In a recent Dilbert strip I featured an inebriated hillbilly. Dogbert kicked him off a log and into a ravine. I know you’re thinking “That’s just like my job.” But you’re wrong because people don’t write you letters telling you that you are insensitive. Here’s a link to the comic, and below it is a letter objecting to my depiction of hillbillies.
http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20060218.html [no longer available]
And the letter…
Dear Mr. Adams,
I am writing in regards to the “Dilbert” cartoon that was published in the Gazette-Mail in Charleston, West Virginia on Saturday, February 18th. I have long enjoyed your cartoon strip, having spent eight years at Marshall University confined to a tiny cubicle (even though I was a full professor) and having to track the amount of paper I used due to budget constraints.
I am currently the co-director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia and teach in the Appalachian Studies graduate certificate program at Marshall’s graduate college. One of my interests is the ways in which stereotypes of Appalachians in the general culture have rationalized and justified the historic mistreatment of Appalachians as an ethnic group.
Your cartoon “killed” an inebriated hillbilly. He was lying on a log with a jug at his side (probably moonshine?) and wearing bib overalls. He was booted off the log into a chasm and a certain fate. Now, let me ask you a question. Would you have drawn that cartoon of a drunk Irishman, a Jew, a black person, an Hispanic person? I doubt it very much. Most Americans are by now sensitized to the damage that such stereotypes represent for minority groups. And yet you, as well as many others, still feel free to picture hillbillies (translate: Appalachians) in this way.
I would like to urge you to look at the most recent issue of the National Geographic. There is an article there on mountaintop removal and the ecological, cultural and social damage that it is visiting upon the mountains and their people. I would argue that most Americans have ignored this disaster-in-the-making for so long because there is a general agreement that hillbillies are of less worth—“useless” human beings. Your cartoon confirms that sense.
I would be the first to acknowledge that some Appalachians are alcoholics and wear bib overalls. But I suspect that there are many other people in this country that would fit that description as well. We are a proud people–closely tied to our land—who have given this country music, literature, and social movements that raised the standard of living for all of us. Why is it that television and the print media are so focused on only our social problems? Or see us only negatively?
I appreciate your taking my comments under consideration. This is not meant as a personal attack, but hopefully will be educational for you. I would be glad to recommend a reading list for you or email you some material.
Sincerely,
Lynda Ann Ewen, PhD
Professor Emerita of Sociology, Marshall University
Co-Director, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia
Editor, Series of “Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia,” Ohio University Press
In my defense, let me say that the hillbilly in my comic wasn’t killed. He landed softly in a bush made entirely of Styrofoam peanuts. Secondly, I didn’t know that hillbillies had to be from Appalachia. Frankly, I thought it was more of a lifestyle decision. Now I know that the people I grew up with in the Catskill Mountains were posers. I stand corrected.