV should be doing, is working to educate themselves on the issues, and not the color of someone’s skin.
What a condescending remark! There are countless reasons not to vote for Obama, and none of them involves the color of his skin.
West Virginia is, and always will be, backwards. Perhaps she’ll hold a victory speech on the back of a pickup at a Klan rally.
As I mentioned earlier in the post, I don’t think they seemed so backwards in 1863.
That’s because people in West Virginia are poor and uneducated.
You see, Mountaineer simpletons. If you just had more book learning, you wouldn’t be duped by this woman.
Who cares? It’s just a bunch of “backwards” country racist hicks!! They probably think having shoes is elitest. Look for HRC to be barefoot a lot this week!
This is showing true concern for the poverty-stricken who may not be able to afford shoes. Mock them! Why put the “backwards” in quotes? Just wondering. That must be some elitist technique of which I am not aware.
Hmmm West Virgina who really freakin cares. That state is dominated by republicans and if she wins the state who really cares
Really? Are Byrd and Rockefeller aware of that? Or, how about the Democratic governor Joe Manchin? How about the fact that the state went for Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton twice?
There are many more comments from which to choose, but I believe the above sampling is sufficient. West Virginia is a swing state, Obama voters. But, please, be as offensive and bigoted as you can … I’m sure the good people of the Mountaineer State won’t mind come November.
May 10th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I am an Obama supporter, and I agree with you. The support by West Virginians for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama will have much more to do with culture than with race.
That said, I do not believe Sen. Clinton truly belongs to the culture she has managed to win over. I have to acknowledge her skill in being able to fool that many people, but some of the credit must go to their gullibility as well.
May 10th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Look, the fact is West Virginia has the second lowest rate of High School graduates, and the lowest rate of college graduates in the country, while at the same time they are predominantly white.
So the question is, why is Hillary so appealing to this subset of voter?
Is it because her Health Care plan has mandates?
Or is it partially because West Virginians are more comfortable with her style of leadership (traditional politician), her connections (Bill Clinton), and her race (Caucasian)?
I think its an amalgamation of all three, but I do think when you have a less educated, homogeneous group of people, they tend to be more racially exclusive than those who have gone to college, and perhaps experienced people of other races and backgrounds than they are used to.
Now, I’m not quite sure West Virginia broke away from Virginia because of the slavery issue (though its nice to hear a conservative say that The Civil War was fought over slavery), but remember that Robert Byrd had to climb the ladder of the Ku Klux Klan to be politically viable…so it isn’t like their history of racial tolerance is unblemished. (btw, I don’t like Robert Byrd).
May 11th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Let’s turn those tables describing Obama’s 90+ vote among African Americans.
“Look, black people have an extremely low rate of high school graduation, and many live in homogenous urban settings where there are not that much diversity. So the question is, why is Obama so appealing to this subset of voter. Is it because of his health care mandates….”
Do you realize how insulting you are Sean? You’re merely a more articulate version of the guy making Deliverance cracks because your first reaction wasn’t to comdemn these horribly offensive statements but to shill on how West Virginia deserves what it gets.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Lee,
I do think the segregation in our community is a factor in why African Americans are typically much more uniform in their political preferences. There tends to be an echo-chamber effect when you’ve got a lot of similarly minded people living in a fairly isolated community.
From many of the man on the street interviews done in West Virginia, you continuously see them claim that they won’t vote for Obama because he’s a Muslim. This is an effect of having an isolated, less-educated community.
I’m sorry if you find this idea distressing, but that doesn’t mean its wrong. Policy differences can only account for so much of the major advantage Hillary Clinton has in rural Appalachia.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
“There tends to be an echo-chamber effect when you’ve got a lot of similarly minded people living in a fairly isolated community.”
You’re describing the black community in that statement, yet that statement applies equally well to a rural Appalachian community. Yet I don’t see you calling black folk a whole bunch of bigots.
But then again, since they’re voting for your guy…
May 12th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Lee,
Where did I call Appalachians bigots?
And if you’d like to differentiate between the two groups; Blacks continuously vote for white politicians.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Sean… you are not in the real world again. In a majority black community, the black candidate will get the vast majority of votes over the white candidate. I live deeper in the south than you, and race comes into play by a wide margin in the elections in the black community. The 90+% of blacks voting for B.O. show that. You don’t see any other race voting that way, this is not a reasoned vote, it’s a reflex. Only Hussein got that kind of vote % in Iraq.
You make fun of the “locals”, in West Virginia reasons for voting, if anyone interviewed black voters for B.O., and they were not black (they would be called Uncle Tom if they were) they would be called racist for even bringing up the possibility that that race is the only reason for their vote. Sharpton would say “here we go again, picking on my people just because they are people of color”, probably before they could answer the question. Racism is alive and well on both sides of the fence, and a lot of people make a living from it.
By the way Sean, I grew up in the sixties, and today there is a higher percent of black men in prison, higher black on black crime, more single black mothers, and black citizens on government support today then at that time. These are just government statistics, where is the progress with all the freedom?? Just wondering…… I know, you can’t even state facts without being labeled…..happened to Hillary the other day….and I don’t even like her…but she was correct
May 13th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Rick,
The problem with what Hillary said wasn’t that she laid out the “facts,” it was that she was basically saying that she should be given the nomination because she’s got poor uneducated whites and Obama doesn’t.
Its one thing to acknowledge your base, its another to say that even though yours is smaller, they are more important because black people will do as they are told.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Sean..I think that she was saying that she had middle and lower class working whites and B.O didn’t, and this segment of the Dem probables are more than the 12.5% black population. She had been gaining in this area lately, where B.O has seemed to have faltered. As much as most politically correct media wants to say America is past the race thing, I am afraid it is only a pipe dream. White America only sees the radical black face on TV, and I believe in this election more than any other, a large part of the Dems will not come over to B.O.
Time will tell, if true McCain will make him look like McGovern in the fall.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:47 am
This vote split is Urban vs Rural not black vs. white. Ironic, Hillary carrying the rural vote; but she looks almost like a right-winger when compared to Obama who has the most liberal voting record in the senate:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/voteratings/sen/lib.htm
The Democrat Party is riding a freight-train toward McGovernizing itself again. McCain may be able to win this thing by default after all.