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I have a lot of family there and this is dead on. There are a few houses in Raytown like that, but for the most part Raytown is just blue collar and modest neighborhoods. Raytown is also pretty diverse anymore. African American version of white trash exist, but not really in Raytown. I think you will find more of that in places like KCK. Some areas around Raytown (kcmo city limits) have more white trashy areas than Raytown itself. Blue Ridge Blvd between the stadiums and 470 for example is mostly KCMO. Ruskin/Hickman Mills have more trashy areas than Raytown. Raytown is just not that bad of a place.
Independence has a fair share. Not enough to label the entire city as a white trash city though. Most of Independence is also just blue collar and modest, yet rather well maintained homes and good people. Some corridors of Independence look bad like Highway 40, but the neighborhoods are generally stable and solid and not trashy at all. That changes as you go north though. North of 23rd things get pretty weird. The Independence Walmart seems to be the epicenter of the white trash of the area. You can go to the Target across the street and it seems as normal as any target in the metro, but that Walmart is pure culture shock. The other Walmart in Independence (old blue ridge mall) has more urban clientele than white trash. I would rather go there. I find KCK to be much worse than Independence. Maybe it's getting better because of Village West, but KCK never really had a highly developed suburban/affluent area to offset some of the poor areas and KCK seems to have a more rural culture than Independence. The nice parts of Independence are much more connected to the city while KCK's village west is sort of by itself with little residential and Bonner Springs (really most of west wyco) is off the charts when it comes to having a rural/blue collar and even white trash feel to it. Buckner, MO seems pretty bad too.
Good point
Me too! Who wouldn't want to do that? Since moving to the east coast, I find rural areas of PA, NJ etc to be much worse than MO or KS and white trash type areas exist in metro Philly, Baltimore etc just as much as metro KC if not more, especially in urban areas. Just thought I would say that. This is absolutely not just a KC or even midwestern thing. But yea, nothing wrong with having some redneck fun I suppose, that's why they have state fairs haha.
It's not even mainly a Midwestern thing, which was the point of my previous post in the thread. KC has less than some areas in the East and much less than many areas in California.
....African American version of white trash exist, but not really in Raytown. I think you will find more of that in places like KCK....
I know what you mean, but really I think plain old ghetto is the black equivalent of white trash and that white trash don't always fit the common stereotype. However, I think there's a lot of what you were alluding to exists in east KCMO, but you're right that it exists in KCK. Overall, KCK's blacks are more "country", I think (I've said it before and I'll say it again, despite being in the immediate or even center of the metro, KCK seems detached as if it were 50 miles away). A lot of black people in the hood are basically hicks. They may be in the middle of the city, but many have been isolated amongst those similar to themselves for multiple generations. A lot of people don't see that because somehow their difference in skin color somehow blocks them from doing so, and/or they're just not exposed. I have intimate familiarity with the 27th and Elmwood area, so I know first hand, and I would imagine Quindaro is the same. Both areas look like they could be small towns in Mississippi.
It's not even mainly a Midwestern thing, which was the point of my previous post in the thread. KC has less than some areas in the East and much less than many areas in California.
True story.
While I was working in KC at a crown center engineering firm, we had some people from our Oakland office come out and help us because we were shorthanded and they had nothing to do. There was a younger girl just out of college that I was working directly with and we had to go out into the "field" for a project in Overland Park.
This girl was nice enough, but as with most visitors from California, she came to KC with an attitude that KC was a rural dump basically. Lots of backhanded comments and was always looking for reasons to justify her thoughts of KC and the midwest. Even after arriving, I think it was difficult for her to comprehend that the KC office was in a very urban and built up city, a city that felt larger and was definitely nicer than their downtown Oakland office (which I have been to a few times). So she was having a hard time finding reasons to substantiate here preconceived and stereotypical horrid stay in "Kansas". No matter how many times she was told about here being in Missouri, KC was "Kansas" to her, not Kansas City. Most of her visiting co-workers had similar attitudes. Having dealt with a lot of CA employees, they seem to come to KC destined to hate it and most do make themselves miserable in the process, but it had nothing to do with KC.
