Is the term "Redneck" a racial slur...

[Scuba Pete]

This is not a joke, but refers to one of our oldest threads on ScubaBoard:
The all inclusive "You might be a Redneck Diver" thread

Is this thread truly funny or racially crass? Please do NOT feel like you need to spare my feelings.

 

[Original Freak]

I think it's humour (although after reading some of them it's more like a bad attempt at humour).

But then again I don't really get upset at jokes, no matter how distasteful.

 

[Jaymes]

How on earth could it be a racial slur..? Redneck isn't a race. o.o

 

[fromthe heart]

LOL...I gotta tell you when I think of a redneck I think of the good old boy or gal who takes life simply as it is and isn't bothered too much by the world around them.


As for it being a racial slur...nope...it falls under the same category as dumb blondes to me and believe me I've had a ton of dumb blonde moments...it's ok to laugh together with each other on stupid human trials in life.:jiggy:

 

[Fluffy]

The term 'redneck' is one that I am fond of but I certainly would never consider it racist since, as Jensa says, it has no racial attachments. It originally came from referring to the kind of people who lived in rural areas in Southern America who were more isolated from societed and so held beliefs that could be described as regressive (such as anti-black for example). Since most of these people worked long days in fields, they had burnt necks, hence the term.

Nowadays it is normally used to refer to anyone with these same, regressive beliefs. However, it only takes on a prejudiced meaning if I were to say something like "All those in Texas are rednecks", a stereotype which is widely held. Beyond this, the term is not "racist", if you meant it in this way.

Edit: After checking up on this defintion, I found that it can also be used as a term for lower class people, often Americans (since that is where it originated) often as an insult. Personally, I still don't think this is racist but more do to with class barriers.

 

[michel]

I personally am an expert on receiving racial slurs; and I live in a country that persistently makes jokes about itself.


Humour is good - it takes less muscles to smile than to frown, and a good laugh does no harm - unless someone is upset by a joke, I find no problem; the only time there can be is when the joke is about a minority etnic group. There I shut up.

 

[Valjean]

Might be a cultural slur, but I can't see any racist angle.

 

[Feathers in Hair]

Well said, Seyorni.

Those that it refers to, though, are usually profoundly laid back about taking offense to things like that. One of my favorite things to read is the list of "You might be a Redneck Pagan if..." jokes.

 

[Scuba Pete]

Anyone else???

 

[Melody]

Find a redneck and ask them if they consider it a slur. I know way too many rednecks and they're the first to laugh at redneck jokes because the see themselves. Ever hear of Jeff Foxworthy -- you might be a redneck if?

 

[Xaero4]

Redneck is not a race. Therefore, it is not racist. I don't think the "Southern Folk" take those comments to personally anyways. They'd even admit their rednecks.

 

[Scuba Pete]

Most of the jokes written in that thread are by self proclaimed rednecks. However, as most of you who know me, I can't STAND bigotry. So when someone accuses me of such, I want to find out from someone OTHER THAN MYSELF if my actions are racist or not.

 

[Scott1]

I would have to say that I would not use a term like that. I believe it most certainly is a racial slur... and for those of you who say that it does not refer to a "race", come on. How many African Americans get a "red neck" from a sun burn? It most certainly refers to white, southern people (generally males)... it has a connotation of ignorance and poverty, and as such, should not be used in polite society.

Just because Mr. Foxworthy is white, and by his own account a "redneck".. has no bearing on this....many African Americans refer to others in their race as "******"... and I believe both are disgusting terms no matter who says them.

 

[Ryan2065]

I myself believe that anyone can say anything they want... Who is to say that a word is bad? Wouldn't you agree it is the attitude that is bad, not the word?

As far as asking if redneck is a racial slur, it most certaintly is not! If redneck is a racial slur, what race is it used to describe? Last I heard poor un-educated white person from the south was not a race.

 

[Scott1]

I myself believe that anyone can say anything they want... Who is to say that a word is bad? Wouldn't you agree it is the attitude that is bad, not the word?

No, I wouldn't agree..... some things should not be said by rational adults in polite society.

As far as asking if redneck is a racial slur, it most certaintly is not! If redneck is a racial slur, what race is it used to describe? Last I heard poor un-educated white person from the south was not a race.

Read your last sentence again....

"poor un-educated white person from the south was not a race"

Pure genius.:biglaugh: Poor and uneducated.. lovely.... I don't know why anyone would object to this!

 

[Lintu]

To me, having grown up in Texas, "redneck" was a term for someone you considered backwoods, "trashy," unsophisticated, uneducated, with little of what some people would consider to be class or culture. I never thought of it as a racial term and I still don't today. It's a social commentary more than anything else.

 

[Ryan2065]

The debate here was if “Redneck” is a racial slur, not a bad word. Here is the definition for racial slur…

a derogatory or disrespectful nickname for a racial group, used without restraint

Now, unless you can say that the term redneck offends a racial group, it is not a racial slur. As I stated before, redneck is used to describe poor un-educated white person from the south. And as I stated before, this is not a classification of race. I will admit that the term redneck is hardly ever used on people who are not white, but it is not used on all white people so it is not considered a racial slur.

