Blog 6: Appalachia Today

Before taking this class, I was very unaware of the Appalachian culture, its people, and even where exactly it was located. I simply saw it as a region of hills covered in tress, in which the people under those trees lived in the most basic way possible and spoke something close to English. However, after the entirety of the semester, my view has very much changed.

On the local level, I believe that the perception of Appalachia is changing for the good, but is not quite where it should be. Through classes such as ours and clubs at Ohio University supporting the Appalachian culture, I think a great deal of awareness and respect of Appalachia can be achieved. The main obstacle is to dissolve the powerful stereotypes that exist from those not originally from Appalachia.

A main advantage I see on a local level is the fact that Ohio University has become a sort of melting pot of those from Appalachia, and those who are not. With college education being of more importance, many people in the Appalachian region who may have not considered college before, are doing so now. This creates a culture of its own here at OU as kids from Illinois are becoming friends with kids from West Virginia, and so on. With friendship comes conversation, and with conversation comes knowledge. This knowledge, I believe, is being spread locally to create an accepting environment for the Appalachian culture.

On the national level, I see a different picture. Still today we see movies being created that contain countless stereotypes of Appalachian people, from unintelligent people, to insane, and even barbaric. Most notable to me is the documentary of the White Family of West Virginia which portrays an outlaw family; sprinkled with drug use, heavy abuse of alcohol, and crime. While entertaining, it goes to show that America still feels the need to poke fun at a certain culture.

I was not here for the speakers from the Appalachia club, however I did ask a few of my classmates about the speakers. From what I have gathered, their opinions are reflective of mine. They see progress on the local level, but are still trying to overcome the stereotypes, especially on a nation stage.