Anyway, I drove us to the location in Overland Park and driving south on I-35, toward 69 (Just typical suburbia), we were passed by what looked like the most redneck, hillbilly pickup truck I had seen in a long time. She started to comment on the truck and as it passed......It had California plates!
It was great karma and she was pretty quiet the rest of the trip, she even mentioned that Overland Park reminded her of suburban parts of the bay area. I'm sure she went home and made fun of "kansas" though and told everybody that it really is a flat, rural, redneck place and she hopes she never has to come back.
Now that I'm on the east coast, I around people everyday that think the same way about anything between DC and the west coast and I do have to remind them once in a while that there are some great cities in "flyover country" many larger and have more to do than many of the bigger cities out here and the rural areas out here are actually more redneck and hillbilly run down than the working class rural areas of the midwest. I find it comical.
I know what you mean, but really I think plain old ghetto is the black equivalent of white trash and that white trash don't always fit the common stereotype. However, I think there's a lot of what you were alluding to exists in east KCMO, but you're right that it exists in KCK. Overall, KCK's blacks are more "country", I think (I've said it before and I'll say it again, despite being in the immediate or even center of the metro, KCK seems detached as if it were 50 miles away). A lot of black people in the hood are basically hicks. They may be in the middle of the city, but many have been isolated amongst those similar to themselves for multiple generations. A lot of people don't see that because somehow their difference in skin color somehow blocks them from doing so, and/or they're just not exposed. I have intimate familiarity with the 27th and Elmwood area, so I know first hand, and I would imagine Quindaro is the same. Both areas look like they could be small towns in Mississippi.
yep. However, the poor blacks in KCK are more country or I guess southern sort of while the poor blacks in KCMO tend to be more urban. Still often isoloated and ignorant, but a differnt culture.
KCK could be more like 500 miles southeast of KC, yet it's part of the metro. KCMO has small parts like that, but they are very small in relation to the rest of the city which has a more large midwestern urban culture.
While I was working in KC at a crown center engineering firm, we had some people from our Oakland office come out and help us because we were shorthanded and they had nothing to do. There was a younger girl just out of college that I was working directly with and we had to go out into the "field" for a project in Overland Park.
This girl was nice enough, but as with most visitors from California, she came to KC with an attitude that KC was a rural dump basically. Lots of backhanded comments and was always looking for reasons to justify her thoughts of KC and the midwest. Even after arriving, I think it was difficult for her to comprehend that the KC office was in a very urban and built up city, a city that felt larger and was definitely nicer than their downtown Oakland office (which I have been to a few times). So she was having a hard time finding reasons to substantiate here preconceived and stereotypical horrid stay in "Kansas". No matter how many times she was told about here being in Missouri, KC was "Kansas" to her, not Kansas City. Most of her visiting co-workers had similar attitudes. Having dealt with a lot of CA employees, they seem to come to KC destined to hate it and most do make themselves miserable in the process, but it had nothing to do with KC.
Anyway, I drove us to the location in Overland Park and driving south on I-35, toward 69 (Just typical suburbia), we were passed by what looked like the most redneck, hillbilly pickup truck I had seen in a long time. She started to comment on the truck and as it passed......It had California plates!
It was great karma and she was pretty quiet the rest of the trip, she even mentioned that Overland Park reminded her of suburban parts of the bay area. I'm sure she went home and made fun of "kansas" though and told everybody that it really is a flat, rural, redneck place and she hopes she never has to come back.
Now that I'm on the east coast, I around people everyday that think the same way about anything between DC and the west coast and I do have to remind them once in a while that there are some great cities in "flyover country" many larger and have more to do than many of the bigger cities out here and the rural areas out here are actually more redneck and hillbilly run down than the working class rural areas of the midwest. I find it comical.
Good story.
But you understand, don't you, that the sole reason that she kept referring to Kansas is simply the name Kansas City, right? Kids here are the least educated geographically of any I have ever encountered, and don't have a clue about the metro straddling the state line....or about much of anything else outside their little personal spheres. In terms of what they see as Hicksville in middle America, Kansas and Missouri are one and the same. That's why you could say Missouri 'til your blue in the face and it didn't register....and it wouldn't with a large portion of the population outside of the metro. In the big picture, it's a distinction without a difference.
