Proud moments in West Virginia

having taken some time to consider it, i think it's less the surprise than the rejection that bothers me--the surprise is a factor of the rejection. the goal of breaking down intolerance is to bring the culture together. mocking, hating, disassociating yourself from the parts of your culture that you don't like--i don't see how that particularly furthers the goal.

as far as racism goes, yes, a lot of it is pretty complex. a lot of it also really is made up of poorly-educated, rural people who frequently have unpleasantly low standards of dental hygiene. i went to school with them. i went to college with some. i served in the military with quite a few. a lot of them are great guys--funny, clever, hard-working, patriotic (in their way). they're as wrong on some issues as Michael Jackson at an elementary school, but i don't think hating and rejecting them for it is a particularly good answer. i don't know what the answer is, but i'm pretty sure it's not that.

i often wonder about the women in these excerpts.

doesn't it give them any pause to know that there are plenty of ignorant men out there who wouldn't vote for Hillary for the mere fact that she's a woman?

or does self-justified racism trump self-justified sexism in their minds, somehow?

This was actually discussed in an article I was reading. 20% of WV voters said race played a role in their decision (the highest of any state, the next highest was Arkansas at 13.7%). More dumbfounding was that men said gender was a factor in their decision, even though most men voted for Hillary. Which means WV men are against the idea of a woman president, but they're against the idea of a black president more.

...and people called me a racist and an asshole a while back for saying that parts of this country just aren't ready for a black or woman president. Now I finally have proof that I'm just an asshole.

My complete statement was "We could have another Republican president. I'm not so sure parts of this country are ready to vote for a black or a woman president", followed by "Think about it. Bush - two terms."

It is amazing to me that I'm seeing an important milestone in U.S. history - We're about to have our first MAJOR party presidential candidate for president that isn't a white man. Can you imagine trying to tell someone in WV 50 years ago that a black man would be running for president?

I absolutely agree with you, but it's worth noting WV is a swing state. They voted for Clinton twice and Bush twice. So what these people say worries me.

I loved it!

My Daddy said the same thing!

Interesting to note that in 1863 the counties that comprise WVa seceded from Confederate Virginia and rejoined the Union. It wasn't, of course, for their great love of the blacks - they were at odds, politically and culturally, with Richmond and the Tidewater Virginians.

Gah, not all of us from WV think like this. I swear it!

Can I have the group now?

there was an interesting story on npr last year about how illinois is the most "american" state (demographically) while west virginia was the least american state. im sure if you presented these facts to someone from west virginia they would probably tell you its just because they aint been infilterated yet.