A View Of Arkansas

I’ve been on vacation over the past few weeks, visiting my wife’s relatives in Arkansas. We may even be considering a move down to this region because there are a lot of teaching jobs available, as well as opportunities for my wife as an accountant.

But there are a lot of things that bother me about this region. One of the first things is the deeply ingrained racism. It is not a racism that I am accustomed to because it is blatant, overt and permeates everything down this way. The white folks down here use the word “nigger” so often that I do not believe they know how often they use it. Even when they say “blacks” it is obvious that they mean “nigger.” But the prejudice and racism down here is a two-way street. The blacks in this region are rather militant in a passive aggressive way. The attitude that is presented by the vast majority of blacks I have met down here is one of entitlement, resentment and revenge. The behaviors of blacks in this area are not outright aggressive, but passive aggressive. But their behavior and racism is as obvious as the behaviors and racism of the whites.

The other thing I have found to be present is a sense of passive aggressive politeness. That sounds weird even as I type the words. But it is truly present. People offer manners here as a way of getting around being ignorant, intrusive and outright rude. Driving in a parking lot is a good example of this phenomenon. People will drive up the wrong way of a clearly marked lane in a shopping plaza, wave to you as they are obstructing traffic and creating a driving hazard. If you say something about it, your comments are dismissed, you receive a nasty look, or someone confronts you with a comment that might not seem rude in other parts of our nation, but would certainly be considered rude down here.

This passive aggressive politeness plays out in the way people work around here as well. White folks are polite to one another in most cases. But their politeness toward people of color is less cordial, more rigid and has latent content. The same is true of the black folks. Politeness is laced with some intense hatred hidden behind the norms of Southern manners. Everyone calls each other “Miss” or “Mister” something, but this is a pro forma approach in a lot of cases, perhaps even the vast majority of cases. The way workers are treated here, like elsewhere, depends a lot upon the relationship between the individuals. However, there are some unwritten, but very obvious, rules of conduct that operate between subordinates and supervisors, as well as between whites and blacks. A boss is allowed to yell at a black worker in most cases. This yelling is not directed at the person per se, but at getting attention, with the presumption that the black worker is too ignorant, too pre-occupied, or too distracted to be spoken to in an otherwise acceptable manner. Such is not the case for most white workers, even though they may offer the same reluctance, ignorance and passive aggressive response.

A good illustration of this is the way my wife’s uncle addresses two different workers. The first worker is a black man that has been in his employ for years. My wife refers to him as “Mister” and remembers him from years of working for her uncle. But my wife’s uncle refers to him by his last name—not his first name as he does a white person working for him—and often yells orders at him. My wife’s uncle complains that this man is not reliable because he does not always have transportation, does not always comprehend instructions, but he admires this man’s hard work when he is on the job. While it is reported that this man, and another of the black employees hired by my wife’s uncle, are sometimes not available because they take their daily pay and use it to go on a drinking binge, it strikes me that my wife’s uncle is harping on this older black man for not showing up or not being available for reasons of either poverty (i.e. lacking transportation) or an illness (binge drinking as a form of alcoholism).

The other worker is a white man who works for my wife’s aunt, but also does work around the family home installing cabinets and such. While this white man is significantly more skilled than the black man, he is a lazy worker, always seeking to take an easy alternative rather than do a job in the best, highest quality manner. He also is unreliable in that he often promises to show up to do work and doesn’t because he is off on a weekend binge or recovering with a hangover. He has yet to show up on time in all the visits that I have made to my wife’s uncle’s home.

But the difference in the way this white man is treated versus the way he treats the black man is striking. The white man is almost never spoken to in a raised voice. If my wife’s uncle is peeved at him, he will vent his frustration in front of the family, but he does not yell at this man. Despite this man being as unreliable as the black man, he does not call this man a “nigger” when the original meaning of the word might certainly apply. The black man is treated with an almost automatic disdain, despite years of working for my wife’s uncle.

