Growing up, when I heard the term, "Redneck," I didn't think of the South. That term was thrown about in the California Central Valley where a lot of farming is done. The farmers there did seem to fit the stereotype, for the most part. They did have red necks, most of them drove pickup trucks, a lot of them hunted, and a fair amount were bigots. There were people in my family that I would consider a redneck. Maybe it is a little different on the West Coast, but I still don't automatically think of rednecks as being Southerners (even that term sounds weird to me at the moment). We have plenty of Rednecks out here in the Bay Area, California. Personally, I don't think that people automatically say Southerner=redneck.

Fe"my 2 cents"rrick

> 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.