They forgot about the incest.

I've never met someone who wanted a truly honest assessment.

I live in Appalachia.... and this story is just typical of television, where everyone in Hollywood is rich and beautiful.... and no one else is.

real shaman: I live in Appalachia...

Did she like it? How much were the rooms? Did they smell of fish?

Ive met great people in Appalachia that will go out of their way to help a stranger. And I've met some of the most deplorable individuals on the face of the planet.

/Not sure which group wins out...

I saw that special, it was farking depressing. I hope it's not as bad there as they made it seem.

You know what a 13 year old girl from Eastern Kentucky says after having sex?
"Get off me, Daddy! You're squishing my smokes!"

/tip the veal
//try your waitress!

I also get angry when people point out my shortcomings.

Bored Horde: I've never met someone who wanted a truly honest assessment.

So much this^.

The quickest way to piss someone off is to be honest with them.

I saw part of it. They were talking about a guy who dropped out of college because he didn't have money for entertainment like everyone else and because his grades sucked. Some asshole at a KY college decided to give him free tuition, extra money for beer, and private tutoring. The guy will still be stupid. Some people are meant to work in coal mines.

Dualing Banjos FTW!!

HBO did a documentary on a family from eastern KY about 10 years ago called American Hollow. I think the hollow is referring to their tooth sockets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9wyOJ4di0g

Sounds like many city projects full of the usual suspects.

The 20/20 report looks like it was shot by children with ADHD.

311rulez: Dualing Banjos FTW!!

Dueling, I'm still drunk from last night.

I watched the special. Personally, it took turned people of that region from the comic stereotype of Cletus from The Simpsons to somebody I actually felt bad for. And I was really heartbroken by the college dropout experience part (I've been there.)

SeamusFerrell: I saw part of it. They were talking about a guy who dropped out of college because he didn't have money for entertainment like everyone else and because his grades sucked. Some asshole at a KY college decided to give him free tuition, extra money for beer, and private tutoring. The guy will still be stupid. Some people are meant to work in coal mines.

They mentioned the miners make 60k. Damn, Id mine coal for 60k. Of course, they were too afraid to even mention the health risks because the bosses were watching off camera.

Bigotry.

Okidokie in that direction.

You always hear the whinging about this from Kentucky...You never hear it from Tennessee or Virginia...We farkin KNOW we're poor and toothless.

I grew up in the toothless redneck mountains of TN, and it's certainly a fair assessment of the average condition of a lot of people up there. They got no money, they got no teeth, and, same as in every other population, that leads to drug problems. (Doesn't help that drug production is also pretty common; meth only makes the teeth problem worse.)

It's depressing, but it's life. Guess I'm glad that the backwoods poor are getting some of the attention that goes to the inner city poor.

//At least we got Dollywood.

So THIS was the meaning of that phone call I got from my parents... My dad wanted to know if I brush my teeth because him and my mom watched a show about people in Appalachia that lived on Mt Dew and didn't have any teeth. I think I need to keep my parents away from the TV.

real shaman: I live in Appalachia.... and this story is just typical of television, where everyone in Hollywood is rich and beautiful.... and no one else is.

I don't think they were implying that. The even if they only offered a skewed reality of what life in appalachia is, they wouldn't have been able to film poor, undereducated people living in poverty if there didn't exist poor, undereducated people living in abject poverty.

It's like me being upset that a 20/20 report portrays michiganders as all living in a run down inner city with crime and burned down abandoned houses. Well, maybe that's not quite true (my apt is only half burned down), but the fact remains that places like that are a large proportion of where some Michiganders live. Why would that upset me?

/last time I went to detroit (for the auto show) is the last time I ever go to detroit.
//fully 4 different "veterans" tried to stop me to ask for money. I gave one guy a dollar and he said they were asking for fives, tens and twenties.
///only gave him a dollar because it was a narrow sidewalk, my wife was with me and I really wanted to avoid a confrontation
////fark detroit. fark detroit right in the ear.

boomquita: HBO did a documentary on a family from eastern KY about 10 years ago called American Hollow. I think the hollow is referring to their tooth sockets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9wyOJ4di0g

I saw that too, I spent part of my childhood in KY. They are the nicest people you ever want to meet. Just don't piss them off.

If this report is wrong then it should easy to find evidence to the contrary. Smile, everyone!

Weird. This sort of like a topic we're dealing in Architectural Criticism.

Do you really want to know everything, or do you want to create your own hyper-reality with a series of images and stereotypes?.

As someone who spends way too much time in Detroit-bashing threads, I feel a little bit of schadenfreude right now.

/those Germans have a word for everything

Meh, I'm from Southern Appalachia (NC) and it is actually quite lovely in many places. I realize that WV, parts of PA, and VA have it worse than we do though.

The funny thing is that the level of poverty in these places is seen as worthy of ridicule in the rest of the country, while the plight of the inner city poor is serious business. I've been an advocate of classifying Appalachian Americans as a group for affirmative action in the past.

There's a book by a sociologist named Horace Kephart. The book, Our Southern Highlanders, is a study of Appalachians in WNC in the 1920's. Something that stuck with me in that book is that during an interview with a ridgerunner (a hunter who goes into the mountains in search of prey) the man says that he doesn't understand why people make fun of the way Appalachians talk, interact, or even live. He basically states that he feels that they are one of the last groups it is kosher in all the states to make fun of in a rather nasty way.

