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Friday, September 26, 2008

“Black got nothin’ to do with it. These Arabs are trying to sneak this guy into our country.”

posted by on September 26 at 9:50 AM

Hillary clearly isn’t getting through to some of her supporters…

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1

Well, unlike McCain, at least she remembered that Spain is our ally.

These people need to be forcibly sterilized. If I knew where to find them I'd do it myself.

Posted by Hernandez | September 26, 2008 10:04 AM
2

They sound like leathery, hateful toddlers.

Posted by Paul Constant | September 26, 2008 10:12 AM
3

It's a Bailo family reunion!

Posted by Hernandez | September 26, 2008 10:13 AM
4

Meth.

Posted by Ivan | September 26, 2008 10:18 AM
5

Nice pits though.

Tell me it wasn't about the pits, Dan.

Posted by gimmeaminute | September 26, 2008 10:19 AM
6

Is that West Virginia?

Please tell me this is a fake!

Posted by WTF | September 26, 2008 10:19 AM
7

Well. That was magical!

Posted by Balt-O-Matt | September 26, 2008 10:20 AM
8

Constituents like these and we wonder why politicians treat us like cattle?

Posted by NaFun | September 26, 2008 10:21 AM
9

jesus.
white people suck.

Posted by princess | September 26, 2008 10:22 AM
10

They're spooning each other... it's a white trash sandwich!

Posted by sepiolida | September 26, 2008 10:22 AM
11

Drunk again Country Gravy?

Posted by Biggie J | September 26, 2008 10:26 AM
12

This is an example of the hard working Americans, white Americans that Hillary was talking about.

Let us all be proud.

Posted by Fly-Over Illinois | September 26, 2008 10:26 AM
13

If she can see Kentucky from her house she's a shoe in for Lt. Governor.

Posted by Dubcek | September 26, 2008 10:29 AM
14

Eh, I have a slight suspicion that these people aren't going to be sober enough to make it the polls on election night.

Posted by bubba hatfield | September 26, 2008 10:29 AM
15

The guy with the pig on his lap looks like a leathery Luke Perry.

Posted by Giffy | September 26, 2008 10:29 AM
16

"Spain is our ally." She's got a better handle on foreign affairs than Sarah Palin.

Posted by sam | September 26, 2008 10:30 AM
17

@16 Or John McCain...

Posted by Giffy | September 26, 2008 10:34 AM
18

I'm gonna guess these hillbillies aren't even registered to vote.

Speaking of, the deadline to register in Washington is October 5. Please make sure your papers are in order, or consider donating some time to sign up others.

Posted by kerri harrop | September 26, 2008 10:35 AM
19

Hey well this was in june, so hopefully it's slightly better now? not to excuse their blatant racism and xenophobia.

Posted by Cook | September 26, 2008 10:37 AM
20

it's a meeting of the Wasilla City Council!

Posted by manbaby | September 26, 2008 10:41 AM
21

@6 Yes, because all the stupid people are in West Virginia. That's why you can go to all the other states and never encounter a single stupid person in any of them.

The Republicans have kept poor people poor and stupid people stupid all over this great land of ours. One only has to read Slog to know that's true.

Posted by whatevernevermind | September 26, 2008 10:42 AM
22

"He's on the n*r's side too!"

God I hope he wins. For a million reasons, but most of all just so every racist piece of shit's head explodes at the same time.

Please lord, make it so.

Posted by Mike in MO | September 26, 2008 10:44 AM
23

shit, that could have been in missouri, indiana, kentucky, ohio, w. va., tennessee. i try & tell west coasters that this stunning level of ignroance exists, but they just don't get it until they go to appalachia &/or outer appalachia.

at least 1 of them was rational enough to cover his face.

and she was drunk.

Posted by max solomon | September 26, 2008 10:59 AM
24

ignorance. poor spelling makes me look like a hillbilly.

Posted by max solomon | September 26, 2008 11:03 AM
25

How awesome would it be if you got these folks to enter a video for Hump? I mean they got one of them fancy moving picture machines and all. Incest and bestiality are probably against the rules though.

