Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film by Meredith McCarroll

Abstract

Reviewed by: Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film by Meredith McCarroll Jillean McCommons (bio) Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film. By Meredith McCarroll. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2018. Pp. x, 159. $99.95 cloth; $29.95 paper; $29.95 ebook) The field of Appalachian studies is teeming with critical commentary on the ways the region, its people, and its culture have been characterized and caricatured by writers nationwide. From assessing the impact of nineteenth-century travel writers on federal policies, to challenging contemporary claims in memoir, Appalachian scholars readily engage in the important task of challenging regional stereotypes. In Unwhite: Appalachians, Race, and Film, Meredith McCarroll evaluates stereotypes in film. To do so, she employs methods of analysis from whiteness studies, critical race theory, and film studies. She argues that “Appalachia is represented by familiar tropes long used to present the nonwhite and to make evident the split between self and other, hero and outlier. At once the images are phenotypically white and hierarchically nonwhite” (p. 2). To support her claim, McCarroll compares film representations of Indigenous peoples, African Americans, and Mexican immigrants to portrayals of Appalachians. She asserts that Appalachians occupy a space between white and nonwhite, a position she represents with the term, “unwhite.” She explains that “the term unwhite draws attention to the simultaneous assumption of and exclusion from an imagined community of whiteness and to the investment in the protection of whiteness” (p. 2). Unwhite is part exploration of how whiteness functions in Appalachian film and part delineation of the archetypes that spring from those representations. In chapter one, “Hillbilly as American Indian,” McCarroll compares Deliverance to The Last of the Mohicans. She identifies types in the latter, including the “civil savage” and the “vanishing Indian” to argue that Appalachians in Deliverance are portrayed similarly, as what Mc-Carroll terms the “monstrous mountaineer” and “vanishing hillbilly.” In chapter two, “Appalachian Woman as Mammy,” McCarroll compares the depiction of Mammy in Gone with the Wind to Ruby Thewes in Cold Mountain. McCarroll concludes that the representations of [End Page 215] Appalachian women as either “drudge” and “feist” derive from racist portrayals of black women on screen. In chapter three, “Mountain Migrant as Mexican Migrant,” McCarroll likens the depiction of Appalachian migrants in films to Mexican immigrants. She examines the Appalachian migrant experience in The Dollmaker and compares Salt of the Earth and Medium Cool. McCarroll concludes that a longing for home and distrust of outsiders characterize film representations of Appalachians, tropes she argues derived from portrayals Mexican immigrants. In chapter four, “Appalachia and Documentary,” McCarroll explores the making of films by Appalachians in response to previous documentary films with stereotypical depictions, and the appendix, “Appalachian Types in Cinema,” offers clear descriptions of the various types McCarroll mentions in earlier chapters. McCarroll’s commitment to assessing race in portrayals of Appalachians is important and Unwhite provides a springboard for further analysis. Unfortunately, the view of Appalachia as a white region pervades the text and stymies the potential for a nuanced analysis of how race, class, and region function in film. McCarroll asserts that she uses the myth intentionally, but does not deal with the problems inherent in doing so. Additionally, when McCarroll argues that Appalachians are represented as “phenotypically white and hierarchically nonwhite,” the implication is that (white) Appalachians should be depicted as occupying a superior position in relation to nonwhite groups in film. While McCarroll states that it is not her goal to equate the experiences of racial minorities with those of Appalachian whites, the titles of the first three chapters convey that message. Although McCarroll mentions Barbara Ellen Smith’s warning against the portrayal of white Appalachians as racial minorities, she unfortunately does not heed Smith’s advice. Ultimately, Unwhite raises important questions and serves as a useful starting point for discussions on stereotypes and film. [End Page 216] Jillean McCommons JILLEAN MCCOMMONS is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Kentucky. She researches black Appalachian activism during the Black Power era. Copyright © 2020 Kentucky Historical Society