Is "redneck" a racial slur?
 

After I found out about this board's strict policy on racial slurs and such, I was surprised to see that nobody really seemed to care about the use of the word "redneck", a word which many people consider a racial slur. I personally don't feel that the use of any derogatory group terms is a good thing, although I also think that this particular one is not exactly "racial"...

Anyway, does anyone here think that this word should be banned from polite discourse?

When someone asks about the term redneck, my pat answer tends to be - well I prefer the term Springer-ite... :D

Is the term redneck racist? The vast majority of rednecks are white, I don't think Al Sharpton is going to take to the streets protesting the word.

Is it a slur? I don't know... It's an insult for sure... but it's probably an insult based on what ever a person's own definition of redneck is...

I think that white trash is a slur of sorts, and redneck definitely isn't that different...

Most rednecks that I know revel in the word. While it might be an insult to some, a real redneck considers it a compliment.

Ya, I never heard of a redneck (and I know a shitload) getting offended when called one. They love it. Its almost like a badge of honor. Redneck is not a racial slur where I come from. Those crazy rednecks! :lol:

Rednecks who know they are rednecks would not be offended... I have a friend who would be very insulted by the term redneck - she insists that she is a hick... however, her husband - is a redneck :) but only when she's annoyed at him.

Don't Use It to Put Me Down
 

I'm a redneck pseudo-piney (NJ's version of hillbilly). Pseudo because I was born in the Pinelands but raised in an outlying suburb.
Like some other names, it's the intent with which it is used that can be insulting. But as for me labelling myself thusly, I'm proud of it. I don't put on airs, I don't act like what I am not and I will never talk down to someone.
I do watch NASCAR, think Ron White is a god and Dale Jr is hot, have a beat-up porch with a parkbench and plastic sofa, weeds in the yard, a 49 Cadillac that's rusting into the driveway and two very nice looking PT's and my main wardrobe consists of jeans, freebie tshirts, lots of tanktops and 5 pairs of flipflops ..yep, I'm a Redneck. :thumbsup:

Is it possible to call someone who isn't caucasian a redneck? I would guess so; It seems (today) to be more a statement about someone's attitudes than being strictly based on their racial heritage.

I don't find it offensive, but it is certainly a racial slur if you apply this litmus test.

Some black people like to call each other "nigga".. they might not find it offensive in that context, but if the aformentioned "redneck" said it?

I did a text-replacement with "nigga" instead of "redneck" in these posts. Is it our bias, or is it really a slur?

Hmm.. strange..

In my opinion its not racial. Having moved to the south a few years ago, I've been educated on certain things...one is that the term redneck crosses racial barriers ( another is that sweet tea - pronounced swee tay - is the only type of tea. ) Though I must admit, when you refer to a redneck, more often than not someone is going to picture a white male.

Google Search on Definition of Redneck

Redneck
noun {C} MAINLY US INFORMAL
a poor white person without education, especially one living in the countryside in the southern US, who has prejudiced ( unfair and unreasonable) ideas and beliefs

red·neck
n. Offensive Slang
1. Used as a disparaging term for a member of the white rural laboring class, especially in the southern United States.
2. A white person regarded as having a provincial, conservative, often bigoted attitude.

redneck
n : a poor white person in the southern US [syn: cracker]

Those are just three from online dictionaries. I was trying to backup my recent post by getting evidence of how the term redneck is not a racial slur, but it backfired. I am shocked. :eek:

Moral of the story.

Its still ok to be non-PC to white people.

You definitely have a point there. After all, I don't see anyone calling for affirmative action in the NBA to increase white representation on the court. :lol:

But seriously, when I think about the way the term "redneck" is used, I think about derogatory stereotypes that are based partially upon whiteness. Redneck is roughly equivalent to "racist, uncultured, stupid, messy, white southerner" in most contexts, I think.

I honestly wouldnt even qualify it with southern... I've seen plenty of Yankee types that could be considered rednecks... or rather, Springerites.

The defition I'd use is uneducated, rather than stupid, uncultured is pretty good, or more better, not aware that there is a world around them, and I think that would also include racist as well.

That's enough to make me cry real tears. :(

Sorry mal, but I had to get a little chuckle outta that line... :D :lol:

I think the definitions above pretty much indicate that it's a racial slur:

"a poor white person "

"n. Offensive Slang"
1. Used as a disparaging term for a member of the white rural laboring class, especially in the southern United States.
2. A white person regarded as having a provincial, conservative, often bigoted attitude."


"n : a poor white person in the southern US [syn: cracker]"


Good catch Mr. Pyro. I guess I have to go with the crowd in this case, and say that.. well.. it's okay to be non-PC to white males. Males I mention, because it is certainly not "accepted" to be non-PC to white females.

maybe i should have put a disclaimer in that poor grammar was intentional... (I'd like to go with the claim that my poor spelling is intentional too, but that'd be a baldfaced lie)

i always thought a redneck originally meant - someone who got a red (sunburnt) neck from working in the fielda all day. more or less a complient for someone who is a hardworker.

Didn't "nigger" originally just mean someone from Niger? You may be right that that was the original meaning of the word, but it sure isn't what it means now.

Etymology of Nigger:
more

It's an interesting question.

I personally haven't figured out if it should or shouldn't be.

I suppose I really need to work on some sort of personal litmus test.

What about when I white person calls another white person a "redneck" or a "cracker"? This can hardly be construed as racist.

I think this is more likely a slander or stereotyping...

The word nigger is used to describe *all* blacks.
The word kike *all* jews.

The list goes on.

Redneck is not universally applicable to *all* whites.

