W. Scott Poole

Do White Folks Get the Blues?

By W. Scott Poole

If white folks don't really get the blues, they certainly preserve it, record it, and put together and attend festivals where the music is rightfully celebrated. [28 June 2005]

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Superman in the Cotton Fields: Comics in Black and White, Mostly White

By W. Scott Poole

A racist society is one in which significant political and social capital rests in white hands, even if that society gives lip service and official tribute to the ideals of 'tolerance' and 'diversity'. At least in the marginal art form of comics, African American representations are changing. [27 April 2005]

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Captain Confederacy: The South in Living Color

By W. Scott Poole

The creators of the 'tights and cape' crew that have dominated the comics form for much of its history knew the streets of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn well, but the rural South proved beyond their imagining. 'Captain Confederacy' changed all that. [2 March 2005]

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Goodbye, Lady in Black

By W. Scott Poole

Poole writes of the last Southern 500, Republicans in blue collars, and why it's still the economy, stupid. [29 December 2004]

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Dark Representations: The South as Horror Movie

By W. Scott Poole

Violence in the American tradition tends to bed down with the American Myth of Innocence; horror films full of southern hellbillys often erase the historical context for southern violence. [27 October 2004]

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Get Your Geechee On: Commercialism and Hope in the Sea Islands

By W. Scott Poole

Descendents of slaves in the South Carolina region, now a stopover point for 'historical' tours, turn their 'blood memories' into strategies that will keep them out of the ghetto or off the reservation. Although they risk the possibility of becoming living museum pieces, they also insure their children's survival. [25 August 2004]

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Race Theory: NASCAR’S White Knuckle Ride

By W. Scott Poole

Stock car racing has its origins in the working class south. Many of the sport's legends began their racing as bootleg runners, known locally as 'trippers' in the 1950s and '60s. Nowadays, a racer can't get out of the starting gate without first fueling up on corporate sponsorship. [30 June 2004]

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Redneck Chic and Hip-hop Get Down and Dirty

By W. Scott Poole

Drive-By Truckers and Bubba Sparxxx share a similar aesthetic, a defiantly rednecked aesthetic that caterwauls and rebel yells, demanding that their listeners put down their bottle of Dasani and pick up a fifth of Wild Turkey. Both acts have exploded out of the musical ferment of Athens, becoming part of what can only be called a red neck chic, a fascination with the low-down South that can be seen in everything from the jokes of Jeff Foxworthy to the popularity of NASCAR. [28 April 2004]

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Adult Swim in a Box

By W. Scott Poole

This is a compilation for that large demographic that yearns for narratives about a large, talking milk shake ordering a wife from Chechnya, or the micronauts going on a breast-climbing expedition. You know who you are. [6 November 2009]

Tales From the Darkside Season 2

By W. Scott Poole

George Romero's second anthology horror series gives us a creepy opening montage, social commentary... and George Costanza's dad! [19 October 2009]

Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie

By W. Scott Poole

If you are on the search for Sasquatch, look elsewhere. Jay Delaney's film is about friendship on the economic margins of American society. [14 October 2009]