I didn’t really know how to name this post. It is sparked by an article on CNN.com discussing American’s lost tribe–namely the white working class. I have been more race aware over the past few years in light of an increase in shootings of black men (I was pulled over the other day and man was I terrified) by cops, and the political rhetoric generated by the Trump camp. What bothered me the most about all of it is the similarities inherent in the plight of working class people of all races. We have the same problems–American problems.
One middle class individual in the article lamented for a time when small towns were thriving and rural areas were gaining residents as opposed to losing them. If you’re wondering why people leave rural areas, it has a lot to do with the shifting state of the American dream. The dream is far more urban and technologically driven than ever before, lending itself to urban landscapes and the ever-populous suburb teeming with Target big box stores and a Starbucks on every corner. Nobody cares about main street anymore. As a result, those areas lose people and lose wealth. When the wealth goes away from those areas it becomes a matter of economics that people will start to become angry about poverty and look for someone to blame.
Trump is able to feed off of that with the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ which really translates as ‘bring the money back to my hood’. In other words, what we are seeing is a lot of people being tricked into believing that the problem is one thing when the problem is something else entirely.
I think politics can solve the issue of people leaving rural areas. I think, politically, we can instill a sense of economic value to those parts of America and, as a result, entice new types of business to populate the spaces that outmoded businesses have fled. These towns; these people are relics of an industrial age in the midsts of a post-industrial American landscape.