Inside Black rural life: What we miss when these stories aren’t told

Black communities have long been central to rural life in the South, helping shape the culture, economy and civic life of the places they call home.

In North Carolina, nearly half of Black residents live in rural counties, reflecting a history that reaches back to the founding of the country and continues to influence where people live, work and build community today.

Yet these stories are too often overlooked in how rural America is understood and portrayed.

In this episode, Layna Hong talks with Aallyah Wright, a Mississippi native and rural issues reporter for Capital B, about what reporting on Black rural communities reveals about the South, history and the fuller story of America.

Guests: 

Aallyah Wright, rural issues reporter at Capital B

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

When people talk about rural America, they often talk about it like it's one thing, one culture, one kind of person. But the truth is, rural communities have always been more complex than that. They're rich in culture, history, and character. And when the media flattens rural communities to one narrative, we miss out on the important perspectives that make this country what it is. Welcome to Rural Narratives. I'm Lena Hong. I'm a born and raised North Carolinian. I'm also Asian American. These two facts together confuse outsiders constantly. And that's because stories about the South haven't always made room for people who look like me. And I think the same is true for rural communities. We don't always care about the diversity and deep history that have shaped rural places. And one group frequently left out of the picture are black Americans, who have significantly shaped rural life in the South. In North Carolina, nearly half of black North Carolinians live in rural areas. It's part of a long history, one that goes back to the founding of this country. And that history continues to shape where people live, work, and build community today. And when we leave out black rural folks, we're missing critical pieces of what makes America what it is. This week's episode is a conversation with Aaliyah Wright. She's a reporter covering black rule issues at Capitol B News. We talked about her own lived experience coming from the Rural South, her approach to reporting, and the importance of Black Rule stories. Hi, Aaliyah. Thank you for joining me today. Thanks so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here. You've been covering Black Rule issues for about four years now. You also grew up rural yourself, specifically in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Tell me a little bit about your hometown and how it influences the work that you do at Capitol B.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Clarksdale is such a magical and beautiful place. And I didn't necessarily see that growing up. I would look at, you know, the abandoned storefronts, the dilapidated buildings, the lack of public transportation. And as I grew older and kind of matriculated through high school, I started to become a little bit more curious. I was in sports, I was a cheerleader and a volleyball player. And I would travel to other schools and see just like how extravagant their schools were, having vending machines and lockers and all of the things that you know we didn't have at my school. So I started to, you know, think a little bit more deeply about why the circumstances existed in Clarksdale in that way. Like why did we have higher percentages of poverty and the lack of employment opportunities, consistent poor health outcomes? And I think that curiosity drove me to wanting to do more in-depth coverage about rural communities, because even though these are the statistics that say this place is the way that it is, it's not the full and the whole story. These are communities who continue to push back to create their own solutions, who are not, you know, waiting for handouts. But that part of the story I felt did not get illuminated as much. And so through my journey in the journalism industry to where I am now, I've always kept those images in my head and how I want to tell whole full stories about communities and how, you know, they're not the stereotypes that these statistics sometimes make them out to be.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

What do you think that the dominant narrative gets wrong about rural communities?

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Oh, let me tell you, there's a number of them. I think one of the most dominant narratives that I hear a lot of and and I see often is that rural communities are synonymous with very being very conservative or they're very white. And yes, there is a large population of white people live in rural communities, but rural communities are also very diverse. I mean, if we think about the black population of people who live in rural communities, it's about 7.7%. And although that's a small percentage, that still lets us know that black folks live here. There's an Asian population, there's a Hispanic population, there's a Native population. Like there's so many diverse demographics who live in rural communities across the country that aren't often amplified in story. So I'm always pushing back to show yes, black folks live in rural communities. The other perspective that is shaped about rural Black communities in general is like the othering. They are a group of people who live in, you know, remote communities who deal with problems that other communities don't deal with. And what I mean is like people think they live in this stone age, that they're walking barefoot on gravel roads and there's no great public infrastructure, and there's always this racial tension that is happening in these communities, that they are allowing certain policies to be passed or implemented as if they don't have agency over their own lives. So I'm often pushing back against that narrative too, because we can point to so many other places, urban areas where folks are dealing with unsafe environmental conditions and inadequate housing, and who are also pushing back against folks who are in government, who are passing laws that are stripping their rights. So these are not isolated issues. And there's always, you know, this othering happening. And so I also try to push back on those conversations as well. And the last thing, people often think that black folks in rural communities are uneducated or uninformed or politically and civically disengaged. But these are really smart people. They know what's going on. They're, you know, watching the cable news to see what's happening, you know, in Washington and how that may, you know, impact um their particular communities. I've written about how communities have banded together to sue, you know, their government or sue private developers for trying to, you know, take their land. They're often, again, pushing back in various ways. And I think those stories aren't told enough.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

What do you think we miss when black rural communities are left out of the conversation about how we talk about rural America?

