Mountaineer Circles

For the purpose of this reading response I chose to reflect on whether I've experienced negative stereotyping because I'm a West Virginian, as well as if I've stereotyped others based on their geographical origins.

It seems that when telling a non-West Virginian of your heritage, there are most often one of three responses.  "Oh, I have relatives in Roanoke!" (geographical amnesia), disdain, or they'll be excited because their uncle's friend's brother lives 15 minutes from wherever you live in WV. Have you ever noticed that people from West Virginia seem to be EVERYWHERE? Once on a FSU trip to Rome, we managed to run into a group of students (including the ex-girlfriend of one of the people on my trip) from WVU in the Sistine Chapel.

To go back to the "disdain" for a minute, I'll never forget one high school singing trip to a competition in Williamsburg. After asking where we were from, one of the employees from the competition was overheard  making comments about how we'd probably sing like hicks (what does a hick sound like, anyway?), while other attendees expressed surprise that we were wearing shoes. We went on to receive distinguished marks and have the judges comment on our good diction, but in that moment it had gone from a friendly competition to knowing that we had something to prove.

I think that most of the insults toward West Virginia are cliche at this point--  we apparently never wear shoes, all chew "tobacc-y", drink moonshine and sit around with banjos-- and that's just at the wedding ceremony to our cousins! I'd love to see more creative responses. Even though West Virginians react poorly to stereotypes reasoned by "outsiders", there is an unspoken rule that says that it's ok for Mountaineers to categorize each other. Particularly impacted by this concept are individuals living in Southern WV, as mentioned in Terra Incognito. Stereotyping other West Virginians is something we all do without even thinking of it. While it seems fine and dandy to refer to someone as a "redneck", one can't help but wonder if we, in continuing to place ourselves in boxes, perpetuate the issue.