Page 31 - The Economist Asia January 2018

The Economist January 27th 2018
United States 31
2 another 900 shops this year. Yet rural com- gardens; the cars parked in front of the west, keen to cash in on the booming
munities account for only 46m, or 15%, of shop are mostly gleaming SUVs and big ranching industry. “Ranching work was
the population—and they are shrinking pickup trucks. The “market” outlet offers challenging, manly and allowed black
fast. Many small towns have only 75% of fresh shrimp, Chobani yogurts and other people to make as much as whites. It al-
the population they had 25 years ago. In 33 fancy foodstuffs. lowed them to do something that gave
counties in Illinois, the population peaked Walmart’srapid rise caused resentment their families some measure of equality,”
over a century ago, says Mr Merrett. To in rural communities as it killed smaller lo- says William Loren Katz, author of “The
keep expanding so rapidly, Dollar General cal shops and was said to treat its workers Black West” and 40 other books on Afri-
will need to appeal to those with a higher poorly. Dollar General, however, ventures can-American history. Historians estimate
income than the working poor. It has al- into places where the last grocery shop of- that of the 35,000 cowboys who ranged
ready made inroads into more affluent ten closed years ago, which is why its re- the West between 1866 and 1895, at the
groups. According to Nielsen, a marketing ception bylocalstendsto be much friendli- height of the cattle industry, between
researcher, 43% of customers with house- er. The same is likely to be true as Dollar 5,000 and 9,000 were black.
hold income of$29,000 orlessbutalso 23% General expands into troubled urban During the Jim Crow era blacks were
of those earning more than $70,000 said neighbourhoods such as Chicago’s South shut out of most rodeos. The cowboys in
they shopped at a dollar store in 2016. The Side, where rents are cheap. In these so- the novels and films that familiarised the
new shop in Lewisburg is on Yell Road, called food deserts, an investment by any rest ofAmerica with the West were almost
which is lined with pretty houses and big retaileris good news. 7 always white. Without venues to compete
in or stars to inspire young black cowboys,
the tradition eroded. As Ms Vason-Cun-
Race and horses ningham waits for the Bill Pickett rodeo to
Rodeo drive begin, she estimates that fewer than 5% of
cowboys in the Professional Rodeo Cow-
boys Association, the country’s largest ro-
deo organisation, are black. The organisa-
tion says it does not track the ethnicities of
its riders, though it does ask about their fa-
vourite food: “I can tell you that for 99% of
DENVER them it’s steak.”
The Bill Pickettrodeo aims to restore blackAmericans to the saddle
Appropriately, the first event of the
PARTfrom the MissyElliotand Ludacris likes of Buffalo Bill and Will Rogers under night in Denver is steer wrestling. Before
Asongs that blare through the speakers the stage-name of “The Dusky Deamon”; entering the arena, Tory Johnson, a 32-
in lieu of country tunes, the Bill Pickett In- he was the first black man ever admitted year-old from Oklahoma City, secures his
vitational sounds and looks like a typical into the ProRodeo Hall ofFame. Butwhere- cowboy hat, shifts his weight from side to
rodeo. In the dirt arena cowboys and cow- as Pickett’s talent was rare, black cowboys side in his stirrups and tightens his grip on
girls cling to bucking broncos. They rope during his era were not. They were funda- the reins. He takes a deep breath and gives
calvesand weave in and outofbarrels. The mental to the settling of the West, both as a subtle nod. The gates spring open. On a
stands are packed with fans decked out in slaves and freedmen. In the first half ofthe golden Palomino with a flowingmane and
cowboy hats and boots who nibble at bar- 19th century, white Americans in search of thick white blaze, Mr Johnson explodes
becued chicken and gasp when riders are cheap land flocked to Texas, which was forward into the dirt arena in pursuit of a
thrown to the ground. At half-time there is then Spanish and, after1821, a Mexican ter- steerthathasbeen released in front ofhim.
“mutton busting”, an event in which small ritory. Some brought slaves with them to He tips off his mount until his arms are
children are plonked onto the backs of work their newly established cotton farms locked around the steer’s neck; then he
sheep and ordered to hang on as their and cattle ranches. After slavery was abol- kicksboth feetoutofhisstirrups, leans into
fuzzymountsdartaround the ring. The big- ished, ranchers hired theirformerslaves as the steer and wrestles it to the ground—
gest difference is that all the contestants— paid workers. with no use of teeth, it should be noted.
and most ofthe audience—are black. Black people from the east also flocked The whole ordeal takes 5.6 seconds. 7
The Bill Pickett Invitational, which per-
formed in Denver on Martin Luther King
Day and will visit five other places this
year, isAmerica’sonlytouringblackrodeo.
It was founded in 1984 by Lu Vason, a mu-
sic-industry promoter, after he attended a
rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and “didn’t
see a single rider who looked like him”, re-
calls Valeria Vason-Cunningham, who has
run the rodeo since her husband’s death in
2015. Vason decided to name the rodeo
after Bill Pickett. Born in 1870 in Texas, Pick-
ett was the son ofa freed slave who invent-
ed the sport ofsteer wrestling, or “bulldog-
ging”. Pickett would gallop after a cow on
his horse, spring off, draw the cow’s face
into his own face by its horns, and latch his
teeth into its lip as he had seen herder dogs
do. The bite would confuse the steer, al-
lowing Pickett to pull it over with just his
jaw, his hands held skyward.
Pickett went on to perform with the Yee-haw