Bryan Baker stuck a roll of toilet paper on a paint roller that he’d attached to a leaf blower, and switched the leaf blower on. A stream of white paper shot into the air and fluttered delicately to the ground. It was Baker’s twist on a tradition of the Bawcomville Redneck Christmas Parade, where marchers throw toilet paper – as well as toothbrushes, ramen noodles, beads, and candy – at spectators along the road in West Monroe, Louisiana.
“We have Leroy the Redneck Reindeer,” Baker said, pointing to the stuffed deer head with a red nose on his float. “You can’t get any more redneck than that.”
“Redneck” doesn’t necessarily mean broke – there are plenty of expensive trucks in the parade. To Baker, redneck meant “We’d rather be out in the woods, be out in the country – sit back on the porch, bonfire, cold beer.”
But behind the jokes was a more serious reality. The parade route went past people living in an RV and a tent, abandoned stores, a pawn shop, and a couple Dollar Generals. More than 30% of Bawcomville residents live below the poverty line, and the surrounding Ouachita Parish was deemed a persistent poverty county in a 2022 report by the Congressional Research Service. A 2015 documentary called “The Other Side,” which follows a man addicted to meth, was filmed in Bawcomville. The area is well-known locally as a poor community in need of better housing, and there’s a derogatory definition of a resident on Urban Dictionary (“characterized by having at least two broke-down vehicles on their front lawn…”).
West Monroe residents told CNN the economic strife they see every day affects how they plan to vote next year.
Debi Mayo and Rachel Holmes were doing outreach at the parade for Bawcomville Hope, a non-profit that gives food and hot meals to the needy.
…
Read the full article here