Redneck

"Rednecks" redirects here. For the band, see Rednex.

File:Hazzard Cast.jpg

The cast of The Dukes of Hazzard, representing an assortment of redneck stereotypes.

Redneck, in modern usage, predominantly refers to a particular stereotype of people who may be found in many regions of the United States or Canada. Originally limited to Appalachian and the American South, and later the Ozarks and Rocky Mountains, this stereotype is now widespread in other states and the Canadian provinces. The word can be used either as a pejorative or as a matter of pride, depending on context.

Etymology

Possible Scots-Irish etymologies

The National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant (a.k.a. Covenanters) signed documents stating that Scotland desired a Presbyterian Church Government, and rejected the Church of England as their official church (no Anglican congregation was ever accepted as the official church in Scotland). What the Covenanters rejected was episcopacy — rule by bishops — the preferred form of church government in England. Many of the Covenanters signed these documents using their own blood, and many in the movement began wearing red pieces of cloth around their neck to signify their position to the public. They were referred to as rednecks. Large numbers of these Scottish Presbyterians migrated from their lowland Scottish home to Ulster (the northern province of Ireland) during the 17th century and soon settled in considerable numbers in North America throughout the 18th century. Some emigrated directly from Scotland to the American colonies in the late 18th and early 19th-centuries as a result of the Lowland Clearances. This etymological theory holds that since many Scots-Irish Americans and Scottish Americans who settled in Appalachia and the South were Presbyterian, the term was bestowed upon them and their descendants.

Possible American etymologies

A popular etymology says that the term derives from such individuals having a red neck caused by working outdoors in the sunlight over the course of their lifetime. The effect of decades of direct sunlight on the exposed skin of the back of the neck not only reddens fair skin, but renders it leathery and tough, and typically very wrinkled and spotted by late middle age. Similarly, some historians claim that the term redneck originated in 17th century Virginia, because indentured servants were sunburnt while tending plantation crops.

It is clear that by the post-Reconstruction era (after the departure of Federal troops from the American South in 1874-1878), the term had worked its way into popular usage. Several blackface minstrel shows used the word in a derogatory manner, comparing slave life over that of the poor rural whites. This may have much to do with the social, political and economic struggle between Populists, the Redeemers and Republican Carpetbaggers of the post-Civil War South and Appalachia, where the new middle class of the South (professionals, bankers, industrialists) displaced the pre-war planter class as the leaders of the Southern states. The Populist movement, with its message of economic equality, represented a threat to the status quo. The use of a derogative term, such as redneck to belittle the working class, would have assisted in the gradual disenfranchisement of most of the Southern lower class, both black and white, which occurred by 1910.

Another popular theory stems from the use of red bandanas tied around the neck to signify union affiliation during the violent clashes between United Mine Workers and owners between 1910 and 1920.

The derivation of "redneck" was explained to some as a reference to poor, white farmers in Alabama who worked poor soil, which had included in its composition red clay. Working the soil gets someone dirty and the red clay that got on the necks of the poor dirt farmers was hard to get off. They were referred to derisively as "rednecks."

Modern usage

Redneck has two general uses: first, as a pejorative used by outsiders, and, second, as a term used by members within that group. To outsiders, it is generally a term for those of Southern or Appalachian rural poor backgrounds — or more loosely, rural poor to working-class people of rural extraction. (Appalachia also includes large parts of Pennsylvania, New York and other states.) Within that group, however, it is used to describe the more downscale members. Rednecks span from the poor to the working class.

Generally, there is a continuum from the stereotypical redneck (a derisive term) to the country person; yet there are differences. Rednecks typically are more libertine, especially in their personal lives, than other country brethren who tend towards social conservatism. In contrast to country people, stereotypical rednecks tend not to attend church, or do so infrequently. They also tend to use alcohol and gamble more than their church-going neighbors. Further, "politically apathetic" may describe some members of this group. Until the late 1970s they tended toward populism and were solidly behind the Democratic party, but have supported Republicans since the Carter presidency. They are less homogeneous than the country people and other Southern whites. Many Southern celebrities like Jeff Foxworthy and Lee Roy Mercer embrace the redneck label. It is used both as a term of pride and as a derogatory epithet, sometimes to paint country people and/or their lifestyle as being lower class.

Writer Edward Abbey, as well as the original Earth First! under Dave Foreman, proudly adopted the term redneck to describe themselves. This reflected the word's possible historical origin among striking coal miners to describe white rural working-class radicalism. "In Defense of the Redneck" was a popular essay by Ed Abbey. One popular early Earth First! bumper sticker was "Rednecks for Wilderness." Murray Bookchin, an urban leftist and social ecologist, objected strongly to Earth First!'s use of the term as "at the very least, insensitive."

