>>The problem is, redneck is used to describe
an entire region and is used to describe a
group of people that many have never
encountered. I was a little defensive when I
first posted today, but it was just because I
was at my wits end. I'm so tired of hearing
about hate crimes and racial tensions. The
problem, though, is that everyone engages in
prejudiced, stereotype speech and until we all
recognize our differences, accept them and
understand that nothing that happened over a
hundred years ago can be changed we'll be
stuck in this cycle. I don't really take myself
seriously, I was just angry earlier. I get on a
soap box and lose my point sometimes.
Anyway, I'm as tired of being labeled as stupid
because I have a drawl as African Americans
are of being labeled as dangerous when 2 or
more are walking down a Southern street. I'm
tired of terms like "us" and "them" when
referring to racial groups.

>
> Brunnen-"around here we call rednecks Westies"G

It's the same general perception on the West Coast. Most everyone I've talked to thinks accents are cool, albeit sometimes hard to understand in the case of heavy Southern and Texan ones.

As for derogatory terms, they hardly exist here. Oregon is still an almost homogenous culture. My little town of Sutherlin has (to my knowledge) only one African American family, several Korean families, and a fair percentage of Latinos. The rest are whites of some type. But there is no "us" or "them." People live wherever they want. Most all the kids grew up here, so they're just Denny, James, or Jennifer, not the birthplaces of their grandparents. Being in high school, I've certainly heard derogatory things about them (and everyone else), but it's never been centered on their color. People just kind of agree that it's immaterial.

I wandered a bit there, but part of my point is that those terms are common, but not derogatory. People regularly use them of themselves, in fact. If someone calls me a whitey or a gringo, that's fine--I'm white. It has no bad connotation. If I'm trying to communicate who a particular person is, and he or she happens to be of a minority flesh color, why shouldn't I say that he or she's the black freshman? No one would object to being called pale or tan, and skin tone caused by ethnic descent isn't considered any different here.

I'm quite aware it's not like this in all parts of the country. In northern Washington, there was some not-insignificant general annoyance with the local Indian population. Some friends of mine (who are extremely pale) moved to Arkansas into a black neighborhood. Each and every neighbor had refused to even speak to them. People tried to run over them. They left the situation after a month or so. Certainly all the people in Arkansas aren't that way, but few reports otherwise reach our ears here.

Hmm. This ranged a little farther than I'd planned, so I'd better quit while I'm a head.

gab"Sorry about the RBJ reference. Those things probably shouldn't be alluded to, so people can more easily forget them."by