Observations On Reading "Rednecks and Hillbillies: A Thematic Analysis of the Construction of Pride and High Self-Esteem Exhibited by Southern Characters of Pride and High Self-Esteem Exhibited by Southern Characters" by Dr. Casey R. White, Ph. D.

 On January 25, 2021, I received a comment on this blog from a woman known as Dr. Casey R. White, Ph. D., on a post which I had written on December 2, 2020, entitled "Hillbilly Is A Cultural And Ethnic Epithet" which was my stated opinion of many years that the term "hillbilly" is a pejorative epithet intended to demean and degrade the person(s), culture(s), or lifestyle(s) to which it refers.  In my opinion, there is not now, never has been, and will never be a positive effect from anyone calling themselves or anyone else a "hillbilly". In the post in question, I had stated that:

"I have also been able to locate a second refreshingly positively entitled doctoral dissertation by Dr. Casey R. White at South Dakota State University which states its intentions in the title:  "REDNECKS AND HILLBILLIES: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRIDE AND HIGH SELF-ESTEEM EXHIBITED BY SOUTHERN CHARACTERS".   Its stated intent to examine the "construction of pride and self-esteem exhibited by southern characters" is exactly what I hoped to engender with this blog post.  I hope to be able to read (this dissertation) fully and to report on (it) succinctly in later blog posts." (Hillbilly Is A Cultural And Ethnic Epithet, This Blog, December 2, 2020)

That statement about having located the doctoral dissertation mentioned above whic was produced and approved at South Dakota State University in 2020, and resulted in Dr. White receiving  her doctoral degree in sociology subsequent to having produced that dissertation in addition to completion of all other work required for such a degree prompted  Dr. White's comment on my blog post was triggered by a notification to her from an academic service she subscribes to which reports to authors of academic articles and dissertations when their work is cited, quoted, and read by others.  Her comment on my blog at the blog post cited above is as follows:

Hi there! There's a website that tells me whenever someone cites or mentions my dissertation and that's how I ended up here. I'm Dr. Casey White you mentioned and it's very nice to see others are finding my dissertation to read. I'd love to see what you get out of it if you end up writing another blog post.

I've always been fascinated by words and how they change over time and their meanings. When I did my dissertation, being from Tennessee, I was fascinated by the words hillbilly and redneck. Historically, they were insults and in some scholarly research were comparable to racial slurs at one time which is something you mention above. Interestingly, I had to put a disclaimer in my dissertation when I said this because we now live in an extreme PC culture where people might get ticked off by someone saying any insults directed to white individuals can be comparable to racial slurs. Being from Appalachia and seeing mountain poverty and poor "hillbilly" culture firsthand I can make the argument easily but I'm drifting from my purpose in commenting :).
Over time the words hillbilly and redneck became more complex. Today capitalism is a big part of those words and stereotypes attached to them are big business. The point of my dissertation was to also discuss how in modern times these words could have positive meanings where on television the modern day hillbilly and redneck could be a billionaire with good family values and Christian morals. There's so much you could talk about just looking at the words hillbilly and redneck. Anyways, I thought I'd leave you a comment of encouragement since you ran across my dissertation. I think your blog is pretty neat and on a great subject I'm pretty passionate about. Keep up the good work. (Dr. Casey R. White, Blog Comment On This Blog, January 25, 2021)

As I frequently do with blog comments which merit a response, I left the following response to Dr. White's comment which said the following: 

