Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance

V.I.R.

Very Important Read.


JD Vance might be surprised that he is "old enough" to write a memoir, but anyone who reads his story will be nothing but grateful that he did.


I love that he starts out by saying he did nothing extraordinary in his life.  He went to college, got married, succeeded in business.  But what he states in his prologue and then explains throughout his book is that while he has achieved something that seems ordinary for most Americans, having achieved it considering his childhood experience and family history is indeed extraordinary in that hardly anyone from his hillbilly town in Appalachia ever considered college even possible.   I mean, his Mamaw almost killed a man when she was 12.  She got married as a teenager and his mom is a drug addict.  And that is just the beginning of his family and cultural history.  JD's story is made extraordinary because he was one of a very few that became ordinary - because he came from pretty much nothing. Well, nothing but the fierce determination of his Mamaw and his sister and one very inspiring teacher.

This book is "about a culture that increasingly encourages social decay instead of counteracting it." There are drug addicts, child abusers, lazy workers and welfare moms here, but "there are no villains in this story."  JD loves these people and does not place blame - really not anywhere.  He is simply telling his truth as he lived it.  And THAT is what makes this an important read.

This book is NOT political.  It does NOT serve as the conservative response to Small Great Things or explain why Trump got elected.  Go elsewhere if that is your ulterior motive here.  JD does tell us how a traditionally Democratic culture finally switched to a more Republican based belief system, simply because the programs put in place by the Democrats ended up making situations worse for the people they were trying to help - at least in his experience.

So many quotes I want to share from this book...like "kids (in my youth) don't expect much of themselves because the people around them don't do very much."  And, "poor people don't wear pajamas," (so why do rich people keep donating them? they are an "unnecessary elite indulgence.").

But overall, this is the true story of what is still happening in back woods America.  Yes, you could probably change the race here and it still be a true story, because it does become a story of opportunity and support.  If not for Mamaw, where would JD and his sister be?  If they had married their next door neighbors and never gotten out of Kentucky, they would be stagnant like most of their neighbors.  JD notes that now he looks back and sees that "every single person in my family who has built a successful home married someone from outside our little culture," thereby breaking that cycle. Interesting too is the comment JD makes about meeting and getting to know his future wife's family - he was amazed at the lack of drama in her family!

But what about the people who cannot break out of their cycle?  What about the people who are so dirt poor they cannot leave their dilapidated houses to move to Ohio like JD's grandparents did?  Why was JD able to "get out" and get educated but his Mother never seemed to be able to crawl out of her addictions to drugs, men, and bad news?  (Very interesting that JD never names his mother and is almost detached when he writes of her.  We do not know what her end story is - proving again that no matter what happens or how badly they treat us, these people are fiercely loyal - he is still protecting a woman who abandoned him again and again and once even tried to kill him, because she is family.)  And what will it take for this cycle to change?  Government programs?  Nope, that didn't help JD.  It has to come from within.  He was mostly raised by his hillbilly grandparents.  They stepped up, maybe because their failure with his mother or their inability at the time to steer her right made them determined that JD would not follow that path.  Papaw helped him with his multiplication tables - it wasn't JD's fault he had never been taught them, but thank goodness someone helped him.  Other kids didn't have a Papaw or anyone else who would help them. Mamaw didn't let him get away with anything - her love for him was as fierce as her language (mercy!!).  Most of the kids he grew up with, and even JD himself, are constantly in fight or flight mode - the chemistry in their brains is changed by the constant emotional and sometimes physical stress they endure which is of course different from a child who is secure, safe, and fed.

My point and I think JD's point is this:  HELP MUST COME FROM WITHIN.  From within you, from within your community, from within your family.  The hillbilly people JD knows have no positive role models, they don't see other families building up that college resume or paying for after school sports and getting academic awards (JD admits he learned early on that good grades were for sissies and girls, not for tough boys!  What kind of incentive is that??), they just see teenage pregnancy and menial jobs where it doesn't really matter if you show up because you know you are gonna get fired eventually anyway.  They give up before they try because they don't have goals to strive for.  It is not in their culture.  What exactly are they trying for??  Kids are not exposed to things from "the real world;" JD wasn't stupid, he was just uninformed.  Again, the whole argument of "the uneven geographic distribution of opportunity" comes into play for poor white people in the South, in Appalachia, in the Rust Belt of Ohio - and yes, a similar argument of lack of opportunity is being raised for the lower income African American community as well.  It matters for both of these communities.

JD Vance has written a deep, thought provoking story which happens to be true.  It will open your eyes to the fact that is not just a white story, or a black story, or an immigrant story.  It is an American story that all of us need to stop and pay attention to, and do something about.  Be a role model; connect with a different community than your own; teach or read to kids that have no one to read to them; give jobs not pajamas!   JD says there is no government that can fix these problems for the hillbillies.  It has to start at home. But are the hillbillies tough enough to do what needs to be done to raise up other kids and find opportunities for them like Mamaw did for JD?  Because it comes from within, the winning.