More on West Virginia’s Race and Image Challenges

Jeff James

WV Public Radio aired an in-depth story on the attitudes of some West Virginia voters. It may surprise many to hear the kind of attitudes openly espoused by some in our state:

Finn: But it’s not just religion at issue. There’s also race. Exit polls from Tuesday show that 22% of voters admitted that race was a factor in their decision. For 8% of voters, race was the most important factor. And almost all those voters went for Clinton.

Cooper: You know I didn’t vote for no colored.

Sale: Who did you vote for?

Cooper: What’s her name?

Sale : Clinton.

Cooper: Clinton, yeah.

Finn: That’s Morris Cooper, an 80-year-old man from Lincoln County. In all these cases, the voters weren’t asked about race – they brought it up themselves.

Since the media focused mostly on finding interviews in West Virginia’s southern coalfields, it would be tempting to pin the racial and religious discrimination issues on those counties. But a quick glance at the county-by-county results and exit polls shows that, while the coalfield counties did have an even greater landslide towards Clinton (roughly 90% to 10%), almost every county in West Virginia with the exception of Jefferson and Berkeley Counties showed close to the same overwhelming Clinton results.

And interestingly, defying trends around the country, even those with college degrees in West Virginia gave Clinton a landslide nod (58% Clinton to 36% Obama).

What do you think? Is the national media being unfair, or are they exposing a serious issue in our state? What is our best course towards building an inclusive, tolerant culture that embraces equality and diversity in West Virginia?

5 responses to “More on West Virginia’s Race and Image Challenges”

  1. Jeff James Avatar
    Jeff James

    While WV does have an issue with eradicating racial (and other) prejudice, so does the rest of the country. Kentucky’s exit poll results basically mirror WV’s in terms of % of voters who indicated race was an important issue for them in their decision, and Pennsylvania voters were really only 1-2% behind in the same exit poll question. Hmm, I don’t recall any Daily Show segments deriding those states in their entirety…Hmmm. Perception is reality in our media-saturated world. How in the world do we turn this image thing around?

    Reply
  2. Heidi Parker Schmalbach Avatar
    Heidi Parker Schmalbach

    This is a comment from the Huffingtonpost: “Is that supposed to be good that people in other parts of the country hide their racism and sexism? And West Virginians are more honest about it? God love honesty. One thing I love about Appalachian people – no pretense, no fakeness, no posturing. And will give you the shirt off their back. So. When Barack wins in November I will celebrate also, wave my yard sign, and then hope and pray that prejudice against Appalachian people will be the next to go.” This sentiment echoes some of the points made in a discussion last night with a group of friends, mostly West Virginia natives. Many said that although West Virginians may say hateful things in media interviews, any one of them would open their homes to a person of any race or creed if necessary. I don’t know if this is true but I do know that the negative media attention shed on W.V. gives us a unique opportunity to address an issue that other states have been afraid to talk about, and to show what we are doing to improve it. Does racism exist here? yes. Are we being unfairly portrayed as the most racist state in the country? perhaps. The comments given by some W.V. voters certainly gave the rest of the country an advantage in identifying where to put the racist blame. “It’s not here, it’s there…”as they point and laugh. But what if instead of being defensive (a gut reaction to being ridiculed), we said “yep, we have a problem, and here’s what we’re doing about it.” We don’t have to say that other states have the same problems, that’s just more finger pointing. I say we take the criticism head-on and use it to show the rest of the country what W.V. is really all about.

    Reply
  3. Jeff James Avatar
    Jeff James

    From the Charleston Daily Mail: Charleston Mayor Danny Jones defends West Virginia’s motivations for voting for Hillary vs. Obama on West Coast radio show: http://www.dailymail.com/News/200805220143

    Reply
  4. Heidi Parker Schmalbach Avatar
    Heidi Parker Schmalbach

    From Danny Jones: “Obama is culturally very urban,” Jones said. “The statements he’s made about guns and religion and Pastor Wright won’t help him here.” (but he did win Iowa, Danny) In my opinion, this is exactly the wrong way to respond. Here we have is an opportunity and statements above from a white, republican mayor of the capital city is digging us further in the ground. Let’s stand up. Let’s confront the issue. (Create WV could be the one to lead this charge…)

    Reply
  5. jeff james Avatar
    jeff james

    Slate Magazine did a little story on the origins of WV’s reputation for in-breeding: http://www.slate.com/id/2192830/

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *