'Vermont Public Radio' interviews Sam McReynolds of 51品茶on why the Green Mountain State is so white

Sam McReynolds
Sam McReynolds

Sam McReynolds, Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of Society, Culture and Language, was recently interviewed for an episode of Vermont Public Radio鈥檚 podcast Brave Little State that examined the question 鈥淲hy Is Vermont So Overwhelmingly White?鈥 In addition to interviewing people of color living in Vermont about what life is like for them, the program also shed light on the historical, economic and social forces that shaped Vermont鈥檚 鈥渨hiteness.鈥 To examine these forces, the program delved into many topics, including immigration.

According to McReynolds, one theory of immigration is known as 鈥減ush and pull.鈥 He noted that there was no 鈥減ull鈥 to Vermont for African-Americans. 鈥淭here were no jobs, there was no African-American history, heritage, culture to attract African-Americans to come to the state to settle,鈥 he said.

鈥淢y view is that not just for Vermont, for northern New England 鈥 for New Hampshire and Maine as well 鈥 that the situation was structured in a way that without large-scale farming, without large-scale industry, without having had a slave population to deal with large-scale farming, there simply wasn鈥檛 a foundation or a base for drawing people in,鈥 said McReynolds.

He also pointed out that proximity 鈥 or lack of it 鈥 played an important role in determining who moved into Vermont to fill the mill jobs when the state became industrialized: 鈥淭he low wage labor came from the Irish and the French Canadians. It was much easier for French Canadians to come across the border from Canada than for an African-American to make his way or her way to Vermont.鈥

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