"College professors began to use them as textbooks in sociology classes."(O'Brien, 2003).
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After reading this article and seeing the college professors were using stories that viewed as journalistic accounts and used them as textbooks. I find this to be very offensive and completely inappropriate. It truly amazes me how college professors would take exaggerated stories written about "backward people" and use them in their textbooks. When these stories were written about the people from Appalachia the authors made these people look like "violent moutain folk" just because of where they lived. The people of Appalachia were manipulated due to the valuable resources on their land. These people were pushed off of thier land and forced to give up what they had worked hard for.
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I found this article talks about CBS wanting to cast a "Real Beverly Hillbillies" reality show but was not aired due to various advocacy groups. (Keeling , 2007 ) This article also givies good information about the many different sterotypes that come with living in West Virginia.
Here is my link to my resource.
References:
Keeling , J. (2007 , December 4). West virginia stereotypes: don't believe the hype. Retrieved from http://www.abetterwestvirginia.com/2007/12/04/west-virginia-stereotypes-dont-believe-the-hype/
O'Brien, J. (2003, May 5). Tall tales of appalachia . Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/10/opinion/tall-tales-of-appalachia.html
I actually wrote about this on my blog too. How anyone could use these stories as journalistic accounts is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteUsing that stuff in textbooks is insane. Would very much be like using cartoon characters in textbooks, which would be absurd. Also, think about how many West Virginian's would watch and even try to be on the show? West Virginian's must take the first step to change the problem. -Alyssa
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point, Simon. I would think most college professors would be able to find articles that are credible and not false implications. Generalizations seem to be made about people and places all over the world. However, when this hits close to home in West Virginia then it helps put into perspective the importance of not judging and falsely accusing people.
ReplyDeleteWhats surprising to me is not that the professors used false accounts in their textbooks, but that people will actually believe such absurd stories!
ReplyDeleteIt is funny to me that so many college professors stress the use of only valid and reliable sources when writing any sort of paper however they themselves are using these fictitious to teach about the people in the Appalachian areas.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see that other college students feel the same way
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