Above: “Anai Saucedo has her face painted with makeup in the Dia de los Muertos tradition in Erwin, Tenn. Courtesy of Megan King“
“While the economic despair and major health epidemics are an unsettling reality for the region, a glaring omission has been made from the “poverty porn” images fed to national audiences for generations: Appalachia’s people of color.”
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“The region’s population growth is increasingly fueled by minorities, who have composed almost half of Appalachia’s new residents (42 percent) over the past three decades and helped fuel awareness about the heterogeneous reality of mountain towns.”
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“In the years following the Civil War, former slaves migrated north to the region to escape the persecution of the Deep South. In Eastern Kentucky, Berea College opened its doors in 1867 to students of all races, with the first year’s class totaling 187 students: 96 African-American and 91 white.
The coal crescendo during the early part of the 20th century brought in even greater diversity, with tens of thousands of Hungarian, Italian and Eastern European immigrants flocking to the mountains to cash in on booming mining towns. After the Great Depression, many of these immigrants — along with African-American families — moved to urban centers such as Cincinnati and Detroit in pursuit of more stable and less backbreaking work. These pioneers were some of the first to create “urban Appalachian” enclaves, spreading the traditions of an isolated region to metropolitan areas across the Midwest.
This fusion is most obvious in Appalachia’s signature food and music. As Rachel Ellen Simon describes in an article for The Appalachian Voice, the African akonting was a precursor to the banjo — the instrument now synonymous with the region’s plucky, twangy bluegrass sound. Spoonbread, chowchow and succotash all point to both African and Native American influences and are celebrated as culinary specialties of the area.”
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“”Even though Hispanic families have been here for decades, they’re definitely still unfairly targeted,” said Megan King, a photographer whose work captures portraits of Latino families in and around Johnson City, Tenn. “When I was at the police station one day photographing a couple of [Hispanic] cops, a call came in and said that two Latino men were trying to steal a police car. It was the officers I was photographing — it was their police car.””
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“While there still is a way to go, a less whitewashed portrait of Appalachia seems to be gaining a foothold nationally, thanks in part to the efforts of scholars and grass-roots organizations. The term “Affrilachia” — a portmanteau of “African” and “Appalachian” coined by Kentucky poet laureate Frank X Walker — has brought together a loose collective of multiracial artists previously excluded from conversations about what it means to be an Appalachian. The word is now an entry in the Oxford American Dictionary, second edition. In 2005, as Simon has noted, Appalachian State University professor Fred Hay successfully petitioned the Library of Congress to change the definition of Appalachians from “Mountain Whites” to “Appalachians (People).””
I like that this article described the movements of people and culture to and away from Appalachia to show that the region is not as isolated nor as insulated as people think.
By showing the development of its residents’ demographics over time, Thompson is also able to debunk the notion that there is no culture in Appalachia. Residents themselves maintain their own cultures from their own backgrounds, but over time there is a cumulative cultural exchange that Appalachia’s food, music, art, and traditions are derived from.
Appalachia is seen as static because its shifts in population are overlooked, and in a time where we are trying to introduce and enlighten visitors to parks as to why sustainability matters, this notion can hinder visitors and locals from implementing change. Perhaps highlighting the fluidity of the region’s past and present can shift people’s perceptions. On the other hand, Appalachia can be considered static in the sense that many families, including families of color, have generational ties to the region. So it also important to highlight that diversity isn’t new to Appalachia, instead people of color have always been present in Appalachia’s history.
Thompson, A. (2014, April 6). Stereotypes Of Appalachia Obscure A Diverse Picture. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/04/03/298892382/stereotypes-of-appalachia-obscure-a-diverse-picture
