Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

by Arlie Russell Hochschild

  10: The Team Player: Loyalty Above All

  159 "hut there's a positive side to the war" Janice favored the invasion of Iraq and believed Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction and had contact with A1 Qaeda before the United States invaded Iraq.

  162 "that's the consensus in liberal Hollywood" Chaz is now a transgender man, not gay.

  163 Industry had brought four toxic waste landfills to Sulphur, one only a block from her present home Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, "Solid Waste Landfill Report," (accessed August 7, 2015), http://www.deq.louisiana.gov/portal/DIVISIONS/WastePermits/SolidWastePermits/SolidWasteLandfillReport.aspx.

  166 did a person with that kind of self end up thinking "anything goes"? For a helpful analysis of types of individualism, see Ann Swidler, "Cultural Constructions of Modern Individualism," paper delivered at Meeting of American Sociological Association, August 23, 1992.

  12: The Cowboy: Stoicism

  183 handled electrical wires atop telephone poles—dangerous jobs For his part, as a three-year-old child, Mike Tritico was a daredevil like Donny but was quickly cured of it. One of his earliest memories is being saved by a grandfather, Pappa Bill, from a foolish childhood flight into a fireplace at Christmas. "I thought I could fly like Superman," Tritico recounted, "and took off across the living room and into the fireplace, stuck my hands in the coals, was about to take a breath when my grandfather jerked me out by the shirt [and] said, 'There are dangers we need to be saved from."' In his adult life, Tritico has himself become a protector. His mother, highly intelligent but emotionally volatile, had led Mike to keep a protective eye on his siblings. Dangers are about; one has to keep watch.

  184 had begun to have trouble breathing and had sued James Ridgeway, "Environmental Espionage: Inside a Chemical Company's Louisiana Spy Op.

  188 "Oh, that's probably Donny" John Guldroz, "LSU Professor Discusses Climate Change, Erosion," American Press, June 28, 2013.

  188 since the woman in question should have learned her lesson As in many such conversations, the race of the woman with too many children on welfare was left ambiguous. For the actual fertility rates of white and black mothers, see Appendix C.

  188 "Do you worry about exposure to these dangerous chemicals?" John Baugher and J. Timmons Boberts, "Perceptions and Worry About Hazards at Work: Unions, Contract Maintenance, and Job Control in the U.S. Petrochemical Industry," Industrial Relations 38, no. 4 (1999): 522-41.

  189 workers worried less, and managers worried more Less than 10 percent of clerical workers—nearly all of whom were women—said they were "often or always" exposed to dangerous chemicals, but 35 percent said they worried about that exposure (ibid., 531). So Donny resembled the hourly crafts-worker. Mike Tritico resembled the professional manager and clerical worker. In addition, union members were three times as likely to worry about safety as were non-union members, perhaps due to their greater safety training, and were likely to say the plant lacked sufficient safety regulations (28 percent union versus 10 percent non-union). Donny resembled the nonunion worker; Tritico was similar to his union counterpart. Plants generally hire contract workers to help with their turnaround maintenance system, during which time workers are under great pressure to get the plant up and running again. Dangers increase during this time. Six out of ten workers felt the plant was less safe during such times. Core workers felt safer than contract workers and worried less about fires. Core workers were more secure (only 6 percent had experienced job layoffs in the preceding year, compared to 51 percent of contract workers). Insecurity increased fear. And contract workers were nearly twice as likely not to exercise their right to refuse unsafe work.

  189 minorities did so more than whites As the authors note, "even when controlling for income, education and several other important factors, it became clear that the unusual—unworried—group was not the women, but white men" (ibid., 523).

  189 white males stood out from all other groups as being less likely to see risk Matthew Desmond, On the Fireline: Living and Dying with Wildland Firefighters (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).

  13: The Rebel: A Team Loyalist with a New Cause

  194 give victims the replacement value of lost homes within 180 days of an accident Senate Bill 209 did not call for a halt to salt-dome drilling but rather amended the requirements for obtaining a permit to do so. It added the requirement to reimburse the state for the costs of disaster response, and reimbursement to property owners for the fair market value of their property. The bill was tabled.

  194 Mike Schaff wrote the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to object He addressed his letter to Ms. Peggy Hatch and it concerned Permit Number LA0126917 and Activity Number PER20140001, Texas Brine, LLC, 201.

  195 "I pray one day I'll be able to speak with no tears, just anger" Mike Schaff, e-mail message to author, June 8, 2015.

  197 Mike called for the more reliable "Feds" to double-check The Louisiana State Department of Environmental Quality claimed its meters had picked up no traces of gas and that air and water were "completely safe." But Mike wrote to officials that he smelled "very strong odors of crude and/or diesel wafting through the area. ... It would calm fears," he wrote, "if we had back up from the feds to verify this.... We ask you to see if the EPA can send a representative to review the water quality and air quality" (personal communication).

  199 "where roseate spoonbills nest every spring" "Iberia Parish, Louisiana," Tour Louisiana travel directory website (accessed August 7, 2015), http://www.tourlouisiana.com/content.cfm?id=15.

