Reacts to it and grapples with it. So today i want to frame our discussion around a couple of quotations. The first is from the anthropologist and fox. Fox writes, Country Music is widely described in racialized terms. Assures sins of its essential badness is frequently framed and racial terms. For many cosmopolitan americans, especially country is bad music because it is widely understood to signify an explicit claim to whiteness. Not as an unmarked mutual condition as locking or trying to shed race, but as marked of cultural identity. Bad whiteness, and redeem by ethnicity, folklore authenticity, progressive politics or than no plus a bleach of elites. I want us to think about that, Country Music as articulating current being this type of marked white particularity. So thats the first quote, the second. Its from the writer and historian roxanne dunn bar, and her book red dirt. Which is a great memoir of growing up in oklahoma, she writes. Country music, wrote patriotism, evangelism, have been able to coalesce mine people. The descendants of the original settlers, people uniting despite class differences, mirroring blacklisty no asian nationalisms. Which exhibit similar contradictions and limitations. Okay, so what we have here is basically, to expressions that Country Music and whiteness belong together in some sort of fundamental way. I want us to think about, my people here. Done barr expression my people, the descendants of the original settlers. People united despite class differences or social worlds. Country music as one of the sort of sort of things that are locking these people together. I wanted to talk about that today, in addition to, thinking about Country Music and its basic oppositions. So, we have what we might call the twin polls of Country Music. These polls are oppositions, they structure the systematics of Country Music. You might say that they correlate to specific country artists. In particular, the two country artists with which peterson is concerned with in the early phases of this book. Which are jimmy rodgers, and the Carter Family. Im going to put them up there as representing there exceptions. Representing, these two polls. And again, as i said, Country Music is a music that response to maternity. What is maternity . Moderna tea begins with the rise of capitalism, with the rise of political liberalism in the 17th and 18th centuries. And with new developments and technology its within modernity also that we learn from this class. We see race get constructed, race is something that gets built during this age of encounter between the 15th and 19th centuries. What we know from that, is that racism modern invention. Country music to, is invented in the crucible of modernity. The Carter Family representing these different poles. First is, home. Correspondingly, jimmy rogers represents and some way the road. Mark stun angles described maternity, the experience of living in modernity as all that is solid melting into air. Everything is in flux, everything is in tumult. All of the things that used to be fixed are no called into question. It is a time of tremendous liberally shun. Literally liberation from ones social station. Under feudalism, people could not move up or down. In modernity with the rise of capitalism, all of a sudden, people have much more mobility. Their emancipated from the land. This is experienced as tremendously exhilarating, but also as terrifying. To have this newfound freedom. The Carter Family represents all of the virtues of home, of rooted in us whereas jimmy rogers represents the allure of the road one of the things that happens in modernity people move. Greater distances with greater frequency than they ever had before. The carter representing piety, morality. The need to hold to the old virtues to need to hold to the moral code. Jimmy rogers, this new word that comes into being in the 19th century, fun and listen. All of the new opportunities that modernity affords. Because modernity remember, is the time of the rise of cities, the rise of these places where all sorts of different people come together to do some sort of commerce. Not just economic commerce, but sexual commerce as well. If the Carter Family represent a type of parochialism, staying in one place being loyal to one specific neck of the woods so to speak. Jimmy rogers increasingly, represents a type of cosmopolitanism, a world leanest that you dont necessarily see in the Country Music aligned more with the Carter Family. These two polls, they structure all sorts of opposition and Country Music. It is because Country Music is always the music of the people on the move. Of a people who are displaced by various developments in modernity. What we see, this happened very early on, now we can gab back to roxanne dunn bars expression of her people. Who are her people. The people who create hillbilly music are going to be known at the scots irish. The scotts irish also known as the oyster scotts. Are a white ethnic group that immigrates to the United States, in the 16 and 17 hundreds. Where do they come from . They might say were from ireland its more much more complicated than that. All scarce to scotts or from northern ireland, they are people on the move because of and pyre. We noted that from the 15 19th centuries this is the era not just of encounter among people of different racial groups, but this is the era of colonialism and imperialism. The British Empire its first imperial holdings, well it starts out on the mainland first the english colonize wales and scotland. And then turned their attentions to ireland. And this is a map of the irish sea, england over here, wales and scotland above it. The people known as the scottsirish or the ulster scots, are basically what we might think of as imperialism shock troops. The reason is, ireland is colonized by the english beginning in about 11 69 its a very sort of haphazard loose affiliation of states. And of small principalities, its not until the 16th century, under henry the eight