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Old 10-19-2009, 10:53 PM
 
Location: In the middle of nowhere with nothing
246 posts, read 536,143 times
Reputation: 197

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How do you define what being a yankee means and why do think they have a problem assimilating to different non "yankee friendly" parts of the country if they move or visit there? Why do they seem to be discriminated against in those areas and do they deserve it or are the discriminaters feel intimidated or are they ignorant in general?

 
Old 10-20-2009, 06:39 AM
 
4,404 posts, read 9,086,385 times
Reputation: 4294
This does not apply to me. I am more in tune with Southerners than my Northeastern abrasive, loud mouthed Yankee brethren. If the economy was better, I'd be living in NC or SC. My Southern friends wisely warned me about not coming down permantley. But, in a few years hopefully I will be a full blown Southerner. Hanging out at the Waffle House eating grits and listening to Cash. I listen to Cash up here of course, but it is still so much better down South. I was in Greenville earlier and I shall return for another visit. I told the black waitress on Conyers I will be back, and I certainly will. As Ric Flair says whooooooo!!!!
 
Old 10-20-2009, 06:44 AM
 
Location: Sango, TN
24,869 posts, read 24,284,315 times
Reputation: 8672
Anyone born north of the mason-dixon line would be considered a yankee where I come from.

Most folks back home are very freindly to them, however they do get a bad taste in their mouths when you try and move down, and change the culture to a more northern like environment.

I use the term Yankee when joking with people, most of my freinds in Michigan called me hill-billy or redneck, I don't care. The only time I used it as a derogatory term was when someone was acting like a New York ass.
 
Old 10-20-2009, 07:00 AM
 
Location: Right where I want to be.
4,507 posts, read 9,025,273 times
Reputation: 3360
This also doesn't apply to me. I was born in the NE but have lived in the South for nearly 20 years. I haven't experienced any 'Yankee discrimination', I'm not even sure what that would look like. I haven't had any problem assimilating in the South, I love it here. I also don't have any delusions that I will one day be 'a full blown Southerner', they don't see it that way here. Sorry loose cannon, you can eat as many grits as you want but you'll always be a Yankee.

I don't care where you are from or where you move to, if you embrace your new 'home' you will most likely be welcomed there. If you go there and complain all the time (the weather, the shopping, the restaurants, the mindset, the schools, etc) then you might have a harder time about it but don't blame the new culture or area....it's you!!
 
Old 10-20-2009, 07:05 AM
 
Location: Londonderry, NH
41,478 posts, read 59,521,434 times
Reputation: 24856
I consider Yankees to be folks born and raised in New Hampshire, Vermont or Maine (sometimes upstate New York) small town and/or rural areas. They are generally quiet, church going, frugal, very sensible people with a deep sense of community. Just surviving a northern New England winter develops a certain amount of grit characterized by getting the chores done now. Small town sea coast Mainers are as tough as they get. Yankees have very little patience with posers or fools.

The loud obnoxious north eastern city folk are not Yankees of any sort. They are loud obnoxious city folk and could be from anywhere.
 
Old 10-20-2009, 07:06 AM
 
Location: Way South of the Volvo Line
2,788 posts, read 7,981,419 times
Reputation: 2845
Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis1979 View Post
Anyone born north of the mason-dixon line would be considered a yankee where I come from.

Most folks back home are very freindly to them, however they do get a bad taste in their mouths when you try and move down, and change the culture to a more northern like environment.

I use the term Yankee when joking with people, most of my freinds in Michigan called me hill-billy or redneck, I don't care. The only time I used it as a derogatory term was when someone was acting like a New York ass.
That's too funny! Mainers say that about people from outside the state!
 
Old 10-20-2009, 07:45 AM
 
Location: Brooklyn
40,049 posts, read 34,466,471 times
Reputation: 10608
Isn't it funny how a specific term acquires all sorts of different connotations over time? The word "Yankee" comes from the Dutch "Jan Kees," meaning John Cheese. It was a put-down of Englishmen!
 
