Review: Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America

Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America by Chris Arnade
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have driven through a few of the forgotten towns of America where the only sign of industry are at the single forlorn-looking McDonald's and in the Walmart parking lot. I would never get out of my car in such a town; I'm not even comfortable stopping at red lights. But the people on the streets of these towns don't even look up when you drive by. They don't make eye contact. Reading this book helped me understand why.

I confess, I have from time to time harbored uncharitable thoughts about back row America. Before reading this book, it never occurred to me that the men, women and families who stay in these ghost towns riddled with drugs and violence do it because it is still their home. And because they have no where else to go. And because they have no money and no hope whatsoever of finding a job to earn money.

Many of them do not have the same goals as those in the front row or in the middle rows of America. College? Careers? Single family home with 3 children? A scant few might aim for this but most just want a job and to be with their families in the town they grew up in. That's it. Strange how I had never considered this possibility. I grew up in an almost-back row town and there was no question - I planned to leave the minute I could and I did. The idea of wanting to stay or needing to stay - utterly foreign.

Author Chris Arnade, former Wall Street bond trader, discovered that the thing most sought after and most valued by the defeated people he met in his two-year tour was dignity. He traveled from coast to coast exploring the cadaverous towns, where first the industry left, quickly followed by taxpayers with resources, leaving behind a hopeless skeleton of what once was. He talked to the people left behind about the good old days when the town offered jobs and hope. He talks to them about why they stay. Many were addicts. Many had been in prison. Many had no hope for a better life.

Arnade doesn't glamorize the day-by-day struggles or legitimize the drug use or violence. He doesn't explain as much as he simply reveals. His photography captures it well. The silence of a photographic journey of the under-underclass almost says more than the words could.

The front row makes fun of their faith. The front row disregards their simple goals in life. The front row disrespects their opinions. Arnade shines a light on this as an injustice. He reveals it; he doesn't cast aspersions and doesn't bloviate about big solutions, either. He just holds out a hope for greater understanding.

This book has a great deal to teach.

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