SPEAKER_00 6:16

I think it speaks to the point that we're leaving out a critical component of who America is. When we leave out the diversity of thought, the diversity of perspective and religion and culture and community and what their contributions have been to this country. That's a critical piece of history. And not just history as in the past, but even in present-day decision making and present-day reality that we're missing when we don't include them in the conversation. I feel like this sense of erasure has happened since we could go back and talk about slavery. We could talk about reconstruction, post-reconstruction, Jim Crow South, civil rights movement. There are multiple times, pivotal times in our history where we've seen the oppression and the erasure happening to Black communities in rural areas and how they've had to push through to even tell their own stories and speak up and be loud and proud about who they are and what they've done and what they've been able to accomplish. Yeah, we just miss important contributions of what they've made and what they continue to make to this country, whether it's food ways, culture or it's music and tradition, all of the things that make America what it is today. That's what we lose out.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yeah, I think if you look through history, what often happens to black communities, black rural communities, is often the testing ground for things that are then rolled out to other communities in the country. If you're not black, if you don't live in a rural community, like why is it important to talk about these stories? Why do you think that's important?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

I think you just said it. They use these places as testing ground for something that may happen on a national level. And that means it will reach your community at some point, whether you're rural, you're urban, you're somewhere in between. And I think that's what we're seeing right now with this administration when we think about the rollback of civil rights and voting rights, when we think about the limited resources that black farmers are not receiving. I mean, there's just so many different issues that black folks have been sounding the alarm on for years that have been happening to them in their communities, particularly in the South. And so I often hear a lot of folks who are organizers, whether it's women's rights or food access or voting rights, all of these different groups. One thing that I ask them in particular when I'm reporting out these different stories is what are you thinking about the current moment? What does this mean? And they all say the same thing, which is, we have said this has been happening to us, and why aren't y'all listening? And now you have no choice but to listen because it's now happening to folks across the country. And so I think that's why we can't turn a blind eye to the south, why we can't turn an eye to what's happening in rural communities.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

For a lot of people in small towns, talking to you is often the first direct contact that they have with a journalist. So, how do you approach that and how is it different from traditional mainstream reporting?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I'm smiling right now because I get some of the most amazing responses from people when they're like, Oh, I'm gonna be in the newspaper and everybody's gonna know my name. Because they're just so proud and happy for a reporter to listen to them and take their stories and their lived experiences seriously. So I just love that. But I think one of the most important things is I don't like to go into a community with assumptions. Like, yes, of course, I have questions, I've done my research about a place, I may have looked at some statistics, but I'm not going in like I'm the know it all and I know what's happening. That's why I'm here talking to the people so they can tell me what I might have gotten wrong, or maybe they're proving me right or proving me wrong and whatever assumptions I may have had. And so I'm often telling them who I am, what's my mission, why I'm even covering the story, and why their perspective is important and why it's needed. Because I also want to build trust with them. I don't want them to think that I'm just taking their story, I'm gonna do whatever with it, and I'm running with it, and they never hear from me again. So I take a lot of time just like us getting to know each other. I'm from, you know, Mississippi, and I like to tell some facts and stories about myself and how I came into journalism and why this is important to me. So I do that. There's media literacy going on. Okay, what's gonna happen? What happens during the interview? What does on the record mean? What is on background? What happens after we have the interview? What does the actual process before publication? Will I need to contact you again to fact-check some things? Will there be multiple conversations? So I'm explaining this process to folks who may have not engaged with the reporter before. And then if we have time, I just like them to take me around town as I'm the tourist. Like, where are the places that folks go and they frequent? Where are the restaurants that folks love to eat at? Just getting a sense of place because I think that richness is important to conveying who a community is. And then I also like to add, you know, what is something that people may miss or they don't understand about your community? Because sometimes the way we describe a place may not be the way that they describe it. And so I just want it to be as authentic as possible. And I think that leads to one trust. And then I try to follow up with them as often as possible. I've had sources now that we just text them, like, hey, just checking in, how are things going? Is there anything new? And sometimes that's it, and it's not a story, and that's okay, but it's really important to connecting and keeping the relationship going beyond the initial piece that I'm writing. And so I think that takes a lot of effort, but I think it's worth it and it's super important.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

What's the value in the sources that you talk to, the stories that you cover? What's the value in them seeing their stories being platformed in like an authentic way that shows nuance and complexity?

