Why do people think redneck is the same as being Southern? (moving, farmers)

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by Cosmic

This thread seems to have gone on a while but nobody seems to be able to definite exactly what a Redneck is.

Most folks seem to content themselves by saying they have seen a Redneck or they have a few in a particular state.

I doubt true Rednecks are confined to the southern regions. I do know there are plenty in Ohio. Usually driving pickups, sometimes with dogs in the back, they do like chewing tobacco, seem to be missing at least one good tooth, having a way of shifting the eyes when talking, they tend to say Yeahhhh with a tone with a certain shake of the head, more than Yah-all. Do seem to like hunt'n, never sure if they intend to pay you for anything. Usually have lots of relatives.

So maybe it is like with snakes. You know the really nasty ones when you see them but maybe can't explain why.

Some of the Southern boys described as Rednecks might be just Good Olde Boys, lots of them in places like Texas.

Could be Hollywood and the movies, they usually never get many of the characters right. Like would you call the folks in the movie "Cool Hand Luke" Rednecks???? Naw, I don't think so, them is just southern boys doing what southern boys do.

Redneck is a slang term, USUALLY for a rural white southerner who is politically conservative, racist, and a religious fundamentalist. This term is generally considered offensive. It originated in reference to agricultural workers, alluding to how the back of a person's neck will be burned by the sun if he works long hours in the fields.

It can also be a poor white person in the Southern U.S., a white person regarded as having a provincial, conservative, often bigoted attitude, and an uneducated white farm laborer, especially from the South.

So over the years, we have basically misconstrued the real meaning of a Redneck. Pickups, tobacco spitters, and the like are not really associated with Rednecks, per se.

[vasinger]

You are WAY OFF !

Redneck has nothing to do with political views or region of the country.

Originally it WAS condined to describe lower class southern whites.

But redneck is just a person with a working class attitude.

[vasinger]

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

Neat!
I've been to "Chaa'sun" and walked the Battery. I love the old pastel homes.

I've heard of Pat Robertson, but never heard him speak.

Which Lexington? There's one in KY, one in western NC, one in central SC; there's probably one in every southern state.

Lexington, Virginia. Pat Robertson is a Virginian.

[carolinajack]

dont think redneck and southern is the same thing seeing as their are NON Farmers in the South and their are 45% of blacks in the south

[vasinger]

I dont think being a southern farmer is necessarily redneck either.

Remember The Waltons? They weren't rednecks.

Redneck is an attitude.

[carolinajack]

i am from the south born and bred, but went to university in Providence RI, Brown University, and grad school at NYU, could not wait to get out of there was so ignorant of life outside the bubble.

so, i know what barbwire is saying, the yankees cant stop themselves calling poor southern people rednecks even when half the population is not white
or poor

[carolinajack]

vasinger, redneck came from the color of a farmers neck who was white in the sun, it wasnt bad until yanks started calling people that derogatory name

[msjbrent]

Originally Posted by carolinajack

i am from the south born and bred, but went to university in Providence RI, Brown University, and grad school at NYU, could not wait to get out of there was so ignorant of life outside the bubble.

so, i know what barbwire is saying, the yankees cant stop themselves calling poor southern people rednecks even when half the population is not white
or poor

Northerners are NOT the only ones doing the "name calling" or sterotypes. The most ignorant people I have ever met are individuals (I believe that word should be "safe") from rural, poor Southern towns. They were the most rude, uninformed and classless individuals. I am talking about the types you would meet working at a gas station in rural Alabama or a high school dropout/waitress in coastal Mississippi. Obviously with a lack of education and growing up around poverty and everything that comes with that and without seeing much outside that; it is just not a surprise. Those individuals do not want to have any other kind of person around them. If you have some money, a nice car and know proper English... run. I am not being ****ty, that is just the way it has been.

[carolinajack]

i found them in northern rural areas myself and in northerner cities.

I guess MLK and rosa parks were rednecks too because they were southern

[msjbrent]

Originally Posted by carolinajack

i found them in northern rural areas myself and in northerner cities.

I guess MLK and rosa parks were rednecks too because they were southern

My reply was not regarding wether Redneck=Southern or not. I could care less. I am sick of hearing about it. My reply was towards ignorant people. You say they are in NYC, I say they are in the god awful rural parts of the South.