  199 in a massive new -project in Lake Peigneur Jefferson Island Storage and Hub (formerly AGL Resources) merged with energy giant Nocor Oil & Gas to become the largest natural gas distributor in the United States. It wants to expand its use of salt caverns to store gas. See AGL Resources, 2011 Annual Report (accessed August 7, 2015), http://www.aglresources.com/about/docs/AGL_AR_2011/2011AnnualReport.pdf. Shareholder return in 2011 was 24 percent. Also see Yolanda Martinez, "Environmentalists Allege Constitutional Violation in Permitting Gas Storages Salt Dome Construction in Lake Peigneur," Louisiana Record, July 24, 2013.

  199 all inside the salt dome underlying Lake Peigneur In 2013, a public hearing on one of the three remaining state permits was set. Atlanta-based AGL Resources was proposing to scour out two new salt caverns for natural gas storage at its Jefferson Island Storage and Hub Facility, expanding on the two storage caverns that have been there since the 1990s and more than doubling storage capacity. AGL needed two other state permits for the project— one to scour out caverns in the salt dome and another to use the scoured caverns for natural gas storage. AGL's proposed expansion had been on hold since 2006, when then-governor Kathleen Blanco called for an extensive environmental study of the project. AGL filed a lawsuit against the state, and the case ended with a settlement in 2009 that called for additional safeguards, but not the environmental review that residents in the area had demanded. After the settlement, the permitting process started anew.

  199 "Thank God they decided the salt dome wasn't okay to store nuclear waste!" In August 2012, The Advocate published an investigation into Department of Natural Resources records and found that Texas Brine had been allowed to inject radioactive disposal material into a cavern in the Napoleonville salt dome in 1995. See "Dome Issues Kept Quiet," The Advocate, August 12, 2012.

  199 The hill did not pass "Good Morning, Senator Long," the letter read. "I am not a highly paid lobbyist for the energy industry, nor am I a 'tree-hugger.' In fact, my livelihood and that of many in this area has relied on that industry.... It's sad that members of my very own community face a bleak and uncertain future due to the unstable and poorly regulated mining of the salt dome beneath our feet. Hopefully, with this bill's passage, the residents surrounding the Jefferson Island dome won't face similar consequences." It was signed: Mike and Becky Schaff, Bayou Corne residents and Friends of Lake Peigneur.

  200 an average football field eve
ry hour Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA), "Frequently Asked Questions," https://lacoast.gov/new/About/FAQs.aspx.

  200 de-listing coastal postal addresses John Snell, "As More of Coastal Louisiana Is Lost, Official Map Makers Erase Names," WorldNow, April 21, 2014, http://apmobile.worldnow.com/story/24807691/as-more-of-coastal-louisiana-is-lost-mapmakers-erase-names.

  200 The church in Grand Bayou stands on stilts; a small cemetery is accessible only by boat John Snell, "Despite Land Loss, Native American Community Clings to Life Along the Mississippi River," WorldNow, March 4, 2015, http://apmobile.worldnow.com/story/26559685/despite-land-loss-native-american-community-clings-to-life-along-the-mississippi-river; Amy Wold, "Washed Away," The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com/home/5782941-125/washed-away.

  200 the first "climate refugees" Coral Davenport and Campbell Robertson, "Resettling the First American 'Climate Refugees,'" New York Times, May 3, 2016.

  202 it wasn't worth believing in or paying taxes to Shortly after I visited the Bayou Corne Sinkhole in 2014, Mike sent me an e-mail, with the subject line "Sinkhole of Another Sort" and a link to an article in the Washington Post about six hundred employees in Boyers, Pennsylvania, who process the paper-based retirement records of government workers by hand. The office is located in an abandoned salt mine to make room for storage. "See the waste?" he wrote. David Fahrenthold, "Deep Underground Federal Employees Process Paperwork by Hand in a Long Outdated Inefficient System," Washington Post, March 22, 2014.

  14: The Fires of History: The 1860s and the 1960s

  207 as the historian Richard Hofstadter has noted Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform (New York: Vintage, 1955), 4; see Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (New York: Vintage Books, 1966); Jill Lepore, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010).

  208 In his classic The Mind of the South, W.J. Cash says W.J. Cash, The Mind of the South (New York: Vintage Books, 1991).

  208 "a potential planter or mill baron himself" Ibid., 39, 217. Cash describes a "wide, diffuse gratefulness pouring out upon the cotton-mill baron; upon the old captains, upon all the captains and preachers of Progress, upon the ruling class as a whole for having embraced the doctrine and brought these things [economic progress of the 1890s] ... as the instrument of salvation both for the South as such and for themselves" (ibid., 215).

  208 and poor whites took them as such "However cynical his deeds may seem," Cash writes, the rich white planter "almost invariably thought of himself as a great public patron and came to his clients with the manner and the conviction of conferring inestimable benefits.... Hadn't he made it possible for you to grow cotton? Did not he enable you to keep on in that pursuit year after year? And if in the end he sold you out, would you, stout individualist, have done otherwise in his place? Wasn't he kind about it? Didn't he often see to it that you got a good place as tenant, either on his own acres or elsewhere?" Fearing slave revolts, rich planters offered favors and appealed to a common racial identity and made their poor neighbors feel like honorary planters. As Cash explains, rich whites "came to the use of white tenants only through the operation of race loyalty and the old paternalism. They felt... not the slightest responsibility for what had happened to the dispossessed [poor white]... but here they were... under our planter eyes. Men we have known all our days, laughed with, hunted with and in many a case, fought side by side with" (ibid., 166).

