VA brehs...how different is Virginia from West Virginia?

[White City Black]

It's pretty ironic considering what it's become, but the reason there's so many fewer Black people in West Virginia was because there weren't many slaveowners in that area. The state was literally created because that part of the state didn't want to join the Confederacy, so they broke off from Virginia to join the Union and wrote the abolision of slavery into their Constitution.

Even 100 years later in 1965, 6 out of 7 West Virginia legislators voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act, whereas all 12 Virginia legislators voted against it.


It shows you how much shyt has changed over the last 55 years.

Is this somehow connected with the Democrats and Republicans eventually “switching places” so to speak? I’ve still yet to fully read up on that

 

[DaPresident]

Comparison?

Apples to rotted, inbred, half retarded oranges

 

[BrothaZay]

Its 2022 how are folk still referencing to areas by the whole state. Especially Virginia it’s about as polarizing as a state can be

Charlottesville is where the far right rally and basically a kkk march happened

But Richmond is home to one of the most diverse PWI’s VCU, also Virginia Union and nearby Va State two HBCU’s that are the choice for a ton of east coast folk and NYers in particular

But Richmond is also the gateway to the south and was the capital of the confederacy

But just an hour or so away is Hampton/Newport News/Va Beach which has hoods that have fed black culture for decades Pusha T, Allen Iverson, Michael Vick, Plaxico burress, Pernell Whitaker …but also where eclectic ass Pharrell is from and full of skaters, eclectic folk, and well to do military families

Then there’s northern VA which is technically the south but is everything but since it’s 10-30 minutes from DC

So yea it’s a lil silly to ask ‘what’s virginia like’. There’s only like 3,4 states that are the same throughout…and West Virginia’s country ass is one of ‘em why you even asking

You forgot lex Luger

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

It's pretty ironic considering what it's become, but the reason there's so many fewer Black people in West Virginia was because there weren't many slaveowners in that area. The state was literally created because that part of the state didn't want to join the Confederacy, so they broke off from Virginia to join the Union and wrote the abolision of slavery into their Constitution.

Even 100 years later in 1965, 6 out of 7 West Virginia legislators voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act, whereas all 12 Virginia legislators voted against it.


It shows you how much shyt has changed over the last 55 years.

Came to say this

 

[Piff Perkins]

A lot of Virginia's development over the decades is due to how close it is to DC and all the fed money that's pumped in there. Substantial amount of elite, upper class, and middle income people live there. Whereas West Virginia might as well be backwoods and meth addicts.

 

[UberEatsDriver]

Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi will be having words with you. Yeah, but West Virginia really sucks too.

Been to Louisiana. I think New Orleans at least gives it the edge.


Mississippi I need to visit all tho I never hear good things. I would assume Little Rock gives AK an edge too

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Is this somehow connected with the Democrats and Republicans eventually “switching places” so to speak? I’ve still yet to fully read up on that

In West Virginia's case I think it's more complex than that, but I don't really know much about the area so I'm mostly guessing.



My basic understanding is this:


1. The Republicans were originally created in the years before the Civil War and were clearly the more anti-slavery party. Democrats in the South were resolutely pro-slavery, while Democrats in the north were more pro-slavery than Republicans but not as strongly committed as southern Democrats. Republicans in the south didn't even really exist. Abe becoming president threatened the South so much that the seceeded off the mere concern that he might start limiting slavery beyond their comfort level.


2. After the North won the Civil War, Black folk newly free and able to vote all joined the Republicans, a lot of Southern Democrats were now dead or couldn't vote, and "Radical Republicans" dominated the scene. They were hardcore pro-Black for the time and we got our first Black senators, representatives, and governor out of this. Democrats were angry racist white people with no power.


3. Southern white democrats got violent and intimidating in the 1876 election in order to try to wrestle power back from the Blacks and Republicans, leading to the biggest voting dispute in our nation's history (way worse than 2020). In the huge "Compromise of 1877", Democrats basically allowed the Republicans to take the presidency so long as the Republicans agreed to get the federal government out of the South, completely screwing over Black folk and ending Reconstruction (before that had happened there had also been some blowback within the Republican party, with moderate Republicans pulling power back from the Radical Republicans who had pushed the real pro-Black policies).


4. With the Black vote suppressed, civil rights began waning in importance to Republicans and by the 1890s they became more and more the pro-business party. In the early 1900s the progressive Republicans sorta split off and formed their own party briefly and eventually dispersed, making the Republican party solidly the "Conservative and pro-business" party outside of a few liberals in the northeast, while the Democrats were the "Pro-worker and still openly racist" party.


5. FDR becoming president and pushing hardcore progressive policies in the 1930s made a lot of progressives join the Democrats, especially in the North. There were Democrats in the South liked the progressive shyt too, but were still super racist. So the Democrats slowly started growing into a "socially conservative but economically progressive" party in the South and a "progressive" party in the North. Meanwhile, the economic conservatives in the South started abandoning the Democratic party and siding with Republicans, even though they were still racist, cause pro-business was more important.


