How to speak Southern Appalachian

“Southern Mountain Speech” is the official term given to the dialect spoken in Southern Appalachia. It is a unique subset of the Southern accent, with many similarities in pronunciations but with a lot of differences, as well (there are also a lot of similarities with many African American dialects.) Some have called it the oldest spoken form of English –there are many elements of Elizabethan English as well as Scots-Irish dialect -though most historians and linguists dispute that. Early settlers in the mountainous regions of western Virginia and North Carolina were very isolated, and their speech patterns remained the same or similar over the generations even as English continued to evolve (even in England.)

The first thing to bear in mind when examining this dialect is to remember that it IS a dialect, an accent, a different way of saying things –not something inferior, which is how it has usually been portrayed. Its speakers continue to be assumed to be ignorant, backward, and lazy. This stems from the hillbilly stereotype, which is a subject for a different day.

"There can be no doubt that it's the most heavily stigmatized regional speech in the country," South Carolina author Michael B. Montgomery told National Geographic. "I can't think of any other region where five words out of somebody's mouth will completely affect another person's evaluation of their intelligence, their reliability, their truthfulness, and their ability to handle complex tasks.”

A Southern mountain dialect is no more “inferior” than Scottish, Irish, Cockney, or New York English accents. Many aspects of the dialect that are considered improper in contemporary English were considered culturally and grammatically proper in the 1700s. It is also worth noting that there are regional differences within the dialect: while many of these terms are used throughout Appalachia, some are location-specific. For example, calling a soda pop a "dope" is rarely done outside western North Carolina. There are even variations from county to county. My own home county, White County, TN, has words and expressions (such as rullick and yert) with which people native to adjacent counties are totally unfamiliar. Also, I have not included some words and phrases that are more generally rural or Southern than specific to Appalachia, such as "pole cat" for skunk.

It is also worth pointing out that -as you will see -this pattern of speech is not a random selection of "improper" or "uneducated" words. It HAS RULES, including pretty consistent rules for vowel pronunciation and grammar. This is what makes it a legitimate dialect and not just a collection of slang. They just aren't necessarily the rules to which you are accustomed.

With all that in mind, let us look at some of the speech markers of Southern Appalachia… and if I missed anything, please let me know.

·         The word Appalachian itself: Southern Appalachian natives usually pronounce it App-a-LATCH-un, while outsiders tend to pronounce it App-a-LAY-shun.

·         The SUFFIX –ing (e.g., winning, spinning, twisting) drops the g, becoming winnin’, spinnin’, and twistin’. However, words ending in –ing but not as a suffix (e.g., thing, bring, sing) do NOT drop the g. instead the vowel becomes a nasalized a: thang, brang, sang. The same thing happens with words ending in –ink (think becomes thank, stink becomes stank). It is similar to the in/im in French (wherein the word vin, or wine, is pronounced as a nasalized van.) Therefore, anythin’ is incorrect; anythang is correct. "Nothing" is an exception. “You thank it don’t mean nothin’, but it means ever’thang.”

o   Thing = thang

o   Sing = sang
o   Single = sangle

o   Fingers = fangers

o   Think = thank

o   Bring = brang (past tense: brung) Sometimes this becomes prang/prung

o   English = Anglish

·         Fire is pronounced the same as far. In fact, all words with the –ire sound are pronounced –ar.

o   Fire = far

o   Tire = tar

o   Hire = har

o   Wire = war

o   Retire = retarr

o   Iron = Arn

o   Irish = Arsh

o   Exceptions: liar, buyer, flyer, or any other word where the -ire sound is created by adding -er or-ar to a verb that rhymes with pie

·         Flower is pronounced the same as flare. All words with the –ower sound are pronounced –air (including the words "our" and "hour".)

o   Flower/flour =flare

o   Power = pare

o   Tower = tare

o   Shower = share

·         Pronounce royal as if the y were not there: hence, ro’ahl. Do the same with all words that rhyme with royal.

o   Royal = ro’ahl

o   Oil = oh’ahl

o   Boil = bo’ahl

o   Coil = co’ahl  (unless it is a verb, in which case it is quile)

o   Toil, soil, etc.

·         Want is pronounced the same as won’t. On is pronounced the same as own.

·         Can’t rhymes with ain’t.

·         A long o sound at the end of a word becomes –er

o   Hollow = holler

o   Follow = foller

o   Fellow = feller

o   Window = winder

o   Yellow = yeller

o   Potato = ‘tater

o   Tomato = ‘mater

o   Tobacco = ‘backer
If this sounds "uneducated", bear in mind that, in modern British English, when a word ending in a vowel is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, an R is inserted between them (much like in French a T is inserted in such circumstances.) Thus, a 21st century Englishman might say "Pizzer is my favorite food, but a bananner is nice from time to time." 

·         An -a at the end of a word often becomes a –y / -ie. Thus the names Lula and Sara become Lulie and Sary, and the town Sparta is sometimes Spartie. Extra becomes extrie, soda becomes soadie. Noah becomes No-ee. In a few rare cases, though, an r is added at the end of the word instead of changing the a to ie/y: Cuba = Cuber    Jonah = Joner

·        The sound –or sometimes becomes –ar. The actual word “or” can be pronounced either “er” or “ar”.

o   Orange =Arnge

o   Forest = farrest

o   Foreign =Far’n

o   Oregon = Ahregon

o   Florida = Flahrida. Sometimes Flardy.

·         Where is pronounced whur
·         Scared = skeered      Care = keer  I don't care = I-oant keer, which to the untrained ear can sound like "ount-keer". Are ye skeered? I-oant keer.

·         “Right” can sometimes mean very. “That’s right kind of ye.”

·         Right smart = a large amount. “You could fit a right smart of people in that room.”

·         Clean / plumb = completely. “He knocked ‘att-un clean outta the park, it was plumb awesome.”

·         Southern Appalachians are apparently one of the few groups that pronounces the l in walk and talk.

·         It is very hard to explain the Southern pronunciation of the long I, because there is no other sound in American English to which it can be compared closely. Normally an English long I is pronounced like the –ai in Japanese (as in hai, for yes.) If you think about it, in that diphthong you are pronouncing both letters separately, but really, really fast: Ah-ee. So imagine dropping the –ee part. But that’s not exactly it, either, because the Southern I does not sound like “ah”, which is how I have often seen it portrayed. It’s sort of like saying ah but while smiling real big. I think that’s the best I can describe it.

·         Many monosyllabic words are drawn out into two syllables. Hence Troy becomes Tro-ee, Carl becomes Carr’uhl, and sometimes Bill becomes Bee’ahl. Red becomes rayud. Shit becomes shee-it.

·         Some grammatical practices which exist (and are technically considered incorrect) all around the country are used with far greater frequency in Appalachia

o   Dropping g’s, as mentioned above

o   Past tense of “to be” always used in singular form regardless of number: He was, they was

o   Use of the word ain’t

·         Past tense often differs from standard English.

o   I saw = I seen   Sometimes seen and saw are reversed: "Oh, I seen him. He was the meanest man I'd ever saw.

o   I knew = I knowed

o   I grew = I growed

·         Double negatives are employed, often for emphasis. “I ain’t got nary’n.” “He ain’t got no sense a-tall.” This was considered standard English until the mid-18th century; Shakespeare often used double negatives.

·         Southern Appalachians still use the word ye, and often. Whether ye or you is used often depends on the emphasis in the sentence: “Should I GIVE it to ye?” “Should I give it to YOU?”

·         Toys are called purties (pretties), or play purties.

·         Strew is pronounced stroe. Strewn is stroe’d. “That dadgum young’un done stroe’d his play purties ever-whur!”

·         Sip is pronounced sup. “Give me a sup of that drank.”

·         The words yonder and reckon are still used often (oddly enough, they are also used in British English but not non-Southern American English.)

·         Ary and Nary = Any and None. They come from the Elizabethan terms “e’er a” and “ne’er a”. “Do ye have ary batt'ry for this thang? I ain’t got nary’n.”

·         Y’uns (“you ones”). This is an Appalachian word that is interchangeable with y’all. Northern Appalachians (in Pennsylvania) also say it, but they pronounce it yinz while Southern Appalachians pronounce it like a German umlaut u, or yünz.

·         Lack is pronounced “like”. “All we like now is four more dollars.”

·         “Like-ta” or “like-to-of” = almost. “I like-to-of died.” It is only used when speaking of the past, up to the immediate past.

·         Aunt and Ant are pronounced the same as Ain’t. Hence Andy Griffith spoke of his “Aint Bea.”

·         Tobacco is called either “tobackuh” or “backer.”

·         Borrow = Barr. Borrowed = Barrd. Sometimes borrow = bahrry. Also, sometimes borrow means to loan: Can you bahrry me five dollars?

·         Wash = warsh

·         Be-in’s (sometimes also “bezun”) = being as =since. “Be’in’s y’all are goin’ that way, can I get a ride?”

·         This, that, them: the th is often dropped. “Say hey to your mama and ‘emm!” “Those” is very rarely used. “Hand me ‘emm nails.”

·         Right here and right yonder sometimes become ri-cheer and ri-chunder. "Over there" is o'vair.

·         Might could =might be able to

·         Haint = haunt (ghost). In some parts of Appalachia ain’t is pronounced hain’t. In those areas, it is pronounced hit.      An unruly person is wild as a haint.

·         “Reach me” = “hand me.” “Reach me ‘att wrainch.”

·         To chunk = to throw

·         The leg of your britches = your britchie-lag.

·         Corn = roas’n’ears (roasting ears), but pronounced roash’nears.

·         Ramps = wild onions

·         Col’drank: not just any chilled beverage, specifically a carbonated one (i.e., soda pop).

·         Coke = absolutely any kind of carbonated beverage, regardless of brand or flavor. “Gimme a coke.” “What kind of coke do ye woant- Mountain Dew? Grape?” Coke and col'drank are interchangeable. "Pop" is used in Eastern Kentucky and some other areas, whereas in East Tennessee saying pop would immediately mark you as an outsider.

·         Narrow = Narr.

·         Kindly = kind of. “That road over yonder is kindly narr.”

·         Every = ever’. Ever’body, ever’thang. You don’t say “everyone” at all, just “ever’body”. Same with anyone/anybody.

·         Once’t, twice’t. Adding a t to the end of these words is also an Elizabethan convention.

·         Directly = later. It does NOT mean directly as in immediately. Pronounced dreckly. Sometimes: “here dreckly.” Synonym: afterwhile.

·         Puny = sick
·         Poor (pronounced "pore") = skinny, sickly. "You're lookin' real pore -are you feelin' puny?"

·         Fixin’ to: preparing to. This is not as weird as outsiders make it seem; after all, if you are preparing dinner, you are FIXING dinner.

·         Three meals of the day: breakfast, dinner, supper. Dinner is the midday meal. If someone tells you to meet them around dinner-time, they mean around noon.

·         Far = fur. “Hey dispatcher- how fur to that far?” Sometimes "for" is fer, sometimes it is far: "Fer petesake, what'd ye go 'att fur far? Ye goin' to a far?" Also: furthest can be "futherest."

·         Yoant-to = you want to?

·         Ort = ought   “Yoant-to? Y’ort to!”

·         Goozle = that funny thing in the back of your throat. “I ort to choke your goozle!” Sometimes goozler.

·         Goober = peanut, but in many parts of Appalachia, penis.

·         Aholt = ahold

·         One t’other = sometimes just “one” for short. “I’m fixin to go to Nashville or Knoxville one.”

·         Hi’dy. Appalachian for howdy. It’s probably where our contemporary word “hi” comes from.

·         Light bread = white sandwich bread

·         Sweet milk = regular milk, as opposed to buttermilk

·         Ah’ Law! An exclamation meaning Oh Lord. It’s not pronounced “ah”, but rather like you were going to say “at” and never said the t.

·         They Law! An exclamation meaning The Lord. This one can be shortened to just They. Andy Griffith could often be heard saying They or They Law.

·          A mite = a little. “Well, that’s a mite harsh, don’t you thank?”

·         Pert near’t = pretty near it, or almost.

·         Nigh on to = nearly

·         Ill = always means ill-tempered. It does NOT mean sick, puny means sick. Or just sick. “I don’t like that man- he’s always ill.”

·         Rainch = ranch, but also wrench and rinse. “After ye warsh ‘att, remember to rainch it.”

·         Mock = to imitate. Like a mockingbird. It does NOT mean deride or laugh at, it always means to imitate scornfully. (Think of things like mock fur, for example.)

·         Sairdy = the day after Fridy.

·          The Show = the movie theater

·         Sorry = no good and low-down (as in a sorry excuse.) “I’m sorry!” “Good, now apologize!”

·         Job = jab

·         Stob = a stick, usually one poking out of the ground. “Festus got jobbed with a stob”.

·         A story = a lie. “Don’t you tell me no stories, young’un!”

·         Study on = think about for awhile

·         Thoe = throw. “I seen Bill at the show and he never even thoed up his hand at me!”

·         Done = finished. "That's it, I'm done." Also substituted for “did” when that verb has an object, but not when it is used alone:  “I done painted that! I done it! I swear I did!”  Also: Done = already. "I done fixed that door once!" Hence, one can say "I done done that." For emphasis: I done already done that.

