Stephanie Lundquist-Arora; American Thinker "When I was 16 and waiting tables in my small town’s Big Boy, where my mother also worked, a visiting city-dweller, let’s call her “Professor,” treated me like I existed to be part of her small-town experience. Professor was fascinated that I had spent my whole life there and attended a high school that hosted an annual tractor day. She peppered me with questions and was overly enthusiastic, probably for a future cocktail party anecdote, that my weekend plans included a bonfire party in the woods and a swim across a nearby lake. It occurred to me that I was a zoo animal on exhibit in the eyes of this woman when, in a tone that made me wonder if she was going to try to pet me, she said, “Aren’t you just as American as apple pie?!” At her university, I believe that’s called a micro-aggression, but not if it is targeted at rural Americans, apparently.
"People like Professor love the small-town experience because they get to feel superior. Like almost all other aspects of small-town culture, Professor doesn’t understand that residents of rural America generally do not measure their status based on what they do to earn money. Professor does though, and has fewer people to compete with for “best job title” in small towns. She sits at rural cafes and revels in the sanctimonious glory of her educational enlightenment and her kindness to the “little people.”
"I imagine that Professor is sitting at her desk on a university campus at this moment hopping mad about Jason Aldean’s hit song, “Try That in A Small Town.” Professor does not bother understanding small-town culture because, to her, it is not worthy of understanding. More explicitly, who cares about the white, working class? Certainly not Professor, who is also white, but hates to be reminded of that fact. And since she disagrees with values like patriotism, well then, they must be racist, of course." . . .
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