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What is a redneck? Depends on what side of that word you belong. Like the word "yankee," sometimes redneck is a pejorative, sometimes it's merely descriptive, sometimes it's a badge of honor.

Growing up in the South, we used the word redneck as a pejorative, generally meaning uncouth. As a family of modest means, we strove to distinguish ourselves from "rednecks" by using good manners, keeping a well-tended yard and house, and by wearing proper clothes when we went out in public (still to this day, I can't go to the store in shorts). Yet now that I've spent 20+ years north of the Mason-Dixon, I recognize that we had a lot in common with rednecks in our accent, tastes in music and a strong sense of home and regional pride.

Nowadays, a lot of people take "redneck" as a badge of honor, almost as a synonym for "country Southern," like Jeff Foxworthy, who is clearly well-educated, well-mannered and urbane. And that's fine, I guess; language evolves -- if wealthy, educated, urban Southerners want to call themselves rednecks as a badge of Southernness, you can't stop them.

But the word originated as a term of differentiation between Southerners who have good manners and those that don't. Now, its looser usage contributes to the confusion that yankees suffer when they encounter anyone with a Southern accent who likes bluegrass music. You need to be sensitive to the fact that there are a lot of people who find the term offensive, while others use it proudly. My advice: Ask, don't assume.

(PS, Brian, I'm disappointed that you derided the beautiful song, "Dueling Banjos." It's like saying that Wagner's music is Nazi, just because the Nazis liked it. Not all bluegrass lovers are rednecks.)

Brian

One of the important things that I thought was absent from this discussion - or, at least the parts of it I caught - was any exploration of the many similarities between lower income whites and blacks in the south ex-Appalachia. One of the most striking, and ironic cultural juxtapositions that I think exists in the US.

In most of the South, lower income blacks and whites eat the same food, drive the same beat up trucks, and sing the same hymns to the same hammond B3 organs. They even share the same accent. And incidentally, outside of Appalachia very few people in the south actually listen bluegrass.

Full disclosure, I grew up in central Georgia and lived...in a trailer park.

I am from the Ozarks in southwest Missouri--

A very key element I'd like to add that no one mentioned, is that "Redneck," in areas with a lot of diversity, ends up being a choice of how kids group themselves, in grade school and up.

Just like pseudo-gangsters (or real ones) you have appearing in schools, athletes, cheerleaders, 'popular kids,' in much of the country (I doubt here in Manhattan) kids also group up as Rednecks or Cowboys, or groups that are held together and stand apart, and socialize in different circles with their heritage holding them together. This is a very diverse group in itself and might include a wide variety of cowboy, agricultural, southern, or even Native American kids.

So, we should also be very careful applying this word, in order to not just prolong our natural instinct to over-categorize, or even pass judgment unfairly on other people.

I'm from El Paso, TX
Growing up in the 60/70's a "redneck" was someone who had a pick up with a gun rack, cut their hair short, wore a cowboy hat but was not necessarily a cowboy. They were conservative in their thinking (beer not pot) and hated "Freaks" (us) - those with long hair and more progressive hippie-like attitudes.
From what I hear, they remain unchanged.

I am from East Tennessee, however I believe that there are rednecks all over the world. I consider the term somewhat of an insult (though rednecks embrace it). To me a redneck is someone that is entrenched in their own environment and is closed to outside influences. They feel that any culture that they don't consider their own is suspect. They seem Anti-intelectual, yet embrace anything that seems to come from "their" culture. By this standard there are rednecks in all races and countries.

thankyou

Minnesota is one of the most liberal states in the US!

It's important to realize that jokes about rednecks, and about missing teeth, outhouses, etc. are jokes about *poverty*, a very illiberal point of view.

Redneck or hipster?

Take a trucker hat and a mullet, and you might question if you're in the deep south or the LES.

Maybe a gun rack is the next ironic accessory, and squirrel will be a mainstay on Clinton Street menus.

There is a difference between redneck and white trash. White trash is poor and not usually racist; not political. Red neck is white but conservative, sometimes racist, and maybe poor but not necessarily. Growing up "white trash, that's the way I see it.

Brian,
Be careful of all this "Redneck" talk. If we learned anything from Don Imus and his use of a seemingly harmless word(not ho, the other one), you might be getting a few phone calls post show from some angry listeners.

Following up on the notion of an "upstate redneck", I've heard that stereotype labeled as a "hick."

What do "renecks" consider the the difference between a "redneck" and a "hick" to actually be?