Send-Up or Put-Down?

Newspapers should include coverage of blue-collar working-class Americans in their quest for diversity

by David V. Hawpe

When I was managing editor of The Courier-Journal, I would wait until it snowed. If it looked like a significant accumulation was in the offing, I hurried into the newsroom and announced, "It's snowing in the South End. Children on sleds will appear."

Then I disappeared back into my office.

This caused some comment among members of the staff, as I intended.

I had noticed that we often took pictures of kids sledding in Cherokee and Seneca parks, in the "more affluent" East End where most of our staff lived. Sometimes, moved to be more inclusive, we took pictures of African-American children building snowmen in Shawnee and Chickasaw parks, in the West End.

But the biggest hill in town was, and is, in the blue-collar part of Louisville where I grew up, in the South End. I could see it through the picture window of our house on Huntoon Avenue. South End kids had sleds, too. They used them when snow fell on Iroquois Park. We needed to include them, too.

A friend of mine, former Eastern Kentucky University professor William Ellis, complains that blue-collar, working-class Americans seldom are the objects of efforts at inclusion. Indeed, he says, some of the same people who urge political correctness on other fronts seem oblivious to the stereotyping of so-called "rednecks."

He showed me a recent column submitted by a contributing writer to a newspaper just down the road, The Lexington Herald-Leader. The author, Alejandro Gomez, was identified as a native of Mexico and publisher of La Voz, Kentucky's only Hispanic newspaper.

Take a look at an excerpt from Gomez's column:

"Damn wetbacks should have no rights here," Red said, as we were about to order lunch. "They're here illegally, taking away jobs, not paying taxes, just beggin' for every social service they can get their brown little hands on. And to top it all off, they don't wanna learn how to talk English good.

"Now Bush wants to give 'em all the right to stay."

I like Red. Red makes me laugh. Ignorance makes me laugh. So I chuckle a lot when I'm with him.

"Red, would you please stop using the term 'wetback'? That is so old. If you have been reading the news lately the correct term is:

"Abandon- your- homeland- to- support- your- family- plus- sacrifice- your- life through- 150- degree- scorching- heat- deserts- dehydrated- and- burned- to- avoid- the- INS- representing- the- 'give- me- your- poor- and- wretched- masses- yearning- to- be- free'- statue- just- to- get- low- paying- hazardous- jobs- few- others- will- take- in- a- country- that- is- in- desperate- need- of- your- often- strong- work- ethics- back."

"You sayin' it's now 'scorched backs'?" Red inquired.

I chuckled. "I prefer 'economic refugees,' but I can't tell you what to use. As far as taxes, Red..."

"Yeah, that really burns my butt, comin' here and not payin' taxes."

I chuckled again. "Red, to have an employee you must have an employer. Employers don't like to have problems with the IRS. So, very few employers want employees with no documentation. Documentation is almost always required."

"You know as well as I do those papers can be bought."

"True, but the employer still uses that paperwork, including Social Security numbers to deduct federal taxes, state taxes and Social Security. Which means that in most of these cases the economic refugees are paying into the coffers but will probably never receive any benefits."

"Oh," Red said.

"Moreover," I continued, "like everyone else they pay state sales taxes at stores. They don't carry a 'Don't tax me; I am an undocumented resident in your country' card."

"Property taxes?" Red asked.

I shook me head. "More than likely they are renting and hence paying property taxes indirectly through the landlord, who pays into those coffers from the rent received."

"I just didn't think about that," Red said.

"That brings me to the social services we are all begging for, according to you."

"Wait," Red said. "I have to take that back since y'all are paying taxes, and I was just exaggerating when I said 'begging.'"

"Good, but there are many people in charge of hospitals, clinics, toy-give-aways, children's programs and state and local agencies who have no clue. They see brown skin. They think 'illegal.' They think 'unworthy.'"

"Well, I may be Red, but I ain't no ass."

"And about the English thing..."

But Red had had enough. "Drop it, never mind," he said. "Just tell me howta say 'You sure got perty eyes' in Mexican."

I chuckled. "Spanish. There is no such language as Mexican."

"Damn it, Alex, why d'ya hafta..."

"I just figured you might want to speak English well. After all, it is your language."

"Educated smart-ass spick," Red said.

"Ignorant hard-headed redneck," I replied. "And by the way, Red, lunch is on me."

After reading the column, my friend Bill Ellis was moved to reply.

Here's part of what he said:

"As a subscriber of The Lexington Herald-Leader, I often read the pieces of contributing columnist Alejandro Gomez. He is always provocative, if not vituperative, as evidenced by his August 5 article. Apparently his philosophy is that the best defense is a good offense.

"Being red-headed, although certainly with a balding pate, I was struck by Mr. Gomez's conversation with Red the Redneck. I wondered if this was a real person or a construct, a straw man as it were, to get his points across. And his points are well-taken, but, I think, counterproductive and divisive.

"Such an approach will strike a resonant chord with, and win plaudits from, a certain part of Central Kentucky's intelligentsia that prides itself on being unprejudiced and open to poor people seeking a share of the American dream. I could visualize their bobbing heads as they read Mr. Gomez's piece, unthinking or unaware of the totality that makes up their community.

"Alas, the American redneck is the last minority in this country lacking immunity from political correctness..."

Bill Ellis is right about that, I believe.

My point, with the occasional newsroom exhortation on sleds in the South End, was that inclusion should apply to the so-called "redneck" end of town in which I grew up, as well as to ethnic groups in our community.

It's also wrong, as Bill suggests, to caricature America's so-called "rednecks." It's just as wrong as it is when we stereotype Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, gay and lesbian Americans or African Americans.

That kind of send-up almost always reads like a put-down.

David Hawpe is vice president and editorial director of the Louisville Courier-Journal. A twenty-year member of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, Hawpe has served as chairman of the APME Ethics Committee and the APME Diversity Committee. He can be reached at dhawpe@louisvil.gannett.com.