The White Privilege of Whitesville West Virginia

I would like to show you this small little town in the middle of West Virginia that I grew up in a place that I call home Whitesville West Virginia [Music] most of the businesses have closed in this small town there's currently one gas station here so they kind of do some price gouging because it's about an hour drive in either direction to civilization there's still no cell phone service here and people don't have much choice you either shop at these shopping centers where a gallon of milk can call six dollars a gallon or you drive an hour down the road back in the day this town used to be booming with the coal mining industry that was their way of life that's how they survived people came here to mine the coal but like all good things that endeavour came to an end with the modernization of machinery you needed less manpower more automation was involved so as that went down so did the price of hiring coal miners went down too so they're getting paid less to do their job and there are less jobs for them to do now [Music] [Music] [Applause] this is one of the houses I grew up in in this town my family moved around a lot didn't have a lot growing up seeing it now is crazy then seeing it back then living here you know it's clearly condemned now most of the other places we lived in were destroyed you know either they've caught fire because they were in such bad poor conditions they're just not there anymore there are trailers that were moved away or they were just condemned and just tore down this is one of them they're still standing there's probably maybe there's maybe two or three more that are around we moved around a lot but this is one of the last spots I lived in in Whitesville I remember the first time I met my first black person was when I was maybe 13 or 14 in middle school and he was cool he was one of the one of the guys like nobody treated him any differently based on what he looked like everyone that's treated equally you know whether you're man woman white black brown blue purple nobody cares here Whitesville is a very welcoming community for anyone who wants to come here there are warrants a lot of businesses here back in the 40s and 50s it was a cool little town they had a bowling alley there was a youth center there was a lot of things for kids to do but now there's not so people were moving out you either go into the coal mines you go into the military or you just stay on the teat of the system maybe a welfare program or something and just try to survive rent is extremely cheap most of these apartment buildings are all tore down and vacant now too [Music] [Applause] [Music] there are differences between white privilege as you would see it and racism racism is an actual thing that exists in reality white privilege is a blanket term you're giving to all white people you're giving them a negative connotation you're all your lumping them all together as being privileged when that isn't necessarily the case there could be a case of racism in Alabama maybe a cop pulls over a black person or a brown person and it's unjust maybe the cop is racist but let's seek that racist let's find that racist and make him pay for his crimes let's not attribute racism to the entire white race I feel that the term white privilege is something newer that has just been invented because people who feel oppressed people who feel victimized want someone to blame they want a scapegoat for their pain so they're going to put that on the white man and I have never ever felt white privilege in my entire life I've never walked into a bank and been thrusted to the front of the line that said sir here's your white privilege would you like your loan today I've never once skipped over a minority for a job for a loan for any type of reason I've been pulled over by cops I've been given tickets I've been harassed myself and cops they have a job to do they're not gonna pull you over and be the nicest individual there's a difference in what how you interact with those police and how you were taught to interact with those police that is the main thing that's going to determine whether they're mean or nice to you in that interaction some people are taught that cops are terrible human beings that they're gonna pull you over harass you just based on your skin color they don't care about you feelings they don't care about you they're just gonna harass you based on what you look like growing up I was taught when a police officer pulls you over you put your hand on Tannen to you let the cop come up to your door the top presents himself it could be aggressive it could be mean it could be pleasant however the situation is doesn't matter he's gonna present himself he's going to ask for your license and registration sir may I reached in the glove box to get that those materials for you sir sir treat him with respect he is the authority in the situation and I don't care what skin color you are I don't care what gender you are one of the many hundred genders there are I don't care about any of that if you treat that officer with respect he's probably gonna treat you with respect as well some people are raised differently though and they are taught cops hates you cops want to hurt you cops want to shoot you and kill you so when you get pulled over by a cop with that mindset that terrible negative mindset you go you may have an attitude with the office or you you may already hate that man or woman before they even come up to the door say hello my name is officer Bob you may already hate that man because of what you've been taught as a child what you've been conditioned to believe that he hates you and wants to kill you and I get it with that type of conditioning of course you're gonna hate the officer but if you don't treat him with respect and you're aggressive towards him more than likely he's gonna be aggressive towards you too so that's when you would be asked to step out of the car put your hands behind your back Yatta Yatta Yatta [Music] [Applause] [Music] they used to be businesses in almost all of these buildings but over time they've just been deteriorating I think you could lease these buildings for a $1 per year what the problem is to fix it up and put something in it but they're leasing them out dirt cheap just to get businesses back to this small town this right here used to be a youth nightclub you're not a knight yeah it's like a youth nightclub they didn't serve alcohol they had pool tables in there they were trying to rejuvenate the town try to get young people to come here and just something for them to do really [Music] now don't get me wrong I do believe racism exists and racism is a thing but that is very different than white privilege white privilege