Wednesday, April 24, 2019
What's Shakin' in Waco
Buzzfeed has up a pretty fascinating article on my old haunt, Waco. You can read it here.
Like many recent articles it focuses on the Gaines Effect, but also spends some time with one of my former students, Dillon Meek. Here is one part I found especially intriguing, in part because I have been a little baffled by the prevalence of a certain demographic among the crowds there:
In the five days I spent in Waco, I found myself stymied by the thought: Do I love this? Do I hate this? Or do I just resent how effectively I’m being marketed to? As a white, middle-class woman, it’s difficult to shake the feeling, walking from shop to shop, of being haunted by the physical manifestation of a targeted Instagram ad. But there’s something about Chip and Joanna Gaines — and, by extension, the changes they’ve helped catalyze in Waco — that tends to disarm cynicism.
