I am from Randleman, a small town of a little over 4,000 people. You may know it as the birthplace of famous NASCAR driver Richard Petty.
As of late, small town America is in the national spotlight for overwhelmingly voting Republican in the past election. Talks of two Americas — one urban and liberal, one rural and conservative — are erupting as people find it harder to associate with those outside their own communities.
Like many of my fellow students from small towns, this narrative has put me in an awkward spot. I have friends both in conservative Randleman and in liberal Chapel Hill. I have friends getting ready to go to graduate school to study philosophy and friends already in the workforce.
Maybe the two Americas narrative is right, but there is only one of me.
I consider myself a pretty far left person, the origins of which come from home.
Growing up, there were no shortage of times when racism and discrimination were present and blatant. In high school, almost within the same year, “Invisible Man” was banned from my school’s library for “lacking literary merit,” and there was an incident where a couple of students spray painted a swastika on a Jewish teacher’s classroom doors.
Thankfully, there were teachers at my school who spoke out against these acts. I doubt these teachers saw their actions as political, and maybe at the time they weren’t, but in today’s context, they certainly would be.
Going even further back to elementary school, I remember my not-that-strict mom not letting me go to Hooters with other boys and their fathers, saying it contributed to the objectification of women. At the time, I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t let me go to a restaurant, but now I am glad she stood firm.
All of these things made me a more liberal person who came from this “other America.”
