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For this episode we are dissecting the archetype of American rednecks, hillbillies, and those we call white trash, a group often accused of being the \u201creal\u201d racists who make up the deplorable \u201cTrump Country." But we'll be examining who is really to blame, starting with the plantation elites of the 1700s who created categories of race to break up the poor who were revolting against the government, resulting in centuries of brutal slavery and what we now know as white privilege. We\u2019ll look at the region of Appalachia and the construction of the dangerous, deviant, simple minded white hillbilly created by local color writers. I\u2019ll explain how this area\u2019s union battles that united black and white folks in a dramatic fight for their workers\u2019 rights led to the migration of \u201chillbillies\u201d into cities, eventually aiding in the success of the eugenics movement. By the civil rights era, we\u2019ll see more racial solidarity, with Black Panther Fred Hampton\u2019s Rainbow Party Coalition in the city of Chicago. Soon after, famous \u201chillbilly horror\u201d movies of the 1970s like Deliverance reinforced and solidified our view of the banjo playing blood-thirsty backwoods idiot who is a direct threat to the white middle class. In the current political climate, those scapegoated as the \u201creal racists\u201d are often the working class rural poor, though history and modern culture tell a very different story.\n\nPlease consider donating to the Highlander Research and Education Center\n\nAmerican Hysteria is written, produced, and hosted by Chelsey Weber-Smith\nProduced and edited by Clear Commo Studios\nResearch and cowriting assisted by Riley Smith\nCo-Produced by Miranda Zickler\nShow art by Roache\nVoice Acting by Will Rogers\n\nBecome a Patron for extra episodes, interviews, and videos monthly!\nFollow American Hysteria on social media:\nTwitter: @AmerHysteria\nInstagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices