Unfortunately I wasn’t in class for our discussion on Wednesday, but I was really inspired by our conversation with Catherine Flowers. The idea she presented that most caught my attention was that of rural justice. I am from a rural area, and coming to Duke has been an interesting challenge for me. Interesting because when I was in Lander all I wanted to do was get out of Lander, and get away from a culture that I saw as repressive and, in many ways, backwards. I saw coming to Duke as coming to the light. I would come to Duke, and everything would be better, everything would be perfect.
But of course, everything is not perfect. Every place has their problems, and every place has things and ideas that you as an individual won’t agree with. But Catherine’s talk really made me re-examine the relationship that I have with my hometown. Being at Duke has made me love my hometown, but I often describe myself as “loving the town, less than loving the people.” And I would argue it’s really easy to fall into those patterns of thinking. To disagree with the ideas and ways of thinking that dominate in a place, and to write off that place altogether. But it’s important to think of the ways in which our rural communities are struggling, and how those struggles inform the ideas and identities that form within communities.
When I was looking up information about rural justice, I came across some interesting finds. According to this article from the National Committee For Responsive Philanthropy “since 1970, the jail population in rural counties has expanded sevenfold – twice as fast as urban counties.” When you look at maps of oil drilling in the United States it is overwhelmingly located in rural areas. And anyone from a rural area has heard about the “rural brain drain” sweeping the country.
It’s easy to look down on small town America. It’s much harder to consider the systems that are shaping these areas and figure out what isn’t working.