 Dr. White:
I just found your comment on my blog post in which I mentioned your dissertation. I still have to admit that I haven't read the dissertation fully but intend to do so. I found it on Encompass which I am able to access free from the website of Eastern KY University although I have no connection to the university. I appreciate the response. I assume you know that the term "redneck" arose as a result of the Battle of Blair Mountain in WV. I was fortunate enough to know Bill Blizzard (Jr.) whose father Bill Blizzard (Sr.) led the UMWA miners at Blair Mountain and was charged with sedition and a variety of other crimes along with several others of his associates, tried and acquitted at Harper's Ferry. When Bill the younger died, mourners at his memorial service wore red bandanas in memory of both his work and that of his father. Bill the younger had been fired by the Charleston Gazette because he refused to cross a pressmen's picket line during a strike. The miners at Blair Mountain wore red bandanas to differentiate themselves from the Baldwin Felts gun thugs and thus arose the term "redneck" which has long since been relegated to negativity. If you wish to converse more directly, my e-mail is rchicks@mrtc.com Where are you working now? And where are you from in TN? Have you ever seen the AppalShop movie I mention above, "Strangers and Kin: A History of the Hillbilly Image"? I also assume you know the origin of the Appalachian State University mascot Yosef. And how on earth did you end up doing a Ph.D. in the Dakotas?(Roger D. Hicks, Blog Comment On This Blog, January 26, 2021)

I should also say that in cases when I receive comments from others who have legitimate academic, literary, or cultural credentials I often make an attempt to conduct a personal exchange with those people.  However, a basic Google Search was unable to lead me to an e-mail address for Dr. White which prompted me to respond in the blog comment section as I did.  I have found that at certain times this method of response never elicits a response from the person in question since they may never return to my blog which is why I have chosen to use the full title of her dissertation in this blog post which should trigger another notice from her service which generally works better than word of mouth or the barking and growling of a yard dog.  I am also saying at this point that I suspect many of my regular readers who are not in an academic field will find this entire blog post far too boring to read the whole thing.  I understand and will not hold it against those of you who left two or three paragraphs ago or henceforth.  But I also suspect that a few academics with a sense of humor will stick it out to the end of whatever communications take place between myself and Dr. White and are already somewhere between a soft smile and a chortle at one more silly academic argument between two suspected, or perhaps even legitimate geeks, on which many of us self-described geeks would have the world believe we thrive.  

I can now report that I have read Dr. White's dissertation, as many rural conservative Baptist preachers of a hundred different sub-denominations might say, "from kiver to kiver".  I must confess that I did not keep copious notes as I read it which might have made what I have to say more rational and cogent but I stopped that practice in most cases since I no longer have to worry about concluding such endeavors with a passing grade. I should also say that I am appreciative of the compliment Dr. White paid me by saying: "Anyways, I thought I'd leave you a comment of encouragement since you ran across my dissertation. I think your blog is pretty neat and on a great subject I'm pretty passionate about. Keep up the good work."  And since I am such a glutton for these types of compliments, and for passing them on in order to prove that I occasionally receive them, I can say that just this morning, February 9, 2021, an old friend Jerry Felty, with whom I attended the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College in the 1970's sent me an e-mail which said in part: "I finally realize that this blog is yours! I looked through some of the older posts and man is it really good and true to you and your mission on this here earth. In 2011, I was reading your lineup of local fantastic musicians. Very cool.  I love Patti Loveless, whether she believes it or not. Congratulations on being yourself dude. Not all that many people can honestly say that."  I have chosen to insert that comment from Jerry Felty into this rather rambling blog post both to prove that other intelligent people read this blog sometimes and a few of them seem to enjoy it.  Maybe, Dr. White did also. Further I insert it to state that Jerry Felty is correct in saying that I am "being myself".  In fact, one of my favorite, now timeworn, baseball caps has the caption "You be you and I'll be me."  

Now to get back to the real point of this little exercise, as I said earlier,I did not take extensive notes on the dissertation in question and that could well leave me looking less focused than I intended to be.  As Dr. White said in her comment to me, her purpose in her dissertation was to "discuss how in modern times these words [Hillbilly and Redneck] could have positive meanings where on television the modern day hillbilly and redneck could be a billionaire with good family values and Christian morals."  I will insist on sticking to my guns and saying that there can never be a positive outcome from using those words just as there can never be positive outcomes from using the "N" word, the "K" word, the "Q" word, or the "C" word, or any other word whose intent is to demean, defame, and belittle the members of the cultural and ethnic groups to which such words refer.  Sadly, part of the problem with the words "Hillbilly" and "Redneck" is that the group or groups to which they refer are still not widely recognized as a cultural and/or ethnic minority which should be eligible to receive all the considerations which are generally accorded to the members of the other groups which are implied by such words.  As for Dr. White's dissertation, it has some positive points and, since she is a native of Tennessee, I am willing to assume that her intentions were positive.  But just as the aforementioned Baptist preachers are also fond of saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".  

It is my considered opinion that no minority group ever benefits from appropriating and using as self references those slurs, insults, and epithets which have been invented and used by the prejudiced members of the majority culture as they are appropriated and used by the people in most of the television shows which Dr. White studied for her dissertation.  This practice has long been and remains common among African American youth, especially, just as it does for the participants in these television "reality" shows about southern and Appalachian people. Patrick Huber in the journal "Southern Cultures Vol 1. No. 5 Winter 1995" in an article entitled "A Short History of Redneck: The Fashioning of A Southern White Masculine Identity" wrote in his introduction: 

Rural poor and working-class white southerners have endured a broad range of slurs throughout U.S. history, many derived from geographic regions, dietary habits, physical appearance, or types of clothing. Epithets aimed at urban poor white southerners are fewer and tend to focus on cotton-mill workers: cottonhead, cotton mill trash, cottontail, factory hill trash, factory rat, and linthead, for example. A few of the rural class slurs, especially redneck and hillbilly, are also applied indiscriminately to southern white migrants working in factories in Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, and other midwestern cities. (Patrick Huber See Citation Above)

In 2005, in nearly identical words, Anthony Harkins of Western Kentucky University wrote:

 "What defines the hillbilly more than geography are cultural traits and values. In this regard, "hillbilly" is no different than dozens of similar labels and ideological and graphic constructs of poor and working-class southern whites coined by middle-and upper-class commentators, northern and south-ern. These derisive terms were intended to indicate a diet rooted in scarcity ("clay eater," "corn-cracke~," "rabbit twister"), physical appearance and cloth-ing that denoted hard al!d specifically working-class laboring conditions ("redneck," "wool hat," "lint head"), an animal-like existence on the eco-nomic and physici\l fringes of society ("brush ape," "ridge runner," "briar hop-per"), ignorance and racism, and in all cases, economic, genetic, and cultural impoverishment (best summed up by the label "poor white," or more point-edly, "poor white trash"). Many of these derogatory labels were used inter-changeably as putdowns of working-class southern whites, especially those who had migrated to southern and midwestern urban centers." ( Harkins, Anthony, "Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon" (2005). History Faculty Book Gallery.Book 4.http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/history_book/4)

Thus we see that there is a basic flaw in any supposition that there can be positive outcomes from the use, acceptance, and appropriation of such epithets by those the epithets are intended to demean.   

 In 2013, in a senior writing project entitled "Coming to Appreciate the Redneck Stereotype: A Value Analysis of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" at California Polytechnic University, Bevie Tyo wrote: 

Reality TV ... producers selectively expose what the audience will see which in the end could lead to misinformation of a certain race, culture, or gender. When filming reality TV shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, they are constantly filming the family 24 hours a day for several weeks or months just to produce thirty minutes of footage for ten episodes of the first season. There is so much footage left out, giving the audience selective exposure to the most entertaining parts of their lives. This ultimately affects the viewer’s perceptions and leads the audiences to stereotype because they are only given certain information about people on reality TV. (Bevie Tyo See Citation Above)

 

Dr. White studied 110 episodes of a sizeable number of such shows for her dissertation in the effort to find ways in which those shows depicted their participants in positive ways. She studied that total of 110 episodes from a randomly chosen group of 12 different shows. The list of shows she studied included "Swamp People", "Rocket City Rednecks", "Moonshiners", "Hillbilly Blood", "Hillbilly Hand Fishin'" and 7 others. She used what is known as a convenience sample of the episodes from these shows.  A convenience sample is defined by the website "Statistics How To" as: Convenience sampling (also called accidental sampling or grab sampling) is where you include people (Or television episodes) who are easy to reach or easy to locate as was the case with Dr. White's work on this dissertation. Convenience sampling is a contrast and methodological opposite to Random Sampling which is defined by the same website as participants are randomly selected, and each has an equal chance of being chosen. In academic research, a random sample is always considered to be a higher quality sample of anything under study, or to use another word from academic research, random sampling gives a research project higher validity.  Validity is defined by the website Scribbr as: Validity refers to how accurately a method measures what it is intended to measure. If research has high validity, that means it produces results that correspond to real properties, characteristics, and variations in the physical or social world. Thus random samples always have higher validity than convenience samples.  

Now that we have explained some of the research terms related to Dr. White's dissertation, let's move on to discuss the work itself.  I must say that I almost never watch "reality" television with a few exceptions and those exceptions are not shows about those of us who are known as hillbillies and rednecks.  The one show on Dr. White's list which I have watched extensively is "Swamp People" both because I love to watch those people do high quality work in a dangerous profession and because I have spent some time in Louisiana and love to eat alligator, bullfrogs, and squirrels.  I also have watched a few episodes of "Hillbilly Handfishin'" because I wanted to see if it was possible to learn some techniques for use in that sport if I ever find an expert who is willing to take me out with them.  But, in general, I avoid like the plague those shows which attempt to present real life in the world of Central and Southern Appalachia and choose to present us as hillbillies.  I will also take umbrage with the effort to lump all southerners and all Appalachians into one group whether or not they refer to the collective group as either hillbillies or rednecks.  Central and Southern Appalachia is a very different area culturally from the greater geographic southern United States or the northeastern portions of the Appalachian mountain range.  The two areas in question do tend to overlap geographically a bit especially if you consider the greater political definition of Appalachia as being correct instead of the markedly narrower culturally based geographical boundaries which I believe are more correct. 

I also do not accept the fact that any of these types of shows are actually "reality" television.  Austin Carroll Baker on August 26, 2017, on the web page "Screen Rant" made this statement about scripting in reality television:  "Often times they will script scenarios or plant items so that they can make the show more interesting. What is real and what is fake?" One of the shows which Dr. White studied for her dissertation was "Moonshiners" which I have always believed is totally fake in one of two ways, possibly both.  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms still regularly enforces the laws prohibiting the production of untaxed liquors and the possession of unlicensed distillation mechanisms.  As they state on this webpage dated April 15, 2019, the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the United States Treasury covers thoroughly the sections of the United States Code which prohibit moonshine production.  If the television personalities and production companies responsible for "Moonshiners" were actually producing untaxed, illegal moonshine and filming the commission of the crime, they would have been arrested years ago and every pixel of their video production would have been seized as evidence, presented in US District Courts, and would have resulted in their incarceration.  They are doing one of two things: either 1) they are producing steam from clear water and distilling even more pure water; or, 2) they are operating a fully legal distilling operation.  I can assure you they are not engaging in the "unlawful production of distilled spirts" as defined in the United States Code.  They are as fake and scripted as a three dollar bill.   As further evidence of the validity of my argument, I offer the following media documentation of occasions in which the authorities have pursued, arrested, prosecuted, and convicted moonshiners in the Central and Southern Appalachian region.  This first operation was in Louisville, Jefferson County Kentucky, and therefore well outside the region of Appalachia but may well have been operated by urban Appalachians.  This story comes from Barrackville, West Virginia, and occurred only 7 months ago.  I am also adding this story which occurred less than two years ago in Mingo County West Virginia, an area in which I lived and worked for five years as a salesman. This story from roughly four years ago details an arrest involving the production and sale of moonshine in both Tennessee and Virginia.   I rest my case as to whether or not the denizens of the television show "Moonshiners" are actually producing moonshine simultaneously with the evidence to send themselves to federal prison.  

