Opinion:J.D. Vance's book 'Hillbilly Elegy' was a con job. Don't let it slide

[SunSeeker]

The selection of J.D. Vance on Monday as Donald Trump’s running mate is a direct result of the political media’s failure to understand class in America. For his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance was venerated by many journalists and book critics as a powerful voice representing long-overlooked Americans. But he’s no working-class hero.

Vance portrayed this group — 35% of Americans, by the way — as tragic victims of alcoholism, drug abuse, laziness and their own self-destructive moral failings. Journalists ran with that, bringing their own stereotypes to depict the working class as angry, uneducated white men driven by economic insecurity and racist nostalgia to support Trump’s retrogressive campaign.

So who actually is the working class? Consistent data has shown that, in the words of the Center for American Progress, “Black, Hispanic, and other workers of color make up 45 percent of the working class, while non-Hispanic white workers comprise the remaining 55 percent. Nearly half of the working class is women, and 8 percent have disabilities.” Media portrayals that equate this group with uneducated white men elide most of the people who actually fit the definition.

A few contemporary reports called out Vance’s misrepresentations and the media’s fallacious thinking. In October 2016, writing for the Guardian, journalist Sarah Smarsh pointed out that exit polls and surveys showed that Trump supporters had a higher median income — $72,000 — than supporters of Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. Vance himself, she reported, had been raised in a middle-class household. By ignoring such realities, Smarsh argued, “Media makers cast the white working class as a monolith and imply an old, treacherous story convenient to capitalism: that the poor are dangerous idiots.”
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-07-15/jd-vance-hillbilly-elegy-book-trump-vice-president

[elleng]

1. who actually is the working class?

[SunSeeker]

2. Women and people of color comprise 72.5% of it.

And the most common working-class jobs are clerical work, retail sales, and manual labor.

[elleng]

5. * in the words of the Center for American Progress, "Black, Hispanic, and other workers of color

make up 45 percent of the working class, while non-Hispanic white workers comprise the remaining 55 percent. Nearly half of the working class is women, and 8 percent have disabilities.” Media portrayals that equate this group with uneducated white men elide most of the people who actually fit the definition.

A few contemporary reports called out Vance’s misrepresentations and the media’s fallacious thinking. In October 2016, writing for the Guardian, journalist Sarah Smarsh pointed out that exit polls and surveys showed that Trump supporters had a higher median income — $72,000 — than supporters of Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. Vance himself, she reported, had been raised in a middle-class household. By ignoring such realities, Smarsh argued, “Media makers cast the white working class as a monolith and imply an old, treacherous story convenient to capitalism: that the poor are dangerous idiots.”'

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Vance is a Silicon Valley venture capital oligarch talking down at non-white, non-male citizens. . . . nt

[SunSeeker]

4. Pretty much.

He's a dough-faced rich asshole.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. He adopted a beard and a stern expression to try to give himself gravitas and counteract the doughiness. . . . nt

[SunSeeker]

7. Yeah, now looks like a ball of dough rolled in dog hair. nt

[doc03]

8. Covers up his chubby baby face

[3catwoman3]

9. What a fabulously descriptive...

…turn of phrase -

[stopdiggin]

10. my recollection is that the book was either panned

or regarded as lightweight 'fluff' by a pretty large portion of either the literate or socially invested crowd. No doubt made a few talk show segments - if that's your gig. But I just don't think is was ever regarded as any kind of literary or 'social' work. Maybe I'm mistaken ... (and then too - there is the MAGA world ... always looking for something to prop up their sad little pretense of consequence .. )

And wasn't there a good bit of fabrication (lying) exposed early on?

[eppur_se_muova]

11. I sort of remember it being regarded as humorous at the time -- surprised at his subsequent rise, based on the book. nt