As a result, I feel it falls into a different category than a racist word.

from the oed (my favorite):

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

Again..

Seems like a double standard -- again arising from the fact that it's OK to make fun of whitey..

I don't see a double standard here... please expand.

No, I don't see the double standard either.

But let's try and avoid mentioning Chris Rock in this thread, ok?

I went to re-explain those quotes, but I realized they really didn't show jack shit.

nigger:
"Used as a disparaging term for a member of any dark-skinned people. "

redneck:
"Used as a disparaging term for a member of the white rural laboring class, especially in the southern United States."

Two opposing terms with extremely similar definitions. One is "OK" and one is Not. That's the double standard I was not-so-clearly referring to.

Thank you. Much clearer than your last post.

I may be nitpicking but the point I was trying to make was that redneck refers only to a small potion of whites and not the whole race. Where as nigger is universally applicable.

Add to this that I find it difficult for the dominant culture, in this case a white culture, to be open to racism. I'm not saying descrimination isn't possible just that those who are in the position of power (culturally speaking) loose nothing by labels such as cracker (racially speaking).

The same is not true of such labels as nigger, kike, spic, etc. They are labels meant to underscore the difference from the dominant culture. A difference underscored in an effort to isolate them from said culture.

A black man calling a white man a cracker or a redneck is, in my mind, very different from a white man calling a black man a nigger.

In most cases anyway. It could be argued that we are in a transitional phase where cultural dominance is slipping... When I look at who largely holds political and economic power in the west I tend to think the transition, it if it exists, is in the *very* early stages.

I will have to think about this some more.

I sympathise with much of what you say but....

...a lot of white people on the receiving end of these insults certainly cannot be said to be, as individuals, in positions of power, just because they have the same colour skin as those that are.

Nevertheless I personally cannot see what is racist about the term redneck. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought was used to refer to someone's political outlook not their race.

right on. my 9th grade english teacher called me "a male chauvanist redneck" in front of the entire class. that was over 15 years ago. i still remember it like it was yesterday. it stung. male chauvanist aside, perhaps it was the embarassment of being called out in front of the whole class. perhaps it was because most of the other kids there (in kentucky) called me a Yankee (i was born 90 miles north - in ohio). or at the time i was a dyed in the wool preppie (i've since seen the error of my ways). what could worse (or more confusing) to a fledgling preppie than to be called a redneck.

more on topic, i do believe it is just as racist to say redneck as it is to say spic or kike or nigger. and here's my reasoning....

have you ever heard "oh him? he's black, but he's not a <i>nigger</i>." meaning he doesn't act ghetto or that he does act just like a member of high white society. so i don't believe that nigger applies to all blacks, spics to all hispanics, etc... and i'd venture to say that these non-nigger blacks don't see themselves as niggas either. whereas there are probably a lot more white kids who dress / act in the hip hop style of today who call themselves and each other "nigga."

i DO agree that these terms were created and are used to create and deliniate class stratification. redneck is no exception. but this delineation is only a negative if we let it be one. hooray to those who embrace the difference of their culture.

xoxo
slacker

I work with a couple guys that are "Rednecks" And if you tell them that they are a Redneck, They are proud of it.

The first clue that told me they were Redneck, The one guy said that "Soccer isn't a sport, I'll tell you what a real sport is, Shooting beer bottles off of tree stumps..Now that's a real sport" That made me laugh, Real hard.

Nope, don't see "redneck" as racist, as it isn't used to describe a group of people based solely on ethnicity, but instead takes into account political affiliation, level of education, region, and lifestyle, and is often intended to be merely descriptive rather than derogatory.

If a black person called me a redneck, I'd take it as an insult to my race as well as my intelligence.

Show me a black redneck and I'll buy that.

Oh wait, only WHITE skin burns red..


That.. is a racial slur.

At the factory I work at, there this guy Roy, who loves nascar(Jeff Gordon), hunting, fishing, country, a stereotypical redneck. He also is African American. His wife is too. She's also a redneck. They go line dancing on fridays! Theres just more white rednecks than black. Bet you'll find some down south. I can't wait to tell him about this thread! Buy that! :thumbsup:

considering redneck has nothing to do with race, but character traits of individuals, no. /succinct dismissal

Is redneck a race? No! Don't be silly.
So it may be a slur, but it can't be a racial slur.

Quack Ergo Duck.

Personally.....I try not to use either one....not for PC reasons, but because they just dont seem nice. It would seem from the above posts that its really a matter of context. I will admit to my own bigotry towards the "Jerry Spriinger" mentality, but it is far from a strictly white attitude. I think this takes it out of the racism realm, and drops it squarely in the world of Ignorance. While I see my own personal dislike of ignorant people , and accept it as a Bias, I am hard pressed to define this lack of imagination by color of skin.

These perceptions of a "Type" of person are my own.....and I have my own discriptive terminology for differing levels of brain challenge, Redneck simply isnt part of the mental list I use.

The consensus would appear that this term describes a level of education and political leanings, but that is a very broad and largely erroneous view. Among my 'redneck' friends are: a retired army sargeant who specialized in bomb diffusal, a quality assurance auditor for the department of defense, a sys admin, an airline manufacturer shipping coordinator(who is almost radically left-leaning), a witch and a wealthy autobody shop owner..
To me at least, the term describes someone, not just 'from the south, white and politically right', it is someone who is proud to be American, hard working if at times struggling, true to themselves most of all, appreciative of what life offers and puts the love of family, friends and, in many cases, their faith before all else. More of you are rednecks than you would probably care to admit ;)