Posted by phillip drummond | September 26, 2008 11:07 AM
26

Wow...they (those kind) really pronounce it Ay-rab

I always thought it was a caricature linguism

Posted by Non | September 26, 2008 11:12 AM
27

In all seriousness though, I do feel bad for the guy in the back. You could tell he was embarrassed and tried to cover his face, and now he's on this viral video du jour.

Posted by body massage! | September 26, 2008 11:13 AM
28

shit, that could have been in missouri, indiana, kentucky, ohio, w. va., tennessee.

Could have? That could have been my former (thank gosh!) mother-in-law! No bullshit, she sounds, looks, and acts exactly like that bitch. Except 15 years older.

Divorce sucks, but there are some silver linings. Like never having to pretend not to like people like this.

Posted by Mike in MO | September 26, 2008 11:15 AM
29

I wish I hadn't seen that.

Posted by Elizabeth | September 26, 2008 11:25 AM
30

@21, exactly.

I'm from WV originally and it isn't like we have a monopoly on stupidity down there. There are hateful idiots everywhere and at least some of the hill people in Appalachia have the excuse of isolation and lack of education and opportunity for their ignorance and dumbassery.

That said, that woman was obviously drunk or high or both.

Posted by ks | September 26, 2008 11:32 AM
31

I love the way the fellow in the back starts hiding. It's as if he slowly realized that if his parole officer saw him drinking he'd be back in the slammer for violating his parole on that DUI.

Posted by inkweary | September 26, 2008 11:40 AM
32

Now how in the world did they get this video of my family. Must have been some of them sneaky
A - Rabs!

Posted by John Bailo's Mother | September 26, 2008 11:43 AM
33

I have to voice my pet peeve here, and let you all know that Iran is mostly Persian and not Arab as everyone seems to think.

Posted by Jesse | September 26, 2008 11:43 AM
34

They're in Southeastern KY from the description on the video

I came home from football practice one evening and my parents were talking to our neighbors who were drunk.This is what happened......also if u think the guy in the back of the 4 wheeler looks like james hetfield or the guy in the front sounds like boomhaur from king of the hill,tell so in a comment. I live in southeastern kentucky FYI.
Posted by apres_moi | September 26, 2008 11:53 AM
35

We're at war with Iraq AND Iran?!? Shit, when did that happen???

@27 & 31, I think the guy was hiding his face from the camera because he was afraid it was stealing part of his soul.

Posted by spencer | September 26, 2008 11:54 AM
36

Jesus christ, that's the best Boomhauer imitation I've ever seen. Apparently losing all your teeth is the key to getting the mumble right.

Posted by EmilyP | September 26, 2008 12:02 PM
37

Ah yes, the working class white people. It was the most embarrassing thing in the world when Clinton bragged they were on her side.

Posted by EmmiG | September 26, 2008 12:05 PM
38

21, 30: Slog readers sometimes forget that Washington, were it not for Seattle, wouldn't be too far removed culturally from WV, and on an electoral map, would be as red as Idaho. Stupid people really are everywhere.

Minus the accent, these three could be from Enumclaw, Puyallup, Monroe, etc.

Posted by Judith | September 26, 2008 12:16 PM
39

I'm Sarah Palin and I approve this message.

Posted by elswinger | September 26, 2008 12:25 PM
40

What the heck was that?

Posted by mj | September 26, 2008 12:40 PM
41

It's easy to deplore racism & xenophobia and feel superior from the safety of Seattle while sipping your $4 latte. It's much harder to leave your comfort zone and make connections with those that don't have the benefit of your education, superior manners and knowledge. Poverty, ignorance, and marginalization cut across culture/ethnicity, and obviously class as your own ignorance proves. A similar video could have been made in inner city Baltimore, where I live, Israel/Palestine, or on the reservation. I doubt any of the liberals here would mock the language, viewpoints, prejudice and/or ignorance that you might encounter in those places. Nor would you recognize the ignorance that is so glaring in your own attitudes. Obviously white prejudice packs more punch when combined with the inherent racist power structures that exist in the world. Does the family in this video have any true power? Sure, they might be part of the Klan, or vote Republican, the power of their words can hurt, all true. I don't in any way deny that their racism has the power to harm. But are they-as caricatured in the video-really empowered to change their fundamental situation, i.e. their lack of education, jobs, affordable health care, alcoholism, etc? Are their circumstances not related to the struggles of the inner city, the reservation, the Mexican countryside? Aren't the same global economic forces at work on all of these communities?


