Can fostering a new sense of Appalachian identity provide a way for people to connect with their roots while moving away from a racializing and hateful heritage?
I love the idea of forging a new Appalachian identity with the values mentioned. Egalitarianism, inclusion, local community, sustainability, racial justice, and economic equality - sounds like a great community motto!
I'm glad you find shared resonance with it, Mary. And thank you for your passionate presentation yesterday on the Civil Rights Amendments (presuming there isn't another MC Safford I've been crossing paths with). I was particularly struck by your comment on Burke County being a hotbed of slavery activities within Appalachia, and look forward to Leslie's upcoming exhibit/presentation on it.
I'm always on the lookout for more books and resources about our region's history, especially as they relate to Common Appalachian values.
I was able to snap a picture of the books you had on the table. Would you mind sharing the names of a few other books you think would be of local historical/cultural interest?
While the Confederate identity is definitely problematic I disagree with you fundamentally in regard to Southern identity. During the 1800s 40% of people living there came through Virginia and have blood from South Western England. Appalachia isn’t truly separate from the South. The South in its essence is a Creolization of English and West African culture. As well as some Indigenous as well. Further splitting up the South into even more impoverished regions won’t make anything better. Appalachia can’t survive on its own.
There is a southern Appalachia, and, you're right: "Appalachia isn't truly separate from the South." We each have so many overlapping identities (Ex: Southern, Appalachian, communitarian, Scottish ancestry, etc.). We emphasize each identity depending on our social context or what we're trying to achieve. I may bond with other North Carolinians over shared views about NC's governor, for instance, just as I may develop an affinity with someone in West Virginia because they're also share the consequences of the economic exploitation that has taken place in the Appalachian Mountains.
Common Appalachian is an effort to articulate an Appalachian identity that recognizes its roots while growing toward a more egalitarian and communitarian future. A sense of place and local democracy are two values I hold dear, and remain central to this vision. Toward those values, I'm encouraging others living in the Appalachian region to recenter their social, cultural, and economic focus through an Appalachian lens.
Sure, many folks in western NC, northern Alabama, eastern Tennessee, etc. may identify as "Southern," but I'm hoping to raise the consciousness toward being Appalachian, making it more primary than "Southern" or having "Confederate heritage."
Appalachian is a more malleable identity, with less baggage. Plus, its more connected to place because Appalachia is a mountain culture, the very land we live on informs our history and how we do things. There are physical forces we mountain people have in common in our daily lives.
This contrasts with the natural forces that have informed the cultures and histories of the Piedmont or Coastal Plains.
I talk about this sense of place more in depth in these two more recent blog posts:
What do you mean by "Splitting up the South into..."?
Fostering Appalachian consciousness doesn't mean cutting off social or economic ties with all the other regions in North America. It's an organizing principle or frame of mind. It means focusing ones concerns or hopes on the region of Appalachia; in my case, that means I'm turning my heart and mind (and hands) toward communities across Appalachia and working to ensure they thrive, before I get distracted by what's happening in places elsewhere in North America, or the world.
I can't improve the entire world or a country the size of the United States. Not even close. But I can have an outsized positive impact on the lives of my neighbors and regional kin. Once we've gotten Appalachia's multitude of ills and social issues mostly resolved, maybe then I can turn my attention to places that are further away.
There is no shortage of people suffering in our mountain region. I find it best to lift where you stand.
Southern Appalachia is clearly connected to the South in certain ways, as it is to the United States, Europe, and the rest of the World. I'm not preaching isolation. I'm preaching PLACE.
We find ourselves inside these massive systems that undermine a sense of place and local community. Many of us talk more about, and seem to know more about, what's happening in the US government than we do in our county and municipal governments. We don't know our neighbors all that well. We're culturally fluent in mass culture (i.e. what comes out of Hollywood), but remain ignorant or indifferent to what makes our local cultures distinct.
We exhaust ourselves engaging with abstract or disembodied entities online, while our neighbors and regional kin are lonely and disconnected from their local communities.
I'm pushing back against what the philosopher William James calls "bigness," social and cultural forces that are too large and dehumanizing for our limited human minds to comprehend or meaningfully engage with. Common Appalachian is a project to lionize the small and local. We're absolutely connected to the much larger world, or the South, or the United States, but I think a great deal of good human energy is wasted trying to interface with "big" systems, where we're less efficacious.
I'm not recommending Appalachia "survive on its own," either. The exchange of ideas, goods, services, cultures, knowledge, and values is a good thing. Our communities are richer for it. I think communities are also richer when more people within small geographic areas are continually directing their attention, care, and love toward one another.
I admit, Appalachia may even be too large a geographic region for what I envision, which is why I tend to focus more on Southern Appalachia; there's something that feels more humane about that scale.
I love the idea of forging a new Appalachian identity with the values mentioned. Egalitarianism, inclusion, local community, sustainability, racial justice, and economic equality - sounds like a great community motto!