Since we have now proven that the "reality" television show "Moonshiners" is highly likely to be fictitious and illegitimate, we must consider the need to remove it and all information it might have provided from Dr. White's research.  She utilized 10 episodes of the show in her research.  With 110 total episodes of all the shows she utilized, we see that this reduces her total data base by 9% and her total useful episodes to 100 which necessitates us to discuss the importance of "N" in all academic research.  The website mathnstuff.com describes "n" in this manner: "Number, n, is the statistic describing how big the set of numbers is, how many pieces of data are in the set." In their discussion of the importance of "n", or the total size of a data set, the website tools4dev.org states that "Most statisticians agree that the minimum sample size to get any kind of meaningful result is 100. If your population is less than 100 then you really need to survey all of them."  Further, the website statisticssolutions.com states "Some researchers do, however, support a rule of thumb when using the sample size. For example, in regression analysis, many researchers say that there should be at least 10 observations per variable. If we are using three independent variables, then a clear rule would be to have a minimum sample size of 30."  If we accept the basic assumption of nearly all academic researchers that the minimum sample size should be at least 100, after the deletion of all information from the reality show "Moonshiners", Dr. White was in a position that left her without any possible room for error in her sample or findings.  Further, Dr. White attempted to analyze 11 elements or variables in the television shows she examined: Patriotism; Ancestry/Family; Outside Cultures; Diversity; Wealth/Material Possessions; Females In Non-traditional Roles; Education; Specialized Educational Skills; Religion; Occupation; and Traditional Stereotypes. If we accept the rule of thumb from Statistic Solutions that a research project must have ten samples per variable, then the minimum n which could have provided valid data for her project would have been the 110 with which she began.  But when we consider the fact that "Moonshiners" must be invalid based on the total absence of law enforcement intervention in a case with extensive video evidence, then Dr. White's findings cannot be valid due to the low n. 

But, even if I were willing to accept the data based on the low n resulting from the inclusion of data from "Moonshiners", there is a basic error of judgment involved in the acceptance and adaptation of any negative stereotype by any member of any minority group.  The individuals who accept and attempt to adapt these stereotypes to their own use as members of the group being stereotyped are assenting to their own minimalization, defamation, degradation, and public abuse and every element of that assent has negative consequences.  In her paper "What Is The Nature of Appalachian Identity?", Elizabeth Trout states:

"The stereotypes of Appalachia are predominantly negative and their effect is powerful. Both Dannenberg and Hazen et al. observed a decline in the Appalachian English. This language, while still indicative of Appalachian identity, is not as pronounced as in previous eras. What this means to the future of Appalachian identity remains to be seen, but this phenomenon does prove that language is an important facet of Appalachian identity." (Trout, Elizabeth, "What is the Nature of Appalachian Identity?" (2015).Communication Studies Student Scholarship. 2.https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/commstudents/2)

Chelsea G. Adams, in her masters thesis at the University of Kentucky, examined perceptions of  Appalachian students regarding negative stereotypes of Appalachians and came to three basic conclusions:

(a) Appalachian students in this study are aware of and can readily identify stereotypes about Appalachia; (b) Students in this study from Appalachia believe that people who are not from the area have mostly negative perspectives about Appalachia; and (c) though aware of shortcomings within their community and culture, Appalachians often feel the need to defend and protect the integrity of their community, culture, and people. (Adams, Chelsea G., "“I WONDER WHAT YOU THINK OF ME”: A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO EXAMINING STEREOTYPE AWARENESS IN APPALACHIAN STUDENTS" (2017). Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology. 59. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edp_etds/59)

From my point of view, Ms. Adams' most important finding is that the students she researched expressed their awareness "of shortcomings within their community and culture" which resulted in their  "need to defend and protect the integrity of their community, culture, and people".  That is a common element across all of the Appalachian Culture both among the educated and relatively poorly educated.  It has led to myself and two of my fourteen maternal first cousins all obtaining advanced degrees in three widely divergent fields: human services, medical anesthesia, and aircraft engineering.  It led to more than a half dozen of my high school classmates, in addition to myself, completing the same level of achievement of at least one advanced degree, while we graduated in a class which had only 58 members.  In conclusion, I must say that I find myself markedly disappointed to learn that Dr. Casey White, Ph. D. of stated Appalachian heritage failed to produce results stated in her dissertation title of finding "construction of pride and high self-esteem" in Appalachian characters and settled for supporting the adaptation of negative stereotypes by her research subjects.