S-Town Reflection

The version of America that the listener learns about in S-town is something a privileged college student like myself might not often think about. “Shit-town” Alabama as John B. Macklemore calls it, is a place seemingly removed from the real world. The podcast starts with Brian Reed introducing the reason that he came in contact with John in the first place. John’s views on S-town are that it is a corrupt, conservative place, filled with a community only looking out for themselves and never justice or the greater good. John seems to be a unicorn in his community, he is the only person worried about issues like global warming or the middle east, leading him to feel misunderstood, and often alone.

While I don’t know anyone like John B. Macklemore, I do know many people like Tyler and the other people in S-town. While my hometown, Nashville, Tennessee is a liberal city, it is in the heart of an extremely conservative area of the country, filled with people stuck in their ways, not willing to look toward the future. Just driving 25 minutes outside of Nashville, which I often did when I was younger for soccer tournaments, I met many people who reminded me of Tyler. So yes, places like S-town do exist, but that’s not why this story is particularly compelling. S-town is compelling because of John B. Macklemore, the seemingly crazy man who doesn’t fit the mold of where he came from. For me, S-town didn’t open my eyes to show me that there are towns like Woodstock Alabama, but it showed me that there are people in these towns that break the stereotype. It seemed that much of the reason for John taking his own life was that he felt misunderstood and lonely among people who didn’t want to change. While this was partially John’s own fault, for never leaving Woodstock, it is also the fault of society, for creating bubbles and labels that become hard to break. When I was younger, going to soccer tournaments in rural Tennessee I would often write everybody off and keep my head down not learning about the area or the people in it, because I didn’t believe that people like John existed. S-town shows us that as a society we cannot write whole communities off because of the stereotypes we believe.