Rednecks: A Case Study

Race in the South has always been a major topic within the canon of southern literature ever since John Smith’s discussion of Native Americans in “The Generall Historie of Virginia.” The majority of this ongoing conversation on race has revolved around African Americans, white people, and Native Americans. However, in Bitter in the Mouth, Monique Truong challenges these stereotypical ideas of race in the South, namely assumptions on how race and outside appearance impact cultural identity and personal ties to southerness. Her primary strategy of doing this is the structure of the paper, where she keeps Linda’s race a secret for the first part of the novel before exploring it in-depth during the second half. Within this larger structure, she uses the juxtaposition of place to contrast southern aspects of Linda’s identity with northern culture and highlights stereotypical cultural markers of southerness such as dialect and food within Linda’s identity. With these strategies, Monique Truong uses the unique point of view of Linda Hammerick, who is racially Asian but culturally southern, to challenge the reader's assumptions of how race affects cultural identity and to expand understandings of what makes someone southern in today’s cultural landscape.

In Mary Norcott Bryan’s A Grandmothers Recollection of Dixie, the author included a quote which demonstrated the progressive nature of her family in terms of racial relations. The quote was a will from her grandfather which staggered out the release of his slaves. “I will that Owen and Lillie be made free the first court after January…the year 1847; then I most earnestly wish that all shall be free.”1 In this fashion Bryan attempts to distinguish herself and family above other whites. This reflects Bryan’s Antebellum upbringing which held more pronounced ideas of what it meant to be a white southerner from a

The multidimensional expression “hillbilly” carries different cultural significances throughout the book Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. First, Vance utilizes the term “hillbilly” to refer to the working class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree (3). Second, Vance uses the term hillbilly to refer to a group of people from a specific geographic area, namely the area of the Appalachian Mountains. According to Vance, the area stretches from Alabama to Georgia in the South to Ohio to parts of New York in the north (4). Third, hillbilly indicates the way of life, behavior, or identity of the people of Greater Appalachia.

In his powerful memoir, Mississippi, Anthony Walton explores race relations in Mississippi in a historical context in an attempt to teach readers about Mississippi’s dark and muddled past. In the third section of the memoir, entitled “Rebels”, Walton focuses on the history of Mississippi through the lens of famous and not so famous changemakers who shaped Mississippi as it is today. Walton purposefully tells this story in chronological order, so that the reader can see the evolution of the Mississippi rebel; beginning with union and confederate troops, and ending with civil rights leaders and white supremacy groups. Walton’s purpose of creating such structure becomes abundantly clear at the end of the section, where he juxtaposes the success of the civil rights movement with that of the white supremacy movement in Mississippi. Walton argues that the ability of a cause to inspire fear ensures its continued survival.

In the Rusty Belt of America there a minority group of people whose income level has surpassed the poverty line. Inside the state of Ohio lies the poorest white American which describes themselves as hillbillies as they reside in the eastern Kentucky. In his personal analysis of culture in crisis of hillbillies, J.D. Vance tries to explain, in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, what goes on in the lives of people as the economy goes south in a culture that is culturally deceptive, family deceptive, and in a community, whose doctrine of loyalty is heavily guarded. Like every poor Scot-Irish hillbilly in his community, Vance came from being poor, like the rest of his kind, to be a successful Law graduate from Yale Law school. As result of this transition and being the only child in his family to graduate from a highly respected intuition in the country, Vance thought out to analyze the ostensible reason of why many people are poor in his community.

I then interview my mother Christal Yates to see her views on the south. I asked her what she thought the general actions of southerns were. My mother told me that they had hobbies that only really applied to them, These hobbies were; making Moonshine, hunting for their own food, growing their own crops and selling them for money, and riding their big trucks threw giant puts of mud. The actions of southerns were rude and inappropriate and they have no manners what so ever. She feels that southerners belong to

The South fought the American Civil War as a movement to separate themselves from the Union and establish its own national citizenship. As a result of their resounding loss, Southerners chose to focus their energies on maintaining their individual ethnic group which sets them apart from the rest of the nation. According to John Shelton Reed, author of The Enduring South, “The three functional characteristics of an ethnic group are that: It serves psychologically as a source of group identification; it provides a pattern network of groups; and it refracts the national cultural patterns of behavior and values through the prism of its own cultural heritage.” Reed allows his readers to grasp the intensity in which Southerners met, and still meet today, all three of the functional characteristics of an ethnic group. Throughout his book, Reed purposes to enlighten the reader that Southern-ness is attained by three different measures: birth, achievement, or unwilling thrust (such as the African Americans who were brought to America under duress). The Enduring South exposes the element of Southern identity as pride in its heritage, culture, customs, and ideals.

