# What's the deal with the stereotypically "angry racist rural person"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 2, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514 "2014-05-02T17:15:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/41 "2014-05-02T20:22:01Z")
> [@bleach](#): > > In my experience, (and perhaps in contrast to **Sattua** ’s experience) rural communities are populated by kind, quiet people who aren’t racist No, I do agree with this. Most rural people are extremely open minded and accommodating to\* people they know personally\*. It’s only the nameless, faceless Other that gets it with both barrels blazing (to use a colorful idiom). Interracial marriages are common, interracial children are even more common, and plenty of people are committing adultery left and right. The disapproval comes from genuine concern for those people’s lives and futures. There are also gay people–obviously, flagrantly gay people–and it simply isn’t talked about. Jimmy down at the grocery store? Yeah, nice guy, he really likes to go to town on the weekends… ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/42 "2014-05-02T20:26:21Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > In the interest of fairness, when I interacted recently with neighbors on a very rural piece of property, they all were armed. So I think ‘gun wielding’ is not an inacurate term; in that particular case > > They carry firearms to protect their livestock mostly from ravenous dogs dropped off by city people, as well as coyote and mountain lion. > > Oddly enough, I was there from a very liberal city and I was packing 5 times more heat than they were. I had my guns to shoot for fun, they had theirs because it was a requirement for there livelihood. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were more skittish about me having guns than I was of them…but I don’t know, it didn’t come up in conversation. > > If you think of rural armed folks in terms of the movie “deliverance” you are pretty much incorrect. They weren’t carrying guns to shoot people (unlike city types). Its more like they were armed because a gun is useful just like the box of tools in the back of their truck. > > So, respectfully, you being afraid of them is based on your bigoted attitudes towards rural people. Honestly, I’d watch my back around you with your guns for “fun” as well as your rural friends with their guns to ward off ravenous animals. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/43 "2014-05-02T20:27:34Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Whenever I had car trouble, lots of people would stop by the side of the road and offer to help or change a tire or give me a lift. But I was very leery of going up to anyone’s house. > > And if I had been black? That leeriness would be compounded. A lot. > > Some people are nice. Some people are horrible. Rural life isn’t like the Andy Griffith show (which was in a TOWN. It was almost urban!) Things are changing since I was young. When I grew up we never saw people of (any) color other than some Mexican farm hands who came in the spring. We knew so little about them that they were unique to us and most people wanted to know about them and their lives. I think now that people in small towns have had more experience and more mixing in with each other here in the North perhaps we are more leery of each other if we’ve had a bad experience with someone of a different culture than ours. Doesn’t make it rational to generalize that behavior to the whole group of people though. But some uneducated people will. I think it’s so neat that the grandchildren and great -grandchildren of those migrant workers I mentioned have finally managed to establish themselves as full-fledged, legal citizens in the county and have made an excellent addition to my old stomping grounds. I think that speaks well to the level of comfort they felt working there. Some of us will never get past that initial experience of the culture clash and we are still in it at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/44 "2014-05-02T20:36:57Z")
There’s this weird disconnect where half of people think rural small town America is homey and wholesome, where people are friendly and nice if you’re polite, and apple pie is given away to traveling strangers. The other half believe anybody who lives in a rural small town only lives there because they’re mean old bigoted curmudgeons who want to live alone because they hate people. They’re armed, have a dog, and are very concerned about trespassers. Perhaps…neither of these assumptions are correct. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/45 "2014-05-02T20:38:58Z")
> [@Vita\_Beata](#): > > This. There are angry racist people to be found in cities as well. Yeah, but we have to deal with tiny expensive apartments, asshole landlords, crowded subways, traffic, rude foreigner cabbies, rude foreigner bodega clerks, rude foreigner street venders, crazy homeless people, rising tolls and subway fares, noise, pollution, high prices, crowds, rude tourists, bitchy old ladies with their stupid tiny dogs, reckless bus drivers, drugs, gangs, pretentious investment bankers acting like they own the place, smelly Occupy Wall Street hippies protesting the bankers, pissed off cops, gangs, annoying hipsters, and probably a million other things I can’t think of right now. I’d expect us to be angry and hate anyone who looks different from us! ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/46 "2014-05-02T21:00:00Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Honestly, I’d watch my back around you with your guns for “fun” as well as your rural friends with their guns to ward off ravenous animals. It’s much safer to live in Chicago where the gangs hardly ever shoot anyone. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/47 "2014-05-02T21:03:16Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Let’s revise to say that some have seasonal jobs with a lot of time on their hands, others not so much. Some may work 18 hour days on season, 0 off season. Some 12 hours a day year round. I’m just saying on the whole, there is more down time and/or more ability to listen to the radio in rural areas. Aren’t you allowed to wear ear buds at work? ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/48 "2014-05-02T21:03:25Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > There’s this weird disconnect where half of people think rural small town America is homey and wholesome, where people are friendly and nice if you’re polite, and apple pie is given away to traveling strangers. > > The other half believe anybody who lives in a rural small town only lives there because they’re mean old bigoted curmudgeons who want to live alone because they hate people. They’re armed, have a dog, and are very concerned about trespassers. > > Perhaps…neither of these assumptions are correct. Reading this forum makes me depressed that so many people just wanna play “spot the racist” every day of their lives. They obsess to obscene degrees to see everything in terms of skin color. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/49 "2014-05-02T21:17:44Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > It’s much safer to live in Chicago where the gangs hardly ever shoot anyone. They actually do hardly ever shoot anybody not affiliated with a gang or otherwise in the area of gang activity. Not blaming the victims of the awful Chicago gang violence, but it’s mostly thug on thug crime. White people don’t get murdered (at least by gun violence) all that often here. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/50 "2014-05-02T21:32:01Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > They actually do hardly ever shoot anybody not affiliated with a gang or otherwise in the area of gang activity. Not blaming the victims of the awful Chicago gang violence, but it’s mostly thug on thug crime. White people don’t get murdered (at least by gun violence) all that often here. I feel so much better. I especially like the “or otherwise in the area of gang activity” part. Those people who wandered into the wrong neighborhood were obviously asking for it. :rolleyes: Only 104 murdered this year in Chicago, as of yesterday. [http://homicides.redeyechicago.com/](http://homicides.redeyechicago.com/) ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/51 "2014-05-02T21:39:49Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > There’s this weird disconnect where half of people think rural small town America is homey and wholesome, where people are friendly and nice if you’re polite, and apple pie is given away to traveling strangers. > > The other half believe anybody who lives in a rural small town only lives there because they’re mean old bigoted curmudgeons who want to live alone because they hate people. They’re armed, have a dog, and are very concerned about trespassers. > > Perhaps…neither of these assumptions are correct. That documentary Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty made probably didn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![Vita\_Beata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@Vita\_Beata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vita_Beata)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/52 "2014-05-02T22:03:46Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Yeah, but we have to deal with tiny expensive apartments, asshole landlords, crowded subways, traffic, rude foreigner cabbies, rude foreigner bodega clerks, rude foreigner street venders, crazy homeless people, rising tolls and subway fares, noise, pollution, high prices, crowds, rude tourists, bitchy old ladies with their stupid tiny dogs, reckless bus drivers, drugs, gangs, pretentious investment bankers acting like they own the place, smelly Occupy Wall Street hippies protesting the bankers, pissed off cops, gangs, annoying hipsters, and probably a million other things I can’t think of right now. > > I’d expect us to be angry and hate anyone who looks different from us! Regarding your questions on Bundy: I’m with you, also bewildered by his odd opinions regarding black people or regarding paying his taxes and grazing fees. We live in the Twin Cities, but bought woodland in WI. We hired a local forester to log trees, build a road, and put in gates. After the road was built, we found two dead skinned animals placed by the gates. We went to our neighbor asking, “What does this mean? Is it a warning?” He raises his arms in the air and says, “I don’t know what it means!” As best as we can figure out, it was just a hunter who shot raccoons, skinned them, and left the carcasses for our viewing enjoyment. Welcome to the neighborhood! We’re still laughing over all the questions we first asked our peaceful welcoming neighbors. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/53 "2014-05-02T22:33:49Z")
I think education is serious factor. Country schools tend to be more limited in what they can provide for students compared to affluent subturbs and affluent urban areas. I often found the cultural isolation in the country and in the pooer inner city schools to be roughly analogous. In both cases there are huge masses of cash strapped people that have no comprehension of any way of life other than their own and no means of learning otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![bubba001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f17d59/32.png) [@bubba001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubba001)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/54 "2014-05-02T23:01:24Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > [Cliven Bundy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundy_standoff) perfectly fits the stereotype of the angry racist rural person. Pissed at the government. Makes a lot of wild racist statements. Lots of angry gun-toting friends ready to form a militia at the drop of a hat (presumably ten-gallon). I bet if you were to meet him in person, he would take no guff from no city slicker. > > So why are (some) country folk so angry all the time? They live out in the country surrounded by fresh air and nice scenery. Probably don’t have to deal with cramped apartments or traffic a whole lot or other nuisances we city folk have to deal with. Heck, how many Black people would someone like Bundy encounter in the middle of rural Nevada that he would have any opinion about them, let alone a negative opinion? I think Bundy is extreme in his views. But a lot of folks live in rural areas as a preference, they want to be away from folks different than themselves. They don’t encounter these folks, and their opinions are formed mostly by what they hear from their family. The racism is something like mothers milk, it’s passed on generatio to generation. The religion reinforces the ideas. These folks are extreme conservatives - they don’t like any change. Btw, I live in a rural area, and I don’t know any small farmers. The farms around here are huge, even the smallest farms 3K acres. The last of the small guys got wiped out in the 80’s. These guys are smart, college educated, and form the wealthiest group in the county. All the ones I know inherited pretty substantial land bases. They aren’t welders, they employ folks to do that kind of thing. They nearest thing to a small farmer around here is the guys who grow for the “Farmers” markets. Most call themselves market gardeners. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/55 "2014-05-03T01:51:20Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > I live in central Illinois. Let me take a crack at it. > > First, they’re poor. That makes life hard and that makes them grumpy. Being rural, they have less access to government programs than the inner-city poor. That makes them jealous which makes them indignant. “We get by without it, why do they get it?” Of course they can still get Medicaid and SNAP benefits, and a huge number of rural people do. Details, details. There is also the constant media reminders that they’re poor–that their houses, their furniture, their trucks, their electronics and their wives don’t live up to “city standards” portrayed on television. Which leads to them being defensive about their own culture, which leads to the popularity of Duck Dynasty. > > The second major thing is evangelical Christianity. Its bread and butter is spreading hate and paranoia. When you live in a rural area, the church is your social network. It’s how you meet people, how you get help, and how you stay entertained. When your entire social network is regularly getting whipped up about what _other_ consenting adults do in their bedrooms, well, it takes a very big person to not get whipped up also. Maybe lack of post secondary education too? ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/56 "2014-05-03T02:33:29Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > Maybe lack of post secondary education too? Why on Earth would you assume that? ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/57 "2014-05-03T02:40:36Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > I think education is serious factor. Country schools tend to be more limited in what they can provide for students compared to affluent subturbs and affluent urban areas. I often found the cultural isolation in the country and in the pooer inner city schools to be roughly analogous. In both cases there are huge masses of cash strapped people that have no comprehension of any way of life other than their own and no means of learning otherwise. I’m not sure. This is a two-way street. I’m sure there are friendly inner city neighborhoods which would seem hostile to a newcomer from the country moving in. How do we account for city peoples’ attitudes and mistaken beliefs about country people then? Are we to assume those who fear rural people are all poorly educated and poor? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/58 "2014-05-03T02:48:39Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > They do abound in cities. I think there the impetus is a little different, sort of a lashing out at everyone and everything that makes your life a little harder. > > With rural folk, it’s the alien other. With city folk, it’s the oppressive neighbor. No, what I am saying is that there are out and out racists in cities. I live in one. They’re all over the place. The only difference is they’re rural, not urban. Otherwise, what the hell’s the difference? Oh, and in between, you’ll find more racists in the suburbs. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/59 "2014-05-03T03:12:08Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > No, what I am saying is that there are out and out racists in cities. I agreed with you. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514/60 "2014-05-03T04:44:29Z")
If the question was rephrased to something like, “what’s the deal with militia types”, it might have prevented some of the sidetracking. It’s a legitimate question, in my opinion. Timothy McVeigh, the most terrible domestic terrorist in the history of the US, was a small town guy from New York State. His triggers included the Waco Siege and Ruby Ridge, violent episodes McVeigh presumably saw as oppression of rural whites by an urban, cosmopolitan, crypto-fascist government. When militia types show up, guns in tow, to support some tax dodger and talk about using their wives as human shields against a minor federal agency I never even heard of before, I can’t help but worry that some conspiracy-addled white boy is going to go off again, this time maybe poisoning Boy Scout Jamboree or building a damn nuke or something. I’m from a rural area myself. I don’t think the people I grew up around were angry or distrustful, but I must admit that there was a lot of casual racism. After I moved away from home I lived in a few small towns, and got a variety of receptions, ranging from fairly accepting to pretty hostile. My conclusion is that some small towns aren’t bad, and one, at least, is full of jerks. I don’t personally know any militia types, or at least nobody that owns to it. I have a lot of rural FB friends from back when, and, yes, there’s a sprinkling of gun proponents and reactionaries. It’s sad, because I remember these people as reasonable, funny, and (some, at least) quite intelligent, but now, on many subjects, they are completely unwilling to consider inconvenient facts or ideas they haven’t already accepted. I tried looking for demographic information that would answer the question of “are rural areas more racist than urban areas?” but failed. The information I did find was pretty encouraging, though. As I would expect, racism in the US has declined and I hope that the trend will continue. I continue to have vague worries about dead Scouts and dirty nukes, though. Not that racism was necessarily the primary cause of Ruby Ridge, Waco, and the OK bombing, but McVeigh’s appreciation of white supremacist tracts like _The Turner Diaries_ suggests racism is a contributing factor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-stereotypically-angry-racist-rural-person/687514.md?page=4)