SPEAKER_00 12:24

There's a number of things. One I love to hear and I appreciate and I don't take it for granted when people say you got it right. Because oftentimes for people who may have talked to a reporter, they may have, you know, misinterpreted something they said, or maybe they didn't get a fact right, or maybe they did, but they didn't offer as much space for community in a story than they would an official voice. So, like a police officer or an elected official or someone that's in a official capacity. And I think that's when it builds trust with the news organization and the reporter, that they can actually feel confident in one telling more stories. So they're empowered to continue to speak up about things, but then it also builds trust in the organization. Like, okay, I know that all news organizations aren't the same. There are folks who care and are invested in our community. I think also I've seen communities become more civically engaged, but also more open to having communication with folks within their own communities. Like there's a sense of healing that happens because now the elephant in the room, aka the news that's happening, is no longer this elephant. Now people are willing to talk about it and either find some resolution or just like they just now want to talk about it. And I mention Clarksdale a lot because that's my home, but I've also been doing a lot of reporting there. And it makes me think back to the center's coverage. And I won't be long with this, but when the community asked Warner Brothers and Ryan Kugler to come to bring screenings, part of it was because the community did not have access to a movie theater to watch the film. But the other part was inviting them to come to the streets to see the people, to learn the history that they were mentioning or showing in their film. But after that actually happened, and I wrote this story about it, and I've written consecutive stories about different things happening in the community. But I've now seen so many conversations about how we can improve the town, how can we improve tourism, how can we get more resources for youth. My story wasn't the main catalyst for that, but it was part of the beginning of these conversations that at least I hadn't seen, you know, living and being from Clarksdale. And I think that's the beautiful thing that can happen. And Clarksdale isn't the only community that this has happened in, but it just starts a really important conversation about how people want to move things forward in their community. And I think that's probably the biggest value that I see from reporting on rural black communities.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

I mean, I feel like we can have a whole other episode about sinners, but the film kind of does what you're also trying to do with your work. I mean, it's an extremely well-researched film that tells a nuanced and complex story about the small rural community in Mississippi.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah, I love the fact that sinners did that. And I think that's another part, a misconception. I know I I've talked about earlier how rural communities are often seen as mostly white and conservative. But even if we think about sinners in Clarksdale, especially during that time in the early 1900s, there were folks who were Lebanese, there were Asian folks, there were Russian folks, there was all sorts of folks of different backgrounds who lived in Clarksdale and had this thriving infrastructure of business, actually in the New World district, which was the predominantly black part of town in that particular time period. And of course, that diversity has declined. There's still a small Asian population in Clarksdale. But the diversity has always been there in these communities. It's just, yeah, it has shifted and changed over time. But again, looking back at history, it tells us what the makeup of these communities were. And so, yeah, I just always love to find like that sliver of history that tells us what a place used to be, why it is what it is now, and how that can shape what the future may look like for these places.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

And finally, I'm interested in what you're keeping an eye out on right now.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

One of you know the biggest, biggest areas of interest that I'm looking at right now, how the United States Department of Agriculture, the USDA, how their decisions are impacting everyday farmers, how the this administration at large, how their policy decisions or lack thereof may be impacting black farmers. I have a story that actually just came out about how the USDA has canceled this$300 million program that was meant to help underserved, mostly farmers of color, get access to land, can, you know, get access to capital, to even expand their markets. And now that program is gone and they don't have the ability to purchase land or even help farmers who are on the brink of foreclosure right now. And it's it's very important to me to just be a watchdog for the federal government, you know, looking at state legislatures as well to see how their decisions at this time are having real life effects.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Thank you for joining me, Aaliyah.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Thank you for having me. This is great.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

That's Aaliyah Wright. She covers black rule issues for Capital B dues. I'm Lena Hong. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Rule Narratives.