National Perceptions of Arkansas (Ozark, Clinton: relocating, house, business)

[gonzotg]

Those who have read my posts know that I am in the process of relocating from NC to AR.

Yesterday was my oldest daughter’s open house at her school. She is in the second grade and one of the curriculum items is to learn about the states. While discussing our situation with her teacher, I observed small (page sized) posters strung along the wall for each state. Each poster naming a state with graphic representation of what the state is known for. North Carolina has an airplane and a microscope, South Carolina has a palm tree and the crescent moon and a beach, Michigan has cars, boats etc. You get the picture. When we get to Arkansas there is a picture of a HILLBILLY toting a SHOTGUN (overalls and all) and a diamond. Now these are not made by the kids, this is a store bought teaching aid. I hope that I am misconstruing this and I am unawares that this may be some great figure in history but the overalls…

[Sam I Am]

I like my overalls....

As far as being backward, I said a silent thank you to the powers that be that it wasn't Miss Teen Arkansas that bungled the question in competition...but bless her heart (and I think she was just stressed out of her mind), that young girl from SC surely didn't do anything for her state...oooo, sorry, OT way bad! At least the picture at your child's school wasn't of the former president....

Back to the question/problem - yes, I think that is probably the general concensus of not only Arkansas, but much of the south. 's okay, though, it keeps the riff raff out Other than the disgruntled few who don't like their lot in life, I think the people on this forum have shown just exactly what a lovely state this is. We are always slightly amused when we run into someone who is passing through Arkansas and their reaction to the state. Arkansas is almost always not what they had envisioned.

[Jeremy01506]

Originally Posted by gonzotg

When we get to Arkansas there is a picture of a HILLBILLY toting a SHOTGUN (overalls and all) and a diamond. Now these are not made by the kids, this is a store bought teaching aid. I hope that I am misconstruing this and I am unawares that this may be some great figure in history but the overalls…

You did point out how inappropriate this is for 2nd graders, I hope? As a parent, I would be bothered by my school system using stereotypes in ANY capacity to teach!

[Sam I Am]

Originally Posted by Jeremy01506

You did point out how inappropriate this is for 2nd graders, I hope? As a parent, I would be bothered by my school system using stereotypes in ANY capacity to teach!

Jeremy, I completely missed the 2nd grade part, good catch......oh, for the love of pete - not that it matters, I just assumed this was sort of a caricature thing for older kids.

I hope your whole family stood tall and said you were moving to Arkansas...it is worth being proud of! You would have thought the teacher might have caught on that stereotyping is really kind of uncool these days. Wonder what company makes those visual aids? Wonder if they'd like to hear from Arkansas?

[arguy1973]

I dont think most arkansans really care about caricatures or what anybody elses opinion of us is anyways....we do our own thing, we arent politically correct nor care to be for the most part, I love my state, and thank God I was born here. Picture of a hillbilly? no biggie

[gentlearts]

Originally Posted by gonzotg

Those who have read my posts know that I am in the process of relocating from NC to AR.

Yesterday was my oldest daughter’s open house at her school. She is in the second grade and one of the curriculum items is to learn about the states. While discussing our situation with her teacher, I observed small (page sized) posters strung along the wall for each state. Each poster naming a state with graphic representation of what the state is known for. North Carolina has an airplane and a microscope, South Carolina has a palm tree and the crescent moon and a beach, Michigan has cars, boats etc. You get the picture. When we get to Arkansas there is a picture of a HILLBILLY toting a SHOTGUN (overalls and all) and a diamond. Now these are not made by the kids, this is a store bought teaching aid. I hope that I am misconstruing this and I am unawares that this may be some great figure in history but the overalls…

I don't know anything about Arkansas, however, could the "hillbilly" possibly be an early settler, a pioneer? The poster may be just trying to depict them and their history. Maybe you are bringing a preconceived notion?

[sherrenee]

Someone needs to inform the rest of the world that Arkansas is home of many of the worlds top companies (ie Wal Mart, JB Hunt, Tyson, Rice Land etc). Perhaps some of us aren't such "dumb hillbillies".

[Stormcrow73]

Gentlearts, the simple fact is, many Arkansans, none of whom I know fit the hillbilly stereotype, are offended by the portrayal of Arkansans as hillbillies. It's sort of like expecting the NAACP to be ok with a blackface representation of African-Americans, it is antiquated and is not acceptable in our society. Perhaps you should do a bit of research. From the Encyclopedia of Arkansas:

"In modern American popular culture, the term hillbilly is often used interchangeably with other epithets for poor white people such as “redneck,” “cracker,” or “white trash.” But, throughout much of the twentieth century, the word hillbilly conjured a character whose geographic origins were more narrowly defined. Referring to poor, uneducated whites, generally in the Appalachians or the Ozarks but not always confined to these two Southern highland regions, the hillbilly made his literary debut only in 1900, in the pages of the New York Journal. The term was likely in common use, however, in the rural South by the late nineteenth century. Although the subjects of the Journal piece were residents of the Alabama hills, the first scholarly use of the term appeared four years later in a study of Arkansas Ozarks dialect. One can argue that “hillbilly” and Arkansas have been synonymous ever since."

"Arkansas’s most blatant symbol of the hillbilly stereotype, Dogpatch, went out of business in the early 1990s, but any hopes that the state finally had outrun its hillbilly image came crashing down during the 1992 election and early presidency of Bill Clinton. Metropolitan reporters and cartoonists joined Ross Perot in hammering Arkansas and its governor, and, despite his Yale law degree and his status as a Rhodes Scholar, Clinton often was depicted as the yokel leader of a hillbilly state. Almost 175 years after Schoolcraft first expressed disdain for the backcountry denizens of Arkansas territory, the little state of Arkansas, and supposed hillbillies everywhere, continued to absorb the barbs of more urbane visitors and pundits."

While I am from Arkansas, I am neither poor nor uneducated and I am offended by the iconography with so many negative connotations.

[Sam I Am]

Storm...

"iconography"....wow, you IS educated! LOL!

[arguy1973]

most of us is WAY too busy huntin and fishin and stuff to care about what the rest of the country thanks about us...lol