Selective Tolerance and the Environment: Comments on the Continued Prejudice toward Rural People

Prejudice against rural people has come to be accepted in the American academe. The consequences of this discrimination are quite important, particularly in the realm of the natural sciences, because students go on to work in fields that directly affect the lives of rural people (e.g. by working in natural resource agencies). This piece draws attention to this problem and offers some preliminary suggestions for addressing it.