hillbilly elegy is a narrow depiction of appalachia that ignores some marginalized groups and paints the people as backwards. “what you are getting wrong about appalachia” by elizabeth catte is a more nuanced look at the region https://twitter.com/netflixfilm/status/1316365703524442113

1. Hillbilly Elegy blames the people in the region for their own problems: “we created them, only we can fix them”. In reality pro-business politicians and corporations have largely been responsible for issues around wages, unemployment, and the physical danger of industry.

2. Vance ignores POC in Appalachia. Everyone is supposedly white, so his story shows “how class and family affect the poor without filtering [reader’s] views through a racial prism.” There ARE Black and Indigenous people! Native land rights are issues across the region.

3. Hillbilly Elegy has eugenicist arguments. Vance says the Scots-Irish heritage and culture in the region is responsible for addiction, poverty, etc. Though I couldn’t care less about whites, this bigotry is used against POC and Jewish people.

a lot of this info is from Catte’s book, so check it out! Outside of all this, i would want to know how workers have been exploited, how land has been stolen from Indigenous people, and current activist efforts to liberate people in the region. I will not be watching this film.