61. I would hardly put the word "redneck" in the same category as "n**ger".

Posted at 3:28PM on Apr 7th 2008 by mommyx5

62. That's in reference to #59's remark by the way.

Posted at 3:32PM on Apr 7th 2008 by mommyx5

63. mommyx5: I hate to break it to you but a racial remark is a racial remark. Calling someone from the South a "redneck" is just as bad as calling a black person a n**ger or a white person a "honkie"......

Posted at 3:41PM on Apr 7th 2008 by Stacey

64.


Excerpt from Wikipedia....You might be a redneck...... I think I'm a redneck also.

People stereotyped as rednecks are largely descendants of the Irish, Ulster-Scots and Lowland Scots immigrants who traveled to North America from Northern Ireland and Scotland in the late 17th and 18th centuries, although some of them are descended from people of Germanic and other stock. The Ulster-Scots had historically settled the major part of Ulster province in Northern Ireland, after previous migration from the Scottish Lowlands and Border Country. These pioneering people and their descendants are known in North America as the Scots-Irish. (The 18th century influx of Highland Scots into the Carolinas also contributed to the bloodlines.)

The "Celtic Thesis" of Forrest McDonald and Grady McWhiney holds that they were basically Celtic (as opposed to Anglo-Saxon), and that all Celtic groups (Irish, Scottish, Welsh and others) were warlike herdsmen, in contrast to the peaceful farmers who predominated in England. U.S. Senator James H. Webb of Virginia uses this thesis in his book Born Fighting to suggest that the character traits of the Irish and Scots — loyalty to kin, mistrust of governmental authority, and military readiness — helped shape the American identity. According to Webb, these people characterized as "rednecks" and "crackers", were unwelcome in the "civilized" coastal regions and were encouraged by colonial leaders to settle the Appalachian mountains, as a bulwark against the Indian Nations.[4] Although sometimes hostile to the Indians, they found much in common with them and engaged in trade and cultural exchanges. In the Appalachians they also encountered pockets of Melungeons, English-speaking people of mixed racial origins (black, white, Indian), whom they tolerated and over time, they intermarried with English from the West Country and absorbed members of other groups through the bonds of kinship.

People characterized as rednecks, and sometimes merely as southerners, serve in the U.S. armed forces at a much higher rate than other Americans.[8][9] This trend is also present among the Scots in the British armed forces.[10] Stereotypical rednecks, and especially Tennesseans, are known for their martial spirit. Tennessee is known as the "Volunteer State" for the overwhelming, unexpected number of Tennesseans who volunteered for duty in the War of 1812, the Texas Revolution (including the defense of the Alamo), and especially the Mexican-American War. During the Civil War, poor whites did most of the fighting and the dying on both sides of the conflict. Poor Southern whites stood to gain little from secession and were usually ambivalent about the institution of slavery. They were, however, fiercely defensive of their territory, loyal to family and home and typically resolute in the cause of independence from the Union.

Posted at 3:42PM on Apr 7th 2008 by OCD

65. DON'T START NONE, WON'T BE NONE!

Posted at 3:45PM on Apr 7th 2008 by ZOEY BROOKS

66. #63. Can't agree with you there, sorry.

Posted at 3:49PM on Apr 7th 2008 by mommyx5

67. STOP MESSIN' WITH JAMIE LYNN aka ZOEY OR I MAY START BUSTIN' CAPS AND I GOT MORE HEAT IN MY PANTS THAN, WELL ZOEY AFTER A FEW!

Posted at 3:53PM on Apr 7th 2008 by LOLA

68. Interesting reading these comments... The people who defend the right to own a gun are stating their beliefs. Those people who are against it are throwing around insults. Looks like one side of this controversy needs some practice in defending their thoughts.

And as far as "redneck" vs. "n**ger" - who exactly decides which one is ok to use? I haven't seen that rule book out on the shelves yet. Name calling is name calling. Wrong is wrong. NEITHER should be used.

Posted at 3:55PM on Apr 7th 2008 by reality

69. Typical Wikipedia crap. Nice how this longwinded "explanation" fails to even account for the term "redneck".

Redneck means ... wait for it Wikipedians ... red neck. It was a derrogatory term for all immigrants, stemming from when immigrants worked mainly in construction, digging ditches, jackhammering, and so on -- roles where there head was down and there neck exposed to the sun. Thus ... rednecks. Rich, white people were pale, as their jobs were inside. Poor immigrants who had to work outside all day in manual labour jobs were derided as "rednecks" from this literal characteristic. Connecting it to southerners is a perversion of the term as synonomous with "white trash", which it originally was not.

Posted at 3:55PM on Apr 7th 2008 by Wikisucksapedia

70. #68 is right.

Posted at 4:00PM on Apr 7th 2008 by mommyx5

71. Anyone who bothers a pregnant girl I dont care who they are is really demented....

Posted at 4:01PM on Apr 7th 2008 by Star

72. Amazing that the paps will stand and film someone carrying a gun pointed at them.. I guess a stupid gossip story is more important to them than their own lives! Just like with Britney they stood around the gas station while she was in her car smoking while someone was pumping gas into her car.. TMZ and all other paps are a bunch of idiots!

Posted at 4:04PM on Apr 7th 2008 by Star

73.

To # 69 Wikisucksapedia

I beg to differ with you. Any knowledge is knowledge. You may read it and not believe it, whether it poses the truth or not. That is why we have the freedom to choose and make up our own minds and interpret as we will.

My grandfather was part Irish, part Indian, part French. He was raised on a farm and later owned a large cattle ranch. He was probably what could be termed a "redneck" by anyone's definition. "Poor immigrants" are the the backbone of America. Powdered and bewigged royalty and industrialists sat in boardrooms and parlors while "rednecks" defended our country and our rights.

Southerners take pride in their ancestors, their land and their history. There are rich men and poor men. But a southern gentleman may have been born rich or poor, but he is addressed as "sir" and he, in return, addresses a man of every class whether above or below his "station" as "sir".

In other words, the sweat of your brow and the stain on your shirt is nothing to be ashamed of if you worked for it.

Those who choose to pervert the term through their ignorance will never understand.

Posted at 4:10PM on Apr 7th 2008 by OCD

74. 61. I would hardly put the word "redneck" in the same category as "n**ger".

Posted at 3:28PM on Apr 7th 2008 by mommyx5

Well, that all depends on a person's morals and standards....you obviously have none.

Posted at 4:16PM on Apr 7th 2008 by me

75. Give it a rest "me".

Posted at 4:21PM on Apr 7th 2008 by mommyx5