But you understand, don't you, that the sole reason that she kept referring to Kansas is simply the name Kansas City, right? Kids here are the least educated geographically of any I have ever encountered, and don't have a clue about the metro straddling the state line....or about much of anything else outside their little personal spheres. In terms of what they see as Hicksville in middle America, Kansas and Missouri are one and the same. That's why you could say Missouri 'til your blue in the face and it didn't register....and it wouldn't with a large portion of the population outside of the metro. In the big picture, it's a distinction without a difference.
It's not just the kids.
When I moved from STL to KC in 1991, people of all ages in St. Louis assumed I was moving to Kansas (I moved to Westport) and when I corrected them and reminded them that KCMO is, in fact, the largest city in the state, they hemmed and hawed...
It's been the same story no matter where I was and no matter what the age to this very day. Unless they'd actually BEEN there, 99% of people think that the "Kansas City" with the sports teams is in Kansas, and is surprised when I correct them.
But you understand, don't you, that the sole reason that she kept referring to Kansas is simply the name Kansas City, right? Kids here are the least educated geographically of any I have ever encountered, and don't have a clue about the metro straddling the state line....or about much of anything else outside their little personal spheres. In terms of what they see as Hicksville in middle America, Kansas and Missouri are one and the same. That's why you could say Missouri 'til your blue in the face and it didn't register....and it wouldn't with a large portion of the population outside of the metro. In the big picture, it's a distinction without a difference.
Oh yea, I completely agree with that. Most people outside of KC call the city "Kansas" without the city, even if they know it's in Missouri. If you travel a lot, you just go with it and ignore it. I rarely correct people now.
But I will say this. As ignorant as people on the east coast are about the midwest, and specifically KC, they don't begin to compare to California. I have spent a great deal of time in CA and they barely know what's going on in their own cities, let alone on the other side of the Rockies. They live in a bubble more than any other part of the country IMO.
ha ha love this Gladstone defintely has some white trash pockets, no doubt about it. Id swear the girl in the beginning of the video with the booze gut is my ex girlfriends sister from Mosby, MO as well as several other of the motley looking crew out having fun.
When I moved from STL to KC in 1991, people of all ages in St. Louis assumed I was moving to Kansas (I moved to Westport) and when I corrected them and reminded them that KCMO is, in fact, the largest city in the state, they hemmed and hawed...
It's been the same story no matter where I was and no matter what the age to this very day. Unless they'd actually BEEN there, 99% of people think that the "Kansas City" with the sports teams is in Kansas, and is surprised when I correct them.
You're right - it's not just the kids. I guess I used the term kid simply because of the individual he described.
Here in California, the educational vacuum is breathtaking across the spectrum of ages.
Edit: Despite what I wrote above, which is based on 24 years of direct personal observation, you will see media articles galore referring to the Bay Area as one of the best educated metros. Don't believe it for a second, because it is the worst of any in which I've ever lived.
Last edited by CrownVic95; 01-07-2014 at 02:43 PM..
Oh yea, I completely agree with that. Most people outside of KC call the city "Kansas" without the city, even if they know it's in Missouri. If you travel a lot, you just go with it and ignore it. I rarely correct people now.
But I will say this. As ignorant as people on the east coast are about the midwest, and specifically KC, they don't begin to compare to California. I have spent a great deal of time in CA and they barely know what's going on in their own cities, let alone on the other side of the Rockies. They live in a bubble more than any other part of the country IMO.
Yep....see post above.
I have to come to C-D to talk to smart people.
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Since moving to the east coast, I find rural areas of PA, NJ etc to be much worse than MO or KS and white trash type areas exist in metro Philly, Baltimore etc just as much as metro KC if not more, especially in urban areas. Just thought I would say that. This is absolutely not just a KC or even midwestern thing. But yea, nothing wrong with having some redneck fun I suppose, that's why they have state fairs haha.
Gladstone defintely has some white trash pockets, no doubt about it. Id swear the girl in the beginning of the video with the booze gut is my ex girlfriends sister from Mosby, MO as well as several other of the motley looking crew out having fun.
