Ignorance creates Assumption

With any culture you will have stereotypes, but the appalachian culture has by far more negative stereotypes than most. Here at Ohio University we are in the midst of the appalachia, although you don' t see it as much in the University part of the town. Kim and I spent some time to talk with people about their views about the appalachian culture and their thoughts on the schools association with it's culture background.

When asking about what comes to mind when they hear the word Appalachian, we got many different responses, though all were mostly negative. Examples included mountains, poverty, unemployment, country, hillbillies, townies, and a slower pace of living.When being asked if they were considered to be Appalachian, no one considered themselves appalachian but two people know someone who is Appalachian. The third question we asked, was what they of the association of the OU student community with the local Athens community. Most responders agreed that they didn't know much about the association between the school and the locals but they thought that it wasn't a great relationship. They also thought that the school does their own thing and doesn't have much interest in associating with the local community. on a different note one responder believed that the relationship between the school and the local community was a good relationship. They brought up the fact that the university gives a lot of job opportunities to the locals and that students don't realize how much the local people are incorporated into the university.

As Ohio University students we barely knew anything about Appalachia until we were taught by our professor. Most students don't have the knowledge of Appalachia and the understanding of what it is, and most don't even know they are living in it. For students to improve their knowledge of Appalachia, it would be helpful for Ohio University to inform them further of their surroundings.

In conclusion, we found that the knowledge of Appalachia is vague amongst students and we feel its important to be educated about the community we live in. Most students don't even realize how much interaction we take part in with the locals. Many work at the University in some manner. Example include janitors, dinning hall workers, secretaries, shop workers, and many more. We found the stereotypes incorporated with Appalachia are mostly negative. People who live in Appalachia for the most part don't like to be associated with it because of its negative outlook. For this to change we feel education of Appalachia needs to be enforced further.