But at the same time, my wife’s uncle pays his black workers a better wage than most other contractors in the area, takes his men to lunch, and is taking one of his “nigger” employees to a short vacation to a casino in another state. While he isn’t paying for the man’s gambling, the room is paid for as a benefit of my wife’s uncle’s frequently flyer/high roller status at several casinos. This speaks to an ingrained racism that is both inherently evil, creeping into the social fabric in almost every encounter between blacks and whites, and the source of so much cognitive dissonance, even among those that participate in it fully.

Silence is another passive aggressive tool down this way. Silence is used very effectively as a tool for shutting down a conversation. Family matters are often dealt with by using silence. Often this silence is accompanied with looks: either a look away from the engaged parties of a conversation or a stare that chastises the speaker that is out of turn or the others want to shut up.

Confrontation is a tactic used primarily in a gathering of men. It is often the equivalent of a pissing contest with the goal of showing others that the confrontational person is better, smarter, more experienced or more willing to stick to his guns. Southern women seem to confront others with smart-ass comments rather than a direct approach.

Gossip is a major social phenomenon down this way. In fact, it is very much institutionalized in the social structure. In every little town there is at least one person—often a person with so many problems that everyone takes pity on them—that fills the role of reporting on everything that occurs, often with embellishment and a great deal of inaccuracy. The vast majority of people coming into contact with such a person will offer condemnation of this behavior, but will pass along the gossip anyway. The passing along of gossip will often be accompanied by an explanation that the information was provided by the “village gossip” and a behind-the-back condemnation of that very person, but the entire process is so much a part of the culture that it isn’t even given a second thought.

At the same time—and this is very confusing—not a person down here would hesitate to come to the aid of someone in need. Even folks that have a history of misbehaving are offered support in times of need. It is a strange mixture of charity, community and nastiness.

The profound poverty of this region also strikes me hard. It smacks you in the face when you see it. There is little in the way of economic development in the region. Lee, Monroe, St. Francis and other surrounding counties of Arkansas are struggling with providing the very basics of life. The poverty is written on the streets of the local communities. Cities and towns in this area are blighted with empty buildings and closed shops. There is very little in the way of higher education throughout the entire northeastern section of Arkansas, especially in the counties aforementioned. The gap between those that have and those that have not is profoundly obvious down here, even though most of the “haves” do not have all that much compared to those that are profoundly wealthy in places like New York, Boston, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, etc.

Then there is the “hillbilly” nature of things down here. Almost every home in the region has some form of junk pile on the premises. Even my wife’s aunt and uncle, who would qualify as being among the “haves” down here, have a hole dug on their property just for dumping junk. The difference between my wife’s relatives and the more obvious hillbillies is how and where such junk is handled. My wife’s relatives have the decency to dig a hole and eventually bury the junk. A good number of folks down here have their junk strewn across their property. A few even take the time to decorate their house and their junk for the major holiday celebrations, including Christmas, Easter and Halloween.

The amount of junk being stored on the premises of so many down here is phenomenal. Old abandoned, quite dilapidated houses and other structures, including abandoned trailer homes, as well as modular houses, are often on the same lot as a newer brick (or partially brick) structure. Log cabin style homes are popular as vacation or retirement homes along the lakes and in regions where hunting and fishing are the main pre-occupations of the community. But even there, the home owners seem content to store junk, allow “stuff” to be strewn about and crap to pile up in places where it is obviously a health or safety hazard.

Another concern of mine is food. My wife and I are accustomed to eating out on occasion, especially at places that offer quality and quantity. The problem is that, beyond family fare offered at family gatherings, church socials, funerals and weddings, there isn’t much in the way of good restaurants. There is SONIC, which almost has a monopoly on the fast food market in this area. In neighboring states, and in Memphis (about 75 minutes away) and in Little Rock (about 2 hours away), there are some fine eateries, but almost nothing local. My wife and I stopped in Sikeston, MO to eat at Lambert’s Café (“home of the throwed rolls”) for a meal that would satisfy anyone, but between there and here there was almost nothing noteworthy as fine fare.

