🌊 A Lesson from the Deep South

Did someone forward you this? Subscribe here free!

Good morning, Roca Nation. Here are today’s four need-to-know stories: 

By Max Frost

In a town in Arkansas’ Ozark Mountains, two women are playing with their kids. They have a couple of things in common: Eric – who is married to one of the women and used to be married to the other; a belief that immigration is ruining America; and a feeling that American society is too anti-white.

So they had moved into this Ozarks community, which Eric had founded exclusively for whites. 

When I first saw the headlines about a “whites only” town in Arkansas, I was skeptical. But then I saw a few more reports and an interview with Eric, and realized it was true. So I, like many journalists before me, flew down to Arkansas and spent a day with the community. As was reported, they will allow no blacks, gays, Jews, Mexicans, or anyone else who doesn’t fit the Aryan pedigree into the club. Only club members are allowed to live in the community, thereby circumventing anti-discrimination laws. 

A lot of journalists have told that story, but they do the same thing: They interview Eric and hop on a flight back to New York, DC, or London, content at having proven to the world how racist and backwards the Deep South remains. In fact, I haven’t seen any outside journalist cover the community and then produce further stories or videos from Arkansas. They’ll tell one story and one story only: The South remains racist! 

That’s how modern journalism works: Have the thesis (the South is racist); find the evidence (a whites only town); and publish it. It’s the scientific method as taught by Columbia Journalism School! 

Our anger about that type of journalism led us to start Roca, so after lining up a visit to Eric and co., I spent an extra nine days traveling through Arkansas and Mississippi. And that trip proved far more enlightening and eye-opening than visiting the whites only town – and not for the reasons you may expect. 

Two hours west of the white town is another infamous town, Harrison. It’s the town that comes up if you google, “Most racist place in America,” and the internet is full of articles and videos allegedly documenting gap-toothed residents slandering blacks, gays, and Jews. For that reason, you may be surprised to know that the first person we spoke to was a young man who had moved to the town, opened a business, and said he’d never live anywhere else, “Because the people here are so nice.”

The next person, the one after that, and then the third echoed that: “Are you here because of that racist stuff?”

One after another, they shot it down: “This is a great town”; “I’ve never seen racism”; “It used to be a problem, but not today.” A black man who lived in the city was emphatic: He’d never seen a problem. He used to live in Pittsburgh, he said, and it was worse there. 

So, how did Harrison get its reputation? 

Well, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) established its headquarters at the end of a dirt road in the middle of the woods some 10 miles away. An area lawyer who is related to the KKK’s “grand wizard” put a billboard up on the edge of Harrison advertising “whiteprideradio.com,” and journalists flocked to the town to highlight the racism. In Harrison, all local residents said the same thing: “Thom Robb is an asshole.” Robb leads the Klan, and his relative put up the billboard. 

That’s how it happens: A couple of assholes set up camp in the forest, put up a billboard, and a gaggle of journalists and YouTubers turn Harrison into the “most racist town in America.”

Right now, I’d forgive you for thinking, “Roca went to Arkansas and wrote about the Klan and the whites only community. They’re just as bad as the rest!”

But I’m writing this to say that in 10 days of talking to over 100 strangers across Arkansas and Mississippi, outside of Thom Robb and the “whites only” folks, no one spoke negatively about another race. And those people weren’t from the South: Robb of the Klan was from Michigan; Eric of the white town was from California. His fellow settlers were from New York, Massachusetts, and North Dakota.

No, rather than racists, I encountered dozens of extremely friendly people who are living their lives, looking to be happy, and enjoying their jobs, hobbies, and families. People like Mac, a Roca reader who had moved from Colorado to Bentonville, AR, because of his love for mountain biking. Or Scott, a Roca reader and Marine veteran who runs an Anheuser-Busch rice-milling facility in Jonesboro, AR. Or Jamie, a Roca reader who hosted us at her home in the beautiful town of Madison, MS. Or Lindsey, a Roca reader who hosted us at her Arkansas home while her adorable baby daughter stumbled around the living room. 

America is made up of these people, yet the Klansmen and white nationalists get the headlines. 

But that’s the point: Journalists like to treat these outliers as though they are representative of the place. Yet in the Deep South, I saw that it’s clearly the opposite – that these extremists make for good content precisely because they don’t represent the place. If everyone were a Klansman, it wouldn’t be interesting to go find one. But most people are Scotts, Jamies, Macs, or Lindseys, so the bad apples stand out – and the journalists can’t get enough.

Editor’s Note

We’ll be reporting from across the country (including 8-10 articles from Mississippi and Arkansas) in the coming months. Our goal in America’s 250th year is to be the place to understand America. If you want to know what this country is really like ahead of the 250th celebration, you gotta read Roca. 

And in case you’ve missed them, check out our latest stories below:

Thanks and see you tomorrow.
—Max and Max