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Well, Reader, I assume you mean “Why are white southerners so ignorant?” You say West Virginia because the recent Democratic primary in that state and news coverage thereof have thankfully given you another opportunity to compare yourself favorably to an unofficially sanctioned stereotype. With your real question thus revealed, I’ll give you the short answer first:

It is human nature to be ignorant, as much as it is human nature to be curious and to learn. We all feel an urge to stay within our comfort zone, to stay with those who look, think, and/or act like us. To make this easier, we feel an urge to demonize to some degree those who look, think, and/or act differently. As this keeps us from knowledge, it keeps us in ignorance.

Absolutely, at least some of the white Democratic voters who backed Hilary Clinton are ignorant and chose their candidate out of ignorance. A friend forwarded me this Daily Kos post with a clip from Comedy Central’s Daily Show that includes interviews of some of the ignorant voters. One forthrightly admitted, “I’m sort of scared of the other race ’cause we have so much conflict with ‘em,” lumping Barack Obama in with the dark-skinned bogeymen she crosses the street to avoid and the violent black youth she sees every day on the news. Another objected that Obama is a Muslim—which is blatantly false—while a third said unreflectively, “I had enough of Hussein,” linking Obama’s middle name to the former dictator of Iraq. Both of these ignorant women believe that Obama has connections with our terrorist enemies.

Of course, these are not the only examples of ignorance in race or politics. Blacks voting with a jerk of their collective knee for whomever the Democratic candidate happens to be is ignorant, but one can’t safely point that out. Blacks accusing other blacks of “Uncle Tomism” because their beliefs, thought processes, fashion sense, or education/income level differs from mainstream black America—that’s certainly ignorant, but it’s off-limits.

Like the old, white West Virginians in the Daily Show clip, blacks can live down to their stereotypes too … but white folk are not supposed to talk about it. Sure, you can find blacks who are lazy, shiftless, violent, and eaters of watermelon, but the only acceptable way to acknowledge those characteristicsis to blame them on white people. Except for the watermelon eating, because no one is ashamed to admit that everyone enjoys watermelon.

I do understand that a shiftless white person is not perceived to reflect badly on his/her whole race, while a shiftless black person is perceived to confirm the stereotype and make everyone look bad. To solve this problem, you need only bring your secrets out in the open and connect honestly on honest issues.

The next time you see an aging, poorly educated, low-income, white West Virginian woman mouthing off about the “nigras,” don’t label her as one of those racist southerners and contemptuously write her off. Instead, approach her with a smile and say, “Hey, I’m racist too! I hate white people!”

The next time you see a young, poorly educated, low-income, black male wearing his draws down to his knees and glaring menacingly at passing white folk, don’t excuse him as a victim of society and hurry home to e-mail your Democratic congressperson. Instead, approach him with a smile and say, “Hey, I slavishly follow the fashions of my peer group too! And I also hate working, and have been known to steal small items from Wal-Mart as a protest against corporate greed!”

In this way, we can end these silly games and acknowledge the truth: everyone is ignorant, self-righteous, criminal, and responsible for his/her actions. Let’s not fight about it.