Even grocery shopping for food to cook at home is a bit of a strain because none of the more gourmet or gourmand supplies are to be found in the local supermarkets (a misnomer in this area), not even Wal-Mart Super Centers. We went looking for ricotta cheese to make lasagne for the family the other day and no one in the store ever heard of it. I realize Italian cuisine may be an uncommon experience for many in this area, but at least Wal-Mart employees should be familiar with ricotta. We will never find any Indian cuisine supplies in this neck of the woods. We can almost assuredly be expected to surrender our taste for Arabic and Middle Eastern cuisine, especially if we want kibbee, mousaka, anything made with lamb, or even a good rendition of pita bread.

Then there is the fact that the nearest grocery store is at least 20 miles away from every one of my wife’s relatives’ homes. More often than not, that grocery store is a Super Wal-Mart. Of course Wal-Mart is a place of worship and recreation down here. Despite the fact that Wal-Mart has a reputation for treating workers, communities, competitors, existing merchants and its suppliers with disdain and offensive disregard for integrity, Wal-Mart is still held in high regard because its prices are within the tolerance of the average household purse. Even the more well-off shop at “Wally World” because the prices beat any of the competition. It is here, in the bosom of Sam Walton’s own home state, that Wal-Mart best demonstrates its own propensity for taking full advantage of its market position and its penchant for treating all of society in an inherently evil, greedy manner.

On the other hand, barbecue down here is tremendous and relatively cheap. Barbecue is a passion shared and debated by many in the region. My wife’s relatives all prefer Craig’s BBQ in DeValls Bluff, located about halfway between West Memphis and Little Rock. Craig’s has been featured in Time Magazine as one of the best barbecue places in the Mid-South and offers pork, beef or country-style ribs drowned in a sauce with a bite and a burn. Myself, I prefer a sauce with a bite, a little burn and a little sweetness. I would even prefer a sauce with a bit of a vinegar tang. In fact, when my wife insists upon using Craig’s sauce at home, I usually doctor it with some spices of my own choosing and enough honey, sugar or vinegar to make the sauce tolerable to my palate… much to her dismay.

Pizza down here, however, is not likely to exceed the quality offered by Pizza Hut (yuck!). Coming from the Chicago area at this time in my life, where pizza is one of the regional offerings of excellence, I will miss good take-out pizza. Even good family-style diners and cafes are wanting down here. Where we live there are several that serve breakfast all day and offer a hell of a lot of decent menu choices for a very reasonable amount of money. In the local village where my wife's relatives live (it’s too small to be called a town) there is a small store that offers some fast food (fried catfish, fried chicken, fried bologna sandwiches, some breakfast fare and the like), but has some of the weirdest hours I have ever seen. It closes at 2:00PM on Saturdays and has been known to open for only a few minutes on Sundays. Of course, it is run by one of my wife’s relatives.

My wife and I have managed to build a bit of a reputation for cooking because we offer pizza resembling Chicago-style offerings and Italian cuisine—lasagne, spaghetti, or other pasta dishes—that are not otherwise found in the vast wilds of Arkansas. Since some of her relatives that have moved down here from the Northwest Indiana regions, they really appreciate our efforts because they miss the fare offered in Chicagoland.

However, I am a square peg down here. Not only am I a Yankee who is originally from Boston, and has lived all over the US and several parts of the world, but I have political ideas that do not sit well down here. I believe it is right—and even my duty—to speak out against mediocrity, evil done by those that lead us, as well as the entrenchment of the Christian Right. The area where my wife wants us to move is the breeding grounds for the most deeply entrenched political and religious right members of our society. There is a church of some kind—usually some form of Baptist, Church of God, Pentecostal, “Bible Church” or Church of Christ—on every corner. Marianna, the county seat for Lee County, has more churches than stores or businesses. If you were to fire off a slingshot or hit a baseball foul, you would be likely to hit a church every time.

