But I thought they were my cousins! Now I am confused.

Wow could you imagine what the responses would be if this were a thread about any other ethnic group.................................funny how we can joke about this without someone with a stick up their ass crying.

Or a pinball machine

Redneck isn't an ethnic group.

Maybe it should be? Hmmm

Appalachian people are indeed an ethnic group and that is "who" redneck is in reference too. Just because you use alternative words "hillbilly" or such does not change the facts. If you refuse to believe that then you are just being purposely obstinate.

I'm a redneck with Appalachian roots and am damn glad I can claim that, we can and do laugh at ourselves, wish more of you were capable of that in your lives.

I can't wait to read the petition on Change.org.

If I walk into a bar, deep in Appalachia, at midnight on a Friday and announce - “hey there! How are all of you rednecks doing tonight? Did you drive your tractors here? I came from New York City to see some Rednecks doing redneck stuff! Hey, if you drank more beers tonight than you have teeth, MIGHT be a redneck hahaha!” I’m sure everybody at the bar would just chuckle, laugh it off, and buy me a beer, right? Everybody at the bar would admire my wit and demonstrate their ability to laugh at themselves I’m sure!

Sorry dude, that is no more a real ethnicity than Minnesotan is.

You would in the small towns around here, we call ourselves redneck, hillbilly, we joke that the word toothbrush must have originated in Kentucky otherwise it would be "teethbrush". I come from small town, farmland country not the toxic city environment. We enjoy people and life at it's most basic or as you say "we git-er done". No Levi you might be surprised they'd likely laugh with you.

Redneck or Appalachian?

Ha I’ll take your word for it. Don’t think it’s an experiment I have the balls to conduct.

Neither.

? explain?

Neither redneck, hillbilly, or Appalachian are any more an actual ethnic group than Minnesotan.

I was curious...Wiki

Redneck is a derogatory term chiefly but not exclusively applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the Southern United States.[1][2] Its usage is similar in meaning to cracker (especially regarding Texas, Georgia, and Florida), hillbilly (especially regarding Appalachia and the Ozarks),[3] and white trash (but without the last term's suggestions of immorality).[4][5][6] In Britain the Cambridge Dictionary definition states: "a poor, white person without education, esp. one living in the countryside in the southern US, who is believed to have prejudiced ideas and beliefs. This word is usually considered offensive."[7] People from the white South sometimes jocularly call themselves "rednecks" as insider humor.[8]

By the 1970s, the term had become offensive slang, its meaning expanded to include racism, loutishness, and opposition to modern ways.[9]

Patrick Huber, in his monograph A Short History of Redneck: The Fashioning of a Southern White Masculine Identity, emphasized the theme of masculinity in the 20th-century expansion of the term, noting, "The redneck has been stereotyped in the media and popular culture as a poor, dirty, uneducated, and racist Southern white man."[10]

Why neuter yourself like that?

You better Google ethnicity and read the definition or is Webster wrong as well?

I can find you a bar like that, right here in Walnutport.

To busy and to many people where Levi lives for them to comprehend people being at ease with themsleves.

Doesn't bother me at all, grew up calling each other hicks, hillbilly, redneck etc. and yes we are all of that. The only thing contrary would be to call us ignorant or uneducated, that might get you some flak lol

We are going to have to agree to disagree here regarding who needs to Google.

Listen - we all have roots, traditions, and ethnic backgrounds that we take pride in and in large part make up a lot of who we are. I am not trying to besmirch that.

That's cause PA is up to it's ears in people with Appalachian roots.

Sorry if I made you feel you were degrading us, I don't feel that way at all. I'm happy with who I am and where I come from I only brought it up because so many people are so sensitive over silly shit. I mean if you called someone the N word that would be wrong and is totally different from just poking fun for fun with no intentions of hurting someone. Todays world requires you to have to stop and think about anything you say or do because someone will take offense and man that's just not living life to me, laugh at others and yourself life is to short to be miserable all the time.

That is in fact the core of Ethnicity. It’s very common to confuse/mix up Ethnicity and Race, the only reason I know the distinctions is from having worked with those terms in my Job.

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled redneck bashing. While probably not technically a redneck I would be proud to call myself one and love laughing at myself about it. And I definitely have at least half my family with serious redneck in them.

Speaking of which... if the last time you saw your Grandma was watching an episode of Horders... you might be a redneck.

I will hence revisit my original premise: Appalachian is no more an ethnicity than is Minnesotan.

If you love Charile Daniels... RIP!

Not worth the time to debate it, lets get on with it, all good as they say

So Appalacian is not a group of people of common origin, language and mythology? Huh. Granted not a officially “recognized” group, but they probably could be.

No you are cornfused if you aren't a hoarder you may not be a redneck, we don't throw shit away, might need it.

No more so than any other group with regional dialects, racial percentages, etc. It is an identity construct. By the definition you guys are using, what exactly makes any ethnic group real or official? This is my entire point (using Minnesota as an example for obvious reasons.)

Exactly! Why go to the hardware store when you can get one of them screws from that old thingamajig out on the porch.

I'd say your explanation amounts to "whitewashing" but then I'd be the guilty one wouldn't I, I mean with all it's inference and all.......

Better leave my thingamajig alone, I used all my whatchamacallits to get that working!

Just saw this in another thread and fit perfect for here. Redneck women boobs and guns hell yes!!!

A minority of land owners in the South were rich enough to own slaves. Lily white skin was a sign of sophistication and wealth, hence the women carried parasols and the men wore wide-brimmed hats.
The majority of white people in the old South worked, in the fields, in various trades, usually outside, many times side by side with slaves. They cut their hair short, out of necessity unlike the rich who wore it long.
Hence, without protection, their skin darkly tanned, red, a class sign of the working class.
I do not like jokes that denigrate people of any type, Blonde jokes, redneck jokes simply became allowable because others were deemed oppressive, racist.
If you do not know where you come from you suffer a disadvantage. My early Family were indentured servants, working for 20 years to pay off their travel expenses from Europe on sustenance, no wage menial jobs. My Daughter was the first Generation to go to College, breaking a 180 year cycle of poverty. My Ancestors owned no one, but were owned.
I owe them everything, others nothing.

That's fine with me. You say you don't like R-word jokes funny, and you don't like them, and they offend your sense of heritage; that's enough for me. I will not make any more R-word jokes. Perhaps they should lock this thread, like they put and end to r-word references in the 'Rona thread.

See how easy that is, folks?

I am Appalachian and proud of it, all my family come from Kentucky, they were farmers and coal miners as far back as when they came here from Germany in 1825. They were some of the earliest settlers to the Ohio valley area and later in Tenn.. I'm sorry Phil-lee if you feel I allow someone to degrade my heritage but I don't feel that way, I'm a big believer in it's the intent of the words you use that cause hurt. I feel I can discern that difference within minutes of conversation and as you won't tolerate it someone who intends to belittle me. We joke amongst ourselves and with others so long as it is civil.

Most rednecks I know embrace this shit.

To quote Rebel Son:

Well you can wash The Dukes of Hazzard sheets on my bed.
You can wash the dust off of my stuffed deer head.
You can wash my mud tires 'til there's no tread.
But you can't wash the red outta my redneck.

I knew you were joshing O-din, people just can't be comfortable in their own skins and I admit as I've aged my skin seems to not fit as well...oh oh, right that's the "you know you're old thread" but I like it just the same (my skin that is)