that the british create a system that they call plantation. In which in which the english want to create a stable colony in ireland. It is anything but stable up to that point. They want to create a stable colony and so what they do is they basically plant subjects of the king in ireland, especially northern ireland. And here is what james the first says about these people and what he wants there to happen in northern ireland. This is 16 oh three, james the first rights, the setting of religion, the introducing of civility, order in government, amongst a barbarous and subdued people, acts of piety and glory and where the always of a Christian Prince to endeavor. Now these settlers as he described them were of a middle temper between the irish temper and the root breeding and more likely to implant holster and the british. So these are at least early settlers are mostly going to be from this part of england and scotland. The ulster scots. They come into ireland, the king has opened up all of this land for settlement, but what he really means is land to be dispossessed from the indigenous irish. And the ulster scots who come into our land in the 15th and 16th and through the 17th century, are essential separate colonials. It means they are going to be there to dispossess the indigenous irish of the land and establish some sort of English Settlement there and to stay there. To live and transform this region into, well, into english news. So dunbarortiz calls her ancestors empires shock troops. The westward soldiers of empire. And so, the understanding of the cain and of the english government is that these settlers will be always fighting and under threat. The temperament that develops amongst the scotsirish is precisely a temperament of embattled meant. A temperament of constant vigilance against incursions here among the irish. The irish, as you can imagine, our construed by these soldiers and the english government, by most literature, with this term savages. Its not really a new term, but it comes into currency with the english and scottish settlement of ireland. If we go back a few class periods and think about the ideology of race the develops. What we see is that the ideology of race is absolutely essential for people who construed them selves as christian to be able to do what . To be able to do what . What does race enable . What does it enable europeans to do . Allen . Set one group higher than another. For what reason . To displace power, i guess. This place power . Like set whites apart from anyone else, at least within the context that we have been discussing it in. Yeah, so to create hierarchy. Yes. For sure. Basically take over land more easily. So, somebody has something that you want and you have to take it. But christianity tells us what . You cant steal. You cant steal. Dont do that. Christianity basically says be good to each other. Under this context of violent dispossession of people from their land and goods, the resources. You need some sort of justification, and race comes in to do that very handily. The understanding of the irish as subhuman, or at least as not of the same caliber, not of the same quality as the english, is in place from very early on. As early, in fact, as the 13 forties. There is a set of statutes that prohibit, for example, intermarriage between irish people and english settlers. This is a racial distinction. Tyler. I dont understand why white people get segregated as much compared to the european settlers. This is a great question. Because we look back historically with our only understanding of race in the 21st century. We look and see that they are all white people, but that is not the way they were seen at the time. They were seen as barbarians, close to animals. Their condition is so low and they are so brutalized that they are not really white. And also, whiteness as we understand it is itself a racial formation and construction that comes into being for whiteness, i would say the key time period is the 17th century, and i will talk about that in a moment. For example tyler, if i were to look around this room today and say, theres a lot of people who are white in here. The same version of me in the 19th century would look around the classroom and say, i see a kilt. I see a teuton. I see an anglosaxon. I see a hebrew. I would see with different eyes. Now what we understand as whiteness, its monolithic and one big thing, they certainly did not see it that way at that time. But its a really good question. Wait a minute, these people were all white. Well, the british did not understand the irish in those terms. And remember, race is sort of just coalescing at this time. Or so these footsoldiers of empire dispossessed the indigenous irish. They remained there for many years. Ulster its settled by the british and, in fact, remains you could say as the glass british colony even to this day. But over the next couple of centuries, there is a number of factors that pushed the scotsirish out of ulster and into the american colonies. Primarily desire for land, desire for new fortunes, things getting a bit economically tapped out in ireland. It is a perfect situation for the scotsirish, who are soldiers of empire, to keep pushing westward. In fact, what we see is this pattern replicated as many scotsirish enter into the american colonies. Highland and scotsirish, now this is an interesting distinction. What you see is many highland scotts who are more closely allied with the british crown, they mostly go north. Upstate new york, vermont, new england. Whereas the ulster scots come down here primarily landing in philadelphia and spreading out across pennsylvania. And lo and behold york and gettysburg. This ridge we are here, what do they call this mountain to the north . Its a very poetic name. Its called north mountain. The mountain to the south . Again, beautiful name. South mountain. So these ridges of the appalachians here and wilderness road stretching down into virginia and the piedmont, North