The Southern States of the United States of America have been victims of perceptions and stereotypes that tend to describe them as different from the rest of the United States, especially in terms of culture. These portray the South as rural, uneducated, conservative, racist, and violent. While

The concept of Southern heritage is something that I feel very strongly about. My family has a long history in the Carolinas, and I feel it is an important part of my identity. However, the big dilemma that faces me in this situation is that the concept of Southern heritage is very much intertwined with whiteness, and usually exclusively applies to white people. What concerns me about that is that such a concept cannot continue to exist in a cosmopolitan and increasing liberal United States. Southern heritage tends to intersect with so many other forms of

"You know you're from Kentucky if your house is mobile and your three cars aren't" This is a joke my younger brother recited to me when I returned to my Yankee home from the University of Kentucky for Thanksgiving break. He went on to ask, "If a Kentucky couple gets divorced are they still brother and sister?" The lists of redneck jokes surrounding Kentucky stereotypes are endless. Many people get a good laugh out of the jokes, but they don't realize that they are portraying a crude message about all Kentucky folk. More so than any other state, Kentucky is labeled and illustrated as redneck and poor. Much of this may stem from many of the small towns in Kentucky and in the Appalachian area. However, Appalachia has been misunderstood and

The dictionary defines “stereotyping” as “a simplified and standardized conception of image invested with a special meaning and held in common by members of a group: particularly in social, ethnic, or age groups.” Stereotypes about the Appalachian people are made of its people and culture as a whole. These people face a number of negative stereotypes. The people of Appalachia are often portrayed as white, lazy, tobacco smoking, overall-wearing, poor farmers (High Mountains Rising). It is because of these views that people who originate from the Appalachian region are looked down upon by others. Many students are taught that a better lifestyle, or the possibility of higher education are out of their reach. I’ve experienced

The tensions caused by the Civil War are very still alive in the Southern United States one hundred and fifty years after the Confederacy surrendered to Union forces. While tensions may have mitigated away from full-fledged conflict, there still remain tension along racial and cultural lines shaped by the war. In Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic these tensions from the war are delved into as Horwitz makes his way across the South to see how the old Confederacy is viewed in the modern United States. Horwitz found a dualistic society, holding differing views of the Confederacy and the Civil War. Dualities within racial tensions, the meaning of the Confederate flag even between North and South entirely. Those living in the South still hold a resounding connection to the Civil War. It becomes clear in Confederates in the Attic that the Civil War not only acted as a catalyst these dualities in Southern society, but continue to shape and perpetuates them long after the Civil War’s conclusion.

There are some things that I agree and disagree with in the quote by John Shelton Reed. He is a very intelligent man, I would assume, if not I do not think he would be writing for the Harvard Encyclopedia. I do not think it is right to put all southerners into one classification based on a few southerners’ actions, education and financial standing. You can definitely tell when someone is southern. Southerners have a very distinct way of talking, dressing and acting. I agree with him when he said “Southerners are not usually identifiable by name or appearance, their accent usually serves as an ethnic marker.” Most people can hear a southerner talk and know right away that they are southern. I also agree with him when he said “They are seen,

For one second I want you to think about everything that you feel formed your identity, the neighborhood where you were raised, the city you’re from, your family and what were you surrounded by daily. Ponder on those things for a moment, now do you think that they give a fair description of who you are? Some would say yes and some would say no, all of us at one time or another has felt as though the people who are not from the south opinion of us is based on what they see; whether it be from movies, television shows, books or even the news, in their mind what they see is what it is. All of us are or have been guilty of subconsciously stereotyping people based on what may or may not even be completely accurate. “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia” depicts a family let’s just say not in the best light, but in true authenticity. The film shows the ups and downs that the white family experience daily. From the “Mother” of the family Bertie Mae, who to me illustrates southern grandmothers all so well, by putting her needs to the side to care for others. Then to the children and cousins on the total opposite side of the spectrum, the film shows them as a country thick accented family who is careless in all of their ways, but one thing about them that

Redneck this is a common word in the english language to and almost everyone in america, and whereas it may have the same dictionary definition “an uneducated white farm laborer, especially from the South.” no matter where you may travel in the country. Its social meaning can change drastically depending on where you are at. For example in some places it is a insult to be called a redneck, but then in other parts of the country people actually embrace the term.