  208 much more wealth to envy above, and far more misery to gasp at below To be sure, the South had a small number of black slaveowners and white indentured servants, but overwhelmingly blacks were the victims, their fate the most feared. There were 3,959 lynchings in the South, 540 in Louisiana and 4 in Calcasieu Parish, but no monuments to commemorate the victims, some in the records for "being the father of the rapist" or "hiding under the bed" or "voodoo." But a school curriculum that discussed this history seemed to most of those I got to know a matter quite distinct from "racism." The highest number of lynchings in the South took place in the 1890s—as many as twenty-six in 1890. Two took place in 1928. Mostly black men, mostly for murder or rape, all males but for one female for attempted murder, two for murder and insurrection. Two white males were killed because they "angered Klan," one in Bossier County for "living with white woman," one "peeping Tom," and two simply as "brother of murder(er)." And another, in Calcasieu, "defending rapist." In Mississippi, some reasons given were "father of murderer," "frightened woman," "outraged young girl," "reproved white youth," "race prejudice," and "indolence." See the records kept by Project HAL: Historical American Lynching Data Collection Project, University of North Carolina—Wilmington, http://people.uncw.edu/hinese/HAL/HAL%20Web%20Page.htm. In a study of counties with the most lynchings between 1877 and 1950, four of the top five were in Louisiana (in Caddo, Lafourche, Ouachita, and Tensas Parishes). This number was fewer than in Mississippi and more than in Virginia. (The very highest numbers took place in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Georgia.)

  208 much room for the forgotten behind Cash, The Mind of the South, 22. Often plantations were funded, and sometimes owned, by northern banks.

  208-209 "sagging rail fences... and crazy hams which yet bulged with corn" Ibid.

  209 "armed with plentiful capital and solid battalions of slaves" Ibid.

  209 "to all the marginal lands of the South " Ibid., 23.

  209 "cornpone and the flesh of razorback hogs" Ibid.

  209 left to live on what they themselves could produce Ibid.

  210 "What oil and gas did is replace the agricultural with an oil plantation culture'" Oliver A. Houck, "Save Ourselves: The Environmental Case That Changed Louisiana," Louisiana Law Review 72 (2012): 409—37.

  211 they shoidd get me in a different costume to talk about that Massive federal investments were made in the South during the period between the 1860s and the 1960s, as Michael Hout has pointed out to me. See Claude Fischer and Michael Hout, Century of Difference: How America Changed in the Last One Hundred Years (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008). Also see Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Norton Publishing Co., 2006).

  212 flame up years later as the Tea Party See Chip Berlet, "Reframing Populist Resentment in the Tea Party Movement," in Steep: The Precipitous Rise of the Tea Party, edited by Lawrence Rosenthal and Christine Trost (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 47-66. Lawrence Rosenthal has also stressed the importance of reactions to the resistance to the Vietnam War.

  212 June of 1964: Freedom Summer Two organizations—CORE (the Chicago-based Congress for Racial Equality) and SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee)—together organized students.

  213 challenged the all-white regular delegation Doug McAdam, Freedom Summer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).

  214 received any money from the federal government In 1964, Title VII was added to the Civil Rights Act, stating that it was illegal to discriminate against women, and in 1972, Title IX banned discrimination in education.

  214 the critic Todd Gitlin, a former 1960s activist, lamented Todd Gitlin, The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America Is Wracked by Culture Wars (New York: Metropolitan Press, 1995), 124-25.

  214 fairness seemed to stop before it got to him In 2015, the one thousand student activity groups of the University of California, Berkeley, reflected the student culture of its 37,000 students. Some student groups were based on professional interests (for example, the Society for Landscape Architecture). Others were focused on social causes (for example, the Campus Green Initiative, Amnesty International, the Anti-Trafficking Coalition). Still others were based on religion (the Acts 2 Fellowship) or recreation (the Berkeley Ballroom Dancers), or a group puts two themes together (the Christ-Centered Dance Group). Still others were based on personal challenge—for example, Body Peace, students addressing the challenge of eating dis
orders. In the spirit of identity politics, other groups were defined purely by ethnicity— the Asian and Pacific Islander Women's Circle, Cal Queer and Asian, the Albanian Association, the American Indian Studies Association. Or race and gender identification were mixed with a professional or recreational interest: the American Medical Women's Association at Berkeley, the Armenian Law Student Association, the Black Engineering and Science Student Association. Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, from which many of my informants had graduated, had, with its nearly 31,000 students, 375 recognized student groups. The groups reflected a busy sorority and fraternity life tacitly divided by gender, of course, and a few other groups, such as Minorities in Agriculture and Natural Resources, or the Minority Women's Movement, reflected ethnic status as a basis of membership.