renaroo:

Basically I don’t trust anyone who hasn’t at least visited Appalachia to write it properly haha It’s not so much that I think it’s the Most Important Thing Ever, or that it’s complicated beyond non-Appalachian’s minds to understand, it’s just amazing how many writers from New York or Las Angeles will watch a hit-piece documentary basically meant to win somebody a Peabody and think they understand the intricacies of the region. 

1. Believe it or not, we have updated our wardrobes since the 1910s. There are religious groups like the Amish and Mennonites who follow very strict lifestyle choices especially with clothing, but 90% of the average population even in the most poverty stricken areas wear blue jeans, converse, and t-shirts. Almost all of which will be with the logos of the local high school team. We’re poor, not a time capsule. 

2. It’s difficult for people in the region, even LGBT people like myself, to completely dismiss religion or the church around here because they are a major community supporter. Every church I know and have been around, even if I didn’t appreciate the congregation, provide food, clothes, children’s toys, and more to the sick and poor around here because there are very few government institutions which provide those services. For example, I lived most of my life about an hour and a half from the nearest homeless shelter. There’s almost no public transportation that isn’t for senior citizens. If I had been kicked out of my home, like many people I knew in high school went through, and didn’t have a vehicle or friend who could drive them, there was literally nothing but the church and community members to help provide for you. 

3. Appalachia actually does have a growing diversity, though it’s still very white. I went to school with more Latinx and Asian descended students than African-American. The exact reasons for this are actually something I haven’t looked into much. But even beyond that, there are historical minority groups in the region that are often forgotten or overlooked by people outside of the area. For example, Melungeons are a mixed race group of people from Appalachia who have African-American, Native American, and white heritage who have been around since the 1700s. They have been mistreated and erased by history quite a lot and it’s been pretty impactful on the culture for many people who can trace heritage back to them. There’s also a lot of unique genetic populations which have been the source of medical study at times such as the Blue Fugates, a family line prominent in some regions of Eastern Kentucky where I grew up where methemoglobinemia caused purple/blue discoloration of skin for some sufferers. Though, admittedly, the only girl I met in person who had this condition only had her fingers/ears turn blue with lack of circulation when she was cold. 

4. The mafia has had a long history in the region since prohibition, especially since many regions of Appalachia didn’t remove their prohbition-era regulations and outlawing of the sell of alcohol and there are several areas which still regulate those things to this day. This feeds into a cycle of how the government in Appalachia absolutely screws over their limited economy because my hometown fought tooth and nail for all my middle school and early high school years against repealing prohibition even though we were losing businesses and restaurant chains being put in the county to surrounding counties which had lifted their bans. Fortunately they lost and we got about four new chain restaurants within the following year. Which is why immigration into the area has been so slow – the population is dying off, the economy has been ravaged over decades, and many areas are fighting for “tradition” which is literally driving out everyone in my generation out in droves just so we can find some means of surviving. 

5. Eric C. Conn is the century’s greatest financial criminal mastermind, having made an entire multi-state SSI and Social Security scam where he hired multiple doctors and a judge in New York who had never even been to Appalachia to fake injuries and illness on literally thousands of people, driving real Social Security lawyers out of business and forcing people who either wanted to scam the federal government or had real disabilities but could only get a claim processed through him to come to him and thus forfeit the vast majority of their claim winnings to his operation. Everyone has known he was doing this – and in fact he openly advertised it on billboards and local commercials – since the 90s. The federal government ignored it until the Obama administration because Conn was such an idiot that he started paying for the infamous “Obama Girl” to start singing songs about him to try and put his name in the lottery for a position in the administration. This of course attracted federal and IRS attention. Some secretaries flipped on him and turned over his records, he was tried over the past four years and convicted but then last year in a surprise twist he escaped prison and ran into the deep woods of Appalachia where he’s still hiding and there’s one of the most massive federal manhunts in the country after him while the people he scammed over the years are no longer ever eligible for federal benefits again. FOR SOME REASON THIS ISN’T NATIONAL NEWS AND IT SHOCKS ME. There should be at LEAST fourteen documentaries and TV movies about this. also my dad and uncle went to high school with him and everyone hated him even then so this is all strangely amusing to us on a personal level http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article157933819.html Like I haven’t covered even a TENTH of the crap with this story. People need to look this up. I didn’t even talk about the giant mannequins of himself he bought and posed all over the region. Or the Abe Lincoln and Statue of Liberty monuments he bought and put in his trailer park’s law firm’s parking lot. Like thee is so much I could say about this. 

6. Everyone thinks it’s all coal here, and coal is a huge deal, but I know in Kentucky especially there’s actually tons of Natural Gas for fuel and stuff here too? It produces half the amount of emissions of coal and while not great would act as a great transition from coal industry here until we get on a completely Renewable system since a lot of the coal mining specialized workers could easily transfer those skills. But even though people have tried pushing for this in the state since the 80s and 90s, for SOME reason SOME politicians which I’m SURE aren’t paid by the industry at all, ignore this over and over again for driving coal into the long long long awaited grave it was heading toward anyway.

7. Appalachia has the largest biodiversity for newts and salamanders of anywhere in the continental United States. I don’t know what that could be used for in a story but here we are. You asked what I would like for more creative writers to keep in mind. 

imma gonna stop because I literally could continue on this subject for another 25 years because I feel like my poor poor under appreciated friends have already heard at least half of my Appalachia Rants more than 20 times each.

tl;dr: maybe people shouldn’t write about the area but they definitely should hire me as a consultant or hell just the writer myself.