Dealing with Texas stereotypes while in other states (Houston, San Antonio: fit in, military)

[stan4]

Originally Posted by theone33

I was looking at Facebook comments for a PBS story on the recent floods and WOW!! Some people hate us with a passion and literally believe everything the left leaning media and Hollywood tells them. Has anyone met people like this while traveling? Any good stories?

Uh, yeah.

I have many stories.
Most of them start off with my innocently saying I am from Texas (lived her 26 years, good enough).

One time I was in New York.
My friend and I were walking through Times Square.
A guy handing out flyers for a show started talking to us and we were joking and laughing.
He asked where we were from. I said Texas (my friend was from NC).
All of a sudden he started ranting and raving about how much he hated Texas and how it sucked, etc.


One time I was at an ultra-swank Carib resort. We were on a private boat going out to another island. The people on the boat with us asked, "Where are you from?" We said, Texas. They made a face and then the wife said, "Oh, but Austin's nice."

One time I was in Hawaii. We were having dinner with some other students. They asked where I was from. I said, "Texas." Immediate ranting and raving about how Texas is super racist and homophobic and what they heard from their cousin, etc. I said, "Have you even ever been there?" NO. I said, "Take it from this gay brown woman, it's perfectly fine." NO NO! WE HEARD FROM OUR COUSIN!

Now, when I go overseas and say I'm from Texas, people smile and get happy. Go figure.

What I don't get...with all the ranting and ravings by these totally rude people (bc that is what you are when you act like this - RUDE), I have never once acted towards anyone else like that. Kind of hypocritical.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by westhou

It's very odd there are so many people in this thread who have experienced hate outside of Texas. I've never had that happen to me.

Are you sure it's not just about you and the way you are around people and not so much about the state you are from?

I guarantee you, I will not have been there long enough to even create any impression and then it's sudden and total vitriol. Or some backhanded b.s.

It's funny how so many people go on about the racism and homophobia...

[ben86]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

I have often wondered if people from England could tell a difference in the different American accents. I can't tell a difference in different London or England accents. They all sound the same to me. Also, I can't tell a difference in the British, Austrailian, or South African English accents. To understand them, when I hear them on tv, I usually have to turn on the closed caption. Now, I can tell a difference in the United States different regional accents. But foreign English speakers, they all sound pretty much the same to me. It would make sense if they think America's different regional accents all sound the same to them. To an English speaking foreigner, somebody from Boston, New York, Montgomery, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Ft Worth, Seattle, I wonder if the accents all sound the same to their ears and detect the different American accents

Well we have more exposure to you than you have to us, so I'd say there were quite a few different American accents that an English person with an ear for these things could point out. I couldn't tell a Texan accent from a generic Southern one, but I could pick out a stereotypical Valley Girl-type accent with the uptalk or a NYC and New England accent out without too much difficulty and I've never even been to the US and don't even watch that much American TV. I've seen a few British TV shows where they have somebody speaking in Ebonics or some broad hillbilly accent and they actually show the subtitles on the screen as if we wouldn't be able to understand otherwise, but usually we don't really need it.

I remember hearing an accent before that wasn't the typical "General American" and correctly guessing it was Canadian, though I think that pretty much was a guess.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by ben86

Well we have more exposure to you than you have to us, so I'd say there were quite a few different American accents that an English person with an ear for these things could point out. I couldn't tell a Texan accent from a generic Southern one, but I could pick out a stereotypical Valley Girl-type accent with the uptalk or a NYC and New England accent out without too much difficulty and I've never even been to the US and don't even watch that much American TV.

I remember hearing an accent before that wasn't the typical "General American" and correctly guessing it was Canadian, though I think that pretty much was a guess.

There's a variety of Texas accents, too.

[ben86]

Originally Posted by stan4

There's a variety of Texas accents, too.

Well an English person won't know anything about them, but we're still generally going to be more familiar with American English than the other way round.

[MikeB17]

I think Texas stereotypes are starting to wane as we're starting to grow more and more economically and distancing ourselves from the rest of the south.
I think alot of people picture us as armed to the teeth and rich with oil money, rather than racist.

[Vacanegro]

Originally Posted by ben86

Well an English person won't know anything about them, but we're still generally going to be more familiar with American English than the other way round.

A non-Texan wouldn't know anything about them. They would all just be from Texas.

[hooky hornstein]

With every blessing comes responsibility.

As Texans we are tremendously blessed. Having to endure the underestimation of strangers is a small price to pay. Might as well roll with it.

When every "Texan" on TV has a middle Tennessee accent and call each other, “hoss,” just chuckle.

When John Wayne looks out across the Painted Desert in Arizona and says he's gonna run the injuns out of Central Texas, raise your beer in a toast.

When the nice Oregon couple at your table on a cruise stop talking to you once they know you’re from Texas, high five the missus.

When you’re at a symposium and the security guards creep a little closer to your table after you’ve introduce yourself and told them where you’re from, just look at them, grin from ear to ear, wiggle your eyebrows up and down and tap the ash off your imaginary cigar, like you’re Groucho Marx.

At least we have a world-renown identity that makes an impression on people. In the four of five seconds it takes a Chechnyan gangster or New Guinea cannibal to index their mental impression of a Texan, we get a headstart somebody from someplace like Iowa would never have.

[TheOverdog]

My relatives offer occasional backhanded comments about Texas (fed by my wife who over-emphasizes everything - from guns to religion to bugs to heat to schools), but any person I've ever met otherwise has either been indifferent or excited about Texas.

I've heard a lot of online complaints about Texans from Colorado, about their driving, their brashness, their not listening on backcountry hiking/skiing trips, but I've never experienced any of that in real life. The only negatives I've ever heard there are about sports rivalries, which is fun.

I will hear an occasional negative comment about our politicians in California, New Mexico, and the North East (always something like "Texas is cool but ... sucks", but I think the same things so no big deal there. But those are actually pretty rare.

[OwlAndSparrow]

I don't get the comparison between San Antonio and Bakersfield.

Not that I want to complain about Bakersfield. I don't know much about it, but I do know it's not a huge metropolitan area with the kind of history and tourist attractions San Antonio can boast. When I think of San Antonio, I immediately think of the River Walk and the evil Spurs. (They're evil because they're not the Rockets.)