What is "YANKEE" actually? What is "REDNECK" actually? Aren't both refer to AMERICAN? Which AMERICAN then?

Question

I only know that "YANKEE" refers to AMERICAN in the North, while "REDNECK" for the AMERICAN in the South... am I right? Pardon me if I offend some of you, I just want to know... thank you...

Answer 1

moder usage,
Redneck", like the word ******, has two general uses: firstly, as a pejorative for outsiders, and secondly as a term used by members within that group. To outsiders, generally, it is a term for those of Southern or Appalachian rural poor backgrounds, or more loosely, rural poor to working-class persons of rural extraction. (Appalachia also includes large parts of Pennsylvania, New York and other states) Within that group, however, it is used to describe the more downscale members. Rednecks span from the poor to the working class.

The term "Peckerwood", an inversion of "Woodpecker", is also used, but usually only with negative connotations. This word was coined in the 19th century by southern blacks to describe poor whites. They considered them loud and troublesome like the bird, and often with red hair like the woodpecker's head plumes. This word is still widely used by southern blacks to refer to southern whites.

Usage of the term "Redneck" generally differs from Hick and Hillbilly, because Rednecks reject or resist assimilation into the dominant culture, while Hicks and Hillbillies theoretically are isolated from the dominant culture. In this way, the Redneck is similar to the Cracker.

Generally, there is a continuum from redneck (a derisive term) to the country person; however, there are differences. Rednecks typically are more libertine, especially in their personal lives, than their country brethren who tend towards social conservatism. Also, the lowest class rednecks, especially, have a penchant for the obscene or outrageous (see "stereotype" below).

In contrast to country people, they tend not to attend church, or do so infrequently. They also tend to use alcohol and gamble more than their church going neighbors. Further, "politically apathetic" better describes this group. The younger ones generally don't vote. If they do vote, while they tend towards populism and the Democratic party, they are less homogenous than the country people and other Southern whites. Many Southern celebrities like Jeff Foxworthy and the late Jerry Clower embrace the redneck label. It is used both as a term of pride and as a derogatory epithet; sometimes to paint country people and/or their lifestyle as being low class. In recent years, members of the American Left from the West Coast and New England have taken to calling Christian Conservatives as "Rednecks" presumably as an insult. [2] This practice succeeds in insulting both Rednecks and Christian Conservatives, but is grossly inaccurate based on the pro-labor, anti-establishment, anti-hierarchy religious orientation of traditional Rednecks.

Writer Edward Abbey, as well as the original Earth First! under Dave Foreman (before that group was taken over by urban leftists around 1990), proudly adopted the term rednecks to describe themselves. This reflected the term's possible historical origin among striking coal miners to describe white rural working-class radicalism. "In Defense of the Redneck" was a popular essay by Ed Abbey. One popular early Earth First! bumper sticker was "Rednecks for Wilderness." Murray Bookchin, an urban leftist and social ecologist, objected strongly to Earth First!'s use of the term as having racist overtones and used this as part of his broader attack on deep ecology, possibly reflecting pro-urban and anti-white working class, anti-rural biases.

The recent prosperity of the New South changed the social status of the Redneck. The 20th-Century ideas of Southern upward mobility, which required dropping or modifying your accent and joining the mainstream, was considered the norm for the region. (Exceptions were made for politicians and college football coaches, for whom a drawl was still required for regional credibility.) Newfound prosperity allowed Rednecks to cling to their old ways and reject the status quo of modernity. In the 1990s, when Jeff Foxworthy drawled "you might be a redneck …" he was not only needling folks who (in his priceless formulation) had ever fought over an inner tube. In one of his stand-up routines, Foxworthy sums up the condition as "a glorious absence of sophistication." According to Slate columnist Bryan Curtis, "Foxworthy was also preaching to the newly minted white middle class, those who had ditched the pickup for an Audi and their ancestral segregation for affirmative action." According to University of Georgia professor James C. Cobb, "Now, feeling relatively secure and closer to the mainstream, they rebel against acting respectable, embracing this counterculture hero—the 'redneck' who is what he is, and doesn't give a damn what anybody thinks."
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 and spotted by late middle age. Similarly, some historians claim that the term redneck originated in 17th-Century Virginia, because indentured servants were sunburnt while tending plantation crops.

It is clear that by the post-Reconstruction era (after the departure of Federal troops in the American South in 1874-1878), the term had worked its way into popular usage. Several 'black-face' minstrel shows used the word in a derogatory manner, comparing slave life over that of the poor rural whites. This may have much to do with the social, political and economic struggle between Populists, the Redeemers and Republican Carpetbaggers of the post-Civil War South and Appalachia, where the new middle class of the South (professionals, bankers, industrialists) displaced the antebellum planter class as the leaders of the Southern states. The Populist movement, with its pseudo-socialist message of economic equality, represented a threat to the status quo. The use of a derogative term, such as 'redneck' to belittle the working class, would have assisted in the gradual disenfranchisement of most of the Southern lower class, both black and white, which occurred by 1910.

Another popular theory stems from the use of red bandanas tied around the neck to signify union affiliation during the violent clashes between United Mine Workers and owners between 1910 and 1920.
Yankee
The term Yankee has a variety of meanings. Generally, it refers to citizens of the United States, particularly northerners, especially those Americans from the Northeastern United States whose ancestors arrived before 1776. Many Yankees migrated from New England and settled the northern parts of New York and the Midwest, as well as the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Seattle.
Origins
The origins of the term are disputed. One theory claims that it originated in the 1760s from an English rendering of the Dutch Jan Kees (the two most common given names of the Dutch), a nickname used by Dutch settlers in upstate New York referring to the New Englanders who were migrating to their region. (see Martin Van Buren) The word may also be derived from "yancey", the word many Native American tribes used to refer to Whites during the early colonial period. The first recorded use of the term by an Englishman to refer to Americans appears in the 1780s, in a letter by Admiral Lord Nelson.

