INTRODUCTION
J.D. Vance starts his memoir with a confession. I will start this commentary with one. I confess that I did not want to read this book as it seemed nothing but an excuse for why poor, rural, white people voted for Donald Trump. It may yet turn out to be that.
I am struck, however, by what I think Vance's actual goal was: to explain the effects of poverty and its attendant social isolation without the distraction of the racial filter.
What Vance does not know though is that there is always a racial filter. Even the fact that he seeks to explain poverty in a white environment so people can "get it" has the cloud of the white filter.
Trust me. Black people of all socioeconomic levels get how "deep anger and resentment" lead their communities to despair, turning them into "hub(s) of misery". Nevertheless, Vance diligently and earnestly seeks to explain how the demons of that life, even when "left behind" continue to haunt a life.
This is evidence that the racial filter simply cannot be dropped: what Vance doesn't seem to know is that black people do not ever get to leave that life behind - even if they were never actually in it (me); even if they transcend it. Just ask Obama.
Still, I will continue to read and reflect as I go, but as a black, city-centered woman, I expect I will learn much more about living in rural America than I will about climbing the jungle gym to The American Dream. But if Vance thought I would be surprised about the desperate lives of some poor white people, he has another think coming.
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