The recent prosperity of the New South changed the social status of the redneck. The 20th century ideas of Southern upward mobility, which required dropping or modifying a regional accent and joining the mainstream, was considered the norm for the region. (Exceptions were made for politicians and college football coaches, for whom a drawl was still required for regional credibility.) Newfound prosperity allowed rednecks to cling to their old ways and reject the status quo of modernity. In the 1990s, when Jeff Foxworthy drawled "you might be a redneck …" he wasn't just needling folks who had ever "fought over an inner tube." In one of his stand-up routines, Foxworthy summed up the condition as "a glorious absence of sophistication." Foxworthy also rejected the misconception that a redneck has to be a Southerner, saying "A lot of people think you have to talk like this"(meaning his Georgia accent) "to be a redneck. That is not true. I've been all over this country, there's rednecks in every single state." According to Slate columnist Bryan Curtis, "Foxworthy was also preaching to the newly minted white middle class, those who had ditched the pickup for an Audi and their ancestral segregation for affirmative action." According to University of Georgia professor James C. Cobb, "Now, feeling relatively secure and closer to the mainstream, they rebel against acting respectable, embracing this counterculture hero—the 'redneck' who is what he is, and doesn't give a damn what anybody thinks."

U.S. Representative Charles B. Rangel caused controversy on February 13, 2005, by referring to Bill Clinton as a redneck in response to Hillary Clinton's refusal to support his views on the Amadou Diallo case.

Popular culture

The Grand Ole Opry and Hee Haw are popular entertainments from years past, and they, as well as the entertainers Hank Williams, Grandpa Jones and Jerry Clower, have seen lasting popularity within the redneck community, as well as forging opinions in the minds of those on the outside.

Since the dawn of the radio age, entertainers have traded on the redneck stereotype for humor and as a means to bond with their audiences. Stars like Minnie Pearl used homespun comedy as much as music to create a lasting persona, and sophisticated and intelligent musicians like Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt appeared on shows such as "The Beverly Hillbillies," lending credence to broad humor about uncomplicated rural Americans. Some musicians who toured the country in tailored suits were put on stage in overalls surrounded by hay bales when they appeared on the television show "Hee-Haw."

The character Bob Ewell from Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird has many characteristics of a redneck. He's a racist, poorly dressed, and can barely make a decent salary.

According to James C. Cobb, a history professor at the University of Georgia, the redneck comedian "provided a rallying point for bourgeois and lower-class whites alike. With his front-porch humor and politically outrageous bons mots, the redneck comedian created an illusion of white equality across classes." [2]

Johnny Russell was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1973 for his recording of "Rednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer," parlaying the "common touch" into financial and critical success. Country music singer Gretchen Wilson titled one of her songs "Redneck Woman" on her 2004 album, Here for the Party. Wilson was born and raised in Illinois.

Rockabilly and Southern Rock are among Rock and Roll musical genres favored by stereotypical rednecks. In particular, "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd are considered "Redneck Anthems."

The TV series, "The Dukes of Hazzard," followed the adventures of two good ol' boys, Bo and Luke Duke, their uncle Jesse and their cousin Daisy, living in an unincorporated area of the fictional Hazzard County, in Georgia, racing around in their modified 1969 Dodge Charger, "The General Lee," evading corrupt Boss Hogg and his inept county sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. Consistent with a redneck stereotype, Bo and Luke had been sentenced to probation for illegal transportation of moonshine.

In recent years, the comedic stylings of Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White, Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy and Lee Roy Mercer have become popular, with the first four forming first a "Blue Collar Comedy Tour", and now a "Blue Collar TV" television show and film. Foxworthy's definition of redneck is "a glorious absence of sophistication."

"King of the Hill" is a contemporary American animated sitcom showing a modern suburban family in Arlen, Texas. In the show, they are sometimes derisively called "redneck" and "hillbilly" by a Laotian neighbor.

The song of the Portuguese comedy show Gato Fedorento, "Rap dos Matarruanos" is often badly transulated as "Rednecks Rap"; "Matarruano" is a Portuguese expression that is used for lazy, dumb or even slutty farm people (normally male) and not specifically to rednecks.

Exclaves

Central Pennsylvania is often seen as redneck country, as in Democratic Party strategist James Carville's reputed description of the state: "Philadelphia at one end, Pittsburgh at the other, Alabama in the middle."

Alberta and Saskatchewan are sometimes said to be the home of rednecks in Canada, due to its similarities to Texas (oil, farming, and ranching). Like rural people elsewhere, some Canadians continue to see this as a highly offensive term while others have claimed it and proudly describe themselves as rednecks. This difference often arises because the former consider the term to connote racist beliefs while the latter believe it implies traditional rural values (e.g. work ethic, honesty, self-reliance, simplicity).

