Bubba (or anyone interested in this), if you are so inclined you should look at Hunter Maats' analysis of the connection between hillbilly and black culture. But more than that, Southern and black culture.beantownbubba wrote:I guess you posted it 2x because you REALLY mean itblueridgehiker wrote:I might in the minority for this opinion but I finished Hillbilly Elegy this week and thought it was awful. The personal story was fine, engaging and well told, but his social commentary on "hill people" was weak and lazy. I almost threw the book across the room when he talks about how lucky he was for the opportunities he had for social mobility but not two chapters before he was blaming those who haven't had those opportunities as lazy and without a work ethic. It's a book that gives everyone outside of Appalachia what they want to hear and keeps the focus on "bad" individuals and does nothing to point out structural inequalities, workforce exploitation, etc. I'm 31 now and grew up in Michigan - maybe I should write a book about the auto industry and strike it rich! /rantI more or less agree w/ you on the lazy part in the sense that the book is mostly based on personal observations as opposed to serious research but I found it to be very thoughtful w/in those confines and thought that a noticeable portion of the book was about structural inequalities (though not in any formal way like using that term or anything like it). The main takeaway for me (which i think I wrote about above) was the connection it made, explicitly and implicitly between the hillbilly and black cultures, raising exactly the question of what's structural, what's individual, what's cultural about the entrenched problems both subcultures face.
If you want a pocket version of it, Maats contends that American blacks simply absorbed the culture they were snatched up and thrown into.
Since the majority of Africans brought to this country against their will were in the South, they eventually took on Scots Irish culture as their own, intentionally or not.
Maats explains there have been three major herder cultures in world history. The first being the Persian bedouin culture, the second being the culture of the Mongols, and the third being the Scots Irish.
He explains that though these herder cultures were not identical, they share numerous major commonalities. Since these cultures were all inhabitants of remote locations characterized by rugged terrain they were largely left on their own to set their own for individuals and clans to set their own informal set of laws by which to live. Informal only in the sense that it wasn't codified. Uniquely formal in how it was applied.
Maats argues that these cultures were made up of herder clans that had be willing to fight to protect each other and their herds and land. Thus necessitating g or at least precipitating a culture of violence and strong ties to clan and family.
With this in mind it is no surprise American blacks who were thrust into the midst of Scots Irish culture would exhibit the same characteristics and also face the same issues as American white Southerners.
Also pretty interesting that while white Southerners make up a disproportionate percentage of our military we are very willing to go to war and fight with a people who share a lot of our cultural characteristics but that's another discussion for another day.