Plus, I do not have any friends here. My wife’s family are fine folks and very loving, but I do not have the kind of support and stimulation I need to sustain me. There are no libraries nearby, and those that are available are poorly supplied with resources. Several of the local libraries, including the county library, do not have computers for patron use. In fact, the library for Lee County located in Marianna just got their computer system and are just now updating their shelves so that a computerized check out and tracking system is available. Despite the need for a book mobile outreach, there is nothing of that kind here. The books available at the libraries I have visited are, for the most part, at least 30 years out of date.

The school systems are equally antiquated. Many do not have computers for faculty or students. Football and basketball are more important considerations than curriculum, library accessibility, or education. The achievement record for the schools down this way is miserable. Teaching here will be a challenge, especially because of the racism and politics based on that racism. The expectations of success are held at the lowest levels. It is expected that the blacks in the community will never amount to anything of great value and most whites are more or less doomed to working two or three jobs. The general attitude is that anyone worth anything will work like a dog—an under fed and maltreated dog—for anyone willing to offer a job, even if it means being treated poorly, suffering low wages, and being at the beck and call of whomever has the money to write the checks. I do not think that these folks—white or black—recognize that they are creating self-fulfilling prophecies and enabling the larger corporate entities in this state and region—as well as the politicians that run the show out of Little Rock—to screw them over.

The towns and cities (huh!) in this region are predominantly dependent upon one or two major employers. When such an employer goes under, decides to move, or suffers losses, the entire community and region loses as well. In the wake of these failures and dependencies, opportunists abound. Once such case is a large agricultural concern in the region. The owner of this concern is actively using every influence to manipulate the US Army Corps of Engineers, the grain farmers in the region and those towns seeking to rebuild after decades of economic losses to his advantage by promoting the dredging of the White River to allow a renewal of barge traffic. Of course this might offer the benefit of a few jobs. It will also produce water resources for some of the farmers on the north and west sides of the river, where so much water has been diverted from the naturally occurring aquifers that the land no longer holds rain water long enough to support the rice, wheat and corn crops that these farmers grow. But at the same time the dredging and diversion of water will ruin habitat for fish, fowl, birds and mammals for hundreds of miles in the region and especially along the White River.

The devastation to the natural aquifers is illustrated by a discussion held over a fish-fry outing at one of my wife’s relative’s house situated on a popular lake among the fishing and hunting crowds. It was discussed that a local farmer had forty six-to-ten inch wells on a 6,000 acre parcel of farmland. These wells are used to irrigate crops, especially rice and corn. Since the ground here is mostly sand and clay—and more clay than sand—this water does not re-enter the aquifer in large quantities. The water is either drained using man-made equipment and designs, runs off into ditches and streams, or evaporates and is carried off to parts unknown by the prevailing winds in the region. Additionally, these farmers fertilize and spray insecticides, which results in a contamination of the water and land.

Although most commercial corporate farmers would not consider 6,000 acres a lot of farm, it is a significant amount of land down here. If you multiply the practices of the farmer described above by the hundreds working and living in the parts of Arkansas east of Little Rock, the damage to the environment is tremendous. But the environment is the least concern down here because of the profound poverty, the subsistence hand-to-mouth living that most people experience, and the lack of opportunities available within 150 miles in any direction.

The politicians in Little Rock have a lot to answer for in the whole of Arkansas, but all the more so in the northeastern counties of the state. But so, too, do the local community leaders and the churches of the region. One would think that with all the power, influence and access to the people that the churches have in this region, more could be done to resolve the problems and invigorate the economy with new opportunities. One would think that the vital natural resources of the region would be protected. It would also seem logical that the key to economic renewal in the region—the education system—would receive more attention and support… and please note that I did not say money.

But such is the way of Arkansas. I managed to take a lot of pictures that illustrate many of the contrasts that I describe here, but pictures are worth a thousand words and it would take thousands of pictures to completely illustrate the truth of Arkansas… but I suspect that Arkansas is only different from the rest of the nation in the way its poverty and contrasts are manifested, not in the realities that families experience as a result of the screwing over our leaders and corporations are providing us everywhere.