Comparing Black and Hillbilly Cultures

Cross cultural comparisons can be powerful learning experiences.  I experienced one last night as I watched a documentary on IPTV titled "Against All Odds: Chasing the Dream," by Bob Herbert.  Topic:  The black middle class and its difficult and elusive quest to achieve the American Dream put in historical perspective.  At the same time I was rereading what has quickly become an American classic---Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, himself an Appalachian white.

Both Black and Appalachian cultures have serious dysfunctions; how do they compare?  What are the causes of their dysfunctions?

There was significant exploitation of hillbillies by the all powerful coal companies, but, according to fellow hillbilly J.D. Vance, the dysfunction of hillbilly families was largely self-inflicted.  The major cause of black dysfunction was the endless and ruthless oppression by white oppressors from 1776-2017.

I spent two years in eastern Kentucky, the exact spot where Vance was born and raised.   I also have lived in black communities for 35 years.  Comparing the two cultures, I would say that American  blacks have had it twice as bad, probably three or four times as bad, as Appalachian whites.  But I am afraid that most of my fellow whites would blame blacks for their own dysfunction, not white oppression.

Before you watch the documentary and read the book, read Exodus chapter one on Hebrew oppression; also Exodus 6:9 which describes the damage oppression does---causes mass PTSD.