Have empathy for rural white people?

[NCDem777]

A lot of my friends of color are bristling under the idea that we should break out of our bubbles and have empathy for rural white people who are poor and have a lot of problems. This is easier said than done since by and large, until something hits THEM PERSONALLY, most rural white people have no empathy for ANYONE ELSE!

That guy who is on Disability for something not readily seen is a "moocher" until a rural white guy's family member has a similar issue

That single mother on food stamps is a "welfare queen" until a white woman from the trailer park needs food stamps

The disabled kid in school is "stealing from the gifted students" until the rural white guy has a disabled kid

Hell even our drug policy has been shaped by their wants. They were all for stringing up drug addicts by the scrotum

And they hated, hated, HATED the idea of treating drug addicts with anything other jail. Until the heroin crisis happened. Now that it was white kids going to jail for drug addiction rural Republicans were falling all over themselves to get science based addiction treatments liberals called for 20 YEARS AGO and got ridiculed.

So I can see why there are those who aren't inclined to empathize with them.

[radical noodle]

1. Great OP

I lived in rural Indiana most of my life. Actually, it was meth that first turned rural folks on to treating drug addiction. All those big tanks of anhydrous ammonia right out there in the fields for them to steal, and with homes out in the middle of nowhere, there was little chance they'd be caught. Meth was at epidemic proportions.

[JI7]

2. poc are not the ones who want to cut off any support for them. obamacare helped with black lung

benefits.

so when people say they want others to have sympathy for them what they are really saying is they want POC to have sympathy for their bigotry .

but on the issue of helping them it's not POC saying we should not provide any govt help to them. while they ARE saying we should cut off POC .

[struggle4progress]

3. We want to build winning coalitions. Stereotyping based on November voting statistics

won't help us do that

Maybe we can't crudely target "rural whites" as a group that will join us -- but that doesn't mean we can't find significant numbers of voters there, if we're smart about it

And what's wrong with empathy, anyway? There might be many reasons to empathize with people's troubles and sorrows, even when we think they're idiots who helped bring the grief on themselves

[JI7]

4. i agree we should get as much rural white support as we can but that doesn' t mean

we need to have sympathy for those who voted and continue to support trump for his racist policies.

[struggle4progress]

7. A great struggle lies before us now

But even wars have a political dimension

What excellent person would join us if we have merely stone hearts and mighty wills?

[NCDem777]

5. I agree with that point but it's important to remember

that we are now often asking people to try and empathize with people who literally don't see them as human beings until the universe throws them a curveball.

When you have people say that IDEA is a waste of money until the doctor says "YOUR child has autism" it's damn near impossible to repress an "I told you so motherfucker"

[struggle4progress]

8. "I told you so motherfucker" never won a vote

[tonedevil]

9. It seems like...

you are ready to tell POC to suck it up.

[struggle4progress]

22. The famous Will Rogers quote "I never met a man I didn't like" is usually good advice

Among the poor rural whites I know, several are some of the best activists I ever met

One of those was also a Ross Perot supporter, but I've always managed never to bring it up again

Learn to regard people as individuals, rather than as proxies for other issues: it's possible to agree with a person enthusiastically here with disagreeing with them strongly there

[NCDem777]

10. Yes but it's not easy

to try and play friend to those who thought you were less than human until the universe put them in your shoes.

Which is what white/able-bodied progressives are asking people to do.

Can you imagine how it sounds to an African-American when they hear someone at the DNC say "We have to try and reach out and empathize with the rural guy whose factory shut down." and said rural guy's view of injustice is that the rapper can say the n-word while he gets the stink eye for saying it?

[EffieBlack]

12. Thank you

[struggle4progress]

23. Ain't it hard

[fun n serious]

6. No. They do not need coddled.

I will use their own words against them.. They can pick themselves up by their boot straps.

[RainCaster]

11. I'm rural white and a reformed Republican

The GOP lost me when the Moral Majority put Reagan in the White House. I help my friends and neighbors any way I can. Even those who voted for the Orange Menace.

[EffieBlack]

13. I might be more tolerant of the "we must empathize and reach out to these poor white folks" if

and inherent part of that argument wasn't the expectation that we allow our issues and our concerns to take a backseat to theirs.

That's why I don't accept that argument and have no intention of allowing my party to make reaching out to these ignorant people a priority.

[hibbing]

14. Grant County, NE population approx 681

Saw a story that this county has the highest enrollment in the ACA. Not sure how they calculated this, must be a percentage thing. 98% white, I'll let you take a big giant guess who they voted for.


Peace

[SamKnause]

15. Not all rural white people are Republicans !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stop lumping us all together.

Some of us have NEVER voted for a Republican.

[melman]

16. This again

Fantastic.

[world wide wally]

17. I don't care who they are or what their story is...

They STILL have to learn how to think before I stop calling them stupid

[betsuni]

18. K&R

[Doreen]

19. I do not have empathy for people who are white, black, brown, and any other color,. I have empathy

for people as in human beings. I do not know where people get the idea that a white person is not looked down on for being disabled and getting EBT cards or SSDI, or subsidized housing because I am white and i sure as hell get glared at. I have been disabled since I was 20 and I guess it is because young people are not supposed to be disabled but I do deal with it. If you are a human being and are not evil you deserve empathy.

[blue-wave]

20. You're Spot On

I actually had a friend until very recently, living in rural America, in the position of needing and actually receiving help from the ACA and other government assistance. He voted against his own interests and supported Trump. It's OK for him to receive help, but screw everyone else! I'll never understand it.

He pushed me too far with the "alternative fact" crap and I finally cut off the relationship....a 30+ year friendship down the drain. I had to do it for my own sanity.

[Lordquinton]

21. They can come back when they have broken out of their bubble and start having empathy for us

They brought Trump down upon us, they need this eye opener to burst their bubble.

Let's stop perpetuating the false narrative that rural white folks are somehow pure, and simple folks who know the world. They're in a bubble and coddled to and have way too much power in this country.

[JustAnotherGen]

24. Good conversation here