Why do people think Tennesseans are not very smart?

Question

and no i'm not from there. i was just wondering because i see them get made fun of on tv a lot.

Answer 1

We moved to Tennessee two years ago from Indiana, people here aren't any more stupid than people from any other state.
Tennessee is beautiful, very beautiful. The people are very friendly and the hardest thing to get use to is they are more layed back.
When we moved down all of the neighbors came over and introduced themselves, we have been invited to family reunions by the people that we have met, they value friendship and the cooking is the greatest. It is totally different than up North anyone that isn't from here shouldn't judge. They are also hard workers.

Answer 2

Anyone who believes that geographic locations are related to intelligence should be disregarded anyway. Geniuses and idiots know no boundaries. The next Stephen Hawking could just as easily be growing up in the Appalachians as in Cambridge or Boston.

The next time someone disparages Tennessee or it's natives show them this list of famous Tennesseans.

James Agee writer, poet, Knoxville
Eddy Arnold singer, Henderson
Chet Atkins guitarist, Lutrell
Hattie Caraway first elected woman senator, Bakerville
Jack Garnet Carter miniature golf, Sweetwater
Davy Crockett frontiersman, Green Cty
Jack Curtis screenwriter, Stony Creek
Sam Davis confederate scout, Smyrna
Mark Dean inventor, Jefferson City
David G. Farragut first American admiral, Knoxville
Lester Flatt bluegrass musician, Overton Cty
Tennessee Ernie Ford singer, Bristol
Morgan Freeman actor, Memphis
Abe Fortas jurist, Memphis
Aretha Franklin singer, Memphis
Nikki Giovanni poet, Knoxville
Albert Gore Jr. U.S. vice president, Washington, D.C.
Red Grooms artist, Nashville
Isaac Hayes composer, Covington
Benjamin L. Hooks civil rights activist, Memphis
Barbara Howar broadcaster, writer, Nashville
Cordell Hull secretary of state, Overton Cty
Estes Kefauver legislator, Madisonville
Sandra Locke actress, Shelbyville
Dolly Parton singer, Sevierville
Minnie Pearl singer, comedienne, Centerville
Grantland Rice sportswriter, Murfreesboro
Carl Rowan journalist, Ravenscraft
Wilma Rudolph runner, St. Bethlehem
Sequoia Cherokee scholar, educator
Cybil Shepherd actress, Memphis
Dinah Shore actress, singer, Winchester
Tina Turner singer, Brownsville
Alvin York World War I hero, Pall Mall

Answer 3

Try being from West Virginia.

We are not the western part of Virginia.
Though it may seem like it, our ridiculous new "open for business" state slogan does not mean that WV has no industry or commerce.
It is not "all relative" in WV.
Coal mining is not the terrible job the media paints it to be.
WVU football is pretty much the best thing, oh, ever.
We really are "Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia" and "Almost Heaven."

Is it obvious that I have some pent-up bitterness about the rest of the nation's tendency to belittle states in Appalachia? I suppose some people are simply rude and prejudiced. Sorry to vent my feelings like that!

Answer 4

I've never thought that about Tennessans. I live in TX and my family is "up north" lol, and when I go visit I get the strangest questions! I think 1 of the best was do we have electricity? Some others:
Where where is your hat (cowboy hat) and belt buckle? And yes this person was serios. I guess they thought I left it home since I was going to the foriegn land of Michigan and wanted to fit in.
Do we have problems with the local indians? I guess they think I live in a fortified city and have to ride my horse to the next town! I replied only when I lose money at the casino!
Do we get cable?
DO I live in a house? As opposed to what? I don't think they meant appartment, I think they were thinking tee-pee! LOL
So, I would have to say northerners are not all that smart. People think we are ignorant of other countries and therefor we think we are "best" because we are American, but I hold that we are just as ignorant of the rest of the US as we are of any European country!

Answer 5

I have no idea.

People who travel, move can say that about everybody else wherever the go!

I am from Deutschland and make the best out of where I am!

I travelled Europe, the US and have experienced some "crazy" things!

Answer 6

The accent, for starters. And wasn't it in Dayton Tennessee that the Scopes monkey trial took place?

Answer 7

I think it is a judgement based on its location in the south, and it probably has to do with the fact that it is the home of country music. (Toby Keith and the Dixie chicks don't exactly scream,"I can perform calculus.")

Answer 8

I reckon them folks that think Tennesseans are dumb, just ain't got no book larnin
dog bite it !!!

Answer 9

I don't think that but I can see how people might misjudge the accent as seeming uneducated. Everybody seems to need to be mean to somebody.

Answer 10

Gosh, I thought it was Alabamans. Where the tooth brush was invented. Anywhere else, it would have been called a teeth brush.