During the election season, the “poor rural white” demographic came to the forefront of many discussions, especially after the election when the Trumpocalypse officially began. They’ve been front and center in the public consciousness, but it must be noted that when we are asked to understand the needs and circumstances of poor, rural white people, we are not asked to make the same considerations for people of color, rural or otherwise. This impulse to understand the reality of white, rural poverty over the racism that permeated Trump’s campaign says one thing: there’s a huge empathy gap between races, and it’s a problem.
There has been a rise in people seeking to understand the needs of rural white communities, and for good reason. It was partly through their vocal support that Donald Trump became our President Elect. But more than that, these communities do need help.
They suffer from a lack of industry and social services. Because of the lack of jobs and support, some of them are drowning in crime and drug use. This gives rise to all kinds of social ills, from child neglect/abuse to HIV/AIDS epidemics.
These communities aren’t getting resources and support from government officials that would help counter these issues and give them some leverage as they pull themselves out of this downward spiral. They are angry and feel abandoned. And if I hadn’t opened this piece by letting you know I was talking about poor, white folx, you might have thought this was about the “inner-city”.
The fact is that rural white people need the same sorts of thing that poor “urban” and rural people of color need, but rural white people aren’t expected to understand or even care about the needs of these other communities that are also impacted by cultural and structural barriers.
The Countryside Isn’t 100% White
Before we even start comparing the needs of the urban and rural poor, we need to address the fact that even though there are a lot of white folx living in rural America, they are not the only people who live there. There are people of color who live outside of the city, too.
There are poor, rural POC, and the conversation about reaching out to rural white voters greatly overlooks them.
They have the same needs and challenges that poor white people have, the same lack of jobs and access to social services, but they also must deal with systematic racism on top of that.
In discussions that center rural white voters, we are not calling on rural white people to understand their neighbors of color, let alone some distant, brown city folx. In doing this, in saying, “Oh hey, maybe we need to better listen to rural white people,” we are subtly reasserting white supremacist thinking because we are treating these concerns as if they are different and more important than those of people of color in the exact same situations.
White poverty is different because it lacks the structural barriers that keep the communities of POC oppressed. This lack of understanding and the persistent belief in myths about POC (the stereotypes about job stealing Mexicans and Black welfare queens, for example) keep poor white voters trapped in a cycle of voting against the very things that would help them in the long run because they don’t want to help “those” people.
It’s Hard to Be Empathetic toward the Person Standing on Your Neck
This call to be empathetic to the needs of poor white folx went out to everyone on the Left, but it feels like it is specifically asking this of marginalized groups. But the fact of the matter is, it’s hard to empathize with a group that is working against you.
The problem isn’t that POC don’t understand poor, white country folx. After all, some POC are also poor and country. The problem is that poor white country folx often don’t care to understand POC to the point that they voted in a literal demagogue to the detriment of themselves and everyone else.
This call to understand them greatly ignores that they did not care about POC when they were making their choices. Whether they were for the wall, religious persecution, stripping away the rights of LGBTQI+ individuals, or any number of terrible things that were brought up during the campaign, the fact that they just wanted the factory jobs back doesn’t matter in the aftermath. You don’t get to cherry pick what parts you are supporting when you vote—it’s an all or nothing deal.
Although such voters may not do anything that would be considered overtly hateful in their day-to-day lives, this sort of disregard for the needs of POC or other marginalized groups is a form of casual racism. Racism through indifference is one of the ways that white supremacy continues to control the culture.
This narrative is abusive in a way because it calls on people of color, many of whom have been or will be directly harmed by the choices of rural white voters, to put aside their real-world fears and pain in order to cater to the needs a group that put its own desires ahead of everyone else’s basic rights.
They’re standing on our neck and it’s up to them whether we live or die, but we need to understand why they’re mad at us instead of them understanding why they shouldn’t kill us.
Marginalized people already understand the issues that poor rural white people deal with. Many of them are similar to the issues that we deal with in our own communities—a lack of jobs, longstanding or generational poverty, crime, drugs use, and so on are all issues that we have in some of our poorest communities as well.
It is not our lack of understanding that is the problem. This one-sided empathy is the problem.
Bridging the Empathy Gap
Whiteness doesn’t make the problems of rural white voters more important than everyone else’s. Holding their whiteness above everyone else won’t solve their problems either. Banding with people across race lines who are already fighting for the things they need will help them.
Rural white people are struggling. They have been hit hard by the changes in our country. These things are true. It is also true that they shouldn’t get a pass on their racism for it. Yes, we should listen to their concerns and see where we can better address their needs, but we should not do so at the expense of other groups of people. They need to understand that, too.
