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roachboy · 07-27-2005, 08:22 AM

from the oed (my favorite):

redneck:

Quote:

1. U.S. a. A member of the white rural labouring class of the southern States; one whose attitudes are considered characteristic of this class; freq., a reactionary.
Originally, and still often, derogatory, but now also used with more sympathy for the aspirations of the rural American.

1830 A. ROYALL Southern Tour I. 148 This may be ascribed to the Red Necks, a name bestowed upon the Presbyterians in Fayetteville. 1893 H. A. SHANDS Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi 53 Red-neck,..a name applied by the better class of people to the poorer inhabitants of the rural districts. 1904 Dialect Notes II. 420 Redneck, n., An uncouth countryman. ?The hill-billies came from the hills, and the rednecks from the swamps.? 1913 J. DAVIS Life & Speeches iii. 42 If you red-necks or hill billies ever come to Little Rock be sure and come to see mecome to my house. 1936 W. FAULKNER Absalom, Absalom! 122 Rich and poor, aristocrat and redneck. 1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Aug. 491/4 The ugly faces and, under prompting or provocation, the uglier actions of a handful of red-necks, crackers, tar-heels and other poor white trash here and there in the South. 1960 Spectator 15 Jan. 83/2 The old patrician families who are opposed to the graft, blackmail and demagogy by which the Boss, the tribune of the rednecks, keeps himself in power. 1969 Observer 7 Dec. 25/3 They [sc. communes] all shared two experiences: the search for new values, and attention from local rednecks and the police. 1971 J. BISHOP Days of Martin Luther King, Jr. IV. 329 The fearful Southern red-neck, committed to the credo that the black man is a bridge between the animal kingdom and the human, derided the speech as typical ?coon shouting?. 1973 Black World Mar. 56 Carload of rednecks came with the darkness to Slim's house. Blew the horn until Slim's daddy opened the door. 1975 Daily Tel. 15 Oct. 17/7 Was it because they might think his [sc. Govenor George Wallace's] reputation as a Right-wing ?red neck? a political embarrassment? 1976 Time 27 Sept. 47/1 That was the point Carter was attempting to make when he said in 1970 that Maddox ?has compassion for the little man?, and when he said that a Humphrey-Wallace ticket in 1972 ?would do well in the South?, and when he called himself ?basically a redneck?. 1977 D. JAMES Spy at Evening x. 71 Middle-class rednecks like you..get all worked up about it. 1978 J. UPDIKE Coup v. 192 Her momma's a washrag and her daddy's a redneck.

b. attrib. or as adj.

1961 D. ALEXANDER Bloodstain xi. 134 You should never have come out here alone. This is redneck country. Every man in every one of these houses is a Night Rider. 1965 Listener 20 May 730/2 His general manner and accent suggest a person who might hold the racist views of a red-neck Southern bigot. 1971 B. MALAMUD Tenants 60 ?I? grows up in redneck Mississippi in pure black poverty. 1972 R. BLOCH Night-World (1974) vii. 43 See how far you can march through Georgia today before some redneck sheriff busts you for vagrancy. 1973 Freedomways XIII. 52 Even Faulkner's ability was distorted by the pervasive racism of his redneck traditionalism. 1974 New Yorker 25 Feb. 102/3 He seems Southern rednecka common man who works outdoors in the sunto the soul. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 17 July 4/1 Quite possibly Mississippi's only self~avowed redneck Republican. 1979 Arizona Daily Star 22 July 1. 5/4 Carter..ran on a virtually redneck platform for the 1970 nomination... After running a redneck campaign, [he] pledged an end to discrimination in his inaugural address.

2. (See quot.)

1900 Westm. Gaz. 25 Apr. 2/3 ?Red-neck? used to be applied to Roman Catholics in Lancashire as a term of opprobrium.

3. S. Afr. = ROOINEK.

1900 A. H. KEANE Boer States p. xviii, Rooinek, ?Red~neck?, in reference originally to some merinos introduced by an English farmer into the Free State, and marked with a red brand on the neck. These were spoken of as red-necksan expression afterwards extended to the English themselves, and then as a term of contempt to the British troops in red uniform. 1921, etc. [see ROOINEK]. 1936 R. CAMPBELL Mithraic Emblems 111 To find a red-neck cheap upon this day You do not need to wander far away. 1972 J. MCCLURE Caterpillar Cop ii. 18 What's with this Red~neck?.. Another bloody English immigrant?

here it seems that the thrust of the term is about reactionary politics.
ethnicity seems an element, but is not necesarily primary.