When many individuals think of a dangerous word their minds automatically think of the words that they chose to omit when in the presence of children or words that are thought instead of spoken in formal places, but what about the words that sit along the fine line between appropriate and inappropriate? For example, the term redneck has a different meaning to those inside community versus that of those outside. This word is the most dangerous because it is looked down upon and praised at the same time. The term redneck should be socially acceptable in everyday language, because those who it describes take pride using it to describe themselves. The etymology of the term redneck, found in Oxford English Dictionary is describes as “a poorly …show more content…
Regionally the term is associated with Roman Catholics and the Irish (“redneck”). Historically the term redneck comes from many different places. The earliest use of the word is found in Scotland, where individuals rejected the acceptance of the Church of England as the official church. Those against this acceptance signed a document demanding the Presbyterian Church in their own blood; they also wore red scarves around their neck earning the name of redneck (Leland). The term was introduced to America through these same Scottish people who settled in many of the southern colonies (Wilkinson). In America rednecks are associated with southerners living in the Appalachian Mountains, the South, Ozarks, Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. They were poor, with little money or education and had lesser access to healthcare compared to other whites in American. Many of these individuals were sharecroppers, so the effects of the Dust Bowl were detrimental to their ways …show more content…
For example the Urban Dictionary states, “You would be a redneck if:… you mow your lawn and find a car… have more that one relative named after a Southern Civil War general… you own a homemade fur coat.” (Redneck Urban Dictionary). This definition doesn’t explain one person in particular, but instead a culture and a lifestyle. They take pride in where they life, what they like, their values and prize possessions. “They are proud of their pick-up trucks…” (Redneck Urban Dictionary) They are also very similar in their beliefs politically and racially. “ Rednecks tend to be socially conservative [and] closet racists.” (Redneck Urban Dictionary). These stubborn values associated with Rednecks is part of what makes them so proud as a people, because they stick to what they’ve known historically. This is also why outsiders look down on them, because they see their stubbornness as being small minded and
the use of a southern type dialect. Local color can be shown in a particular dialect,occupations, and Topography.
In 1978 a radio station owned by Pacifica Foundation Broadcasting out of New York City was doing a program on contemporary attitudes toward the use of language. This broadcast took place on a mid-afternoon weekday. Immediately before the broadcast the station announced a disclaimer telling listeners that the program would include "sensitive language which might be regarded as offensive to some."(Gunther, 1991) Pacifica believed that this was enough warning to give people who would be offended, but placing a warning in front of something is like placing chocolate cake in front of a fat guy. Humans thirst for the unknown, and at this time, sexual perversion was a big unknown.
Scalawags and Carpetbaggers were terms used during the reconstruction period in the south. Scalawags were white southerners who supported the Republican Party. Scalawags consisted of the following persons, rich merchant owners, farmers who owned small amounts of land, and planters. During the old confederate period, most these people wanted a new south so they supported the reconstruction and abided in the changes concerning newly freed black slaves. Carpetbaggers were northern citizens who came to the south in terms to make a quick profit. The goals of the carpetbaggers were to encourage their new political power on the newly freed blacks. It was the goal of the northerners to help establish the freed slaves and improve their lives. It was the ideal of providing education, medications, food, and clothing for the blacks. The ideal was a success and was called the Freedmen’s bureau.
are simply meaningless words meant to damage, humiliate and degrade certain groups of people. To prove those words worthless, the same groups of people that those hate words
In the modern society, millions of people realize that several offensive words with insulting taboo meanings heavily disturb their daily lives and break some special groups of people’s respect to push them to feel like outsiders of the whole society. As a result, more and more people join some underway movements to eliminate the use of these offensive words in people’s everyday speech and writing. However, these offensive words themselves are not the culprit, the bad meanings people attach are the problems and some other functions of the words are useful in the society. Christopher M. Fairman the author of “ Saying It Is Hurtful, Banning It Is Worse” also argues that although
This can easily be identified in her short story “Revelation.” The characters in the story are identified by physical characteristics and some are even identified with racial terms. The main character in the story is actually prejudiced and makes many statements using racial jargon. For example, Mrs. Turpin, the main character, refers to the higher class woman as “well-dressed and pleasant”. She also labels the teenage girl as “ugly” and the poor woman as “white-trashy”. When Mrs. Turpin converses with her black workers, she often uses the word “nigger” in her thoughts. These characteristics she gives her characters definitely reveals the Southern lifestyle which the author, Flannery O'Connor, was a part of.
order to be a redneck here, there are a few traits you must have, such as: a big
Social prejudice was another fact of life. Roughnecks were viewed by some people as poor, trailer park trash.