Related terms

Australia and New Zealand

The term "bogan" is used in Australia and New Zealand to describe individuals from western parts of major cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne. There is no one ethnic heritage that ascribes a bogan, most indeed are from Lebanese and middle eastern background as well as with anglo saxon origins. There is no majority, however the stereotype is identified by a significant "mullet" hair cut, or the middle eastern style of shaving all but the tops of their head. Bogan however is a predominately Melbourne term, in Sydney - westy is most often applied. Bogans males in general are preoccupied with cars and less than romantic methods of securing a partner.

The Caribbean and Latin America

"Poor whites" in Barbados (descendants largely of seventeenth century English, Scottish, and Irish indentured servants and deportees) were called "red legs." Many of these families moved to Virginia and the Carolinas as large sugar plantations replaced small tobacco farming in the Caribbean.

In Brazil, the term "caipira" is used to define inhabitants from the countryside of Brazilian states (chiefly rural); they are considered the Brazilian counterparts of American rednecks.

In Chile, the term "huaso" describes people who work or live in the rural sectors of the country. They are described as wearing a poncho, straw hat and cowboy boots.

In Mexico, the slang term "Naco" can be used to define a lower-class Mexican who displays qualities similar to North-American rednecks such as ignorance and low-brow tastes. [3].

In Puerto Rico the term "jíbaro" can be considered a rough equivalent of the word "redneck" since it is used to refer to residents of rural areas that typically work as farmers or manual-laborers. It is also similar to the term "redneck" as it can be used pejoratively or complimentary. In the latter sense it is used to refer to "true boricuas" that live a rugged life of farming and maintain typical Puerto Rican traditions and values alive. In the pejorative sense however, it refers to uneducated rubes who are close-minded and oblivious to the ways of the modern world.

North America

In the United States, the term "farmer tan" is sometimes used to refer to a sunburn, particularly when the sunburned area covers only the neck and arms of the individual. This can also refer to a suntan covering the same area. Another variation of the "farmer tan" is the trucker tan, which refers to the occurrence of the left arm being of a deeper tan than the right arm, as a result of being rested along or out of the driver's side window of the stereotypical redneck's pickup truck or tractor-trailer.

"White cracker" or simply "cracker" was originally a pejorative term for a white person, mainly used in the Southern United States, and still is in many instances. It has also, however, increasingly been used as a proud (or self-deprecating) term by some Southern whites —or American whites in general—in reference to themselves.

The term "goat roper" is sometimes used as a term of derision for unsophisticated rural people in the Southwestern United States, Arkansas, and Gulf States. It alludes to the belief that a person who raises or "ropes" goats is inferior to a cowboy or cattle rancher. This term may have roots in the range wars between ranchers and sheep or goat ranchers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term is used in some western communities to describe individuals who prefer a western/cowboy image, but not the rugged life-style (e.g. "Him in a rodeo? Only if he's roping goats with the kids.")

The term "peckerwood," an inversion of woodpecker, is also used, but usually only with negative connotations. It was coined in the 19th century by Southern blacks to describe poor whites. They considered them loud and troublesome like the bird, often with red hair like the woodpecker's head plumes. This word is still widely used by Southern blacks to refer to Southern whites.

"Swamp Yankee" is a term used by urban Yankees to describe rural New Englanders.

In Canada, "redneck" is used in much the same way as it is in the United States. It is mostly used for people from the Prairie provinces and rural areas in British Columbia and Ontario.

The term "blueneck" is a recently coined corollary of redneck. Its meaning can vary significantly based on usage. It can refer to a "cold-weather redneck" from Canada, Alaska, or other cold areas of North America. It can also be used to signify a "leftist redneck."

South Africa

In South Africa, the Afrikaans term "rooinek" (meaning redneck) was derisively applied by Afrikaners to the British soldiers who fought during the Boer Wars, because their skin was sensitive to the harsh African sun. The phrase is still used by Afrikaners to describe South Africans of English descent.

See also

• Boer
• Cajun
• Caldoche
• Classism
• Folk culture
• Good old boys
• Good ol' boy network
• Hick
• Hillbilly
• List of ethnic slurs
• The Redneck Manifesto
• Pākehā
• Pied-noir
• Redneck Rampage
• Redneck Riviera
• Whiskey Rebellion
• White Trash

Sources

• Abbey, Edward. "In Defense of the Redneck", from Abbey's Road: Take the Other. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979
• Goad, Jim. The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997
• Webb, James H. Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. New York: Broadway Books, 2004
• Weston, Ruth D. "The Redneck Hero in the Postmodern World". South Carolina Review, Spring 1993
• Wilson, Charles R. and William Ferris, eds. Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, 1989

External links

• New Redneck Workshop
• Poor Whites — The Georgia Encyclopedia (history)