Poor and uneducated.. lovely.... I don't know why anyone would object to this!

We are seeing if the term “redneck” is a racial slur, not something one would object to. Or is that part of the debate? It’s a racial slur because people don’t like being called it? By that logic butthead is a racial slur. (See, I can take statements out of context also! )

 

[Mr Spinkles]

The reason I hadn't responded to this thread until now is because I've had to carefully think about this one first.

I can see why many here (myself included) are inclined to reflexively defend the innocence of the word, if for no other reason than that we are not offended by it, we don't know anyone who is offended by it, and we find redneck jokes to be funny.

However, after some consideration.....I'm having a hard time differentiating between the meaning/use of 'redneck' and other racial slurs. I think that, yes, the term 'redneck' could be called a racial slur. It is certainly derogatory, disrespectful, and it is a nickname for a racial group. As Scott pointed out, the term denotes white males (rather than males of other races) exclusively. The fact that few people seem to be offended by it makes it no less a racial slur.

That Jeff Foxworthy uses the term in his comedy routine and even calls himself a redneck is similarly meaningless....lots of comedians use the N-word and refer to themselves by the N-word.

Dictionary.com clearly recognizes the racial and disrespectful undertones of the word 'redneck...it even cites the word 'cracker' as a synonym and puts the word in the "offensive slang" category:

red·neck ([font=verdana,sans-serif] P [/font]) Pronunciation Key (r

d

n

k

)
n. Offensive Slang

1. Used as a disparaging term for a member of the white rural laboring class, especially in the southern United States.
2. A white person regarded as having a provincial, conservative, often bigoted attitude.

redneck n : a poor white person in the southern United States [syn: cracker]

 

[Ryan2065]

Meh, I'll admit defeat on this one...
http://www.rsdb.org/
This is "The Racial Slur Database"

 

[Scuba Pete]

Spinks,

we are in the same boat here. I found no offence at first and am having second/third thoughts.

However, in the bigot's eye, all blacks are Ns. All whites are honkeys. But, not all whites are rednecks just as not all whites are yankees.

Also, most of the people in the thread in question consider themselves redneck. IOW, they have embraced the notoriety of the moniker. This is from http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/index.php (emboldening is mine)

Modern usage
The redneck stereotype
A redneck is a stereotypical southern United States socially conservative, rural, working class white person with red skin and northern European ancestry. The stereotypical redneck has a beer belly, consumes cheap American beer such as Bud Light by the case, and holds deeply conservative Dixiecrat political views. The redneck lives in a trailer, drives a large pickup truck with a Rebel flag decal and a gun rack in the rear window, has a trucker cap or baseball cap and a mullet haircut with long sideburns. Their favorite activities include hunting, professional wrestling, NASCAR, monster truck rallies, and car engine repair. Country is their preferred genre of music.

The 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 by late middle age.

Popular culture
Randy Newman satirized the "redneck" stereotype in on his 1974 album Good Old Boys with the song "Rednecks", with such lyrics as "We're rednecks, we're rednecks, we don't know our *** from a hole in the ground [...] and we're keeping the ******s down".

Comedian Jeff Foxworthy, himself a Southerner and a self-described redneck, has written several best-selling books about the stereotype, including Games Rednecks Play and the You Might Be a Redneck If... series. His works spawned many types of humorous redneck merchandise such as t-shirts and stickers that are quite popular among white southerners. Foxworthy did much to establish "redneck" as a term of pride and endearment by focusing on humorous and positive aspects of redneck culture, and avoiding references to negative aspects, such as the racist connotations that sometimes accompany the term.

Country music singer Gretchen Wilson titled one of her songs Redneck Woman on her 2004 album Here for the Party.

Author Jim Goad wrote a book titled The Redneck Manifesto that explores some of the socioeconomic history of this word and the people it is leveled at.

Historical usages
Scotland
The word redneck is first cited in Scotland, where it referred to supporters of the National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant, otherwise known as Covenanters - largely lowland Presbyterians.

The Covenanters in the mid 1600's signed documents that stated Scotland desired the Presbyterian form of church government and would not accept the Church of England as its official state church. To signify their desire, many Covenanters signed the documents in their own blood, would spill their blood to keep this from happening and wore red pieces of cloth around their necks as distinctive insignia - hence the term Redneck.

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 across the 18th Century. One etymological theory holds that since many Scotch-Irish who settled in what would become the South were Presbyterian, the term was bestowed upon them and their descendants.

Related terms
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 English-speaking white people.

Ironically, the term "redneck" is also used by the English to describe very conservative Afrikaners because of that group's historic support of apartheid, a system of white, minority power and privilege and black and "colored" exploitation and disenfranchisement, possibly by analogy to the American usage described above.

Barbados
"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.

See also
Good ol' boy network
List of ethnic slurs
Hillbilly
White trash
External Links
Redneck-bonics; Southern Talk to English (http://www.mrknowitall.com/jokes/redneck_dictionary.htm) (humourous)