·         Hind end = butt

·         Pen is pronounced pin. In fact, -en and –em usually become –in and –im. Thus an encounter with the Empire becomes an incounter with the Imparr. Ten and tin are both pronounced tin. This is why Appalachians use the terms stick-pin and ink-pen (ank-pin), to distinguish which kind of pin/pen you mean. Also, depend is pronounced de'pinned. Yet is yit. Get is git. As noted, however, with set/sit it is the opposite: "If ye woant to write a letter, set down and git ye an ank pin."

·         Catty-corner = what in other regions would be called kitty-corner.

·         Si-gogglin, or cy-gogglin = lopsided, especially as in a leaning building. Some have speculated this comes from side-goggled, with goggle as in askew (like “goggle-eyed”)

·         Towns ending in –ville are not pronounced “vill” but rather “vuhl”. Nashvuhl, Knoxvuhl. In Cookeville the k is often silent, making the word “Cuh’vuhl.”

·         Towns ending in –boro are pronounced burr. Hence Murfreesboro = Murf’sburr, and Gainesboro becomes Gainesburr.

·         Many words have emphasis on different syllables than in other regions.

o   AutoMObile

o   InDUStry

o   POlice

o   AmbuLANCE
o   Thee-AY-ter
o   Resi-DENCE

·         A-verbing: adding the prefix –a to a verb, pronounced as a schwa and usually to a verb indicating progressive or continuing action. “We was a-walkin’ and here come a bear a-runnin’ right at us.” The form is most often used in the context of recounting a series of events or telling a story. This was common in standard English in the 1500s, and until the 1700s was considered not only acceptable but literate and sophisticated.

·         -ever is sometimes reversed to the beginning of a word. “Everwho done that is ignernt.”

·         Poke = sack.

·         Woman is sometimes pronounced “woe-mern.”

·         Kerosene = coal oil

·         Kyarn = carrion, and the smell associated with it.

·         Tote = to carry

·         To carry someone = to give them a ride

·         Boggan, or sometimes toboggan = a knit cap, such as some would call a beanie or a stocking cap.

·         Airish =chilly or windy

·         Cathead = a large biscuit 

·          Sometimes the sound -ay becomes almost a long I, similar to some British accents, so that today sounds almost like to-die (this is the standard long I, not the Southern one.)

·         Vomit = vomick, and diarrhea = di'reer. Virus = varse, and is almost always used to mean an upset stomach. "I've been vomickin' all day, I thank I got the varse."

·          Serious = seerce

·          Wasn’t = wadn’t; doesn’t = dudn’t    isn't = idn't    isn't it = idnit   isn't that = idn'at           

·         Where do you live = where do you stay at?

·         Eat up = consumed.  “I’m eat up with love.”

·         Evening = late afternoon, around dusk. Once it gets dark, it’s night.

·         Next Saturday = the Saturday of next week. If it is Thursday and I say “next Saturday”, I don’t mean two days from now, I mean nine days from now. On Thursday, two days from now would be “this Saturday.” 

·         Light out = leave. Also sometimes “light a shuck.” As in, lighting a corn shuck so as to see the road as you travel.

·         Mind = obey. “You mind me, child!”

·         Risin’ = a pimple. “I got a risin’!”

·         Ruin = rern. Past tense: rernt.

·         Set = sit. “Set down and stay a spell.”

·         Whip = whup. This is NOT pronounced “whupp” or “whoop”, but more like whüp

·         Chair = cheer.   Set in this cheer!

·         A spell = a while. Also, a dizzy spell- but you don’t always say the “dizzy” part.

·         If you are dizzy, you might say you are light-headed, or that your head is a-swimmin’. Or you’re having a spell.

·         “I don’t care to” = I don’t mind doing it. This leads to confusion with outsiders, who think “I don’t care to” means “I don’t want to.”

·         The t is silent in slept.

·         Some words have added syllables: drowneded, for example. Or breasts, sometimes pronounced breastiz, or nests becoming nestiz. Sometimes the extra syllable comes in the middle: realtor = real-a-ter, athlete = athalete, nuclear = nukular. If this sounds similar to Texas Southern, it is because a large number of people who settled Texas were Appalachian.

·         Stove up = injured. If you just feel kinda sick, you’re peaked, pronounced peekid.

·         Backwards = shy. “His daddy was always kindly backwards” (pronounced backerds.)

·         Chimney = chimley

·         Drain = dreen

·         Don’t get above your raisin’ = don’t be stuck up. Also, don’t put oan airs. Don't be biggity, or uppity.

·         Vienna sausages = vye-eenies.

·         Tomorrow = ta’marr 

·         Wasper = wasp

·         There you go = Air ye go.

·         Yorn = yours. Also: his'n, her'n, our'n, their'n. You can also get out'n a scrape. If'n ye try hard enough.

·         Purse = pocket book

·         Bedroom suite is not pronounced “bedroom sweet” but rather “bedroom suit”.

·         Chest of drawers is pronounced chester drawers.

·         Restaurant = resternt

·         This one is not often used anymore by folks under 70, because of the sexual connotation: quarr, for queer, as in strange (not as in homosexual). “He always was a mite quarr.”

·         Crayfish = crawdad

·         Cantaloupe = mushmelon

·         Pear = p’ar

·         Brung up (or prung up) = raised, as in from childhood

·         If something tastes good, it will make you slap your granny.

·         Give out = exhausted. “Lordy, I’m plumb give out.”

·         Gulley warsher = heavy rain

·         Rullick = a low person of questionable character. People outside of White County, TN, seem to be unfamiliar with this one.

·         Go on = talk at length, or sometimes behave foolishly. “Lord, that boy does like to go on.” Or, "Oh, he's just goin' on."

·         Count = good. “Is Bill any count?” “No, Bill ain’t no count a-tall.” Short for "of any account."

·         It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy.

·         It is not a hand-truck or a dollie, it is a two-wheeler.

·         “Home-made sin” =something very disturbing or ugly. “That feller was uglier’n home-made sin.”

·         “Well, bless your heart” can mean either “you poor, unfortunate soul” or “you poor, ignorant person,” depending on circumstances.

·         Duns = bills. “Nothin’ in the mailbox but duns, as usual.”

·         It’s not an electric bill, it’s a light bill.

·         If you play hooky from school or work, you are laying out.

·   “Chance” is pronounced “Chaince”, or “Chaince’t.” Similarly, "branch" is pronounced "brainch" (a branch is a small stream or creek.) "Dance" becomes "Daince."

·         “Fell off” = lost weight    “Flesh out” = gain weight. You’ve fell off, you need to flesh out.

·         Towel, trowel, foul, owl, etc. all rhyme with “pal”.

·  “Stout” = physically strong. It does NOT necessarily mean large; a thin person can be stout.

