Better Use “Redneck” with Care

A man speaking in a city board meeting in my town this week got into trouble for using the word “redneck.” He was arguing that shrinking city funds would be better spent on maintaining the local cable access channel than on Christmas lights in the town square. He stirred up a storm of protest when he referred to the city employees putting up the lights as “highly-paid rednecks.”

The uproar got me thinking about this term, one of my least favorite group designators.

As far as I can interpret the man’s remarks, he wanted to convey the thought that the cable channel, as a means of communicating the workings of the city government, is of more value than mere seasonal display. So why did he choose to call the men putting up the lights rednecks instead of, say, workers?

The mind functions in curious ways. Our thoughts reside there in layers upon layers. Sometimes what may seem like an insignificant word choice reveals a layer we may not even be aware of. The speaker came to Arkansas from California. He may not realize it himself, but his choice of the word “redneck” suggests an attitude of superiority towards the natives.

For those readers who may not be familiar with the term, redneck in modern American usage is used chiefly to refer to a perceived type of Southern white person. The term has been used in other contexts with other possible origins, but the term, as popularized by standup comic Jeff Foxworthy, probably derives from the sunburned necks of outdoor laborers. Foxworthy, a native of Georgia, can use the term with impunity, rather as black comics can get away with nigger. Depending upon who is using it, the word redneck can be inoffensive or deeply pejorative.

As used in country songs, redneck carries a connotation of pride along with the characteristics of patriotism, belief in God, self-respect, and independence. This kind of redneck probably drives a pickup truck and owns a gun. He’s not afraid of hard work and would rather go hungry than accept charity in any form. He mistrusts overeducated people and prefers the country or small town to the city.

As used by outsiders, redneck seems to have replaced “hillbilly” as a word to stereotype Southerners. As a term of opprobrium, a redneck not only drives a pickup and owns a gun, he is loud, often drunk, ignorant, bigoted, xenophobic, and trashy. He dresses like a slob, speaks with a southern accent, fills his yard with junk, and has no appreciation of the finer things of life.

The term has its uses, both in conversation and in writing, but it can be volatile and is best used with care.

You’ll find further information about redneck and other terms often applied in a pejorative sense to Southerners here.

Maeve on December 4, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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8 Responses to “Better Use “Redneck” with Care”

Mari on December 4th, 2007 3:44 pm

Pardon my language, but I tend to get pissy when “outsiders” misuse redneck and hillbilly. I grew up a hillbilly and am in many ways still one. But I have never been and never will be a redneck, thankyouverymuch, plzktx! :gggrrrrr: Best used with care - I wholeheartedly agree.
Jeff Waters on December 4th, 2007 4:02 pm

I could certainly be wrong, but I believe most people who might be labeled as rednecks actually take pride in the term. It’s most usual definition follows the “country music” definition listed above. Hick and hillbilly are more obviously meant (and taken) as put-downs.

I grew up in Southern Indiana farm country and now make my home in New England. I have a strong technical and business education and appreciate all sorts of music and art. I still take great pride in my redneck roots, though. Even though I understand the word “pejoritive” without looking in a dictionary, I still consider myself a redneck.

It’s a powerful and spicy word that should certainly be used by writers where appropriate.
Hal on December 4th, 2007 9:18 pm

If we are to be subjected to political correctness, then I see no difference in any word that denigrates one group over another. In the US, the word nigger is now considered the most heinous word anyone can use, yet those of us from the south are still referred to as dimwitted rednecks.

I have always felt it was improper to refer to anyone in terms of a negative concept, fat people, black people, whatever, is hurtful. On the other hand, watching certain lives ruined because they said something stupid (nappy-headed Ho comes to mind) gives me pause to rethink what is happening.

Don’t call me a brier and I won’t call you a nigger may be a petty attitude, but maybe it’s time to say, enough.
Jeff Waters on December 4th, 2007 10:16 pm

Wow… I just noticed that I used “it’s” improperly on my previous comment. I can’t think of a worse place to make that mistake!

Anyway, I just don’t see how the word redneck denigrates anyone. I see it as about the same as Yankee. Dimwitted Yankee might be bad, of course.

It’s crazy to equate the hurtfullness and negativity of words like nigger and redneck. Not the same ballpark. Not even the same game.
Hal on December 5th, 2007 11:17 am

Jeff, with all due respect, I think your notion that redneck is a playful name is a bit naive. Let’s put it in a new context.
Would you walk into an all black bar and yell “Hey nigger?”
I doubt that you would.
Would you walk into a white bar in Tennessee and yell “Hey redneck?”
You might, but then you might have a problem leaving with all your limbs intact.

I don’t know of any group hate-names that don’t hurt someone. As far as something like “damned Yankee”, some people say it with a sneer. Whether we like it or not, someone hates us because we identify with a certain group or ethnicity.

Because I don’t like to be on the receiving end of things like this, I try very hard not to perpetuate it, and that includes even Yankees.
Rhonda on December 5th, 2007 4:27 pm

In regards to the history of the word “redneck”, it’s traced back to Appalachia (Bluefield, WV, to be exact) during the time of the coal mining wars. Because neighbors often fought for opposing sides (either the miners or the coal companies) the miners, a.k.a., the laborers, wore red bandanas around their necks, to designate where their loyalties lay. News reporters called them “rednecks”. Hence, the term.

If fighting for what you believe causes one to be called a redneck, count me among those with a blushing collarbone!

Rhonda
Silvia on December 5th, 2007 6:01 pm

What about using “hick” and “yokel?” Where I grew up in NY State, we used the term “hick” to refer to someone who was backwards, uneducated, lived in the boondocks, etc. When I moved to the south, I assumed “redneck” was just another way of saying “hick.”
Hal on December 5th, 2007 6:17 pm

Historically, redneck may have meant something different than it does today. There are a number of words that are offensive to people who working class white people. From the dictionary:

redneck |ˈredˌnek|
noun informal derogatory
a working-class white person, esp. a politically reactionary one from a rural area : rednecks in the high, cheap seats stomped their feet and hooted | [as adj. ] a place of redneck biases.
DERIVATIVES
rednecked adjective
ORIGIN from the back of the neck being sunburned from outdoor work.

Thesaurus
redneck informal
noun
growing up, the only men she knew were church elders and rednecks provincial, yokel; conservative, reactionary; informal yahoo, hick, hayseed.

Doesn’t sound like “playful” terminology to me.