Sherman Alexie wrote something a while ago about the white working class voter being exactly the kind of voter the Dems need to reach. It was true then and still true now.
Obama is an interesting candidate precisely because he is willing to cross that divide. Hilary was the wrong candidate because she was willing to exploit that divide. The woman in the video could have been my grandmother, who as a sharecropper/child in Louisiana was often called poor white trash and remembered the pain of it until her death. She was not my grandmother because someone saw potential in her and she was able to get a scholarship/education. That family most certainly represents some of my family that was not so fortunate. Their prejudice, while ugly and embarrassing, was/is clearly derived from an overall sense of powerlessness, of being less than.


"Entitlement, I have told them, is a matter of feeling like we rather than they. You think you have a right to things, a place in the world, and it is so intrinsically a part of you that you cannot imagine people like me, people who seem to live in your world, who don't have it."

-Dorothy Allison, from 'A Question of Class'

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/skinall.html


All spelling and grammatical errors are mine.

Posted by Alison | September 26, 2008 1:03 PM
42

Hey Alison - put down that $3 Fresca and get over yourself. You completely missed the message of what this video says about America.
Trying to make excuses for racism and ignorance will get you no where. We have become a country where ignorance is embraced as a virtue, while education and intellect is shunned as elitism. And to be quite honest I am sick off it. It is what has led us to the disasters that we now face. And it has led us to such political geniuses as Bush and Palin.

Posted by Four Dollar Latte | September 26, 2008 1:21 PM
43

LOL he threw the beer can into the road! Did you see that piece of white trash. JOHN WATERS where are you when we need you! This is too rich.

Posted by Sargon Bighorn | September 26, 2008 1:29 PM
44

They sound like my brother-in-law's ex and her family (who are from the border of Ohio/Kentucky, and she'd never seen a black person IRL until basic training). I'm pretty sure these three assclowns aren't going to be able to afford to gas up the four-by to get to the polling place in November.

If convenience store owners in the area would be so kind as to run morning beer specials on Election day in the hopes of knocking out people like this, I'd be much obliged.

Posted by Jessica | September 26, 2008 1:50 PM
45

I'm not fucking embracing ignorance @42 nor am I excusing racism. You are a fucking idiot. I am pointing out some obvious ignorance that exists in "liberal, open minded," politically correct communities. Class ignorance. And it is completely relevant and connected to racism. My ignorant white trash family in Castor, LA drops the n-word with abandon, hates fags, and all the usual stereotypes, yet they'd pull a gay, black neighbor out of a ditch if they came upon him in trouble. My middle-class upstate NY cousin would never dream of uttering the n-word or faggot, yet she sure as hell wouldn't date a Black guy or be college roommates with a lesbian. It's embarrassing in different ways, but which is more insidious? Does a kid in East Baltimore give a fuck if you or my educated ass calls him Black or African American? No. Just like no one probably gives a fuck on the reservation if you say Native American or Indian. My "illegal" Mexican friends don't get why the Black guys on the construction sites with them don't work as hard, and black & white working class guys don't understand why all the Latinos are here not learning English and working so hard for so little money. My point was that these struggles are intimately connected.

I'm not shunning education or intellect as elitism. I have a Master's and a Fulbright- so obviously somewhere I thought my education was important, but I'm sure that doesn't mean dick to my family in Castor, anyone in that video, or pretty much anyone but me. What I'm shunning is the obvious elitism in much of the classism exhibited here. Many people do not have the privilege to escape their circumstances, poverty, prejudiced backgrounds, obtain quality education, etc.

For example, here's a generalized version of the hierarchy in rural Mexico. You are only allowed to wield power or heap abuse on the one below you:

White Male-Spanish/Euro Heritage>
White Female-Spanish/Euro heritage>
Mestizo Male>
Mestiza Female>
Afro-Mestizo Male>
Afro-Mestiza Female>
Indian Male-Land Owning>
Indian Female-Land Owning>
Indian Male>
Indian Female>
Dog.

