Wild, Wonderful, White Criminality: Images of “White Trash” Appalachia

Abstract

Films in no small way have the ability to reflect and shape public perceptions. The following is a discussion of how three documentaries set in rural West Virginia, Dancing Outlaw (1991), The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009), and Oxyana (2013) have strengthened the idea of the “white trash criminal” in American discourse. The films draw upon stereotypical understandings of rural people—poverty, drug use, domestic violence, dependence—and contribute to the cultural production and exclusion of a “white trash” other. However, creation of this particular figure often occurs without consideration of a broader history, local political economies, intra-race conflict (whites vs. “white trash”) and generational poverty. The aim here is to confront and contest contemporary understandings of the “white trash” other, in order to refocus everyday discussions on the lived realities of rural Appalachia.