I'm glad you find shared resonance with it, Mary. And thank you for your passionate presentation yesterday on the Civil Rights Amendments (presuming there isn't another MC Safford I've been crossing paths with). I was particularly struck by your comment on Burke County being a hotbed of slavery activities within Appalachia, and look forward to Leslie's upcoming exhibit/presentation on it.
I'm always on the lookout for more books and resources about our region's history, especially as they relate to Common Appalachian values.
I was able to snap a picture of the books you had on the table. Would you mind sharing the names of a few other books you think would be of local historical/cultural interest?
While the Confederate identity is definitely problematic I disagree with you fundamentally in regard to Southern identity. During the 1800s 40% of people living there came through Virginia and have blood from South Western England. Appalachia isn’t truly separate from the South. The South in its essence is a Creolization of English and West African culture. As well as some Indigenous as well. Further splitting up the South into even more impoverished regions won’t make anything better. Appalachia can’t survive on its own.
I appreciate your thoughtful response, Peter.
There is a southern Appalachia, and, you're right: "Appalachia isn't truly separate from the South." We each have so many overlapping identities (Ex: Southern, Appalachian, communitarian, Scottish ancestry, etc.). We emphasize each identity depending on our social context or what we're trying to achieve. I may bond with other North Carolinians over shared views about NC's governor, for instance, just as I may develop an affinity with someone in West Virginia because they're also share the consequences of the economic exploitation that has taken place in the Appalachian Mountains.
Common Appalachian is an effort to articulate an Appalachian identity that recognizes its roots while growing toward a more egalitarian and communitarian future. A sense of place and local democracy are two values I hold dear, and remain central to this vision. Toward those values, I'm encouraging others living in the Appalachian region to recenter their social, cultural, and economic focus through an Appalachian lens.
Sure, many folks in western NC, northern Alabama, eastern Tennessee, etc. may identify as "Southern," but I'm hoping to raise the consciousness toward being Appalachian, making it more primary than "Southern" or having "Confederate heritage."
Appalachian is a more malleable identity, with less baggage. Plus, its more connected to place because Appalachia is a mountain culture, the very land we live on informs our history and how we do things. There are physical forces we mountain people have in common in our daily lives.
This contrasts with the natural forces that have informed the cultures and histories of the Piedmont or Coastal Plains.
I talk about this sense of place more in depth in these two more recent blog posts:
https://commonappalachian.substack.com/p/what-confuses-me-about-elizabeth
https://commonappalachian.substack.com/p/speaking-of-a-sense-of-place
What do you mean by "Splitting up the South into..."?
Fostering Appalachian consciousness doesn't mean cutting off social or economic ties with all the other regions in North America. It's an organizing principle or frame of mind. It means focusing ones concerns or hopes on the region of Appalachia; in my case, that means I'm turning my heart and mind (and hands) toward communities across Appalachia and working to ensure they thrive, before I get distracted by what's happening in places elsewhere in North America, or the world.
I can't improve the entire world or a country the size of the United States. Not even close. But I can have an outsized positive impact on the lives of my neighbors and regional kin. Once we've gotten Appalachia's multitude of ills and social issues mostly resolved, maybe then I can turn my attention to places that are further away.
There is no shortage of people suffering in our mountain region. I find it best to lift where you stand.
Southern Appalachia is clearly connected to the South in certain ways, as it is to the United States, Europe, and the rest of the World. I'm not preaching isolation. I'm preaching PLACE.
We find ourselves inside these massive systems that undermine a sense of place and local community. Many of us talk more about, and seem to know more about, what's happening in the US government than we do in our county and municipal governments. We don't know our neighbors all that well. We're culturally fluent in mass culture (i.e. what comes out of Hollywood), but remain ignorant or indifferent to what makes our local cultures distinct.
We exhaust ourselves engaging with abstract or disembodied entities online, while our neighbors and regional kin are lonely and disconnected from their local communities.
I'm pushing back against what the philosopher William James calls "bigness," social and cultural forces that are too large and dehumanizing for our limited human minds to comprehend or meaningfully engage with. Common Appalachian is a project to lionize the small and local. We're absolutely connected to the much larger world, or the South, or the United States, but I think a great deal of good human energy is wasted trying to interface with "big" systems, where we're less efficacious.
I'm not recommending Appalachia "survive on its own," either. The exchange of ideas, goods, services, cultures, knowledge, and values is a good thing. Our communities are richer for it. I think communities are also richer when more people within small geographic areas are continually directing their attention, care, and love toward one another.
Its the difference between the kinship one feels within a village versus the anonymity of a major city. Community is local. Community is small: https://commonappalachian.substack.com/p/liberty-equality-andcommunity-in
I admit, Appalachia may even be too large a geographic region for what I envision, which is why I tend to focus more on Southern Appalachia; there's something that feels more humane about that scale.