"Redneck Day" at high school upsets parent

[FLAprogressive]

http://www.kctv5.com/news/26643113/detail.html

Many schools celebrate school spirit by designating special days such as Pajama Day or Crazy Hat Day.

One local school's theme for its spirit day has rubbed some parents the wrong way.

Thursday was designated as "Redneck Day" at Blue Valley North High School. The mother of one student, who asked not to be identified, said she was so offended that she kept her daughter home from school.

"It's a derogatory term, not just directed at African-Americans," (huh?) she said. "To anyone, it's a slang, derogatory term. And why would this be used as a spirit day?"

-------

Oh PUH-leeze!

[Fumesucker]

1. She probably spent her honeymoon at a deer camp..

The lady doth protest a wee bit much, methinks.

[mainstreetonce]

9. Hell Yeah!

I'm a Redneck Woman ain't no high class broad

sing it Gretchen!

I think it might have been a fun day

[Fumesucker]

16. ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGOoASZg6kw

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OM_YKkdPwpY/S_v2kFEYnfI/AAAAAAAADYQ/tuFtEbmb4Vo/s1600/Candye+Kane+-+White+Trash+Girl.jpg

[Kalyke]

58. As an educated Southern woman, I HATE that song. Sorry.

[jody]

2. "directed at African-Americans"! That's just too laughable for words. n/t

[QC]

3. Class bigotry is bigotry. Period. n/t

[arbusto_baboso]

7. CLASS bigotry?

Sorry, but that dog won't hunt.

I know plenty of wealthy people who would qualify for the title "Redneck".

[QC]

10. So how often do you really hear the affluent described as "rednecks"

and "white trash"?

I guess it must surely be some sort of coincidence, but those words are pretty much always applied to the rural poor, but seldom, if ever, to people who actually have any wealth or power.

[arbusto_baboso]

15. Ah, see now you're conflating redneck with white trash.

They are two seperate terms.

And I actually HAVE heard some affluent people described as rednecks. Many of those rednecks, are in fact my own family members.

[QC]

22. Yeah, my dad must have felt so much better as a kid when he went to town

from the mining camp where he grew up, and the people there sneered at his bare feet and patched overalls and declared him a redneck, rather than white trash.

What a difference that must have made!

Like I said, when we start seeing stupid, hateful assholes with four names and trust funds (you know, the people who really do run the world) denounced as rednecks, then I will grant your point. But being a person from rural southern roots, I have had some experience with class prejudice, most of it at the hands of people who imagine themselves to be enlightened liberals.

[arbusto_baboso]

25. While I am sorry for what your father had to face...

I must point out that meanings and uses of words change over time. Surely you must see and admit this point. If not, then there is no use in futher discussion with you.

[QC]

32. Why do you get to decide for other people what is and is not offensive to them?

If nothing else, it's lousy manners to insist on saying something that offends people when there's no real reason to keep saying it.

[pecwae]

64. They may be separate

but they're consistently used interchangeably. Perhaps you should begin educating those persons who use the words incorrectly.

[yellowcanine]

68. It hunts with me. "trailer park trash" = "redneck" and you say it is not class bigotry.

Just because there are wealthy people who would qualify as "rednecks" means little. Wealth does not erase class bigotry.

[Skip Intro]

52. +1

[MellowDem]

4. I can see that...

it is often used in a derogatory way. Schools usually should (and do) stay away from such controversial terms. Just because this is directed at whites more often than not doesn't change what it is, a term that makes fun of poor whites mostly, or plays on steryotypes of them. Sure, some don't mind owning the term, but for others, it is disrespectful.

[cmd]

5. I, too, think it is derogatory

It's not aimed at African-Americans, but at poor undereducated whites. I find it offensive.

[emilyg]

14. +1

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. AH I would have shown up wearing a red neckerchief

and union papers... ah knowing US History, which she obviously don't

[arbusto_baboso]

8. Actually the term Redneck originated as a descriptor of Scotch-Irish Protestants.

Its current associtaions with certain lowbrow attitudes and practices have a lot more to do with assumed prejudices in the past about the Scotch-Irish Protestants than they do with ALL lower class white people.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. and specifically as part of the labor organizing

in the south... (Harlan County to be specific) in the 1920s

:hi:

Why I'd show up with a neckerchief and a history of labor

[arbusto_baboso]

18. Isn't it ironic....

How many of those who would nowadays be described as Redneck are vehemently ANTI union?

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. cooping terms is a way to steal their power

why we historians need to fight to recapture the original meaning... as well as things like May Day.

Yes I am a red neck... (labor household, union household) live with it. (Not you, those who go, but it is a derogatory term)

Of course I also remember the people who died in Chicago...

[Gaedel]

44. Good book to read

"Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America" by David Hackett Fischer

He breaks them down into:

Puritan New Englanders who largely came from the vicinity of East Anglia and settled the northeast.

Cavalier Southerners who largely came from a part of England centered on Wessex and settled the Atlantic and Gulf seaboard.