·         The L is usually silent in “help”

·         “Ready-roll” = a store-bought cigarette

·         Sweetenin’ = dessert food, candy, etc.  “I ain’t had no sweetenin’ today, I’d shore like some pie.”

·         Some people –especially older folks –call a motorcycle a motor-sickle.

·         Daughter is sometimes pronounced “dorter”; water is sometimes “worter.”

·         Brother is sometimes shortened to Br’er (just like Br’er Rabbit), which is pronounced “Burr.”

·         Play like = pretend. Also, “let on” = pretend   "You thank he's seerce?" "No, I thank he's just lettin' oan."

·         Favor = to remind a person of someone; also, “puts me in mind of.”  “Ol’ Jeff favors his Daddy.” “He puts me more in mind of his Grandpa.”

·         Hull = to shell, as in beans or peas.

·         Skift = a small amount, as in “a skift of snow.”

·         Fireboard =mantel over a fireplace

·         Dog-iron (pronounced dog-arn) = an andiron

·         Singletree--pivoted crossbar to either end of which the traces are fastened when yoking a horse or mule to a plow. Pronounced sangletree, of course.

·         Backset--a reverse, a relapse in illness.

·        Blink--exercise an evil influence, bewitch, turn sour. "Blinky milk."

·         To be marked by = for a child to be born showing, in some fashion, the influence of someone the mother knew. “Junior is always tellin’ stories, I must’ve marked him by my brother Bill.”

·         Learn = both to learn and to teach. ‘At’ll learn ye! I’ll learn you to sass me!

·         Coil = quile   “That copperhead was quiled up.”

·         Rear back/ rear up =rare back, rare up

·         Itch sounds like each

·         If someone is very hungry, they may say “my stomach thinks my throat’s been cut.”

 ·         Just like in Elizabethan English, gentlefolks who would never dream of swearing still use the words shit, ass, and piss, which they don’t consider vulgar. (vulgar words, to them, would be Goddamn –which is “taking the Lord’s name in vain” –or anything pertaining to genitals or their sexual use.) I can attest to this. I have seen Appalachian mothers smack their children for saying “dirty words” and telling them “we don’t say shit like that around here.” Which makes sense; after all, “piss” occurs frequently in the King James Bible because it was not considered vulgar in the 1600s.

·         Ears are sometimes called years.

·         Leg can be pronounced lag or laig

·         If you don’t like someone, you might call them a shit-ass. Or a peckerwood. Maybe even a sumbitch (accent on the first syllable).

·         If you want to say the f-word as an exclamation, but you don’t really want to say the f-word, you can say: foot!   “Well, foot! We’re fixin’ to lose ‘iss game!”

·         If you are behaving in an inappropriately mean manner, you are “being ugly.” “Quit bein’ ugly to that girl!”    synonym: Hateful, which can mean not just cruel but also rude or cross. "Ye don't have to be so hateful about it."   Inappropriate sexual behavior can sometimes (disapprovingly) be called "actin' ugly" - they was out yonder in the bushes actin' ugly.

·         Giving someone a kiss is “giving them some sugar.”

·         If you suspect someone was saying bad things about you behind your back, your ears are burning.

·         If things are going well, they are finer’n frog hair. If they are going real well, they are finer’n frog hair split four ways (sometimes three ways).

·         A booger is an evil spirit or monster. “Be keerful out yonder, a booger might git ye!” Of course, as in the rest of the country, a booger is also a piece of dried mucus. In some parts of the north, a piece of dried mucus is also called a “goober”, but bear in mind that in Appalachia goober can mean penis. So if you come South and tell people you woke up with goobers in your eye, and they laugh hysterically, that’s why.

·         Gaunt = gaint. Synonyms: pore, puny

·         Sometimes, with demonstrative pronouns, “there” becomes “they”. “They’s a lot of thangs I ain’t told ye.”

·         Jasper = a stranger. “They’s some jasper out yonder pokin’ around.”

·         Chow chow = home canned relish

·         Glom onto = take hold of

·         Someone with a pleasant personality has a good turn; someone ill-tempered has a bad turn. Someone very strange has an odd turn or a funny turn.

·         If you pull someone’s hair in a fight, you done jerked ‘em up by the hair of the head.

·         If something is stuck fast, it is tighter’n Dick’s hatband. The same phrase can describe someone who is cheap (therefore tight with their money.)

·         If something is flatter’n a fritter…. it’s pretty flat. People often pronounce it “flatter’n a flitter.”

·         Catawampus = askew, awry.    Also pronounced catty-wampus.

·         Different = differnt     Ignorant = ignernt

·         Sometimes the G is dropped in “I’m gonna,” becoming “I’m oanna.” This only happens in first person, not with he’s gonna, she’s gonna, etc. “I’m oanna catch up later.”  Also, the W is often dropped in "you want," becoming "yoant."

·         Stupid is often pronounced styupid. Here can be hyere. Note that "styupid" is more in line with the modern British pronunciation than the American.

·         A common greeting, which is impossible to spell accurately, goes something like this: “O hyanh.” The second word is something between a snort and a sneeze, and the phrase approximates “Oh, here” or “[Hell]o here.”

·         Garbage collectors are sometimes called “dobie boys” in White County, TN.

·         Yert: this is a word that is unique to White County, TN. It has been used (primarily by teens) for decades –at least since WWII and possibly before –and its origins are unclear. Basically, it can be used as a positive exclamation/affirmation or greeting, and is sometimes accompanied by a gesture approximating the pulling of the cord of a train or big rig air horn. “Yert, good buddy!”

·         Remember = recollect. However, in a command, you always say remember- you would never say "Recollect to do that!" But you MIGHT say: "Do you recollect how I told you to remember to do that?"

·         Common people = NOT a compliment. Rather, denotes low quality. “I ain’t bein’ prung down by all these common people in this town.”

·         Southern waitresses aren’t the only people who call everyone sugar, honey, and darlin. It is common for older women to use those terms when addressing anyone younger than them, regardless of gender, and for older men to use them when talking to any women and to males into their 20s. 

·         Shorts = short pants. It has only been in the last couple of decades that I have seen local Appalachian males of middle age or older wearing shorts in public (or sandals.) Traditionally, “short pants” were for young children (boys) who graduated into long britches, so for a grown man to be seen in short pants would be humiliating. Traditionally, adult male attire was usually overalls, work boots (clodhoppers), and a hat of some kind; a pork pie or something similar before the mid-1970s, a John Deere or Ford ball cap since. Until the 1990s, one could walk around the local Wal-mart or grocery store and tell which of the senior males were local, and which were move-in Yankees, just by their attire. This is still true to some extent, but is no longer universal.

