I met a guy from Cumberland, KY yesterday while swimming on top of Pine Mountain. He worked for Arch Minerals for 32 years and had 4 different bouts of cancer, all stemming from his lungs. The company wouldn’t pay his medical bills, saying that it had nothing to do with working underground (if only this was the only time this happened) but he said that Arch is doing him a favor now— they’ve gotten a “re-permit” to mine 400 yards from his house, going 200 ft deeper than their original 400 ft. dig. They were really “kind” and came in and photographed his home’s foundation and inner structures to document the house’s condition before the horrific blasting they’ll be doing.  He’s lived in Harlan County all his life, worked for Arch, and raised a family here. But he said he’s moving away with his son this fall when they start blasting and he  can’t resell his home. He’s probably just going to walk away from it…
Now, admittedly, this guy kept using vile racial language to talk about his neighbors that were in the same boat. He talked about loving the Lord Jesus with one breath and hating %$#$%s with the rest. He wasn’t a perfect guy by any stretch, but he was a person. He was off four-wheeling for the day, carrying two pistols that he was shooting until we walked up, which I thought was pretty cool myself, but kind of freaked out my friends that were with me (and live in the city). I’ve gotten pretty used to cool people who might appear “scary” to city-folk who don’t know any folks that ride four wheelers and shoot guns for fun, who end up being really really cool and will sit and talk to you for hours about whatever, not rushing off to go somewhere…
But here’s a person that has lived underneath the thumb coal industry his entire life. He’s not perfect. His racist hate-spewing language helped dispel that possibility pretty quickly. But it was a good reminder that there is good and bad in all of us, and yet we deserve justice all the same. It’s nice to think of all the allies we have and that we are fighting for justice with them, but I think it’s important that we fight for justice for folks like this guy too. (and of course, his neighbors that he hates so bad) and not get caught up in this idea of a “noble and deserving” Appalachian people. Appalachia has seen this concept of the “noble poor” drawing in martyrs to serve here for decades (a type I never want to be), but it would be best not to repeat that trend when coming to work and/or organize here. It’s no fun to be disillusioned like that, accepting someone to be “perfect” and meet the romanticized ideals that you project on them… It does nobody any good, you or them. It’s a detterent for real conversation, real exchange, or growth.
People here are people. Just like everyone else. Some good, some rotten, some lovely, some not. But they all deserve clean water and intact mountains with some kind of hope for providing for their families…. even child molesters, wife-beaters, crooked preachers and crooked politicians.
The guy’s racist spewing sure made it harder to find the good in him, but I know it’s there. There is good in all of us.
It’s so easy to walk away from people spewing hate like that, but I’d encourage myself and anyone else to just plow on through it, as long as you don’t feel like you are in enminent danger. We didn’t try to change his mind (Which was SO hard to not try to do) but rather express that we didn’t really understand what he meant because we had had different experiences, and then just let him keep talking. I learned a lot from him yesterday, and I am glad we met him.
I guess I learned some tolerance for a racist, because I know that his life wasn’t easy, that his community is struggling, and he is enduring environmental racism that’s directed towards mountain whites (and of course mountain black communities too).
I think it’s why I respect my friend Chris, who’s a public defender and represents the worst kinds of people, because he believes they should have a chance too.
So I hate this system that nurtures racism and hate. It’s hard to encourage someone to see beyond color of people’s skins when the mountains are being blasted away all around him.