Did I like watching Indian women throw boiling water on street dogs for no reason and laugh? Not so much. But it was a little easier to swallow once you understood the chain of command. It's trickle down, to borrow a phrase.

And I'm drinking 7-11 coffee today in a disposable Obama cup, however, if I could afford it, I'd be all over a gourmet Starbucks drink everyday of the week. Fair trade/organic natch. But of course my educated, elite ass got a Master's in Painting, so it's 7-11 this week.

Posted by Alison | September 26, 2008 2:23 PM
46

@36 thank you! i was going to say his voice was a dead-ringer for Boomhauer, too.

Posted by szzza | September 26, 2008 2:28 PM
47

@42- Thank you!

Being racist and/or ignorant is an active choice. People like this are not victims. They are stupid.

They lead to Bush, Cheney and Rove political corruption and right-wing religious zealots directing US policy in the name of baby fetus Jesus.

Posted by Ren | September 26, 2008 2:32 PM
48

I applaud them for supporting Hillary but I invite those who think that "the gays" are the biggest threat to this nation to view this video. Frightening.

Posted by Boomer | September 26, 2008 2:59 PM
49

@41&45 Elitist is as elitist does. You are taking an extremely elitist position towards the majority of commenters here. It is as if you alone understand the socio-economic issues that underlie the world-view of the people in this video. We are all quite aware of what poverty and alcoholism can do to people. We also know drunken, arrogant ingnorance when we see it. Did you purposefully not notice how many commenters stated they had lived in that region or had family members there? Four dollar latte indeed, I wish I had $4 for every time someone uses the latte metaphor to decry elitism, I could retire and buy a coffee plantation. What a cliche! They sell them at McDonald's now, you know. They are no longer only for liberal city dwellers hiding in their coccoons of mis-apprehension. You would know that if you left off condescending from your self-righteous perch and developed sense of humor.

Posted by inkweary | September 26, 2008 3:02 PM
50

@49 We also know (or should know) when the word "ignorance" is mis-spelled.

Posted by inkweary | September 26, 2008 3:26 PM
51

@45-
-You saw an Indian woman throwing hot water on dogs but "it was a little easier to swallow" because of her class standing?

Cracker, PLEASE!

Go to PETA's webside and swallow more animal cruelty inflicted by people of upper, middle and lower classes.

-"Most people do not have the privilege to escape their circumstances..."

So what privilege(s) allowed you to escape your circumstances?


Being a bigot or a being racist is not due to a deeper class struggle.

If you have family members like the ones in this video they are truly stupid racist white people-class has nothing to do with it.

Posted by Silly Crackers | September 26, 2008 3:34 PM
52

at least she said black had nothing to do with it lol. HEY I'm a Hillary supporter and F**K anyone who tries to put us all in a box with this bi***c. Lets put a black racist up who talks shit about white people, and voted for Barack and say they represent all Obama supporters next! (father Pflager anyone?) silly and disengenous at best

Posted by rigs | September 26, 2008 3:44 PM
53

at least she said black had nothing to do with it lol. HEY I'm a Hillary supporter and F**K anyone who tries to put us all in a box with this bi***c. Lets put a black racist up who talks shit about white people, and voted for Barack and say they represent all Obama supporters next! (father Pflager anyone?) silly and disengenous at best

Posted by rigs | September 26, 2008 3:44 PM
54

It would not be hard to get some African-American or Hispanic people to do a similar painfully ignorant rant. The difference is that it would cause an outrage- they would be seen as exploited for the amusement of racist white people. These people can barely speak english even though they were born in the US, and the same can be said for some black people. It's okay to make fun of this for the former but not the latter, and I say that's bullshit. They are no more or less responsible for their ignorance than if they were African-American.

