Black Writers and Poets Are Upending Stereotypes About Appalachia
Kentucky poet Frank X Walker in 2013. Walker coined the term “Affrilachia” to upend assumptions about who is part of Appalachia.
Photo by Victoria Smith / eyevine / Redux
Affrilachian artistry and identity allows Appalachia to be fully seen as the diverse and culturally rich region that it is.
Open a dictionary and you’ll see “Appalachian” described as a “native or inhabitant of Appalachia, especially one of predominantly Scotch-Irish, English, or German ancestry.”
Read J.D. Vance’s
Hillbilly Elegy and you’ll enter a world that’s White, poor, and uncultured, with few, if any, people of color.
excuse to lose hope. to succumb to feelings of despair and anger only means that in the end, we lose. joining me now brittany cooper and peter slevin author of michelle obama: a life. so many feelings. all of them about everything. i want to open it. what did you hear in that speech and in the critique that followed? sure. what i think is so compelling, it reminds me of a couple arguments you make in sister citizen. the politics of recognition. so saying to them, you will be misrecognized, folks won t see your cap and gown when they self-incriminate discriminate against you. black women matter in politics and we get a sense of the hurt and pain she felt around that
rachel jeantel. in my book, sister citizen, i talk about it as the crooked room, all of these negative myths of who black women are that impact how others can see us, what sort of category they put us in. we saw, for example, lolo jones tweeting something about rachel jeantel being the madea. rampell jeantel looked so irritated during the cross-examination that i burned it on a cd and i m going to sell it. really, she s a teenager girl who lost her friend. that s what is so disturbing about this entire thing. what i ve realized we have a way in society of meaning black people s tragedy. we turn, cut their tragedy, whether their homes are being burned down, whether their sisters are being raped and they run to their aid, we cut them down and put these videos up
hat at this mcdaniel became the first black woman to win an oscar when she played the role in gone with the wind and the angry black woman, stereotype enshrined portraying women as irrational neck rolling and hateful. sister citizen asks us to look through the lens of black women s complicated and sometimes painful experiences in this country. i tell stories as distant of a free black woman who was arrested and publicly beaten in 1853 virginia for supposedly stealing a white man s chickens. even though there wasn t much meaningful evidence against her. i also analyzed more contemporary figures like shirley cher ard and first lady michelle obama. because these women help us to understand how modern black women find their true north in a room still made crooked by shaming stereotypes. the book is now available in paperback. i d love to hear from you in nerdland about what you think about it.
thank you to my entire panel, tom, ramez, ricardo and marion. i love the idea of food politics. we re going to stay on this undoubtedly over and over again on this program. later on the program today, the investigation into the push among evangelicals to adopt. up next, sister citizen. it s my book. here it is. by the way, it s out in paperback now. go get it. [ female announcer ] are you sensitive to dairy? then you ll love lactose-free lactaid® it s 100% real milk that s easy to digest so you can fully enjoy the dairy you love. lactaid®. for 25 years, easy to digest. easy to love.