Quakers from the northern Midlands who settled the mid-Atantic states.

Scots-Irish from the Scotland-England borderlands and from Ulster who settled in the mountains from Vermont down through NY, PA, WV, VA, NC, SC, GA, KY, and TN. These were the classic rednecks. they brought their feuds and independent ways from the old country.

While some of them were in coal mining or in the southern milltowns and were involved in union organizing, most of them were hard scrabble farmers.

Another good read is Sen Jim Webb's book "Born Fighting" which also tells the story of the Scots-Irish in America.

The Scots-Irish were originally Presbyterian, but also became Methodists, Baptists, and non-mainstream fundamentalist sects. They have been over represented in the ranks in every war this country has fought and way over represented among our war dead.

[Kalyke]

59. And reserved for farmers.

My family were Irish and Scottish, but were general store owners.

[southerncrone]

11. Every day is "Red Neck Day" at my school! LOL

It just comes naturally! We don't even have to talk about it.
:hippie:

[SoCalDem]

23. That's what I was thinking..some schools should try "intellectual day"

:rofl:

[southerncrone]

41. Now, Redneck & Intellectual are not mutually exclusive terms.

We have redneck Merit Scholarship Finalists.

See, that's what happens with all this NAME CALLING.........people make assumptions that are often erroneous. ;)

We've had "Fancy Day" in the past, but this type of thing is disappearing from many schools because we don't have time for the distraction. So much for "fun" at school. Gotta get those TEST SCORES up!

[SoCalDem]

42. We had Sadie Hawkins Day..and that was about it..

[southerncrone]

46. We had Sadie Hawkins Day, too, & a dance.

We're showing our age here, SoCalDem! :hangover:

Now the girls initiate the romantic advances more than the boys! So that just doesn't work anymore. Sadie Hawkins is main-stream!

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

12. It's the squeeky wheel that gets the grease and the Squawking Mom that gets the news!

Sheesh.

Coulda just called it Country Music Day. HA!

[rrneck]

17. Where I am from everyday is redneck day.

It is no less insulting to have a yuppie asshole day.

Every joke has a fall guy. The difference between a joke and an insult is that the fall guy can laugh at the joke. If the fall guy can't laugh, it's an insult.

[realisticphish]

19. My rural Ohio school

where many people were, you know, rednecks, had this kind of thing. No one got offended. Ever. Redneck isn't a derogatory term, at least not to us. Most rednecks called themselves rednecks freely and proudly.

YMMV

[pacalo]

20. The resentment is no joke.

I found this out when I tried to save a picture on google images of an aluminum Christmas tree decorated with Mountain Dew cans. There were actually several different images of what looked like the same tree; one shot was of the middle portion, standing in place & the second shot, the one I tried to save, was the tip of the tree, lying on a floor.

As soon as I clicked "save image" I got one trojan message after another on my screen. Had to reboot.

Beware of "redneck" images.

[Modern_Matthew]

21. Just as silly as any political correctness. n/t

[seabeyond]

29. not very modern, matthew. nt

[Modern_Matthew]

45. Maybe in the postmodern era, we will not empower words with negativity. n/t

[seabeyond]

49. maybe we will all be in utopia, too. words matter. and reality today, which is where we are at

it is ugly. want to be ugly, be prepared being called on it.

[tularetom]

24. If they had Redneck Day at the HS around here

They wouldn't be able to tell it from any other day.

Except all the students would be happy they finally got the recognition.

[BlueJazz]

61. LOL!

:)

[WolverineDG]

26. well, it is a derogatory term

aimed at whites, so I guess for some, that makes it okay. :eyes:

dg

[QC]

27. Sadly, many progressives have a blind spot about class issues.

That might be why few working people today consider progressives their friends anymore.

Perhaps they have encountered a few smug fauxgressives who called them rednecks and couldn't imagine how they could possibly find it offensive.

[leftstreet]

30. +1

:thumbsup:

Although I suspect it's not always a blind spot

[QC]

34. No, I don't think it's always unintentional.

Many people seem to think that being a progressive is all about throwing shade on the great unwashed.

[leftstreet]

36. !!

"throwing shade on the great unwashed"

Nice phrasing! Did you think that up?

[QC]

39. Cobbled it together, LOL.

You know what I mean, though. Sometimes it seems that being on the Left is about holding the unsophisticated in contempt and buying the correct consumer products. Makes me go nuts.

[leftstreet]

40. Yep

Sadly

[seabeyond]

33. plenty of dems embrace and cheer sexism too. seems to be racism is the only one

protected now a days.

[QC]

35. Yes, sexism is also treated as no big deal.

Just silly political correctness, you know. Roll eyes and adjust package. Spit.

[seabeyond]

38. Roll eyes and adjust package. Spit.... oh, you made me laugh. BUT

anymore, i am see the guy as grabbing the junk to mke sure it is still there

but that is cute.