Posted by jane doe | September 26, 2008 3:47 PM
55

Bertrand says it all:

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell

Posted by George | September 26, 2008 4:03 PM
56

Ah yeah, the latte metaphor. It's trite and cliché, I know. I should have tried harder. It was a pussy move, I'll give you that. I'm not a writer, that's for sure. Did I mention I love Starbucks lattes? Really, I do. And that I am a liberal city dweller? And that I have family in "those areas" too. And that I cringe at the n-word. Especially when it comes out of the mouth of someone to whom I'm related? I also cringe at hearing white trash, especially when it comes out of the mouths of my friends or people I am fucking. Because my grandma was white trash. She said that word. Then someone gave her a scholarship, she went to the state college, became educated, was cognizant of her ignorance, left her little white trash southern town, was best friends with another displaced southerner, a black woman, and they both still felt out of place and ignorant in the north, because people reminded them every day of just what trash they were with their hillbilly accents and pig feet eating. So first I am anti-intellectual and education, and now I am an elitist intellectual? Which is it? I'm sorry for sharing my experience, which is that I have 'white trash' and middle class white family, work in the projects, live and hang out with with 'illegals', and drink beer with my obnoxious republican cousins. And while my 'trash' relatives sound more racist, their prejudice in no way compares to the racism that the unspoken prejudice of my middle class northern family can wield- the power to hire and fire, the power to rent or not to rent, you know, put their money where their beliefs are. It's fucking scary.

I never excused racism. I abhor it. I lamented the classism that exists- because if you can't reach "those people"- and she voted for Clinton @ 47, and relate their struggles for dignity to everyone else's, it's lost. Their ignorance is so obvious and ugly it's an easy target. And it's as simplistic as Bush or Palin saying "They hate our freedoms." It's too fucking easy.

Ignorance is the condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed. How do you chose that?

I have a great sense of humor by the way. I just think picking on poor, toothless, drunken, ignorant, hillbillies from an internet blog is a little cowardly. Why don't you visit "West Virginia" and tell them what pieces of nasty, funny talking, white trash spooning sandwiches they are to their faces? Then you could have a real constructive dialogue about their racism. Take 'em out to kvetch over a McDonald's latte.

Posted by Alison | September 26, 2008 4:09 PM
57

@56: You make some good points, but good luck convincing the Stranger or the Slog-reading demographic to give up making fun of hillbillies. Or hippies. The get way too much mileage out of that to ever give it up easily.

Posted by flamingbanjo | September 26, 2008 4:22 PM
58

@51

I was a longtime PETA supporter. Funny. Everyone kicks the guy below him. In rural Mexico, the only creature with lower social status than an Indian woman is a dog. It was disgusting and horrible. As was the level of alcoholism and domestic violence within the community. The powerless find some power. The abused become abusers. How does feeling insight about it qualify as excusing it?

Escape my circumstances- I'm sure if my grandmother was not given a scholarship at age 17, my mother wouldn't have met my father, and instead I might be one of my cousins, living in a trailer in Northern Louisiana, eating assorted bushmeat and spewing hateful speech. In short, I might be in a video on SLOG.

Posted by Alison | September 26, 2008 4:28 PM
59

Oh man...that's exactly the crap I heard when I visited a large family gathering in August. (My family lives in the bottom dip of Ohio where is borders WV and KY, so my family all sound exactly like the people in that video, although less drunk!) They are less upset that he's black than they are in their belief that he's a covert Muslim operative. I told all of them that their "Muslim issue" was really covert racism. Which made several shut up. Sad.

Posted by Ben | September 27, 2008 5:58 AM
60

Don't worry guys, this is just a scene from The Hills Have Eyes 3, due for release in the spring. It's totally not real.

Posted by Jeff | September 27, 2008 8:55 AM
61

Hopefully these people will be too drunk and busy reproducing more inbred children to vote!

Posted by Alison Laird Craig | September 27, 2008 9:12 AM
62

That's a preview of the new season of "The Real Housewives of Hog Holler" ...damn bitches stole my idea... I was gonna star in "The Real Housewives of White Center"...slightly different plot, however.....

Posted by M | September 27, 2008 11:49 AM
63

@Alison -

I'm with you...it's a uncomfortable to see people of privilege mock the ignorant, when instead we should be trying to reach out and unite (rather than exploit, as you so astutly note in the difference between Obama an Clinton).

But I do think that people with these entrenched viewpoints are unreachable, on both sides of the class dichotomy. The difference being that the ignorant have an excuse, but the educated do not.

I recommend Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant. An insightful look into why people of certain economic disadvantages tend to vote seemingly against their own best interest...

Posted by RubyPerfecto | September 28, 2008 3:19 PM

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