There are several other folk and humorous etymologies for the word.


Loyalist newspaper cartoon from Boston 1776 ridicules "Yankie Doodles" militia who have encircled the city [click to read text]One influence on the use of the term throughout the years has been the song Yankee Doodle, which was popular at the time of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Though the British intended to insult the colonials with the song, following the Battle of Concord, it was adopted by Americans as a proud retort and today is the state song of Connecticut.

An early use of the term outside the United States was in the creation of Sam Slick, the "Yankee Clockmaker", in a column in a newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1835. The character was a plain-talking American who served to poke fun at American and Nova Scotian customs of that era, while trying to urge the Canadians to be as clever and hard-working as the Yankees.

During the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) southern soldiers used it as a derogatory term for their Northern enemies--including even Irish Americans. The term also referred to the border states and even African American troops who fought for the Union. As an ethnic group the Yankees dispersed throughout New England, upstate New York, the northern Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest--and even Hawaii. They brought along their religion (Congregational, but also Methodist and Northern Baptist), their politics (Republican), their drive for education, their complex social structure that emphasized brainpower over manual skills, and favored intricate rule-based organizations, like corporations. They tended to dominate business, finance, philanthropy and higher education, but were much less successful in politics, where the Irish Americans seemed to have the advantage. The Yankees, who dominated New England, much of upstate New York, and much of the upper Midwest were the strongest supporters of the new Republican party in the 1860s. This was especially true for the Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and (during the war), the Methodists. A study of 65 predominantly Yankee counties showed they voted only 40% for the Whigs in 1848 and 1852, but became 61-65% Republican in presidential elections of 1856 through 1864. [Kleppner p 55]

Yankees originally lived in villages (avoiding spread-out farms), fostered local democracy through town meetings, and emphasized puritanical morality. They left agriculture as soon as possible for careers in the city. Many were characterized by introspection of the sort that produces diaries.

Within the United States, the term Yankee can have a number of different contextually and geographically dependent meanings.

Traditionally Yankee was most often used to refer to a New Englander (in which case it may denote New England puritan and thrifty values), but today refers to anyone coming from a state north of the Potomac River, with a specific focus still on New England. However, within New England itself, the term is often understood to refer more specifically to old-stock New Englanders of English descent. The term WASP, in use since the 1960s, is often derogatory. The term "Swamp Yankee" is used in rural Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and southeastern Massachusetts to refer to Protestant farmers of moderate means and their descendants (as opposed to upper-class Yankees). The old Yankee twang survives mainly in the hill towns of interior New England. The most characteristic Yankee food was the pie; Yankee author Harriet Beecher Stowe in her novel Oldtown Folks celebrated the social traditions surrounding the Yankee pie.

In the American South the term is still used as a derisive term for northerners, even those who migrate to the South. From 1860 to the 1920s a favored term was "damn Yankee".

A humorous aphorism attributed to E.B. White summarizes these distinctions:

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.
Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the term has also been used by Americans to refer to the New York Yankees baseball team, or the fans of that team.

It must be noted that some American Southerners find the term mildly irritating if not somewhat offensive as the term was often used to describe the enemy during the American Civil War(1861-1865). Southerners will occasionally use this term to describe Northerners that embody the worst of Yankee stereotypes: obnoxiousness, sanctimoniousness and arrogance.

Answer 2

In broad general terms, yes, American. A little more specific would be a Yankee is from the northern part of the US, the side who won the civil war. A redneck is generally a person from the south, and is considered to be a derogatory term for a white person who might be quite rural and/or close minded.

Answer 3

a yankee is a derogatory term other countries use when referring to the usa. Like limey or frog. Yankee as far as the Civil War would be Rebel and Yankee which was a long time ago but the southern people are slow and dont realize they surrendered 150 or so yrs ago. Redneck is just a low class ignorant white sector of society ..nothing to be proud of..most probably descendents of poor white slaves and migrant pickers

Answer 4

Typically a Yankee is from new york.... A redneck is a person who has brown teeth lives in North Carolina, Lives in a trailer, and says Git'r Done, and screws their cousins.... sometimes sister.
Seriously... Sadly I have redneck relatives, we don't talk about much... glad I live in the western part of america!

Answer 5

OK....i hate to say this but i can use my hubby and myself of examples of "redneck" and "Yankee". I am from South Mississippi. He is from Chicago.

He calls a soda a "pop"...I call any soda a "Coke"

I will go walking barefooted. He only takes his shoes off inside.

He does NOT say "I ain't gonna" instead he will say, " I am not"

Just about every day, my husand and I notice a cultural difference between us. Most of them are rather silly. I think the difference between "Yankee" and "Redneck" is these cultural differences.

Answer 6

Yep, that's right!! For examples of "Rednecks" I suggest watching the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Good 'ol country stuff!

But not all of us in the south are rednecks. I don't think I am!

Answer 7

During the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) southern soldiers used it as a derogatory term for their Northern enemies--including even Irish Americans.


"Redneck", like the word ******, has two general uses: firstly, as a pejorative for outsiders, and secondly as a term used by members within that group. To outsiders, generally, it is a term for those of Southern or Appalachian rural poor backgrounds, or more loosely, rural poor to working-class persons of rural extraction.

Answer 8

rednecks are more american than yankees.... the latter ones see america as a free trade zone. they exploit america and real americans

Answer 9

You know you're a redneck when your gun rack has a gun rack.

Answer 10

redneck are hicks

Answer 11

I don't know either, it'll be nice to find out..... :)