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Is that a rhetorical question LOL? Of course life down here is slower and (somewhat) less sophisticated than the dozens of other places around the world in which I've lived... but that's one of its strengths. Although I must admit the museums in Raleigh (and with the expansion, also the Art museum in N Raleigh) are quite impressive, as are the green ways and other parks (eg. Umstead). Further, the NC orchestra has improved vastly in our 10 years here to truly become a contender... and Durham is aplenty with quaint, artsy locales.
The Triangle is not now backward in the cultural sense... but sadly, I must admit having met far more folks here with local degrees than an education, let alone wisdom. As for primary/secondary public education, 10 years ago many Wake (and some Durham) schools were solid and legit... now apart from a few Cary and Apex schools, the only solid public schools sadly are in CH/Carrboro which remain quite good even world-class perhaps.
The upshot: There are good things here for sure... you just have to seek them and plan for them ;-)...
I think of the dumb rural Southerners as rednecks (and NO, not all are dumb, certainly!). And true, rednecks are in every state. Nothing wrong with rednecks whatsoever -- except when their bonehead decisions affect our lives.
Apparently, they outnumber the educated city people. So -- perhaps NC deserves its (awful) reputation?
The irony of your deriding the influence of uneducated rural people is the things which separate NC from much of the rest of the south and what one might call "progressive" are largely the product of rural folk. Assuming you're not too pleased with the direction the state's gone in recently, that's more coming from more recent suburban influences, often spearheaded by northern transplants, the Wake school system debacle being the most notable example.
The irony of your deriding the influence of uneducated rural people is the things which separate NC from much of the rest of the south and what one might call "progressive" are largely the product of rural folk. Assuming you're not too pleased with the direction the state's gone in recently, that's more coming from more recent suburban influences, often spearheaded by northern transplants, the Wake school system debacle being the most notable example.
The direction the state turned was not due to the Northern transplants. It was due to the voting habits of those living in the rural areas, and I believe the majority of them are natives and most probably are not as educated.
The stats reflect those voting habits. (I think that historically, the direction was different, so that might be what you're thinking, but things have changed.)
The Wake school board debacle was a fluke and represented a much smaller area and group of people compared to the state.
If asked, a custodian in NYC could pick out a better bottle of champagne and a better looking men's suit than most NC millionaires. I guarantee you that.
No, not cracker. "Cracker" = "honky". It's racial and only refers to whites. Maybe the person you heard was using it in a joking manner? "Redneck" is definitely in use and is one of those words that can be used in a pejorative manner, but other folks wear it as a badge of pride.
Yeah, cracker just means white.
"Redneck yacht club" anyone? haha
I think there are plenty of rural Democrats and plenty of city Republicans. I don't think it's as simple as "uneducated rural" voters turning the state in a red direction. Certainly some of the transplants who have come are liberal Democrats, but plenty are Republicans and some are Tea Partiers, too.
If you look at the county by county election results for the 2012 election you can see that most of those blue counties are rural. Some cities are red. Don't forget that Wake Co, with its high percentage of educated transplants went for McCrory.
Plenty of people who live in the country are educated, too. All my rural relatives graduated from college. Some vote Republican and some vote Democrat and some don't tell me which way they vote.
From NYC (born and raised) now living in Charlotte.
To be frank I, nor anyone I know who moved to NC from a big city, has ever had a feeling that this is a state of "hicks" particularly in the NC cities.
Coincidentally, I have witnessed a defensiveness on some in the state (and some in this thread) against transplants though based on assumptions that we do think this is a state of hicks. I've also witnessed transplants who worry that natives will not accept them.
Fact of the matter is that the state is made up of natives and transplants and worrying about artificial divisions such as "they think..." is pointless. We are all (natives and transplants) residents of the state because we want to be and like it.
not at all. we have met so many very nice people. and at least half are transplants, anyway.
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