·         Being tickled by something means to be either pleased or amused by it. “I’m plumb tickled to hear that!” “The way that Bill goes on, it really tickles me.

·         You don’t leave things on the floor, you leave them in the floor.

·         Gas station = fillin’ station

·         Shitfire is a common exclamation, as is hellfire- pronounced shee-it-far and hail-far.

·         Slew = a large amount. They’s a whole slew of words I ain’t even thought of yet.

·         Clodhoppers = farmers’ heavy work shoes.

·         Someone who is just a mite too pleased with themselves might be grinnin’ like a possum.

·         If you are a bit too optimistic, someone might tell you to wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which one gets full first. Their implication: you’re dumber’n a box (or bag) of hammers. Or as useful as tits on a boar hog. However, you might know that you’re smarter than they think- you’re slicker’n snot on a doorknob.

·         Keith Richards looks like he has been rode hard and put up wet.

·         If I want you to repeat what you just said, I might say: Do what?

·         If someone has a stroke of bad luck, they might say “well don’t that beat my hat blowin’ down the creek.”

·         If you want your young’uns to mind, you might threaten to tan their hide. Or to jerk a knot in their tail.

·         Just as “foot” can substitute for the f-word, you can avoid another four-letter word by saying “Well shoot a monkey.” Or “shootfire.”

·         Riled up = roiled up; angry

·         When you meet a stranger you might ask them: “Whose boy are you? Who’s your mama’s people?”

·         Looks to me like = a statement of agreement. Bob says, “I reckon winter’s here, Joe.” Joe says, “Looks to me like.”

·         Young’uns are on their first legs.

·         Daddy Longlegs = Granddaddies  

·         Fart = poot

·         When visitors come to your door you say “Why don’t you come in and stay awhile?” and when they leave you say “Why don’t y’uns just stay with us?” Even if you don’t actually want them to do either of those things.

·         If you show physical sensitivity when getting a haircut, you might be known thereafter as “tender-headed.”

·         Battery = battry

·         “Tennis shoes” is pronounced “tennie shoes”

·         Pry = prize. “Sometimes ye just have ta take ye fangers and just prize thangs open.”

·         Y’all = you all, of course. I debated even including this, since everyone knows what it means and it is used throughout the South and parts of the West. I decided to include it in order to emphasize that y’all is ALWAYS plural, at least in Appalachia. Someone using y’all when speaking to one person is a non-native trying to imitate the dialect. In the past when I have made this assertion about the use of y’all in general, there have always been some people who swear up and down that they have heard Southerners say y’all in the singular somewhere. I have still never heard it, but for the sake of doubt, I will instead merely claim that it is always plural in Appalachia. Y’all and y’uns are generally interchangeable, but when the second-person plural pronoun comes at the very end of a sentence it is almost always y’uns.  “If y’all woanna go, we’ll take y’uns.”  When speaking of three or more people, it can become “all y’all” or “all y’uns.”

·         Robe and slippers = housecoat and house shoes

·         And = the d is almost always silent.   Also, the f is often silent in "of", and to is usually ta/tuh. The 'th' in them/these/those, which is often dropped, remains in place when following o'. "I'm goin' ta one o' them stores down yonder an' git me a col'drank. I like 'emm col'dranks."

·         Cure = cyore. I thank ‘att risin’ is startin’ ta cyore up. Or: You’re cruisin’ fer a bruisin’, an’ I’ve got the cyore fer shore.

·         Horrible and terrible = harble and turble.

·         Marry and merry are both pronounced “marry”.

·         Guarantee is gairntee, sometimes garntee

·         Gaumed up = smudged or begrimed. This word was common in 17^th century English.

·         What people outside the South call sweet tea, we just call tea (because, duh, of course it is “sweet” tea unless someone says otherwise.) I remember going to a restaurant when I first moved to Illinois and ordering tea: I almost spit it out when I tasted it. “I didn’t order unsweet tea, I ordered tea!” “Um, there are sugar packets on the table.” “Do you mean to say you expect people to sweeten their own tea? That’s barbaric!” (note: this is not Appalachia-centric but applies to the whole South. I decided to include it because most folks who have not spent time in the South would probably not be aware of it.)

·         Always = all-the-time. As in: You’re all-the-time askin’ me for favors.

·         Lawyer is pronounced Lah-yer, not Law-yer or Loi-yer.

·         The L is usually silent in “help”: Let me he’p ye with that. In some places, particularly NC, “help” can be pronounced “hope.”

·         Spoiled (as in a child) = petted. She always was kindly petted.

·         Yesterday = yesterdy. Similar with days of the week: Sundy, Mundy, Tuesdy, Wensdy, Thursdy, Fridy, Sairdy.

·         Such = sich.  “Do you believe in haints an’ sich?” “Ain’t nary sich a thang.”

·         The PO-lice is also the law, used interchangeably. “The law come by here earlier.” Law can also refer to individual police officers: “How many laws was they?” “Three er four laws, I reckon. Po-lice ever-whur.”   Also, Sheriff is pronounced Shurrif or Shur'f.

·         Twilight is sometimes called dusky-dark. After darkness has fallen, someone might say it is “about dark-thirty.”

·         Soon, aka d’reckly, can also be “here ‘fore long.” “Here ‘fore long att’ll come back to bite ye.”

·         Ask is usually pronounced "ast" in the past tense, and sometimes also in the present (but not usually). "I done ast ye once't and now I'm fixin' to ask ye agin."

·         “Puttin’ on” (pronounced putt’n oan): pretending, in the sense of presenting yourself as something you are not, and often in the context of trying to convey a higher social or moral stature than you actually possess. “He ain’t all that –he’s just puttin’ on.”

·         Trespass is pronounced “truspass”

·         A bar of soap is called a CAKE of soap.

·         To my Minnesotan wife, “spatula” means both the sort of single-bladed thing you serve cake with and the larger thing with long vertical slits that you use when you fry things. The latter is NOT a spatula where I come from, it is an egg-turner.

·         It is not a “stove cap”, it is a “stove eye.”

·         You do not change the “tabs” on your license plate, you change the “tags.”
      You do not "loaf", you "loafer." "I'm just loaferin' today."

·             

·             

·            

            

      

        

       

   

   

                   

    

       

          

            

      

This list will grow over time, as I think of more words and phrases or they are pointed out to me (again, let me know of any I missed.) Meanwhile, bear in mind that the Southern Mountain Dialect is a legitimate dialect of the English language, and not a marker of intelligence or cultural inferiority. While it might seem strange (or exotic) to some, it is not something to laugh at or deride.

Note: I use a good bit of Southern dialect in my novel Good Rebel Soil: The Champ Ferguson Story, about the infamous Upper Cumberland Confederate guerrilla.