Old 10-20-2009, 07:56 AM
 
Location: Tennessee
37,729 posts, read 40,764,681 times
Reputation: 61928
Quote:
Originally Posted by No attitude View Post
How do you define what being a yankee means and why do think they have a problem assimilating to different non "yankee friendly" parts of the country if they move or visit there? Why do they seem to be discriminated against in those areas and do they deserve it or are the discriminaters feel intimidated or are they ignorant in general?
I'm 58. As one who lived most of my life in NY, followed by 12 years in Maryland and now live in Tennessee, I say this:

1. You can't choose where you are born and raised.

2. If you never live anywhere except in the state where you were born and raised, your opinions of other places are shaped by:

a. Hollywood
b. the urban elitist news media (think there's no life outside of big cities)
c. people who move near you from other states

People from the south are on the receiving end of (c) because of a cheaper cost of living, lower taxes and less snow. Generally speaking, "Yankees" do not tend to choose the South because they are interested in being a part of that culture...and that's where the problems start. They try to make the place over into what they just fled and they bring their (a) and (b) shaped prejudices with them. As a result of the invasion (large numbers of people moving South and settling into "transplant planned communities" that try to gate out the natives and bring their old world into the new community instead of embracing the new one and trying to blend in), there is animosity.

If it was so great where you lived before why didn't you stay there? Do you know why it was too expensive where you lived before you moved to a conservative state? Do you know that by you moving en masse into Southern communities, you force the natives to pay more property taxes because roads, police, fire, utilities, schools, hospitals are needed to support your invasion. Do you realize when you privatize the areas around lakes and huge developments and golf courses go up where there was once fishing and hunting (things you don't usually do), you deprive natives of the recreation they've done for most of their lives or make it more difficult for them to do it.

When regulation-happy Yankees come in en masse and change the voting patterns of a state and towns to support making the new town "Little Yankeeland" to accommodate your demands, long time natives are incensed. Again, if it was so great where you lived before why didn't you stay there and pay through the nose for the way you want to live?

And then to make matters worse, you call the natives "stupid."

If you are from the north, you don't actually get an invasion of southerners who want to live there so you have no idea what it's like.
 
Old 10-20-2009, 08:22 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
87,957 posts, read 83,773,798 times
Reputation: 114139
Quote:
Originally Posted by No attitude View Post
How do you define what being a yankee means and why do think they have a problem assimilating to different non "yankee friendly" parts of the country if they move or visit there? Why do they seem to be discriminated against in those areas and do they deserve it or are the discriminaters feel intimidated or are they ignorant in general?
Sometimes the behavior makes no sense. My great-uncle retired from NJ to North Carolina, where his wife was from. He loved it there--had a lot of property, paid low taxes, and then he decided he wanted to buy a pickup truck. A neighbor said he had a friend about an hour away over the border in Tennessee who had a truck for sale. They made arrangements for my uncle and his friend to drive over and look at the truck.

When they got there, the truck owner came out of the house. My uncle walked up and introduced himself, but as soon as he spoke, the truck owner looked at him and said, "Are you a YANKEE?" My uncle laughed and said he guessed he was. The truck owner said to him, "Get off my G--d--- property and walked back into the house.

Nice, huh? This was in the early 1990's.
 
Old 10-20-2009, 08:24 AM
 
Location: Elsewhere
87,957 posts, read 83,773,798 times
Reputation: 114139
[quote=LauraC;11265189]I'm 58. As one who lived most of my life in NY, followed by 12 years in Maryland and now live in Tennessee, I say this:

1. You can't choose where you are born and raised.

2. If you never live anywhere except in the state where you were born and raised, your opinions of other places are shaped by:

a. Hollywood
b. the urban elitist news media (think there's no life outside of big cities)
c. people who move near you from other states

People from the south are on the receiving end of (c) because of a cheaper cost of living, lower taxes and less snow. Generally speaking, "Yankees" do not tend to choose the South because they are interested in being a part of that culture...and that's where the problems start. They try to make the place over into what they just fled and they bring their (a) and (b) shaped prejudices with them. As a result of the invasion (large numbers of people moving South and settling into "transplant planned communities" that try to gate out the natives and bring their old world into the new community instead of embracing the new one and trying to blend in), there is animosity.

If it was so great where you lived before why didn't you stay there? Do you know why it was too expensive where you lived before you moved to a conservative state? Do you know that by you moving en masse into Southern communities, you force the natives to pay more property taxes because roads, police, fire, utilities, schools, hospitals are needed to support your invasion. Do you realize when you privatize the areas around lakes and huge developments and golf courses go up where there was once fishing and hunting (things you don't usually do), you deprive natives of the recreation they've done for most of their lives or make it more difficult for them to do it.

When regulation-happy Yankees come in en masse and change the voting patterns of a state and towns to support making the new town "Little Yankeeland" to accommodate your demands, long time natives are incensed. Again, if it was so great where you lived before why didn't you stay there and pay through the nose for the way you want to live?

And then to make matters worse, you call the natives "stupid."

If you are from the north, you don't actually get an invasion of southerners who want to live there so you have no idea what it's like.[/quote]

Here in northern NJ/NY metropolitan area, we get an invasion of people FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. Change happens.
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