[pecwae]

66. Your description

of the college professor on the other thread is very description of the phenomenon of classism on the Left. Thanks for it.

[QC]

69. Glad you find it useful. Thing is, I love that professor and learned so much from her.

She's not a bad person, just clueless in the way that comfortable people so often are. She needs to be educated on these things, as many otherwise smart, decent people do.

[seabeyond]

28. how to do redneck day? blacken teeth. talk stupid. overalls. it is insulting. why would we

embrace it.

[Shagbark Hickory]

37. technicallly............ nt

[bluestateguy]

43. And if one parent is upset or offended a whole policy must be changed to appease her

That's the way my high school did it.

[antigone382]

60. Do you know anything about the history of the term?

It is classist and offensive. It may originally have referenced striking miners, but along with the term hillbilly, it has been used to marginalize poor Southerners and Appalachians. The concept of the redneck, if not the word itself, was used extensively by coal barons to excuse the exploitation and dispossession of Appalachian people, just like the concept of the savage was used to justify the slaughter of Native Americans, just like the concept of animalistic African Americans was used to justify slavery. Look at some photos of mountaintop removal, look up some history of the labor struggles in Appalachia--the people who lost their lands, the people who sat in front of bulldozers, the people who were shot by coal company thugs--look at some photos of Appalachia today, the water downstream from a coal slurry impoundment--look at a map of the poorest and most marginalized regions of this country...and know that there are almost no politicians of any stripe brave enough to take on the coal companies that continue to erode Appalachia's land and people, because hey, the rest of America needs that cheap electricity.

But we are and always have been ignorant rednecks, so it doesn't matter.

[QC]

62. Excellent post. n/t

[ET Awful]

47. How much would you like to bet that this woman LOVES Jeff Foxworthy and has no issues

at all with him calling anyone a redneck?

[pecwae]

67. Turn that around

and use other examples of a comic and ethnicity/class and see what you come up with.

[phylny]

48. The term is generally considered to be derogatory, and I

live in a rural area where people would be offended by this term being used.

Years ago, I was watching the Today Show and Bryant Gumbel used the term "redneck" while trying to make the point that "rednecks in Alabama" wouldn't understand how things they do might be considered to be racist. Honestly, it was the first time I ever sent a complaint letter to a TV station because even though I was working in Manhattan at the time, I thought that the term wasn't meant to be a nice, descriptive term. It was meant to paint a class of people a negative way.

[customerserviceguy]

54. It does depend on who's using the term

Jeff Foxworthy famously described it as "a glorious lack of sophistication", thus reclaiming the word by redefining it, as gay and lesbian people have done with the word "queer".

Now, as a pigmentally-challenged individual, there is a word beginning with the letter "n" that I cannot use, just because of who I am. Rednecks (yeah, I might be considered one, having spent part of my life in a single-wide trailer) don't get that uptight about it, unless you're really looking to put them down by use of the term.

[Art_from_Ark]

56. Well, the Bellamy Brothers didn't consider it to be too derogatory

A red neck girl likes to cruise in Daddy's pickup truck
And a red neck girl plays her heart when she's down on her luck
Livin' for Friday afternoon
She's gonna show some ole boy that weekend moon

And I pray that someday I will find me a red neck girl
A red neck girl likes to stay out all night long
She makes sweet rock 'n roll while she listens to the song
She's waiting for that moment of surrender
Her hands are callous, but her heart is tender

And I pray that someday I will find me a red neck girl
Give me a, give me a, give me a red neck girl
Give me a, give me a, give me a red neck girl

Instrumental

Give me a, give me a, give me a red neck girl
Give me a, give me a, give me a red neck girl
A red neck girl's got her name on the back of her belt
She's got a kiss on the lips for her man and nobody else
A coyote's howling out on the prairie
First comes love, then comes marriage

And I pray that someday I will find me a red neck girl
Yeah give me a, give me a, give me a red neck girl
Give me a, give me a, give me a red neck girl
Give me a, give me a, give me a red neck girl

[JVS]

50. It's inappropriate.

[Skip Intro]

51. It is derogatory, I don't blame her for being offended. nt

[NuclearDem]

53. wait wat

Redneck...isn't really derogatory.

[Raine]

55. "African Americans"??? That's a new one on me

I thought it was an insult directed toward "backward" white people in certain areas of the country. :shrug:

[Kalyke]

57. It IS a deroggatory term. DUH!

But it means African-American?? What?

Sigh.

[WinkyDink]

63. Whoa. Anyone who thinks "Redneck" refers to African-Americans is really humor-impaired.

Nevertheless, this ideas is hare-brained.

Can our schools just TEACH, PLEASE? I had to endure those asinine "Pajama Days" for decades.

[pecwae]

65. There's nothing funny about it.

I've never heard or seen it used in connection with AA, but does that make it funny and acceptable anyway? Yet, there are those who think the usage of the term is fine and that someone who resents the label is being too sensitive. Yep, that's certainly progressive.

[lame54]

70. why didn't call it Larry the cable guy day