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Redneck

This article is about redneck as a pejorative. For the historical subculture, see Poor White. For different connotations, see Country (identity). For other uses, see Redneck (disambiguation).

The term may come from the look of a sunburned neck

Redneck is a derogatory term mainly, but not exclusively, applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the Southern United States.[1][2]

Its meaning possibly stems from the sunburn found on farmers' necks dating back to the late 19th century.[3] Its modern usage is similar in meaning to cracker (especially regarding Texas, Georgia, and Florida), hillbilly (especially regarding Appalachia and the Ozarks),[4] and white trash (but without the last term's suggestions of immorality).[5][6][7] In Britain, the Cambridge Dictionary definition states: "A poor, white person without education, esp. one living in the countryside in the southern US, who is believed to have prejudiced ideas and beliefs. This word is usually considered offensive."[8] People from the white South sometimes jocularly call themselves "rednecks" as insider humor.[9]

An alternative origin story is that during the West Virginia Mine Wars of the early 1920s, workers organizing for labor rights donned red bandanas, worn tied around their necks, as they marched up Blair Mountain in a pivotal confrontation. The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum commemorates their struggle for fair wages. A monument in front of the George Buckley Community Center in Marmet, WV, part of the "Courage in the Hollers Project" of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum depicts the silhouettes of four mine workers cut from steel plate, wearing bright red bandanas around their necks or holding them in their hands. [10] [11]

By the 1970s, the term had become offensive slang, its meaning expanded to include racism, loutishness, and opposition to modern ways.[12]

Patrick Huber, in his monograph A Short History of Redneck: The Fashioning of a Southern White Masculine Identity, emphasized the theme of masculinity in the 20th-century expansion of the term, noting: "The redneck has been stereotyped in the media and popular culture as a poor, dirty, uneducated, and racist Southern white man."[13]

  1. ^ Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, Dictionary of American Slang (1975) p. 424.
  2. ^ "Redneck – Definition and More". Merriam Webster. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  3. ^ Huber, 1995.
  4. ^ Anthony Harkins, Hillbilly, A Cultural History of an American Icon, Oxford University Press (2004), p. 39.
  5. ^ Wray (2006) p. x.
  6. ^ Ernest Cashmore and James Jennings, eds. Racism: essential readings (2001) p. 36.
  7. ^ Jim Goad, The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies, Hicks, and White Trash Became America's Scapegoats (1998) pp. 17–19.
  8. ^ "redneck". Cambridge Dictionary.
  9. ^ John Morreall (2011). Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor. John Wiley & Sons. p. 106. ISBN 9781444358292.
  10. ^ "Do You Know Where the Word "Redneck" Comes From? Mine Wars Museum Opens, Revives Lost Labor History". 18 May 2015.
  11. ^ "Courage in the Hollers".
  12. ^ Robert L. Chapman, Dictionary of American Slang (1995) p. 459; William Safire, Safire's New Political Dictionary (1993) pp. 653-54; Tom Dalzell, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: J–Z (2005) 2:1603.
  13. ^ Huber, Patrick (1995). "A short history of Redneck: The fashioning of a southern white masculine identity". Southern Cultures. 1 (2): 145–166. doi:10.1353/scu.1995.0074. S2CID 143996001.
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