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People can be ignorant...and that to me sounds like pure ignorance!! I even know that and I live in California....Don't let it upset you, there are so many other things in life to consume you with good, don't let a jerk bring ya down!!
pahahaha sometimes the appropriate answer to comments like that is just to say, "why yes. Yes I am being completely racist. That is why I chose to live here."
White people whining about racism make me roll my eyes so hard I dislocate my retinas.
@Beluga: Me too, especially white men. Like, hello? Go enjoy your huge salary bump you get for your skin and your penis and quit whining about nothing.
I did have to laugh because I was so curious what the crap the R word was...... i am sorry he reacted like that to you.. bc i think that was just blown out of proportion.
But to other previous posters I do think Racism can go both ways. I know I personally have been on the recieving end of some pretty nasty remarks and physcial harrasment for no other reason than being a "dumb ass redneck cracker"
Although I dont feel that it is necessarily "racist" 95% of the time I do get so tired of hearing the term "redneck" though. And being looked down upon just because of where I live. Yes I am from a smaller town in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee and it is beautiful here and I love it ... Yes I live in the hills... yes my accent does sound kinda funny but hey guess what your accent sounds funny to me too! Sometimes I feel like people from other areas dont take me seriously sometimes simply because my accent is not like theirs! Just because I am from the south and have a southern draw I dont feel I should be labeled a "dumb ass redneck"
I use to do alot of buisness over the phone and sometimes I wanted to say to people expecially big city "northerners" you might think I am a redneck just bc of how I sound but you are just an idiot! You would not believe some of the stupid questions people would ask me. THESE WERE THE MOST COMMON ONES .. did I have running water... if i lived in a trailer... did we have paved roads.. did we have more than one school house...Did I have any teeth....did i ride a horse to school or work... do i have a toilet refidgerator etc in the front yard... do i have more than a middle school education... did I have shoes... do i have 5 kids all by different baby daddies and live off the government... am i married to my cousin.. have i ever dated my cousin... would i date my cousin...
I went to chicago one time to visit a friend of mine and we were at this convience store and the guys was so curious to know where i was from... when i tell him he leans over the counter and looks at my feet when i asked him what he was doing he serious to god told me he wanted to make sure i was wearing shoes!
SERIOUSLY.. I might be from a "hick town" as many have called it but I think alot of the world really needs to get a better education I mean I live in a city with a population of about 38,000 or more people. And we live in a city that one of our Main Employment providers s manufactures chemicals, fibers and plastics materials which are used by customers as key ingredients to make the products that people use everyday all over the world. NO ONE I know fits any of those categories and the people I do know that could fall into those categories well guess what so could anyone from anywhere else in the world.
@Beluga: I politely disagree. Racism goes both ways and nothing irritates me more than minorities who think that racism can only be a white person oppressing a minority. The actual definition of racism states that racism is when a person is oppressed or treated differently based on their race; that can mean a white person discriminating against a black person, it can mean a black person discriminating against a white person. Racism goes both ways.
In regards to the OP's post, yes, using the racist label in regards to calling someone a redneck is a bit of a stretch but clearly the term redneck is offensive to particular individuals. Sadly, there is a bit of a stereotype about the deep south and I can understand people being sensitive about derogatory terms being used.
I agree people throw the 'R' card around way too easily sometimes.
I heard a story through people at work that a few guys were joking around in the office and a girl overheard them, and not really understanding their senses of humor, got slightly offended. However, what she said to them is now a quote around the office..."You're racist against women!" (and, like rednecks, women are not their own race!) =)
@Ree723: I totally agree that the term redneck can be offensive, especially if it's being used in the manner that FutureMrs.Harless describes (and yes, I've experienced that same treatment in Boston). In this guy's case, he's not even part of the culture (he is very proud of his Greek heritage) and is basically taking up torches and pitchforks over something that doesn't even concern him. Everyone knows someone who becomes a bleeding heart over some cause that doesn't reallly have anything to do with them - they just use it as a soapbox- this is basically his, I guess.
