Western Pennsylvania - Appalachian "Coal Country"

[LVZ]

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/on-road-western-pennsylvania.html

FiveThirtyEight.com

So a canvasser goes to a woman's door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she's planning to vote for. She isn't sure, has to ask her husband who she's voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, "We're votin' for the n***er!"

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: "We're voting for the n***er."

In this economy, racism is officially a luxury. How is John McCain going to win if he can't win those voters? John Murtha's "racist" western Pennsylvania district, where this story takes place, is some of the roughest turf in the nation. But Barack Obama is on the ground and making inroads due to unusually strong organizing leadership.

Appalachian "Coal Country"

[elkston]

1. Um... I dunno. I hear stuff like that and I think "Bradley Effect"

They may have just been trying to get rid of the door knocker.

Not trying to encourage Fluffdaddy here, but I have always believed there would be SOME Bradley, just not as much as 5%-6% like the critics say.

We still got enough lead in PA (via Phone polling not face-to-face which is more suseptible to Bradley) to overcome all kinds of irregularities.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. Uh, no.

[Jennicut]

3. There was never a Bradley effect to begin with. Bradley was polling close to his opponent

in a final poll right before the election plus he had no absentee ballot support and his opponent did. Not to mention it was 1982. In 1982 I was 7 years old, Reagan was president, I wore hightop sneakers and listened to Triller by Michael Jackson. A lot has changed since 1982.

[Thrill]

5. No a woman in Florida at a Wes Clark event for Obama said some older white people

are voting for Obama but are scared to say it

[scheming daemons]

4. Sadly, these are my "peeps"

And if they have no problem saying "ni***r" out loud to a stranger like that, they certainly have no reason to lie to a pollster about their intentions.

If they're willing to call him a "ni***r" like that, they certainly don't care about what a pollster thinks of them.

[elkston]

11. Good point, actually. n/t

[Phx_Dem]

14. It's almost more sad than anything else.

These people are so poor and uneducated, they hardly have a fighting chance. That man, and his wife, said the N-word like it was just any other word; they didn't seem to be in the lease bit self-conscious or hesitant about using it, yet they weren't angry and viseral like most racist Republicans.

It's almost as if it's more a fact of life for them than something they actually think about. I don't know. I don't know a soul from Appalacia, but this is just weird. And, I think, very sad.

But we'll take those 2 votes thankyouverymuch, Mr. Racist and your subservient wife.

[skooooo]

6. ..and as far as the conservative culture of Appalachia...

I think you double the area of covered gray in most directions to get a realistic sense of the region. There's coal in eastern KY, southern, IN.

[Kurt Remarque]

7. fyi - murtha's district is not all that near to washington pa.

[scheming daemons]

8. You better check again..... his district stretches into Washington county

Murtha's is District 12.

[matchstick]

9. what a sad side of our country!

[appleannie1]

10. I live in W. PA. While I applaud his choice, I don't think his overt racism is typical

I am offended by it. W. PA is a very diverse area, a blend of many cultures and nationalities. We have all learned to not only live together but to appreciate each others food, arts, and cultures. That includes Blacks as well as Italian, Irish, Polish, German etc.

[Blondiegrrl]

12. I was listening to Public Radio this evening about voters in WV's coal country

Southern West Virginia (the coalfields) gave Hillary Clinton her widest margin of victory during the primaries. It is in this area where most of the media congregated to interview hillbillies who said they wouldn't vote for the "Muslim" or that they were scared of "the other race."

An NPR reporter returned to that area (Logan County, specifically) this week to find out if sentiment had changed any. He found:

* A man, middle-aged Democrat, who was definitely voting for Obama because Obama was the only candidate who could pull this country out of the economic disaster in which we've fallen.

* A woman, middle-aged Democrat, whose relatives were voting for Obama but who was still undecided because some of her friends keep sending her e-mails (the usual smears and rumors) about Obama that make her nervous. (The fact that she's still undecided in the face of this is, IMO, a positive note for us.)

* A middle-aged man in a barbershop who thought both candidates sucked and didn't say whether he planned to vote. (I don't recall if his political affiliation was mentioned.)

* A man, Democrat, age undetermined, who is voting for McCain chiefly because he thinks blacks are inferior (hey, at least he admitted straight out that he's a racist).

and, last but not least,

* An elderly, 80-some-year-old man who shouted out that he is voting for "Obama!" because "Obama helps the poor!"

So there you have it. From one of the poorest, most racist areas in the U.S., 2 out of 5 people are voting for Obama, 1 is voting for McCain, and the other 2 might not even vote.

[Phx_Dem]

13. OMG. They dislike him enough to all him a n***er, but not so much

that they can't vote him. Okay, whatever. We'll take that vote.

OMG. I don't even know what to say or think. OMG.

[chookie]

15. I've heard this here in W PA

Look -- the n word is offensive to us.

It can be and is used hatefully, but to some people around here ("hillbillies"), while it infers age-old notions of black inferiority, it's more a neutral term that is simply used to denote black people than anything hateful. And they increasingly have very positive relationships with black people that are really getting them to rethink the notions they were brought up with.

But to hear it used in this context is kinda quaint. I hear it -- people saying -- "I just LOVE that nigger!" "I want that nigger to be president!" and they say it affectionately. It means that they do love him, that he has touched them, that they see greatness in him, that they understand that Obama is the guy to lead us in these times. And they are kinda laughing at themselves now, at the people they used to be. When the people who refer to themselves as "hillbillies," (which, like any word used to describe blacks, can be used hatefully, referentially, or self-mockingly) use this word -- ha ha -- it has an element of self-mockery, which implies they are moving beyond the racial attitudes they inherited and using their brains and thinking as intelligent people.

Look -- "Coal Country" folk using this word to express their admiration of Barack Obama is not a bad thing. The fact that ***they are voting for him because of the content of his character*** is another step towards MLK's dream.

And these folks will talk to other folks in their community about Obama and how old notions of racial inferiority don't make sense any more, and start straightening them out too.

Save your anger for hateful racists.

Coal Country "Hillbillies" are voting for Barack Obama! And they are proud to. This is PROGRESS! We should be happy about this.

[chappydog26]

16. I'm embarrassed by this

:yoiks: :yoiks: :yoiks:

Western PA is a wonderful place to live. Not everyone is as ignorant as these two yahoos.