Are you a redneck?

Question

What makes you one? How do you feel about the label?

Redneck is a racist term? I'd say it was more cultural. If it was racial, then why would other whites refer to people as "rednecks?"

Answer 1

Am I a redneck? Depends on who is doing the assessing! I grew up in a trailer in south Georgia. My parents worked very hard to provide for me and my brother. They scraped together enough to send us to college. He and I are both respected professionals as adults. But our roots remain the same....and deep at heart, I'm still a good ole southern girl many years later--although I earn a great income, live in a gated community and have all the accouterments of the upper middle class.

I am who I am. I can mix in both crowds .

Who needs labels anyway?

And PS, the term redneck originated as a reference to hardworking, manual laboring folk who got sunburned as they earned their living. Nothing to be ashamed of there!!!!!!

Answer 2

Yes I am a redneck and proud of it. To me a redneck is someone who can handle being in the woods and not be afraid of the lions and coyotes and bears since he, or she, has a pistol in case some critter gets stupid. I'm also proud to be a NASCAR fan. Go 99 !! Rednecks are not sissies like most city snobs who are afraid of the dark,and are a lot more fun to hang out with. If something bad happens and a redneck is around the redneck will help solve the problem instead of running and crying about it like people who degrade rednecks tend to do.
I like being called a redneck and when people use the term in a derogatory manner I get a good laugh because the person insulting me is usually and ignorant fool and a wimp.
Once a man who insulted me by calling me a redneck saw a wasp in the room. He was so afraid of the wasp he backed up into a corner and watched while the wasp landed on the wall across from him. If he was allergic to bee stings I would have understood, but he was not and was just scared of the little wasp. I swatted the wasp with my hand and stepped on it. He thanked me, and never used the term redneck in a derogatory manner in my presence again.
Y'all be sure to watch the race tonight, and thank all the NASCAR rednecks for the safety and engineering advances invented by rednecks that make your cars safer.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I have deer meat in my freezer from deer I shot on my land, trout in the freezer that I caught in local creeks, eggs in the refrigerator from the chickens I have, and a garden down the hill from the chicken coop that gets fertilizede every time it rains. This redneck recycles biodegradeable chicken crap in the God intended and I have the plants in the garden to prove it.
Then there's the lion trap next to the fence around my chicken coop. I'm trying to catch a mountain lion alive to prove to the non-rednecks that they are here. I saw one half a mile from where I'm sitting.
Not many people have a neck redder than mine, but only a fool thinks that makes me uneducated. Maybe sometime we can talk about chemistry. Can't make good moonshine without knowing a little about boiling points, condensation temperatures, and how yeast metabolizes sugars into alcohol...
Yep, I'm a redneck. God bless y'all for asking...

Answer 3

Yes I am. By that I mean family oriented, hard working, loyal, not high maintenence, no need to impress people with things that don't matter, will defend myself and those I love (or even strangers), help people when I can, etc. And I'm from the southern US, although I don't consider that to be a requirement. How do I feel about the label? Just fine, until someone says that all rednecks are racist. That's silly and untrue.

Answer 4

No I am not a redneck...I feel it does get used as a racist term....But some "rednecks" wear this label with pride, so I am not sure it is always considered racist, since many embrace this label....

Answer 5

Not a fan of rednecks on this poll, only because of the things they want to claim are theirs. Hey, if their opinions here are valid then so is mine.
It seems to me that everyone is qualifying redneck as hard-working. That's too generic a qualification. That would imply that the guys on Wall Street and suit and tie job guys are NOT hard working. That's unfair. Using one's mind for work is just as important as using one's physical energy. Some of us have to keep the numbers up in this country. Be fair when you say "hard working."
Another one that makes me laugh is "family" and "family oriented". Please. All of us take pride in our families and love being with them. No way should rednecks feel like this trait is theirs alone. You have "Junior" and "Kaitlyn" and I have Elizabeth and Joseph. The only difference is I don't want any credit for being family oriented. Please be fair.
Another one is "I pay my bills" and "I don't live on welfare". Good for you. That's not really something to brag about. Financial hardships can hit anyone. Not sure what this point even has to do with it.
And finally, the word American. Rednecks are proud Americans. That's great! So am I. I don't want to make a list of "huntin', fishin', goin' to church, and a fishin' hole". That's for rednecks and their ridiculous songs. The problem is, rednecks' version of proud American sometimes goes too far. "Learn English of go home" and those kinds of phrases are all over your bumper stickers. A lot of rednecks have said "I'm educated.." la la la. Let me educate you a little more. There is no official language in the United States. I'm an incredibly proud American and I show it by treating everyone with care, no matter where they are from and with which accent they speak. That southern drawl of yours is just one accent. There are hundreds of others.

Be fair to everyone because everyone's opinions matter. Plus different views and history make for a much more interesting country.

Answer 6

The term "Redneck" has been twisted from it's original meaning. Jeff Foxworthy doesn't know what a real redneck is, he just makes things up to be funny. A real Redneck is a hard working (as a farmer/rancher/cowboy working outside getting sunburn on his neck & arms; hence the term Redneck), consertive, patriotic AMERICAN. I'd be proud to be an "original" Redneck.

The Foxworthy jokes can be applied to anyone (wet-backs, polocks, etc) and most of them aren't funny. Rednecks aren't in-bred, illeterate, KKK southerners, just like most of the Blacks aren't the illiterate, lazy, welfare bums some popular black comedians made them out to be. Some comedians also depicts Latinos as gangbangers, dopers, and car theives. Not true and not very funny.

Answer 7

Originally redneck was a negative word.. but like most words such as redneck, cracker, or all the other words that were originally negative don't really bother white Americans... if anything they embrace them... they can take a negative connotation and turn it around to mean something good.. we just don't care... words just don't bother us that much- now a days people embrace the word redneck and make it into something good .. and proudly proclaim themselves as a redneck.. though we don't embrace the word cracker, the word doesn't really phase us... they're just words

Answer 8

yes i am..don't bother me a bit..it is not racist..i am a redneck because i am from the south ..from the country..the hills and mountains of tennessee..i am a red neck hilly billy and i am not embarressed or ashamed of it ..i am proud of my heritage and my culture...we do not eat possum and marry our cousins ..we don't make moonshine or have babies at 10..at least no more than any where else in the world..ya'll have a nice day and come back when you can stay longer..

Answer 9

Well, I guess I am one, I work hard for my kids, I don't live on welfare, I don't get any Government help. wouldn't want it if I had no other choice, I am proud to be Texan, I pay all my bills, I don't have kids running every where by different mothers. I don't blame society if I don't get my way, I don't use a gun to settle fights, but if you were to call blacks, Mexicans, or anyone else of another ethnic creed something, you would be thrown to the bottom of the jail, called a racist, but yet idiots like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton run their mouth, but they get nothing. Why is that?

Answer 10

You know i have know idea honestly why they call people rednecks... I think that it is pretty rude but it wouldn't be this country if someone didn't have something rude to say... i tend to ignore any racial remarks and so on....