6. Around the 1940s and 50s some of the most hardcore racists in the South didn't like being associated with the Democrats, and began looking to form their own parties. The pressure of the Civil Rights Movement began doing its work on progressives, and many of the northern progressives in the Democratic party began looking more and more to supporting Black Civil Rights.


7. Thus when the Civil Rights Act passed in 1965, people voted more by region than by party. Northerners supported the Civil Rights Act whether they were Republican or Democrat, and Southerners opposed the Civil Rights Act whether they were Republican or Democrat. In the end a majority of both parties supported the Civil Rights Act, but more Democrats than Republicans voted against it because there were still a lot more Democrats in the South. However, the leadership of the parties was very different, because JFK and LBJ both strongly supported the Civil Rights Act, whereas Goldwater, the Republican nominee for president in 1964, was against it. Ironically, from what I understand LBJ was almost certainly more racist personally than Goldwater was - Goldwater himself was a desegregationist while LBJ was a Texas democrat. But Goldwater was also an idiotic ultra-libertarian idealist who thought the government shouldn't interfere in business and such, and his "small government" philosophies were gonna fukk over Black folk.



8. Now that Black folk got the vote back they started flocking towards the Democratic party and leaders like Bobby Kennedy who were openly fighting for Black rights. The Republicans saw the writing on the wall and realized that if they were losing elections anyway, and clearly weren't gonna get the Black vote, they might as well strive for the racist White vote. They had long ago left progressive values in order to fight for big business anyway. Thus they started the "Southern Strategy" policy of targeting disillusioned White southern Democrats, and the South began tilting towards the Republican party. As the racists in the Democrat party steadily abandoned it for the Republicans, the Democrats gradually became even more pro-Black, which also happened to be in line with their pro-poor and pro-worker policies that they'd already been pushing for decades.



That's the basic story of how the parties switched, best as I can put it. But West Virginia is a weird fit because they were a "northern", anti-slavery state, and they were 100% behind passing the Civil Rights Act. So the Southern Strategy didn't work on them, at least not initially. They were still electing mostly Democratic governors until now, their current governor switched personally from a Democrat to a Republican. From 1958 to 2014 they had two Democratic senators the entire time. They voted for Jimmy Carter both times he ran, for Michael Dukakis, and for Clinton by a landslide both times. But they switched to Bush in 2000 and by 2004 they were voting for Republican presidents by double-digits, now its 30+ %.



So it's kinda weird that the Southern Strategy really didn't work in West Virginia at all until 2000, and now suddenly from 2000-2020 just took off. If I had to guess I'd say part of it could be a degree of racial solidarity, part of it has to do with end of "conservative Democrats" and the feeling that the Democratic party is too socially liberal and against family values, and part of it is feeling the Democrats are elitists who don't care as much about working-class people as they used to. Republicans don't give a shyt about poor rural or working-class people either, but at least in the South they're better at faking it sometimes, while Democrats look to them like Wall Street and Hollywood elitists who don't care about their jobs or their homes or their families and just pander to a lot of people who look nothing like them.


Granted, I'm saying this having never been to West Virginia in my life and not knowing jack shyt about them. But that's the feeling I get from the stuff I've picked up.

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

Nah, West of Roanoke, maybe Blacksburg because of Va Tech. But majority of the southwest is no bueno unless you are a redneck

Umm you sure? Once I drove past Manassas, shyt started looking unfamiliar.

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

what about iowa? I heard it's a good amount of black folks up there.

Had to go to a conference a few years back in Davenport and shot out to Iowa City to see a friend who teaches there. Rarely saw a black face and the few I did see in IC were all coming from the athletic facilities

 

[Braman]

I went to a mall in Morgantown where 75% of the stores were closed. The only things that were open were the food court, a shoe store, a library a cell phone kiosk, a Lids, and a bank.

It was.creepy as hell.

This is how it was when I visited Cleveland for work about 10 years ago. An empty downtown mall in the middle of a Sunday is one depressing ass feeling

 

[ball15life]

WV's population is under 2 million people....I'd guess northern VA alone dwarfs that. Really apples and oranges.


From what I've seen it's a pretty state if you're into nature

 

[boriquaking]

Not even from the state and I can tell you that West Virginia is one of the most ass-backwards part of the country.

 

[Hitman's Shades]

Had to go to a conference a few years back in Davenport and shot out to Iowa City to see a friend who teaches there. Rarely saw a black face and the few I did see in IC were all coming from the athletic facilities

There are black people in the Quad Cities and also in Des Moines.

 

[TDA92]

I currently live in Richmond Virginia. West Virginia is full of beautiful scenery and ugly meth addicts. Virginia is waaaay more diverse.

 

[2 Up 2 Down]

Umm you sure? Once I drove past Manassas, shyt started looking unfamiliar.

Yes, I live in central va and visit Roanoke (Southwest Va) very often