White poverty exists, ignored

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article2518087.html

BOONEVILLE, Ky.

In a small office on the first floor of the Owsley County Court House, across the street from the Hometown Cafe, Johnny Logsdon, chief of the two-man police department, is talking with a reporter about life in this town of 82 people in the hills of eastern Kentucky.

Logsdon keeps his answers short. He acknowledges that drug use — methamphetamine, mostly — is a problem here, but insists it’s about the same as you’d find anywhere. He is much more interested in describing the department’s policy of free motorist assistance. “If they lock themselves out of their cars, we provide a service; we unlock it for them. Away from here, they charge $60 to $100. We just do it for free as a community service.”

It’s not that he is unfriendly, but there is something guarded about him, something that is constantly taking your measure. People here, he explains, have been burned before by media.

Indeed, people here are still talking about the story the New York Times ran in June declaring neighboring Clay County “the hardest place in America to live.” Which was positively complimentary compared to a piece the National Review ran six months before, declaring Owsley “The White Ghetto.” Reporter Kevin D. Williamson wrote that instead of contemplating their bleak reality, the people here escape it with “the pills and the dope, the morning beers, the endless scratch-off lotto cards, healing meetings up on the hill, the federally funded ritual of trading cases of food-stamp Pepsi for packs of Kentucky’s Best cigarettes and good old hard currency, tall piles of gas station nachos, the occasional blast of meth, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, petty crime, the draw, the recreational making and surgical unmaking of teenaged mothers, and death …”

“You’ve got to understand,” says Logsdon, “people shy away from reporters.” Sure enough, a worker at the Family Dollar store doesn’t want her name used. A woman at a medical conference in Hazard warns everyone in earshot in a loud voice that a reporter is among them. So it goes during a week spent wandering this county and adjacent counties discussing something America almost never talks about: white poverty.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article2518087.html#storylink=cpy

[Póg mo 1,749]

Why admit that White poverty exists, when you can turn whites against blacks, by getting whites to believe that Blacks are milking the system at their expense. Class warfare that we are not supposed to admit exists.

[Russ&Caro 1,549]

Just because Kevin Williamson's thoughts are published nationally, doesn't mean people should give these thoughts any credit. His reputation precedes him, precedes anything he says now or in the future. When it comes to poor, white people, his views are so distorted that they should be ignored by all, especially if you're poor and white. He has nothing constructive to say. He says these things for the benefit of wealthy or reasonably well off magazine readers to encourage these readers to look down on those less fortunate.

As the commenter above me notes, this is just people stirring up class warfare, and they should be ignored.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

And in other shocking news Nixon Resigns

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Just because Kevin Williamson's thoughts are published nationally, doesn't mean people should give these thoughts any credit. His reputation precedes him, precedes anything he says now or in the future. When it comes to poor, white people, his views are so distorted that they should be ignored by all, especially if you're poor and white. He has nothing constructive to say. He says these things for the benefit of wealthy or reasonably well off magazine readers to encourage these readers to look down on those less fortunate.

As the commenter above me notes, this is just people stirring up class warfare, and they should be ignored.

I think it's a point to bring it up since all we ever hear about when it's poor people is POC. I didn't read it as a dismissal of poor white people.

And in other shocking news Nixon Resigns

It is shocking when you head about the "hood" here daily...

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

Pretty sure there have been many convos here about whites being poor. In fact, I have said more than once that I came from a poor background. Of course poor whites exist. Some escape that, some do not. Color is no respecter of poverty. Believe me.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Pretty sure there have been many convos here about whites being poor. In fact, I have said more than once that I came from a poor background. Of course poor whites exist. Some escape that, some do not. Color is no respecter of poverty. Believe me.

So, when we hear that poor blacks are voting for the dem plantation, does that mean that poor white are voting for the GOP plantation?

And if this is an issue, why didn't Trump didn't address it? I mean, he's all about black people being poor, what about the poor white people? Don't they matter?

Edited August 29, 2016 by We Keep Receipts

[Póg mo 1,749]

So, when we hear that poor blacks are voting for the dem plantation, does that mean that poor white are voting for the GOP plantation?

And if this is an issue, why didn't Trump didn't address it? I mean, he's all about black people being poor, what about the poor white people? Don't they matter?

Well apparently, folks here seem to believe that if this country had a more homogeneous population, then it could have functioning welfare system, but sadly minorities are ruining it for poor whites.

[Boiler 45,499]

US has never had a homogeneous population, welfare is a function of wealthy societies.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

I have no idea what a "dem plantation" is. Thought those went out of vogue when slavery was abolished. If you mean platform, then I would have to say neither political party cares one whit about poor people. Nor do the rich. The rich "got theirs", and if the poor don't want to be poor, that's their problem is probably the way it's mostly viewed on both sides. I don't see Clinton offering her millions to the poor, needy, nor minorities. And Trump not his billions. But to their credit, neither are Gates, Buffet, nor any of the other billionaires. You don't get rich by giving your money away,

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

of course it's ignored, they have poverty because they are too lazy to exercise their white privilege!

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I have no idea what a "dem plantation" is. Thought those went out of vogue when slavery was abolished. If you mean platform, then I would have to say neither political party cares one whit about poor people. Nor do the rich. The rich "got theirs", and if the poor don't want to be poor, that's their problem is probably the way it's mostly viewed on both sides. I don't see Clinton offering her millions to the poor, needy, nor minorities. And Trump not his billions. But to their credit, neither are Gates, Buffet, nor any of the other billionaires. You don't get rich by giving your money away,

I've heard here on several occasions that black people vote against there own interests because of the Democratic plantation. Every single hood thread is a direct result of Democratic rule. So, why is it when it's poor whites, no one is making it political?

[Póg mo 1,749]

US has never had a homogeneous population, welfare is a function of wealthy societies.

OK then, I disagree, but like you I'm not going to bother to try and show why I think the way that I do. Nope the opinion of some random guy on the internet is good enough I suppose.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

So, when we hear that poor blacks are voting for the dem plantation, does that mean that poor white are voting for the GOP plantation?

And if this is an issue, why didn't Trump didn't address it? I mean, he's all about black people being poor, what about the poor white people? Don't they matter?

poor white people matter

[Boiler 45,499]

poor white people matter

Only #BLM

Anything else is racist.