On our first day in Cultural Rhetoric we talked about what words the term Appalachia brought to mind. I started then to realize that I know almost nothing about Appalachia other than what TV has taught me. I put down that I knew it was deeply rooted in mountain culture and rife with moonshiners, but other than that I was stumped. I put down words like hillbilly and redneck, because honestly that is what TV has taught me. Much like the stereotypes of blacks on television, there are no intelligent people from the Appalachia region on TV, unless they are attempting to hide another moonshine still. Since taking Rhetorical Traditions last spring with COL McDonald, I have been deeply interested in how media and preconceived  notions affect how characters or groups of people are portrayed in any show or movie. I have constantly noticed that Italians must be tough: boxers, cabbies, Mob bosses; where Black people must be a rapper, dancer, athlete or a member of a gang. Finally, people from the Appalachia region get to be either some kind of moonshiner, idiot, or backwards redneck. Now, I refuse to implicate that I am some master of mountain culture and I am about as far from a “redneck” or any other term one can think of (I grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland and moved to upstate New York). However, it is my hope that through this class I will be able  to sift through the normal stereotypes that plague Appalachia and get to the real definition of the geographic area and the people from there.