you're giving it you're putting that blanket term on every white person that exists that's not fair there are many people from small podunk poor towns just like this they didn't have a pot to piss in and you're gonna say they have white privilege there is a massive opioid problem here meth every other person has has some type of drug addiction here and I just don't see how you could equate that with the white white privilege I'm not sure what privilege they've had or this town has had for that matter the town is literally called Whitesville and there's only one black person that lives in it you figure this would be the most privileged place on the face of the universe right but no it's not and ask yourself why why isn't it the most privileged place in the universe if you think white privilege really exists now I'm with you on racism and if what do you ever see a racist we must find them and handle them accordingly racism is a thing that needs to be wiped off the face of this planet but we can't label any groups racist we can't say all white people are privileged that only wedges the gap between white people and minorities [Music] [Applause] [Music] that right there is the only stoplight in Whitesville and it doesn't even work there used to be three functioning ones there's one of the grocery stores we have in town there used to be a food line and other type of stuff like that this building right here was leased by my sister's in-laws and they used to have a thrift store here they used to bring wrestlers here this there was a wrestling ring in this place and they would actually bring wrestlers here it was part of their circuit they would come here and just try to bring business bring some type of life to the town or the road warriors and Doink the Clown we're actually here [Music] as the great Martin Luther King once said judge a man by the content of his character not the color of his skin and whether that man is white black brown whatever the case may be you should never ever judge him on what he looks like what he talks like you should judge him by his actions you should judge him by what he stands for she judged him by the person he is when you when you cast those stones you're only asking for them back [Music] this is coal River it flows towards Charlestown alongside this river runs the road aka coal River Road aka route 3 growing up on this one Road you're either going down the river or up the river there's someone needed a ride somewhere they would be like and you were leaving they would be like what are you doing up a river or even going down the river there's no names of roads but a simple town a simple concept a simple life when I moved out of here it blew my mind getting on my first four-lane highway I didn't know what to do I was like what are all these roads it was insane to me it was another world but at no moment in time living in Whitesville did I feel privileged based on my skin color no moment in time did anyone give me any type of privileged based on my skin color I was a poor kid I was just a poor poor kid growing up in Whitesville West Virginia I didn't feel privileged whatsoever there were black there were two black kids going to my school and they were way better off than I was they had a nicer home than me they they look like they were doing pretty well in school way more than me so I don't think anyone's putting them down nobody was calling them names nobody was being discriminatory they were judged based on the content of their character and they were cool dudes so no one really had a problem with him small towns get a bad rep because oh sorry no minorities there there's no black people there there's no brown people there they could come here if they wanted to they wouldn't have any issues they could go to the grocery store and buy groceries they go to the gas station again gasps no one would stop them nobody would say hey not allowed in here not in my part of town No that is some myth that is some magical creature the left wants to bring up - just try to scare minorities - try - we're gonna keep you on our sides and you can keep voting blue it's it's not reality it's fiction it's a story it's what you're told to be scared of small towns like this to be scared of country folk they want to group everyone together they want to put the white people here the brown people here the the black people here is this the Asian people here they don't want us to unite because once we're united we are at our most powerful we the people can speak the loudest once we are all as one Whitesville is a very patriotic town they love their country they love their God and they love Donald Trump one of the only ways out of this town is through the military or you could join the coal mines and be part of the community the coal mines are very rough it's a very strenuous job I've lost a lot of friends and family to the coal mines I took the military route I got out of this day I joined the military traveled around I didn't want to be here at first I rejected West Virginia I hated West Virginia I didn't want to be part of the culture you've never been hunting once I've never killed an animal I've never done that and there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever I've ate plenty of deer jerky or deer meat and looking back on it I wouldn't change a thanks I love where I'm from I love this small town I love being part of this community I hope to one day return maybe when I'm done with my adventures in the other states and retire here in this beautiful state the mountains are beautiful the sky is beautiful you can actually see the stars I love it here now I love the town I love the people in it my final thoughts would be respect other areas of life whether you're from the country whether you're from the city respect those individual areas and their beliefs because not everybody is gonna believe the same way you believe so be kind to everyone and respect everyone if you enjoy this video if you like this content please like share and subscribe [Music] [Music]

Channel: Hoodrow and Redbone

Views: 10,505

Rating: 4.4740062 out of 5

Keywords: whitesville west virginia, beckley west virginia, charleston west virginia, whitesville wv, white privilege, manbun on the streets, naoma west virginia, sherman high school, sherman tide, coal city, coal camp, redbone and the native, wv documentary, boone county, rednecks of west virginia, hillbillies of west virginia, hillbilly and redneck west virginia, coal mining in west virginia, racism in small towns, small country towns

Id: VA-sEKEu9To

Length: 20min 8sec (1208 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 16 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/NotRenton]

This’ll be even better in 20-30 years time.