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When reading an article on “white trash” I started to think about the stereotypes that we automatically assume. Ironically on Friday 13 there was a Diane sawyer special on the people of Appalachia called “A Hidden America: The Children of Appalachia”. The documentary took the viewer inside the struggles and limitations of the people living there and it really made me rethink about the stereotypes of mountain people. It made me kind of sad to see that people living there can barely afford meat and fruits the kinds of things that we take for granted. One family even filled their baby’s bottle with soda because they had run out of milk. In one story a high school football star is living in his car because he wanted to escape the life he was living with his family. He describes his home as being in the middle of nowhere, and where he lives thievery is not uncommon even within families. Prescription medication is even locked up because it is seen as some of the most valuable possessions someone can have. They are commonly stolen and sold for as much as ten dollars a pill. Some people in Appalachia don’t even know how to read which shows us what little they have to work with. Watching this documentary has really allowed me to see that their living conditions are very hard to deal with. The common stereotypes of mountain people are that they are uneducated, violent, alcoholics, etc. However these people work very hard to try to make a living despite the hardships. Most of the time, we fail to see that these people are extremely poor and can barely even afford food let alone something like an education. The documentary has really allowed me to see a new perspective and break the stereotype of “mountain people”. In reality they are still people like us.