Anyway, I hope some of you realize that the culture is actually quite fascinating and not Southern in the slightest. It is more descended from Scottish immigrants who settled there; the English dialect spoken is also very strange and full of interesting vocabulary. The people often to be more terse, even laconic in their outlook.

I hope some of you will take a step back and ask why you think it's acceptable to denigrate these people to a level of near inhumanity, while you accept the cultural contributions of other marginalized groups in the United States.

Shyla: So THIS was the meaning of that phone call I got from my parents... My dad wanted to know if I brush my teeth because him and my mom watched a show about people in Appalachia that lived on Mt Dew and didn't have any teeth. I think I need to keep my parents away from the TV.

Or maybe you need to cut back on the Mt. Dew and brush your teeth once in a while...

Forget 20/20, just go and rent Gummo (new window)

FTA:

...said Art Menius, director of Appalshop, an arts and education center in Whitesburg that has produced more than 100 films about Appalachia...

HAHAHAHAHA. how appropriate.

Parts of Northern NY are just as bad only with 6 ft of snow and temperatures that are in the double digits below zero. There are people all over the country struggling. I don't think any section of the country deserves to be highlighted.

The use of the word hive in the headline lends a certain grubby, insectile quality to the eastern Kentuckians

/random observation
//deserved?

Sir Cumference the Flatulent: They forgot about the incest.

Bwaha. beat me to it

jee2102:

I hope some of you will take a step back and ask why you think it's acceptable to denigrate these people to a level of near inhumanity, while you accept the cultural contributions of other marginalized groups in the United States.

Re-Read what you wrote.
Now git a fixin' ta mash down on that there key board, and tell me the non native hickabillies have always been there, Abner.

Shyla: So THIS was the meaning of that phone call I got from my parents... My dad wanted to know if I brush my teeth because him and my mom watched a show about people in Appalachia that lived on Mt Dew and didn't have any teeth. I think I need to keep my parents away from the TV.

Did you tell them that there's no need to brush when you don't have any teeth?

Its not Slander... It its true.

Blargh...
If its true.

This just in... poverty sucks.

jeans + cute + squeal + pig + banjo = typical Saturday night in Kentucky

/I've know a few people from there, they were scary
//Even they said it was scary and they had to leave

Could be worse- they could have labeled them as Palin supporters.

Do the Dew!

12349876: This just in... poverty sucks.

We have an update... it sucks in Appalachia, it sucks in the inner city, it sucks in Slumdog Millionaire, it sucks everywhere in the world.

jee2102: Meh, I'm from Southern Appalachia (NC) and it is actually quite lovely in many places. I realize that WV, parts of PA, and VA have it worse than we do though.

The funny thing is that the level of poverty in these places is seen as worthy of ridicule in the rest of the country, while the plight of the inner city poor is serious business. I've been an advocate of classifying Appalachian Americans as a group for affirmative action in the past.

There's a book by a sociologist named Horace Kephart. The book, Our Southern Highlanders, is a study of Appalachians in WNC in the 1920's. Something that stuck with me in that book is that during an interview with a ridgerunner (a hunter who goes into the mountains in search of prey) the man says that he doesn't understand why people make fun of the way Appalachians talk, interact, or even live. He basically states that he feels that they are one of the last groups it is kosher in all the states to make fun of in a rather nasty way.

Anyway, I hope some of you realize that the culture is actually quite fascinating and not Southern in the slightest. It is more descended from Scottish immigrants who settled there; the English dialect spoken is also very strange and full of interesting vocabulary. The people often to be more terse, even laconic in their outlook.

I hope some of you will take a step back and ask why you think it's acceptable to denigrate these people to a level of near inhumanity, while you accept the cultural contributions of other marginalized groups in the United States.

If it makes you feel any better, I ridicule everyone equally. However, being a white male, there are only so many groups I can publicly belittle, so I hope this one doesn't get taken away from me.

African Rythmns + Appalacian strings = Rock 'N Roll.

People facing the greatest hardships gave us the best music.

It's not the Kentuckians....
Those guys are spillovers from West Virginia.

Satanicpuppy: You always hear the whinging about this from Kentucky...You never hear it from Tennessee or Virginia...We farkin KNOW we're poor and toothless.

I grew up in the toothless redneck mountains of TN, and it's certainly a fair assessment of the average condition of a lot of people up there. They got no money, they got no teeth, and, same as in every other population, that leads to drug problems. (Doesn't help that drug production is also pretty common; meth only makes the teeth problem worse.)

It's depressing, but it's life. Guess I'm glad that the backwoods poor are getting some of the attention that goes to the inner city poor.

//At least we got Dollywood.

I hear you. Lots of Americans who have never travelled anywhere (including within their own country) are just content to blurt out that we are the greatest country in the world and hope that if they repeat it enough, it will somehow be true. Meanwhile there are people in parts of this country that are living in third world conditions.

/this is a great country
//but the greatest country on earth doesn't have anybody living in any conditions resembling the third world.

I'm doing a medical breakaway trip to Wendover, KY in a few weeks. Anyone know anything about that area?

Dr. Nick Riviera: I'm doing a medical breakaway trip to Wendover, KY in a few weeks. Anyone know anything about that area?

Don't talk fancy.

my family is from morgan and johnson county in eastern ky and there is plenty of toothlessness
same in southern ohio where i am from
but like anywhere else there are smart wealthy people
eastern ky is full of coal and gas money

Sometimes the truth hurts. Deal with it.

I live in central Pa and its hardly as bad as they say it is. Sure its a lot different than the suburbs of Philly but its absolutely beautiful out here.