The funny thing is, I grew up in a self-proclaimed "redneck" town, and I don't find that song offensive (hell, we embraced it when we came out. My cheerleading squad did a dance to it for Christ's sake!) but suddenly stating that it's about rednecks is "racist" in someone else's eyes, who isn't even a part of that culture. It totally boggles me how people can so fiercely and ignorantly defend that which they have no excuse (or need) to defend in the first place.
@Ree723: Redneck is not a race. It's a class identifier that is, to some, offensive, but it's not a racial group.
And while your definition of racisim is technically correct, I'm hard pressed to think of many instances in which minorities actively oppress the dominant majority.
Or, put another way, I'll get worried about discrimination against whites when we start stopping people who look like 95% of Congress for driving luxury cars.
I teach in a predominantly white school district, where the kids don't know much about "culture." When I tell a kid he/she isn't allowed to do something, they say I'm being racist. Yes. You're right, kid. I'm white, you're white, and the fact that you are not allowed to stand on your desk is me being racist against you. You got it.
It makes me so angry.
"Cotton Eye Joe" is a great song....I can't do a western linedance to save my life, but I try on that song.
As far as the term "Redneck" some people embrace it and some people are offended by it, so I don't use it. You don't have to BE a redneck to be offended by the word, just like you don't have to be black to be offended by the "N" word, or a woman to be offended by the word bitch.
@teaadntoast: It depends on where you live. Imagine being one of the few white girls in the entire school . . . I was called more unpleasant names, and even threatened at least once a week because I was 'the white girl'. I don't think I ever missed so much school in my entire life as I did living there. Needless to say it goes both ways.
@Silentlove: I didn't say there were no examples or that it didn't happen. Merely that racism against whites is less frequent and, as an institutional matter, practically nonexistent.
@ tntrav44 - ugh - I hated when students said that when I was teaching! At least once a year some student would pull that excuse, and then I'd have to go back through their rubric and explain their grade to them just so I could cover my ass in case their parent came in. It completely flabbergasts me every time, b/c you know it's an act of desperation. I'm all for calling it out when it's warranted, but no, you earning (ie - not me giving you) a poor grade is NOT racism. That's why I have after school tutoring and an open door policy - for everyone.
@teaadntoast: ahem, try getting help from ANY social services. And I know this for a fact because I see it frequently and have talked to others who have had 1st-hand experience, that there IS racisim towards the whites. Especially if you need help from the government. (and might I add, the people I talk to also work full time.)
And I've seen it in the workplace as well as in schools (ex: contests, scholarships, etc).
Yes, racism goes ALL ways, but it seems to be used for everything OTHER than what it is really meant to be used with.
example: it isn't RACISM if a man is getting a better paycheck than a woman. THAT is being "sexist".
Ignorance is NOT always bliss.
@FutureMrs.Harless: Sounds like you live in Johnson City. :) My grandparents lived there for a time. It's beautiful there, and you're lucky to call it home.
@Zinzerena: I frequently talk to people who believe that men lived together with dinosaurs and that the world is barely 2,000 years old.
Doesn't make them right.
More to the point - your experience may not be typical. If all the people I know behaved in a certain way it would represent a tiny fraction of the U.S. population.
Also, love the scare quotes around sexim.
Um... when I read "R word" I thought OP meant someone called her a Republican. haha I was like "huh... well even though I'm not into politics, I don't think being political is THAT bad, sheesh."
That's how my brain works, apparently.
I'm from a farm town in PA too. I can see where people would take offense to the term redneck if it's been used to put them down. I've also seen it embraced in a way that I find distasteful...as in "We're proud to be an ignorant and ill-mannered kind of white person, and we're better Americans for it." I'm not a fan of the word.
BUT, I use it too for fun and otherwise, and wouldn't have been offended at what you said. I've never seen anyone get seriously upset by that word before.
