This Really Puts a Bur in My Saddle

The other night my wife and I were watching the evening news on one of the major networks, and they were covering the polygamist compound story out in west Texas. As usual, the smug reporters interviewed some locals about the situation, and naturally the interviewees were toothless, dumbass hicks.

It seems to me that whenever there is a national news story that takes place in Texas, they generally feature interviews with the most stereotypical man-in-a-trailer-park folks. You rarely see an articulate and sophisticated Texan interviewed for a national news story (I know, that includes our current president). Do they go and hunt down these yahoos on purpose?


ABOVE: Not every wealthy Texan is like J.R. Ewing

I acknowledge that these inbred yokels exist (in somewhat abundance) in the great state of Texas. For work in a previous job of mine, I had the opportunity to travel to all corners of the state. I recall a particular stop in some godforsaken town up in the Panhandle (the area near Amarillo) for a meal. On the outside, it looked like a quaint enough local diner. On the inside it was flies and toothless Deliverance-people staring at this city boy as he quickly finished his meal to get the hell out of there. So, yes, it exists.

But at the same time, we have huge cities and metro areas. The Dallas/Fort Worth metro area has 6 million people and is the 4th largest metro area in the country. Houston metro is at 5.6 million and is the 6th largest in population (it may be only behind Los Angeles in physical size). San Antonio metro is just shy of 2 million and is the second fastest growing city in the country (behind Phoenix). Dallas and Houston are two of the most cosmopolitan cities in the country, Austin is one of the hippest places in the country to be. Yet people still think of trailer parks, horses and oil rigs when you mention "Texas" to them.

I recall several years back watching a nationally-televised, important (for playoff purposes) NBA match-up between the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks. What visual do they choose to show before the start of the game? A dusty main street from some Old West town with, yes, a saloon and a freakin' tumbleweed blowing across the street. This is the visual the network chose for a game between teams representing city metro areas with a combined population upwards of 8 million people.


ABOVE: The skyline of downtown Dallas. Does this look like a dusty trailer park to you?

Honestly, I am somewhat torn on this issue. Part of me takes great pride in the idiosyncratic reputation Texas has (vs., say, being from Idaho). When traveling through Europe about ten years ago, young Europeans that I met were much more interested that I was from Texas than they were that I was American. Reruns of 'Dallas' were still popular over there, so I was questioned seriously about my horses and oil wells. Right there: it is cool to be from a place that people worldwide are interested in, but the stereotypes vastly overlook the cultural richness and sophistication (in certain pockets, like the metro areas) in this great state.