            

          

On the Confederate Flag

Troy D. Smith

This was not intended to be a blog post, but was actually a (VERY long) Facebook comment. It is one part history of the Confederate Flag and one part my take on the present controversy. I will just post it as I wrote it on Facebook, along with this image (culled from my American History I power point lecture.)

In all the discussion of the Confederate flag lately, there has been some confusion... in particular, even news anchors keep referring to what we today consider the "Rebel Flag" as the "Stars and Bars," which is inaccurate. What flies at the SC capitol grounds (but no longer from the capitol building, having been moved to a -more visible- Confederate memorial a few years ago) is the Confederate Battle Flag, which was the official flag of the Army of Northern Virgina (Lee's army); it also served as the Confederate Navy Jack for the second half of the war. The Army version was square, the navy one the more familiar rectangle. In other words, it was a military flag and not the flag of the Confederate States of America, though it was incorporated into later designs of that flag. 

The CSA went through four national flags, all shown in the image attached: The Bonnie Blue Flag (the first, and unofficial, flag- this is the one that South Carolinians were flying when they attacked Fort Sumter); The Stars and Bars (the ACTUAL Stars and Bars- which was very similar to the American flag, and the reason they needed a separate "battle flag", since U.S. and C.S national flags looked so similar it was confusing on the battlefield when you were trying to figure out who to shoot at). This was the official CSA flag for roughly the first half of the war; The Stainless Banner, which was the national flag for most of the second half of the war, and did in fact incorporate the battle flag; and The Blood-stained Banner, used in the final weeks of the war, which was basically the Stainless Banner with a red stripe added.

Someone asked me recently if I thought the Stars and Bars should be treated the same as the battle flag, so far as public outcry. Here's my take on that... on the one hand, the Stars and Bars represents the Confederate government, the one with the constitution that promoted slavery and white supremacy, which policy Confederate VP Alexander lauded as "the corner-stone of the Confederacy," whereas the battle flag, it could more effectively be argued, stood for, yes, the military arm of that government, but also the common soldiers who served. So from that perspective, the Civil War-centric arguments pro-and-con about the Rebel flag, one COULD argue, could shake out as the anti-flag folks' arguments pertaining MORE to the Stars and Bars than to the Battle Flag, since it officially represented the Confederacy, and latter-day defenders' arguments about the heritage of their ancestors' military service might have some bearing. 

BUT. All that is rendered moot by the fact that the Battle Flag did NOT just represent the common soldier, then or afterward. After all, the symbol caught on so well it became PART OF the national CSA flag. And afterward? We all know how the Rebel flag has been used by white supremacists, from right after the end of the war until the present. This is especially true since 1948, when it was used as a symbol by the segregationist Dixiecrat Party and caught on with white Southerners in that context. People have pointed out that the KKK was just as likely, in fact more likely, to use the U.S. flag as the Rebel one -but fail to take into account that this was in the 1920s, when anti-immigrant prejudice was at a fever pitch and when the Klan was truly national, not just Southern (in the 1920s, it has been estimated, one out of every seven white men in America was in the KKK.) 

But this was not the case in the 1950s and 60s, when the Battle Flag was used as an emblem of racist Southerners fighting against federally imposed desegregation. And THIS was the period during which most of the Rebel flags and neo-Confederate symbolism started being used bigtime, and started being flown over Southern state capitols or incorporated into Southern state flags (except Mississippi, who started using it in the 1890s at the dawn of the Jim Crow era.) The Confederate flag became part of the Georgia state flag in the late 1950s, at around the same time a lot of stuff in Tennessee started being named after Confederate general -and KKK founder -Nathan Bedford Forrest. During the Civil Rights era. To illustrate opposition to civil rights for black people. The Confederate Battle Flag was no doubt one of the last things a lot of black lynching victims saw down through the decades. 

So here's my take: both the Stars and Bars and the Battle Flag represent (1) the Confederacy, founded on the principles of slavery and white supremacy and (2) the Battle Flag especially went from being a military emblem of that government to being a symbol of racial terrorism, and it was actually in that capacity it was enshrined in Southern political venues, not in the 1860s but the 1960s. Not to mention, it was the flag of an illegally formed nation that treasonously attacked the United States (all these people who claim Lincoln and the Union "started" the Civil War somehow miss the fact that the Confederates fired on the U.S. outpost at Fort Sumter, thereby initiating hostilities.) For all these reasons, I believe any version of the Confederate flag has no business flying or being displayed at any federal, state, or local government site (unless it is a historically designated Civil War battlefield.) If you are a black citizen in South Carolina, YOUR GOVERNMENT and YOUR TAX DOLLARS support the flag of the Confederacy that tried to keep your ancestors enslaved- how fair is that? 

On the other hand, this is America; I believe that if you want to fly a Rebel flag at your house, or on your car, or any other private property (including your belt buckle or your T-shirt), that is your business and your right. Of course, Wal-mart and Amazon have the right to protect their business interests by staying away from controversy. But if you can want Confederate merchandise, and can find a place to buy it, that is your right. And others have the right to criticize you for it, and you have the right to criticize them right back. If your ancestor was in the Confederate military and you want to put Battle Flags on his grave, well, that is the flag he served. But it doesn't belong on anything government-sponsored, especially state flags and capitol buildings. And -as a region and as a nation- we all need to acknowledge just what the Confederacy was and quit romanticizing it, and let it be our past instead of our present (you don't have to glamorize the Confederacy to be a proud Southerner.) Finally, as a professional historian, I have not only the right but the duty and obligation to keep telling you the historical meaning of it all. (P.S.- yes, Virginia, the Civil War was primarily about slavery.)

Troy D. Smith

Assistant Professor of History

Tennessee Tech University

Author of Bound for the Promise-Land, Good Rebel Soil, and "Legacy of Blood: The Legend of Champ Ferguson" in People of the Upper Cumberland.

The Tragedy in Charleston: What Should We Do?

I am tired.

I had planned to be in bed by now, and I am so far behind on so many things people are depending on me to do. But I can’t rest just yet, not until I’ve articulated the thoughts swirling in my mind today while they are still fresh (and before the world has begun, as it always does, to move on.)

I managed to avoid making any comment whatsoever on social media about Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who has passed for years as black, because her story itself makes me tired. But today, with all the media attention to the horrible racist attack on the AME church in Charleston, SC (the church of Denmark Vesey, as it turns out), and especially the responses to it I’ve been seeing from conservatives (especially on Fox News, quelle surprise), I keep thinking about what Dolezal’s story says about white liberals, and what Fox’s responses (and many Republican politicians’) say about white conservatives. And how it all ties together.

