Redneck chic?

[cls12vg30]

-"Blue Collar TV" is one of the more popular shows on TV.
-"The Dukes of Hazzard" is being released on DVD and a new movie is currently being shot in Louisiana.
-The "red states" have flexed their political muscles and made it clear that they do not apologize for their long-held beliefs and the differences between them and the urban liberal elitists on the coasts.

So, is it now cool to be a redneck?

Personally I think it's always been cool, and those that many people call rednecks are just about the last real Americans left.

What do you think?

 

[Brrlgrrl]

Read Iowahawk- it's very entertaining! The article is titled "Blue State Blue..."

 

[ballistic gelatin]

Sure it's cool to be a redneck. I have a confederate flag tag on my truck and work in a government building. People tell me (jokingly) that I should remove it. I don't think so.

I recently spent an evening with some 20ish aged kids, er, young people. Majority of them come from money but they were very "into" country music from the 70's and had ruger/smith-wesson belt buckles, hats, kershaw folders, etc. but wore polo shirts and fashion jeans. Go figure...

 

[rhedley]

I was born and raised in the deep south, a true RED NECK, as in the beginning of the term, is not one to admire. They are full of hate for anything, or anyone they are not familiar with. Like in the movie, "Deliverance."

 

[TimRB]

"-The "red states" have flexed their political muscles and made it clear that they do not apologize for their long-held beliefs and the differences between them and the urban liberal elitists on the coasts."

Why does everyone who is not a blue-stater have to be a redneck? Or a neocon? Or a Bible-thumper? Or a...?

Tim

 

[Calhoun]

No, it is NOT cool to be a redneck. I am from the South. I am very proud to be from the South. I am not a redneck. They are 2 very different things. When I think of redneck, I see burning crosses, morons dressed in sheets, and all the hatred that goes along with the like. Do not throw that on everybody from the South. We don't appreciate it. Nor do we appreciate all of the southern stereotypes in the movies, tv, etc.

...those that many people call rednecks are just about the last real Americans left.

Got to disagree with that one. Many real Americans left. Doesn't have anything to do with North/South, Red/Blue, liberal/conservative. Has to do with the country you love.


There, I've said my piece. Ya'll have a good'un.

Calhoun

 

[scottgun]

Yeah, being a redneck is cool. But you have to be born a redneck, you can't become one later in life, otherwise you are just being a poser wannabe.

Why is it that a redneck is the last group that can be poked fun at, well along with fat people. I know the reason, its just curious that as a group, they are fair game while almost all other groups are forbidden territory for ridicule, I guess unless you are a member of that group, then anything goes.

Anyways, I was going to make some funny comments poking fun at rednecks and just deleted it, because while I aspire to be a redneck, I'll never be one. I'll just take my 4x4 off roading and go shooting my guns, and be a poser.

Scott

 

[joab]

a true RED NECK, as in the beginning of the term, is not one to admire. They are full of hate for anything, or anyone they are not familiar with. Like in the movie, "Deliverance."

You're getting Redneck mixed up with White Trash, there's a big difference

When I think of redneck, I see burning crosses, morons dressed in sheets, and all the hatred that goes along with the like. Do not throw that on everybody from the South. We don't appreciate it. Nor do we appreciate all of the southern stereotypes in the movies, tv, etc.

And please don't throw your mistaken definition of redneck on the rest of us.
I'm pure dee redneck, I have a black goddaughter, a half Puerto Rican son and a Asian wife. I have never burned a cross, even in jest, lynched a "darky" or bombed a church.

My grandfather was the biggest neck I've ever met. He and his family were run out of Mobile County by the Klan.

You are confusing Redneck with White Supremacist Terrorist

Why is it that a redneck is the last group that can be poked fun at, well along with fat people. I know the reason, its just curious that as a group, they are fair game while almost all other groups are forbidden territory for ridicule, I guess unless you are a member of that group, then anything goes.

Mostly because we're good with it. Consider the source was originally a redneck saying. That and there ain't no NAARN, cept Nascar

 

[JohnBT]

www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/rednecks/rednecks.html

see the 2nd definition...the one after hillbilly

jt

 

[TheFederalistWeasel]

Most rednecks around my parts are white trash. I get a double dose of them as a cop, policing a rural city/county. We have our share of trailer parks etc… which that in and of itself don’t mean anything because many good folks live in them, I meet them everyday.

But most of your redneck types around here who have the rebel flag hanging on the front porch, a camaro up on blocks in the yard are the ones I answer call after call to for public drunk, shots fired, and domestic violence calls.

Especially on Sundays after the race is over, no joke.

I’m a Georgia boy born and raised, hunting, fishing and whatnot. But I’m not a redneck nor do I want to be.

 

[joab]

Most rednecks around my parts are white trash

The terms are not mutually inclusive or exclusive. But perhaps they are simply white trash that you have errantly assigned the redneck lable to.

 

[rhedley]

.....this from Joab, may be the nearest to the truth.

"The terms are not mutually inclusive or exclusive. But perhaps they are simply white trash that you have errantly assigned the redneck lable to."

IMO

 

[Selfdfenz]

Excellent thread.

