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Just to make things clear. My personal definition of the terms "hick" and "redneck"........
"redneck" - a rural, uneducated, uncouth southerner
"hick" - a rural, uneducated, uncouth american from anywhere in the United States
rednecks are exclusive to the south, a hick can be from anywhere (i.e. a redneck is also a hick, a hick is not necessarily a redneck).
Lots of bias and misinformation in this thread. And I'm from pretty deep in the Ozarks (that's Aux Arcs for the educated).
Coal miners
The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and rival miners' unions appropriated both the term redneck and its literal manifestation, the red bandana, in order to build multiracial unions of white, black, and immigrant miners in the strike-ridden coalfields of northern and central Appalachia between 1912 and 1936. The origin of redneck to mean "a union man" or "a striker" remains uncertain, but according to linguist David W. Maurer, the former definition of the word probably dates at least to the 1910s, if not earlier. The use of redneck to designate "a union member" was especially popular during the 1920s and 1930s in the coal-producing regions of southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania, where the word came to be specifically applied to a miner who belonged to a union.
No, I don't want to live deep in the ghetto. Most people who live deep in the ghetto don't want to live there either.
You'd be hard-pressed to find that anywhere in America, even in the Arab neighborhoods in and around Detroit, and I sure as heck wouldn't want to live in Saudi Arabia. I saw a woman in the full head-to-toe black getup only one time, walking out of a supermarket in Las Vegas. The guy she was with (husband I presume) appeared to be a Salafist with the skullcap, big beard, man dress, etc. I literally jumped. I was like "holy crap!!!"
But since we're talking about America here, that's kind of irrelevant.
I used to room with a female-to-male transgender. Real nice guy.
Black Panthers? All 50 of them?
Also, "La Raza" don't mean the same as when some Idaho Aryan guy says "the race." Google the term "La Raza Cosmica"; informally it's more analogous to "the people." I sure as hell would rather live next to Chicano activists than to a bunch of kluxers, that's for damned sure. If only because the former wouldn't consider me to be lynchin' material.
Well, I'm with you there. The Left needs to drop that one.
I guess I am a "rube" - I was called that a while back because the people I was debating were professors and those with degrees...so I must be a hick also...There are no letters after my name- I really did not get a formal education..growing up in Hicksville...tossing in a few logs in the wood stove to keep warm..going down to the lake with a bar of soap to bath...I even remember having to run outside to the out house in the dead of winter...The enterprising members of my little hood had a profession..."bootleggers" ....old pick up trucks collecting scrap metal..were common...16 kids raised in a small cottage was common...so growing up around this makes me a red neck I suppose...
My family were the rich ones..we actually had food...and we extended our home till it was a nice little mansion on the lake..so...I left Hicksville in time...and came to the city....when I compare the quality of life - urban to redneck- Redneck was better....if you are going to be poor- poor in the country is tolerable- poor in the city is hell.
Let me tell you about this "hick". He wasn't supposed to go to college: wrong side of town, wrong name, wrong family. He now has multiple professional degrees. He also wasn't supposed to be able to be a commisioned officer in the Navy. His "sort" were grunts and cannon fodder. He's not supposed to be a multiplely elected public official (even if it's not his home town). His kids aren't supposed to be smart because of where they grew up (3 of 4 have Bachelor's degrees with one still in high school).
His best friend in high school (and continuing to this day) wasn't supposed to be anything either, for the same reasons as him while adding no indoor plumbing until she was 8. She merely has a PhD and is a high ranking State official in PA.
So much for us hicks. We're also the ones who still volunteer for the military and get our asses shot off when things turn hot.
Last edited by North Beach Person; 10-02-2012 at 04:39 PM..
Reason: added
Let me tell you about this "hick". He wasn't supposed to go to college: wrong side of town, wrong name, wrong family. He now has multiple professional degrees. He also wasn't supposed to be able to be a commisioned officer in the Navy. His "sort" were grunts and cannon fodder. He's not supposed to be a multiplely elected public official (even if it's not his home town). His kids aren't supposed to be smart because of where they grew up (3 of 4 have Bachelor's degrees with one still in high school).
His best friend in high school (and continuing to this day) wasn't supposed to be anything either, for the same reasons as him while adding no indoor plumbing until she was 8. She merely has a PhD and is a high ranking State official in PA.
So much for us hicks. We're also the ones who still volunteer for the military and get our asses shot off when things turn hot.
People can "de-hick" and "de-redneck," regardless of what one comes from. They say "I'm from that, but I don't want that." Thanks for sharing.
Let me tell you about this "hick". He wasn't supposed to go to college: wrong side of town, wrong name, wrong family. He now has multiple professional degrees. He also wasn't supposed to be able to be a commisioned officer in the Navy. His "sort" were grunts and cannon fodder. He's not supposed to be a multiplely elected public official (even if it's not his home town). His kids aren't supposed to be smart because of where they grew up (3 of 4 have Bachelor's degrees with one still in high school).
His best friend in high school (and continuing to this day) wasn't supposed to be anything either, for the same reasons as him while adding no indoor plumbing until she was 8. She merely has a PhD and is a high ranking State official in PA.
So much for us hicks. We're also the ones who still volunteer for the military and get our asses shot off when things turn hot.
Dayum! Guess I'm was jist one a them dumb, cannon fodder grunts who volunteered (1966) then took a wrong turn an' made it to Major (that's Lt. Cmdr to ya swabbees). But at least I never sank low enough to become a politician.
Dayum! Guess I'm was jist one a them dumb, cannon fodder grunts who volunteered (1966) then took a wrong turn an' made it to Major (that's Lt. Cmdr to ya swabbees). But at least I never sank low enough to become a politician.
Well, we all make mistakes.
A book for the OP to read in order to gain insight:
I don’t know why you would think this is half of Americans or even be thought of as representative of America. This is a very rigid and tiny, tiny faucet of the population.
Are you more comfortable with crack houses and hookers on every corner. Perhaps mosques and women covered head to tow walking the required paces behind the men.
Transvestites/transgender or androgynous people?
Black panthers or La Rasa
Making gun ownership illegal
No one identifying with America?
America is a very diverse county. While the things you list do occur I would not say the country is dichotomous. Most areas exhibit a mixture of both extremes.
I live in the rural south and tho the area is predominately religious there is really no ridiculously puritanical views, the pockets of Mennonites would be the closest thing and they never push their views on others. In my very small rural area we even co-exist with wiccans and atheists and have a Buddhist temple along with the Christian churches on every corner.
Nor are there tightly constructed gender roles as a rule.
Living in TN, home of the KKK, I have never seen a white sheet, never a demonstration and never even heard whisper of the KKK, although I do know prejudiced rednecks I also know a number of interracial couples.
Rabid gun culture. I guess that’s one way to describe those who believe in the second amendment.
I kind of like that we have patriotic folks who aren’t ashamed to recite the pledge of allegiance and sing the star spangled banner at the beginning of civic events. And my little redneck area also has those identify with Mexico, Guatemala, and India. I don’t know anyone who has no knowledge of other nationalities and cultures or current world events.
I live around Beaufort Missouri and at times I hang out in Union Mo and twice last year I witnessed two KKK demostrations outside the courthouse.
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