Most white Americans don’t want to face racism, and the legacy of slavery. Understandable; it’s a hell of a thing to face. Being members of the dominant end of the racial hierarchy, of course, gives white folks the freedom (aka privilege) NOT to face such things, a freedom those victimized by the hierarchy have never had. This deliberate blindness takes different faces, though. One way to avoid facing race is to deny that it exists, or that you personally benefit from it –to say that it is over, it was the bad old days before you were born, and it has all been fixed so just get over it. This denial becomes intrinsic to certain political views, hence you have –not just politicians but “journalists” –saying it is impossible to know the shooter’s motives, or even to deduce them, unless maybe he was motivated by a hatred of Christmas or something.

That’s one way.

Another way is the route chosen by Rachel Dolezal, and by some other white folks in less dramatic ways. It is embarrassing to be part of the oppressive end of that hierarchy. We want to identify with the underdog. There is more honor to be had by playing the part of the oppressed than the oppressor. Dolezal went full-tilt with this approach, claiming not just affinity or empathy with the black experience but… the actual black experience. Which is patently ridiculous, like the prince dressing as a pauper and claiming a full understanding of pauperism… when all he has to do is put his crown back on and he is back on the ruling side, an option denied the myriad paupers. A similar, but less dramatic, example was recently when Ben Affleck –the subject of one of those “discover your ancestry” TV shows –tried to hide the fact that one of his ancestors was a slave trader. That does not fit in with his personal identity as a New England liberal “good guy.” It was embarrassing.

There are a couple of huge problems with this approach (beyond the dissembling.)

Number one. As white Americans, it is absolutely essential that we FACE THE TRUTH ABOUT RACE. It is what this country was built on, and continues to echo into the present. It is the foundation, the chassis, of our society, and simply ignoring that will never change anything. We have to recognize our privilege, and yes, our communal culpability. We weren’t around back then, true, but we’re around now and we are benefiting from the accrued advantages of whiteness whether we recognize or admit it or not. Even if, like me, you grew up poor and disadvantaged in other ways. Dolezal and Affleck did not want to do this. They didn’t want to be associated with the “bad guys.” Again, who could blame them.  My point is: we have to face up to our cultural (and family) pasts, all of us.

Number two. Now, I know Dolezal did a lot of good things (as has Mr. Affleck). But she missed a chance to do it in a much more appropriate way. Rather than culturally appropriating blackness, she could have worked just as hard without fudging on her background. What this would have done: given her the opportunity to take advantage of her privilege… to combat privilege. To deconstruct it, to work against it from the inside. To work in a supporting role at some times, and to step to the fore at others.  Many people of color that I know grow weary of being expected to explain the most fundamental things about race over and over again to a white audience; white folks who get it have a responsibility to keep trying to explain it to those who don’t, but without pushing people of color out of the spotlight when they are talking about their own lived experiences.

What this approach would NOT have done for Ms. Dolezal: allow her to be the victim. What it would not have done for Ben Affleck: allow him to be the scion of a spotlessly heroic family. Well… too bad.

Most American Indian tribes in North America believed (and still believe) in community responsibility, more than individual responsibility. If your group collectively did something to disrupt the spiritual balance of the universe, it was your responsibility to do what you could to fix it, whether you personally had performed the actions or not. I believe in this philosophy. It is not white guilt: it is white culpability and responsibility. Not responsibility in a “White Man’s Burden / Nobless Oblige” sense, tied to saviorism; responsibility in the American Indian sense, the acknowledgement that your people have messed up and it is the duty of all of you to do something about it. It must have been very tempting to Dolezal to immerse herself so deeply into black culture, and into fighting injustice, that she came to view and promote herself as black –but in a very real way, in doing so she was shirking her duty in that fight. That duty: to recognize and acknowledge her privilege, and to renounce the system that privileged her.

What does that look like? On a day like this…. When an acknowledged racist has slain nine black people at a historic black church, and many white people refuse to see race in it all, just as they refuse to see race in the spate of killings of unarmed black men (and children)… what does it look like?

It means raising your voice, fellow Caucasoid individuals. It means saying “No, this IS about race, it IS about privilege. I am benefited by it, but I condemn it, and I am calling for an end to it.” It means standing in support of our brothers and sisters of color- without having what I think of as a “Tarzan moment” when we swoop in and tell them how they should feel and react, and show them the “right way” to do it. And “lead” them (cough cough, Rachel Dolezal.) But most of all, it means admitting, and explaining to our fellow white folks. Especially at times like this.

Again I say: I am so tired. Many of you are, as well. But we have miles to go before we sleep.

God bless the members of the Emanuel AME Church, and God strengthen us all.

Labor Day Musings: Why Unions Still Matter

Sometimes students complain to me that my American History survey classes are an endless refrain of “race, race, race,” or “labor, labor, labor,” or a combination of the two. And they are right, to an extent, though I do cover other things as well… but those two topics have been huge factors in American history, and they do often intersect.

I teach at Tennessee Tech University, my undergrad alma mater, located a few miles from my home town (which is Sparta –TTU is in nearby Cookeville.) I did my graduate work at the University of Illinois, at Champaign-Urbana; the two regions are very different, in a lot of ways, not the least of which is the communities’ viewpoints on organized labor. There is plenty of anti-union sentiment in “Chambana” –we learned that when our graduate employees’ organization went on strike (successfully) in 2009. But there was also plenty of pro-union sentiment, and people from a wide range of backgrounds who refused to cross picket lines. In the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee, on the other hand, there seems to be an almost universal feeling among the populace that unions are ineffective, corrupt, and even evil. And that Tennessee is just not a union place, and never has been.

And it’s no wonder they feel that way. Since I’m a historian, here’s where I start throwing dates at you. In 1946 Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress for the first time since the beginning of the Depression –in other words, they were out of power for all four of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s terms (his fourth one mostly filled by his VP, Harry Truman, as FDR died not far into it.) Now that they were back in the game, the GOP wanted to undo as many of FDR’s liberal accomplishments as possible, starting with labor unions –which had grown considerably in the 1930s and 1940s, helped by the Wagner Act (officially, the National Labor Relations Act of 1935), which had legally secured many of the rights unions had been fighting to achieve for decades. Organized labor stood at a high point at the end of WWII, with one quarter of the American workforce unionized. During the Roosevelt years, in fact, the general public perception of unions had shifted from “they’re all a bunch of communist socialist foreign-influenced troublemakers” (the 1920s, in some ways the most conservative decade in American history) to “Look for the union label –made in America! Unions help preserve freedom!” (WWII.)

