The Embarrassing Truth About How We Talk About Small-Town America

Michael Schaffer has a frank piece over at The New Republic this week about the double standard that travels between rural America and its big cities when those of us in the latter demographic get to talking (and writing) about events like rape allegations in a small town in Missouri.

(Please bear with me for a moment as I write about Schaffer writing about a New York Times story that wrote through a Kansas City Star report.) In Maryville, Missouri – this may sound a lot like Steubenville, Ohio – a 17-year-old football player was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Charges were dropped against the boy, the grandson of a local political figure. Amid suspicions of meddling in the case, the girl and her family have been pilloried, and the town, as if according to a pre-written script, now sits divided.