How do you characterize a person as redneck?

1. 63

   alexandriaruthkposted 11 years ago

   How do you characterize a person as redneck?
   
   What are the culture that differentiates them with the common people?

   replyreport
2. 69

   Mark Monroeposted 11 years ago

   Your question is begging the question and implies that they are not "normal"  Before your question can be answered you will have to define what normal is.  Many people I run into would not be classified as normal.  I have had the label of red neck, liberal, communist, and republican placed upon me, so I do not place much faith in them.
   
   Mark

   replyreport
3. 80

   bethperryposted 11 years ago

   There are many people around the nation -and some around the globe- that automatically call anyone from the South a redneck. This term, as popularly known, equates with a stereotype designed to portray white Southerners as poor, trashy, uneducated, racist, gun-toting idiots, usually with a heavy dose of Christian fundamentalism running through their veins. On the contrary, when I was growing up -here in the South- if someone was referred to as a "redneck" it implied a white Southern with boorish manners and close-minded views, and one that typically espouses their views in a loud vocal manner. In this traditionally accepted context redneckism isn't confined to any particular class or race; you can be an uneducated white hillbilly and still have far better manners, tolerance and overall decency than you'd ever find in a redneck. And on the other side of the coin you can have a rich, educated and snobby banker that's as much a redneck OR MORE perhaps than his honest, good-hearted twin brother that lives down at the trailer park.
   I hope this definition helps!

   replyreport
4. 0

   JThomp42posted 11 years ago

   What people do not realize is the term "redneck" came about because of hard working farmers would be out in the sun all day, so of course they would have a red neck from the sun. It is only used as bad by shallow racist individuals. I really prefer not to label anyone because of their skin color, race, religion. or the region they are from.

   replyreport
   1. 69

      connorjposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You are incorrect; read Attikos' answer...

      replyreport
   2. 0

      JThomp42posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I guarantee neither one of you live in the South.

      replyreport
   3. 81

      Attikosposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      How much are we betting on that guarantee, JThomp?

      replyreport
   4. 0

      JThomp42posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Attikos.... your answer looks like it is from Wikipedia. My answer is an old wives tale. Lighten up.

      replyreport
   5. 80

      bethperryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      JThomp42, the answer about Scot "rednecks" may explain the origin of the archaic word, but I agree with you about the origin of the modern terminology of the word.

      replyreport
   6. 81

      Attikosposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      All right, JThomp. How much are we betting I copied my post from another source rather than writing it myself?

      replyreport
   7. 0

      JThomp42posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Beth.

      replyreport
5. 81

   Attikosposted 11 years ago

   No one is sure of the origin of the term "redneck," but the most likely scenario is that it came as a denigratory reference used by the English for the Scottish Highlander rebels of the late Medieval and early modern periods. They had no uniforms but wore red scarves around their necks as a badge by which to identify one another on the battlefield. They were rough, tough Highlanders, and so rednecks were, in the eyes of the ruling class in England, barbarians worthy only of belittlement.
   
   Many of those Scotsman were exiled to the American South. That occurred in several waves of deportation during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The word came with them and was adopted by the Anglophilic coastal plain planters and townsmen who were already there. The Scottish were pushed westward to the unsettled areas, and so the term came to mean someone from the outer reaches of the country, a frontiersman, a rustic, someone definitely not an urban sophisticate. No powdered wigs, no polished canes, no silver teapots, no voyages to London, no glittering garden parties.
   
   Still today the word "redneck" is rarely, and almost never appropriately, applied to persons of property and social status in the cities. It remains a dismissive derogatory, one of the last in American English not ruled out by political correctness. The reason for that, of course, is that the cultural elitists who make those rulings are themselves the effete urbanites and academics who use the word as one of belittlement for people unlike themselves. Doing so helps bolster their pretensions to superiority, and so they need to keep some of those terms.
   
   From the standpoints of its origin and of American history, the redneck represents the underdog, marginalized and disenfranchised, rebellious and countercultural, irrepressibly defiant and independent. Many have tried to stamp him out in their misguided attempt to remake society in their own inflated image. None has succeeded. He is the living soul of America, of what makes us ourselves rather than a poor imitation of European decadence. We should celebrate the redneck, not blithely accept the negative connotations of the term associated with obnoxious elitists from the English upper class twits of the eighteenth century to the twenty-first century upper class twits in Washington, New York and Hollywood.

   replyreport
   1. 69

      connorjposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This is a most comprehensive and excellent answer. There is no need for me to formulate one...

      replyreport
6. 73

   stclairjackposted 11 years ago

   it may well depend on who you ask,... if you believe the Jeff Foxworthy deffinition of the term, then all "rednecks" must be beer swilling, semi-litterate inbeeders,....
   
   i can only speak from a south western missouri ozarks point of view,...
   
   here, in my "neck of the woods" a redneck WAS a narrow minded person who exaults thier own ignorance like its a bragging right, looks down on others not because theyve done anything worthy of disdain, but because it makes them feel better to put others down, and belittles the questions the cant or wont answer....
   
   these days the term "redneck" has been re-branded and sold as some new camoflaged clothed "every-man",.. a scource for jokes and tv shows and comedy careers,...... now we all have an excuse to act like we're some kind outdoorsy common man when camoflage clothing and taller tires do NOT make you a country boy..... any more than crooning "THANK GOD I'M A COUNTRY BOY" made John Denver an actuall country boy,.... sorry,.... i'm a big Charlie Rich fan.
   
   so here where i come from, the northern hills of the ozarks, where the rivers just begin to cut away at the plains and wind thier way to the mississippi,..... my brand of folks still bristle at the term "redneck"...... and while many of us HATE the stereotype of the hillbilly that Branson MO tourism has sold over the decades,... it's the term "hillbilly" that we choose for ourselves,... even as throngs of our friends and neighbors buy another piece of camo cothing and post another rebel flag graphic on the facebook wall,... we are hillbillies,... and damn proud of it.
   
   and we're NOT rednecks.

   replyreport
7. 85

   Lee Teaposted 11 years ago

   Cheap beer, shotguns, pick-up trucks, this weird sense of patriotism, and a love for and jeopardy-ready knowledge of country music since the time of its inception.
   
   They live close to home their whole lives because they know where the best huntin spots and fishin holes are.  They keep friends for life but can eff up those that do them, their family, or their sense of honor wrong.  Most go to church.  Their daddys we're probably alcoholics.  They all have a dog.
   
   Rednecks aren't known to be smart, but they know more about survival than any city-slicker ever will.  Their bank accounts aren't loaded, but their shotguns, and their lives, most certainly are. 
   
   I was born in and grew up in the river valley of the PA woodland hills.  I've watched my redneck friends grow up, have families, have problems, and continue like the rest of us.  I'd never double-cross one, and know they'd help me if I ever needed it.
   
   Love live the redneck!

   replyreport