In 1947 Congress passed an amendment to the 1935 Wagner Act, the Taft-Hartley Act (or, the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947.) President Truman vetoed it, but there were enough votes to override his veto. The new law tilted the balance significantly away from labor and toward management, in sundry ways –but one of the most significant was that it gave individual states the right to pass “right-to-work” laws. The Wagner Act had protected the “closed shop” –employers had to agree to hire only union workers. Taft-Hartley made this illegal, but there was still the option to have “union shops”, in which you didn’t have to be a union member to get a job, but you had to join the union within a specified time period. “Right-to-work” laws outlawed that system as well; in essence, you have the “right to work” without having to join a union.

And on the surface, that doesn’t sound so bad, does it? The very name has positive connotations –heck, everyone should have the right to work, right?

Here is a little exercise I use in class to explain the effects of late 19^th century Taylorization, or scientific management, on factory work (it took a lot of power away from specialized craftsmen –the approach was nicknamed after its principal architect, Frederick Winslow Taylor) as well as to demonstrate the practical effects of “right-to-work.”

THE PAPER AIRPLANE FACTORY

All right, students- this classroom is now a paper airplane factory, and I am the owner. Under the old craftsman-and-apprentice way of doing things –in place till the late 19^th century –I would rely on a small number of skilled craftsmen to supervise the building of my paper airplanes. They would serve as gang bosses, and have a crew of apprentices. [at this point, I ask who knows how to make a paper airplane –nowadays, a minority of students.] As owner, I don’t have to know anything about how the process works, I just need to supply the funds.

Okay… all you folks who have the specialized knowledge of how to make a paper airplane, you are gang bosses; I’m going to pay you a dollar a day. The rest of the students are your helpers, they get fifty cents a day. And good news, I’ve decided to give one lucky gang boss a ten dollar bonus! We’re going to have a contest to see who gets the prize. The first person to successfully make and launch a paper airplane is the winner. I have helpers assigned to carefully monitor each of you, to see how you do it. Now –go!

We have a winner –one minute, forty-five seconds. Congratulations, you get the ten dollar prize!

Now- all you gang bosses are fired. I have carefully observed and recorded your paper airplane building technique, and I don’t need you anymore –now I have the manufacturing knowledge. Plus, I now know it is humanly possible to make a paper airplane in exactly one minute and forty-five seconds –so now that is what I expect from all the rest of you, all day long. And I am cutting your wages to 35 cents a day.

At this point I ask the students if there is anything they could have done to prevent me from taking those actions. The answer: they could have organized. If they had all stood together, there is at least a chance they could have prevented the scenario from working out so much to their detriment. How many of you wish you had organized? [Just about everyone raises their hand.]

Now- how many of you would have been willing, out of your fifty cents a day pay, to give ten cents of it into a common fund to support your organizing actions? [Almost no one raises their hand.]

Under a closed or union shop, you’d all make the same investment in dues, and you’d have a common fund to draw from to support any action you chose to take. Under right-to-work, or an open shop, only those who volunteered to contribute would have to –and only a small fraction would do so, maybe 10% at most. Let’s say there are a hundred workers; in this scenario, you’d have a union, but it would only have ten members –and it would not be strong enough to accomplish anything. Let’s say you went on strike –ten percent of a workforce can be easily replaced. If you did get any concessions, it would probably apply to the whole workforce –meaning even less incentive for anyone to join, as they could get any potential benefits (if there were any) with no personal risk. Plus, all of the workers would have less security because they would have no powerful union to protect their interests; it is no accident that right-to-work states are also fire-at-will states. As President Obama put it, it is actually “the right to work for less money.” It is also no accident that the decline in power (and public prestige) of unions has been paralleled by decreasing power for workers.

Back to Taft-Hartley. The law was passed in 1947, and states were allowed to pass right-to-work laws if they wished. Guess which states did? States in the South, and parts of the West:

Note that Iowa is among the blue states; their right-to-work law was passed in the 1980s. Here is a more recent map, reflecting the recent laws passed in the Industrial Midwest: Indiana and Michigan have both joined the right-to-work column in 2013, thanks to Republican-dominated legislatures. There have been similar efforts, so far thwarted, in Wisconsin and Ohio.

Incidentally, here is a map of the poorest states as of 2000, pre-Great Recession:

And here is a map showing the poverty levels in 2009, POST Great Recession:

Looking at all those maps shows us that the economic downturn has hit the “Rust Belt” of the Industrial Midwest pretty hard, and hasn’t spared the West Coast, either, as a lot of states have moved into poverty since the recession hit.

But notice something else. As of 2000, of the twelve states with the highest poverty rates, 8 had been right-to-work states for half a century. That’s 2/3. Of the 12 states with the LOWEST poverty rate, only ONE had a right-to-work law. Looking at the 12 NEXT-highest poverty states in 2000, the “3^rd Quartile,” 9 of them had right-to-work laws.

The right to work for less.

Of course, the 2009 map looks different…. Generally speaking, all the states that had high poverty a decade earlier still did, but several more had joined them- particularly in the Midwest, which was hit very hard by the recession. This would explain why some residents in that area have been influenced by the conservative media campaign telling them that unions have not helped them, and that all their jobs have gone to right-to-work states. But the fact is, looking at the longterm effects of right-to-work on the South in particular, the longer a state operates under that system the poorer its citizens get.

And what a media campaign it has been. For the first time in my memory, teachers, firemen, and police have been painted as bad guys –lazy, opportunistic parasites, sucking away your hard-earned tax dollars because they are unionized. Those are the most important jobs in this country, and I’ve never known anyone who filled them who was paid what that job ought to be worth. Yet in the 21^st century they’re being demonized.

When I talk to people who are anti-union, or undecided, the first thing I point out to them (naturally) is the fact that there is a long list of benefits most of us have today –safety regulations, a 40-hour week, overtime for hourly employees who go over that, sick leave, vacation time, paid holidays –all of it won by unions. 

“Well, sure,” they often reply. “But that was the past. We don’t need unions anymore, we have all that stuff.”

Here’s the deal. We have that stuff because people struggled, and people died, to get it. Right here in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee, there was violent suppression of the United Mine Workers in the 1930s; it was even worse in West Virginia in the ‘20s. If you haven’t seen the film Matewan, you need to –and you should read about Tennessee’s Wilder strike HERE.

If all those gains are allowed to be lost, someone else is going to have to struggle to get them back. And inaction will inevitably lead to their loss. Why has there been such a right-to-work battle in the Midwest, traditionally a strong union area? Because in the 2010 midterm elections there was a lot of apathy among progressives because President Obama’s promised change wasn’t coming fast enough, and a lot of them stayed home on the day of the midterm elections. And a conservative wave passed through the state legislatures of this country, and now we are seeing the result. They may not have crippled the power of unions in Wisconsin and Ohio, but they did so in Michigan, “home base” of the American labor movement… so they’re not going to quit trying.

But they can only succeed if we let them. The people, united, will never be defeated.