The Problem with JD Vance

How a leftist complains and then also misleads readers

The book that catipulted JD Vance to fame, promoted endlessyl by leftists for his sterotyping of poor, rural whites as less than worthy

Perry County, Ohio in rural Appalachia, the rural dairy farm I grew up on (in disuse)

The problem with J.D. Vance is that he is not the authentic rags to riches guy he claims to be.  I have said that ever since his insulting tome “Hillbilly Elegy” was pushed by leftists eager to defame the Americans targeted by Obama’s infamous racist slur “they cling to their God and guns.”

Neema Avashia pens an op-ed in the leftist Guardian attacking JD Vance.  While she is on point about how he rose to fame and the paucity of an electoral record, sadly, she uses her voice to also wildly misrepresent Appalachia.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/16/jd-vance-hillbilly-elegy-appalachia

Avashia writes “Folks outside Appalachia devoured Hillbilly Elegy because it reinforced what they already believed about us: that we were lazy, homogenous, and to blame for the unemployment, addiction and environmental disasters that plagued us. My Appalachian friends and I are tired of being reduced to stereotypes.”

100%.  However, she gives the false impression that Appalachia is some sort of melting pot of diverse peoples.  It is not.

She continues, “immigrants who neighbor and labor alongside white working-class Appalachians – don’t exist in Vance’s narrative. Black folks don’t exist in his narrative. Queer folks don’t exist in his narrative. And in his campaign rhetoric, we only exist as the root of Appalachia’s problems; never as one of its sources of strength.”

While these groups of Americans no doubt do live in Appalachia, they are a very small segment of our society, not neglected groups, just small groups.  Upwards of 90% of the population is white, 7% are black (including Melungeon).  I do not know how many folks are homosexual, but the number is likely to mirror society at large, though being openly gay is rather uncommon in the region.

Avashia is more than welcome to take issue with Vance’s shameful depiction of Appalachia and even complain about under-representation of non-whites, but she should not also mislead readers, particularly on a widely read leftist publication like the Guardian that helps shame the very stereotypes she claims to be upset about.

I add a photo of myself in high school (yes, I was in my freshman year of high school!). This is the Appalachia I grew up in: overwhelmingly poor, white and Christian.  Not Indian, black or gay.  Before the trolls get started, I also grew up in a black housing project in Maryland, in a dirt-poor part of Buffalo with only Puerto Rican classmates and other “diverse” environments.  My point is not anti-anyone, but rather faith in the truth. 

Chris with Frieda in Perry County, Ohio (1979)