Why I could never stand J.D. Vance

Like the rest of the world, I had never heard of J.D. Vance until his book came out, in 2016. Everyone was talking about it and saying it “explained Appalachia,” so, as both a native and a scholar of Appalachia, of course I had to check it out. By the end of the first chapter, I was angry, and, by the halfway point, I was outraged. I soon learned that literally everyone I knew who was also a native and scholar of Appalachia felt exactly the same way (and I am a member of the Society of Appalachian Historians, so I know a lot of them).

However, a lot of my friends who also grew up here don’t understand the anger. They tell me Vance is one of us, that his story of family poverty and addiction resonates with them, and that his story of overcoming challenges is inspirational. They often put down the anger toward him as something liberal elites do because they are snooty and think they’re better and smarter than everyone else. But, the fact is, liberal elites all over the country (and conservative ones, too) were eating up everything Vance was selling in 2017 after Trump’s inauguration. Conservatives still do, whereas liberals outside Appalachia are now saying, “How did he change so much? What happened to him?” Those of us from Appalachia who were critical of his memoir from the beginning are saying, “it was right there all along. Y’all just didn’t pick up on it.”

First, he is not from Appalachia. He was not born here. His parents weren’t born here. His grandparents were born here, and he visited in the summers. That does not make him “one of us”- not to the extent he can speak for, and explain the culture of, the whole region, which he took upon himself to do. And it wasn’t “here’s what those people are like”… it was “here’s what’s wrong with those people.” It’s “here’s why their culture is bad.” Read it again. Maybe you were so entranced by his personal story that you missed his narrative. As I tell people, it’s not his story I have a problem with, it’s how he tells it and how he frames it.

As Appalachian writer Silas House recently put it, “The gist of it (Vance’s book) is, ‘Well, I’m the one who made it out, I’m the one who’s successful. I had the same sort of opportunities they did, but I did it, and they didn’t.’ He (Vance, not House) essentially describes Appalachian culture as lazy, immoral, violent, and backwards, and says that as Appalachian people have moved into other regions to find work (an odd pursuit for such lazy people, seems to me) they have spread their flawed culture around the country. We all need to be like him and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps (despite the fact many of us cannot afford boots) instead of looking for handouts (never mind all the help he received along the way, which he would like to deny others). Even though he does complain, in his book, about Appalachian stereotypes perpetuated by the media, he then reinforces all those stereotypes left and right. His book is a conservative manifesto and reads like a job application for a politician.

J.D. Vance is arrogant and condescending. This has not changed since he gained elected office, it has only become more obvious. He is also willing and eager to bend whichever way the wind is blowing - bear in mind how he talked about Trump in 2016 when it seemed he had no chance of being elected, compared to how he bows to him now. At the same time, Trump’s extreme agenda fits in with Vance’s worldview, except in some ways Vance is even more extreme (and dangerous).

J.D. Vance is not “one of us.” He has thrown us and our region under the bus and has used us - and the prejudices against us that most people in other parts of the country have - as a springboard to power, fame, and fortune. He reminds me of Larry the Cable Guy - a comedian from the Midwest who invented a hillbilly/redneck persona to make fun of us that the rest of the nation, and even many of us, believed. Or the Duck Dynasty crew - formerly a bunch of clean-cut businessmen with frosted tips who grew out their hair and put on some camo, presented themselves as “authentic,” and got 10 times richer.

We need to stop falling for this stuff.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.