@teaadntoast: hehehehe, yeah, I have to deal with the whole sexist thing due to being a woman in a nearly-male-dominated profession. It. Sucks. (Then again, I also have to deal with a lot of people who are racist... FI's parents included *rolls eyes*)
I think it more depends on where you live and the culture where you live.
I live in an area where you can find a church on EVERY CORNER of a block and at least one on EVERY block. Sometimes, the church takes up the entire block (am NOT kidding). When there are no less than three churches on one street, it kinda gets the point across you're in a HIGHLY religious area. And unfortunately, from my experience, religion doesn't help much on the racism thing when certain religions encourage racism. (see above about FI's parents...)
Regardless, it's often a never-ending cycle. Parents tend to pass their beliefs and feelings on to their kids and those kids pass it on to theirs, etc etc etc. Until someone decides it's stupid and/or questions it.
hehehehehe, I could have soooo much fun with people like that! (Though, I think Family Guy already did with the 'redneck' episode.... 
)
on, and where I live, being a redneck means driving a jacked-up truck, wearing/displaying the Rebel Flag, several types of T-shirts that encourage sexual stuff and/or beer (big johnson, I think it the name?) and blaring music as loud as possible. On, and CB's. gotta have the CBs.
I was really curious what the R word is lol... That seems a little extreme that they would say that.. But just their point of view I guess. Thats so irritating. Im sorry your so upset.
@Zinzerena: Thank you for that first post.
@jo.lee: My husband is a white male and he doesn't make any more money than anybody else at his position because of his penis or his skin color, thankyouverymuch. And he certainly couldn't get a dime from most scholarships, because rather than be solely merit-based they contain sex- or race-based stipulations that made it impossible for him qualify. Ain't always easy for white men.
OP, you can move here and call us "rednecks" anytime... we don't take offense ;) Didn't sound like you were being mean or anything anyway, so his reaction was uncalled for.
I can see why someone would be offended by it and I personally don't use it. While its not racist it does have derogatory connotations behind it (think of all those redneck jokes you've heard).
@MrsWrangler: welcome. :)
I will say that working in a male-dominated field, men typically end up being paid more than women. BUT it also depends on the field!
Male teachers (new teachers, mind you), at least in one of the local school systems, were paid LESS than the females, according to what was printed in the local paper. I've also heard that male nurses are paid less than female nurses.
Either way you go, history proves men are looked at as superior (ALL MEN in the US got to vote before women...).
but... yeah. it's usual field dependent on who gets the better end of the deal. and in the majority of the fields? It's men.
@Zinzerena: Sounds like a stereotype problem to me - teachers + nurses = "women" jobs, everything else? = "man" job. And I work in physiological psych research, so I'm definitely not in a woman-dominated field, especially when corroborating with doctors. I feel the sexism pain, I really do.
But to imply that white men only make more money because of their skin and penis really bothers me, because that's just not true for the men of ALL colors I know. They work hard for the money they make. We should attack the system, not the people in it - changing that shameful sexist, racist history, both in business and in the way we talk about and treat each other!*Off soapbox now*.
Sorry to get on such a tangent OP!
I find that people who are actually from the South use it more, and even own it, more than non-southerners. It's not really that big of a deal. Non-southerners think it's more offensive than it really is.
Is your co-worker from the South?
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Ladies, I am FUMING right now!
A classmate said that he learned some new Irish stepdances, and mentioned Cotton Eye Joe as one of the dances. So I said, "isn't that about a bunch of rednecks?"
Keep in mind, I grew up in Farmtown, Pennsylvania (we drove tractors to school for Christ's sake!) and I now live in... the deep south. When it comes to rednecks, I think I'm qualified to provide commentary.
He then proceeded to call me RACIST b/c of my comment. WTF?! The band that WROTE the song is called REDNEX. For real. I'm so pissed. Who just throws that term around like that?!
I then had to remind him that "Redneck" is not a race. Jeebus!