Donald Ray Pollock was interviewed today on NPR's “On Point” regarding his new book about life in the real-life town, KnockEmStiff, Ohio. The collection of fictional stories reflects a community at about ten times it's actual level of dysfunction, yet southern men and women calling in seemed very appreciative of Pollock's description of poor, uneducated paper mill folk afflicated by their deviant sexual encounters, alcoholism, violence, and bizarre, bread-sack, “huffing bactine” highs.
The desperate, trapped, self-destructiveness of the narrative sparked a question in my mind as I pulled fabric into an intricate corner of the chair I was busy upholstering. Interestingly, only moments later (at the 37 minute mark if you listen to the podcast), a caller from Boston verbalized what I was thinking:
“…about the working pattern [sic] of the people: is the [sic] same people Hillary Clinton is talking about, the people voting for her?”
or, paraphrased by Tom Ashbrook:
“It's a good question. Is this the white working class that's been talked about so much in the presidential campaign, Don?”
Since this is a work of fiction, it's not surprising to hear the immediate response, “Well, I don't know about that.” But the anecdote that follows about voters who live in the “hollers” around KnockEmStiff, the town where the author lives, seems to confirm what the MSM still won't touch, even after Obama's historic speech on race in America.
Pollack continues, below the fold.
Pollack: I do know that in Southern Ohio, at least down where I live, there are a lot of Hillary Clinton supporters, and, I'm a liberal, and what I'm afraid is going to happen… it seems to me that a lot of these people who are for Hillary are … you know, probably going to switch to McCain.
Ashbrook: Because of race issues?
Pollack: You know I hate to say it, but I think it is, I wish people could get past the color of a man's skin, but it seems like that with people that I run into and we start to talk about politics a bit … even if they won't come out and admit it, yea, I can't think of any other reason than that. Like I say, Hillary's got a lot of support down there, and maybe that's the people she's talking about.
The fact of American racism isn't surprising news, but still it's interesting to hear it acknowledged by anyone when they don't necessarily have to discuss it. Maybe we should even acknowledge the reality of Clinton's “hard working white voters” comment. It's easy for those of us in the whitest state in the country to be shocked, agog and aghast that such a phrase actually be said out loud. The taboo surrounding the subject is a visceral reaction against bringing such a profane subject into the sacred realm of public discourse.
But there is nothing sacred about sublimating or repressing the facts of who we are as Americans and how black people and white people are different. In fact, talking about the reality of racism is a healthy departure from the politically correct, emotionally dysfunctional process of not talking about one of the fundamental social issues in America throughout it's ongoing history.
The fountain of power Obama drew from in his speech on race in Philedelphia came from breaking the presumed taboo and speaking out loud, using concrete examples how America still suffers from the ugly reality of racism. Obama's speech on racism rose beyond the brand of eloquence because it broke the myth of this American taboo. Weeks later, as if following in the dual wakes of Obama's speech and Clinton's “hard working white voter” comment, Pollack's confirmation of the reality of racism was as if a first ray of light shining into racism's dark, quiet closet.
Hearing the acknowledgement that Pollack's fictional description of KnockEmStiff, Ohio as a complicated truism of what Clinton meant by “hard working white voters” was, in a weird way, reassuring. Acknowledging the fact that people in Southern Ohio refuse to vote for a black man for no other reason than the color of his skin was perhaps the first time I have heard a truthful, honest extension of the conversation Obama started in the wake of the Pastor Wright controversy.
To hear a white, southern author being interviewed by a white, Yale-trained journalist having a frank conversation about the unspeakable reality of white people voting against Obama because he is a black man seemed as if to calm the growling dogs of fear. It was as if Pollack was saying, “Easy boy. It's ok. Easy, there.” There's no need to be afraid. We can talk about this.
Fear of black skin. Distaste of black smell. White fright, rising to anger, in the face of black confidence. Americans make a choice to not discuss the truth of how so many of us vote from the belly of repressed emotion and the misery of KnockEmStiff-like lives.
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