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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHave empathy for rural white people?
A lot of my friends of color are bristling under the idea that we should break out of our bubbles and have empathy for rural white people who are poor and have a lot of problems. This is easier said than done since by and large, until something hits THEM PERSONALLY, most rural white people have no empathy for ANYONE ELSE!
That guy who is on Disability for something not readily seen is a "moocher" until a rural white guy's family member has a similar issue
That single mother on food stamps is a "welfare queen" until a white woman from the trailer park needs food stamps
The disabled kid in school is "stealing from the gifted students" until the rural white guy has a disabled kid
Hell even our drug policy has been shaped by their wants. They were all for stringing up drug addicts by the scrotum
And they hated, hated, HATED the idea of treating drug addicts with anything other jail. Until the heroin crisis happened. Now that it was white kids going to jail for drug addiction rural Republicans were falling all over themselves to get science based addiction treatments liberals called for 20 YEARS AGO and got ridiculed.
So I can see why there are those who aren't inclined to empathize with them.
radical noodle
(8,003 posts)I lived in rural Indiana most of my life. Actually, it was meth that first turned rural folks on to treating drug addiction. All those big tanks of anhydrous ammonia right out there in the fields for them to steal, and with homes out in the middle of nowhere, there was little chance they'd be caught. Meth was at epidemic proportions.
JI7
(89,252 posts)benefits.
so when people say they want others to have sympathy for them what they are really saying is they want POC to have sympathy for their bigotry .
but on the issue of helping them it's not POC saying we should not provide any govt help to them. while they ARE saying we should cut off POC .
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)won't help us do that
Maybe we can't crudely target "rural whites" as a group that will join us -- but that doesn't mean we can't find significant numbers of voters there, if we're smart about it
And what's wrong with empathy, anyway? There might be many reasons to empathize with people's troubles and sorrows, even when we think they're idiots who helped bring the grief on themselves
JI7
(89,252 posts)we need to have sympathy for those who voted and continue to support trump for his racist policies.
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)But even wars have a political dimension
What excellent person would join us if we have merely stone hearts and mighty wills?
NCDem777
(458 posts)that we are now often asking people to try and empathize with people who literally don't see them as human beings until the universe throws them a curveball.
When you have people say that IDEA is a waste of money until the doctor says "YOUR child has autism" it's damn near impossible to repress an "I told you so motherfucker"
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)tonedevil
(3,022 posts)you are ready to tell POC to suck it up.
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)Among the poor rural whites I know, several are some of the best activists I ever met
One of those was also a Ross Perot supporter, but I've always managed never to bring it up again
Learn to regard people as individuals, rather than as proxies for other issues: it's possible to agree with a person enthusiastically here with disagreeing with them strongly there
NCDem777
(458 posts)to try and play friend to those who thought you were less than human until the universe put them in your shoes.
Which is what white/able-bodied progressives are asking people to do.
Can you imagine how it sounds to an African-American when they hear someone at the DNC say "We have to try and reach out and empathize with the rural guy whose factory shut down." and said rural guy's view of injustice is that the rapper can say the n-word while he gets the stink eye for saying it?
EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)fun n serious
(4,451 posts)I will use their own words against them.. They can pick themselves up by their boot straps.
RainCaster
(10,885 posts)The GOP lost me when the Moral Majority put Reagan in the White House. I help my friends and neighbors any way I can. Even those who voted for the Orange Menace.
EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)and inherent part of that argument wasn't the expectation that we allow our issues and our concerns to take a backseat to theirs.
That's why I don't accept that argument and have no intention of allowing my party to make reaching out to these ignorant people a priority.
hibbing
(10,098 posts)Saw a story that this county has the highest enrollment in the ACA. Not sure how they calculated this, must be a percentage thing. 98% white, I'll let you take a big giant guess who they voted for.
Peace
SamKnause
(13,108 posts)Stop lumping us all together.
Some of us have NEVER voted for a Republican.
melman
(7,681 posts)Fantastic.
world wide wally
(21,744 posts)They STILL have to learn how to think before I stop calling them stupid
betsuni
(25,544 posts)Doreen
(11,686 posts)for people as in human beings. I do not know where people get the idea that a white person is not looked down on for being disabled and getting EBT cards or SSDI, or subsidized housing because I am white and i sure as hell get glared at. I have been disabled since I was 20 and I guess it is because young people are not supposed to be disabled but I do deal with it. If you are a human being and are not evil you deserve empathy.
blue-wave
(4,356 posts)I actually had a friend until very recently, living in rural America, in the position of needing and actually receiving help from the ACA and other government assistance. He voted against his own interests and supported Trump. It's OK for him to receive help, but screw everyone else! I'll never understand it.
He pushed me too far with the "alternative fact" crap and I finally cut off the relationship....a 30+ year friendship down the drain. I had to do it for my own sanity.
Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)They brought Trump down upon us, they need this eye opener to burst their bubble.
Let's stop perpetuating the false narrative that rural white folks are somehow pure, and simple folks who know the world. They're in a bubble and coddled to and have way too much power in this country.