Carolina, South Carolina and over into kentucky in tennessee as well. This is the path of most of the scotsirish settlers. A few more maps. Let me see. Margin a little bit. There it is. Settlers originally coming into wilderness road, the Cumberland Gap into the present day southeast. We should say that they are primarily Small Farmers and they dont even necessarily settle the best land. But land is of such a premium, that the desire is to arrive somewhere, to settle, and if its too crowded, then to move on. We see this pattern replicated over and over again. One of the things that dunbarortiz tells us moving even further down. And all the way over into texas and oklahoma by the 19th century. And dunbarortiz very much wants to establish that her family are the descendants of these scotchirish that kept pushing west. All right, so to get back to this notion of whiteness and why it is so important to Country Music. Im thinking about boxes statement that it represents this sort of bad whiteness. One of the things we see today is whiteness can mean simply not having a racial identity. What are you . Im white, im nothing really. Im just a normal. Well, Country Music reflects a particular claim to a sort of whiteness. What we see with the scotsirish people, as they come to the United States, they are both privileged in terms of the racial identity and subordinated in terms of their class identity. That is the real sort of interesting thing about Country Music. Its that it is the music of poor white people. People who were privileged to be white, and i will talk about that in a second, but also people who are underprivileged in terms of their class identity and their economic opportunities. So i will argue that for all intents and purposes, whiteness in the United States is an invention of the 17th century. It is a corollary to a another racial formation that is developing at the same time, which is black miss. What does it mean to be black . What does it mean to be white . Well, what we see is that by 1792, by the late 18 century, whiteness as a category of identity is baked right into citizenship. The 1792 naturalization act, does anybody know what it specifies . What types of people can become citizens . Randi . Three white males. Yeah, free, they dont say males, but they say persons. Free white persons. So if we look back into the 17th century and all of the racial discourse, that in many ways, this naturalization act culminates. What we see is these two categories increasingly being constructed. So we have to ask if, three white persons can become citizens of the new nation, who cant . Who cant become a citizen . We know who can right, so what other types of people are there . Matt . Slaves. Slaves okay, so people who are not free. Who else . Native americans. Native americans absolutely. So people who are not white. Who else . Women. Women can become citizens, but they have no voting rights. Who else . Whos free and who is not free . So slaves absolutely are not free but, most white settlers to the United States are going to be poor. How do they come, how do they arrive . Under what conditions . Ethan . Under indentured servitude. Yes most white settlers are ripe under conditions of indenture. Where you essentially bond your labor out. Say ok, in return for passage to the new world, im going to bond myself to some sort of master. For a specified period of time, usually seven years. Not always, sometimes more, sometimes less. Its essentially a contract into which a person enters, saying i will not be free to do what i want until the period of indenture has elapsed. Most white settlers, especially most scotsirish can come under conditions of indenture. Some where in pennsylvania of the 18th century, 17th to. Somewhere between 60 and 75 of settlers come with the convention of adventure. They are not free. So you cant be indentured, you have to be a free white person to be a citizen of course by 1792. What does indenture really mean . One of the things that we see is, and denture is something thats going to be developed mostly in jamestown. By the Virginia Company, most enterprises in terms of settling the new world are companies, their commercial ventures. The Virginia Company that starts jamestown and other settlements, is going to be very big on indenture. One of the things that jamestown needs, it is workers, and soldiers. Workers to clear land, to harvest cross to build all these things. And soldiers to defend the colony against the incursion of mostly powered and confederacy native americans. But also to use violence to claim more line, so indentures going to be a very good way to bind white settlers who may want to go binding those people to the colony and to the enterprise. So it is this mean . Also in jamestown, in 60 19, you have the first african slaves. But slavery at this time, you have a ship load of slaves brought to jamestown, but slavery at this time is a very ambiguous condition. What does it mean to be enslaved, verse says what does it mean to be indentured . So what you have in virginia of the 17th century, is a tremendous underclass. You have a very small planter class, the elites, who are in the Virginia House of purchases. Who control the political economy of the day. But theyre very few in number the vast majority of people, our poor. Often abjectly so, and theyre also an free. So you have a tremendous by racial underclass. Why would this be threatening to the planter elite . Why would it be threatening . Very small planter class, large underclass. Whats the threat . Revolt. And conspiracy between these two groups. Who might come together and say we are getting the raw deal, why are they in charge, why do they control all the resources when were doing the work . So if youre virginia elites at the time, what do you do . Try to divide the underclass. And divide the underclass good. Because, im not saying theres some sort of racial utopia happening here between the lower classes. The scotsirish and others, english settlers, the