As vaudeville grew in the early 1900’s, it was mainly composed of northern performers. However, their example showed southern performers that one could make music playing in public. This realization spawned the first generation of “hillbilly” performers. The term “hillbilly” was popularized in the 1920’s after a musician by the name of Al Hopkins. He told his producer to name his band whatever he liked because they were just a bunch of hillbilly’s from North Carolina and Virginia.
Growing up in a rural part of Arkansas taught me that there is two types of people, those who like country music and those who do not. To clear things up, when I say country music I don’t mean musicians like Luke Bryan and Taylor Swift; I mean musicians like Hank Williams, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, and Merle Haggard. Where I am from these are considered to be the classics, making them some of the best examples of country music. Country music is more than just music it is a way of life, which is why there are many things that liking or not liking country music can show about a person.
In rural Appalachia, the Baptism and Christianity are main religions. Many families in this region go to the same church and have similar faiths. Revival, a popular form of teaching in this area, includes faith healing, hymn singing, hand waving toward the sky, spirited preaching, and speaking in tongues. There are stereotypes for this region’s religious practices. Uneducated and ignorant preachers, evangelists, holy rollers, and barefoot hillbillies are all examples of these cruel stereotypes. These stereotypes may be true for a select few, but many of these caricatures are untrue. The media, news, and literature are part of the blame for this. Their portrayal of this area has caused society to identify the Appalachians as southern and uneducated. Mocking people in this area is wrong and inaccurate. Another reason for this region being stereotyped is outside influences viewing their own religions as superior to the Appalachian religion. They are not open to other suggestions for their faith and therefore consider other denominations as incorrect.
Swearing has the ability to get someone in a whole load of trouble at the dinner table with their mother but could also be their choice of words when they accidently stub their toe on the coffee table in the living room. Natalie Angier discusses this controversial topic of words that shouldn’t be said in her article feature in The New York Times, “Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore”. Provoked by a recently proposed bill to increase fines for using swear words on television, Angier analyzes not only the impact of swearing, but also where the desire to speak obscene words comes from. She references many credible studies and sources as she unfolds her argument. She uses a diverse slew of studies, experiments, and famous pieces of literature and
...n the January 1993 Library Journal, makes a similar suggestion: "Ultimately, however, we hope we use language that is more sensitive without enforcing strident political correctness or orthodoxy." We, as a society, are so concerned about avoiding confrontations that we are going overboard changing non-offensive names. The attempt to avoid possible protests of sensitive pressure groups by sanitizing our language is, in my opinion, censorship.
When a person that is not from here thinks of the South, they generally think of negative connotations that are tacked on to the South’s name. For example, in the movie it shows Forrest’s best friend Jenny, and her home life growing up. Jenny was shown as stereotypical “white trash” for growing up poor on a corn farm under the hand of an abusive father. When Jenny was taken from her father and placed into custody of her grandmother, the film shows how Jenny gets out of the police car and up to her grandmother’s trailer home. This shows the “white trash” stereotype of southerners rearing its ugly head into the story once more. Another contributor to the story’s southern stereotypes is how it showed Forrest’s mother as a cliché southern lady. She appears to be a well dressed, well educated, and sophisticated woman. She wears hats and fancy printed dresses with gloves, and is never shown doing manual labor other than what appears to be running a bed and breakfast at her home (cite 3). The last essence of cliché southern representations is the way Forrest is such a gentleman to Jenny. No matter what Jenny puts him through or says to Forrest, he remains loving and kind to her. A personal favorite example of this is when Jenny asks him, “Why are you so good to me?” with which Forrest quickly replies, “Because you’re my girl.” (cite 2). Though the stereotypes mentioned are not all necessarily negative, the book does portray how quick it is to assume these things as common to the
My Great Grandparents on my grandma’s side all were from texas and pretty much all of my family is in texas. One of my great grandparents was Dennis Williams he worked as a roughneck which is a person who works at an oil rig. He married my great grandma Louise Warren who worked as a bartender and a waitress most of