If it weren't for the Scots we'd have no way to disrespect the many cultural strata on the Southern US.

J-

 

[XLMiguel]

I'm with rhedley, Fedweasel and Calhoun.

Jeff Foxworhty aside, being called a "redneck" is not a compliment - they're mean-spirited, ignorant (no, make that stupid, ignorance can be cured) racist inbred bozos, a.k.a. "crackers", they are not nice people to be admired or emulated.

The sanitized version that Foxworth el al sells is more properly what used to be called a "good ol' boy", i.e. a Christian gentleman from the country. A person who is a bit rough around the edges, perhaps unsophisticated, who deals with life in simple (but sometime ingenious) terms, but fundamentally a good hearted person who enjoys life and is an overall good guy/gal.

 

[mparris71]

I could be mistaking but I think the term “red neck†comes from a time when rich white folk dared not to be in the sun and their lilly white skin was a status symbol. Poor white folks had to work in the fields growing what they eat or working for the rich, under the scorching sun of the south they had red necks, faces, and arms, White trash to the Victorian upper class. According to the News media and blue states, I am a redneck, being a Christian, white, southern and a gun owner. So what!

 

[DRZinn]

Sheesh! Can you people not all see the obvious, that the term means different things to different people? Thus, if to me redneck means racist uneducated idiot, and to you it means Jeff Foxworthy, it does no good for me to get mad at you for calling me a redneck, or to get annoyed because you describe yourself as one.

 

[Librarian]

There's also a connection with pellagra

Pellagra was reported first in the United States in 1902. Soon, pellagra began to occur in epidemic proportions in the American South. Poverty and consumption of corn as a dietary staple were the most frequently observed risk factors.
...
o Typically, the skin lesions of pellagra are represented by a photosensitive dermatitis noted over parts of the body that have been exposed to the sun.

o Skin lesions initially resemble a typical sunburn and tend to be symmetrical. Lesions may blister, vesiculate, and denude.

 

[joab]

they're mean-spirited, ignorant (no, make that stupid, ignorance can be cured) racist inbred bozos, a.k.a. "crackers", they are not nice people to be admired or emulated.

Again the white trash being confused with redneck

A person who is a bit rough around the edges, perhaps unsophisticated, who deals with life in simple (but sometime ingenious) terms, but fundamentally a good hearted person who enjoys life and is an overall good guy/gal.

Closer to the correct definition

The sanitized version that Foxworth el al sells is more properly what used to be called a "good ol' boy",

Good Ole Boy typically refers to crooked politicians or their inner circle and sometimes applied to town leaders and their cronies.
The Klan typically referred to each other as Good Ole Boys especially when giving a recommendation for some they deemed worthy of joining the club.

They also referred to each other, especially their dead as Woodsmen, anyone know why?

 

[bbaerst]

You guys must not be from the North because redneck is *never* used as a compliment.

Rednecks carry connotations of being stupid, inbred, drunk, and intolerant.

 

[Art Eatman]

Fifty years ago, "redneck" was more of a pejorative term than anywhere near a Jeff Foxworthy view. Ignorant was more of an adjective for them, moreso than mean-spirited. "If his IQ hits 50, he oughta sell."

The joke is, there are "rednecks" and "good ol' boys". The difference is that good ol' boys throw their beer cans in the back of the pickup; rednecks throw theirs out on the ground. Generally, folks from "up Nawth" don't know the difference.

It's no different than the C&W music/dancing craze that's hit the cities. Lotsa Coca-Cola Cowboys out there. Bubbas and Bubbettes...

Long as folks don't take it seriously, it'll all work out.

, Art

"He's one of those two-name southern boys: A--H---."

 

[Greg L]

Thanks John for the link about the connections with the Scots, that was interesting (& an explanation that I had never heard before).

Greg

 

[Don Gwinn]

Bbaerst, is Illinois part of the North?

 

[BlackHawk1]

Taint no 'neck, don't have a Dodge Challenger (although I do have a Dakota), so I ain't a good 'ol boy, guess I'm just a simple hillbilly

(originally from western North Carolina)

 

[sm]

Born and raised in the South.

I agree with Art's post. I also recall a time redneck referred to the farmers and ranchers around here, the neck would get red from exposure to the sun...and not just the "hired help" - the owners and such were out and about as well. Some of these folks were highly educated and had LOTs of money.

I am often called a rebel. I just happen to be born in the South. My attitude , perceptions, hard- headedness...and such are the reason. Though I tell some it is because I like the fishing lure of the same name. Hey the anti gun Eng Lit instructor from the UK "bought" that reason.

I was told nobody had ever asked to shoot Skeet at a Resort in Jamacia...I told them it tasted like chicken and the Breadfruit Pudding would compliment .

 

[Ryder]

Up North here way back in the hippy days us farmer types were called rednecks by the city dwellers. So I don't know about it being considered "kool". Turns out it does beat catching AIDS though.

Rednecks here-a-bouts are down to earth real people who get things done as opposed to the couch taters who's foremost expertise appears to be the labeling of others. Call us anything you want just as long as you stay out of the way. We don't take that kind of guff.