Posted on 11/03/2007 6:59:32 AM PDT by BnBlFlag
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Saturday, November 3, 2007 Pride & Prejudice: What does 'Yankee' mean to you?
Southerners reserve three insults for outlanders and assorted other pathetic creatures. They are:
"Bless your heart" "Y'all ain't from around here, are you?" "Yankee"
This blog is barely two weeks old, but it has already taken a few pot-shots at some sacred cows, such as "bait-and-wait" deer-hunting, litterbugs and low expectations in some local schools. The ensuing conversations have largely been delightfully rambunctious, but a few visitors have registered their disagreement by simply invoking the "Yankee" Doctrine: You ain't one of us, so shut the f*** up.
It's not always aimed at carpetbagging pantywaists from states that fought for the Union 132 years ago. Fourteen states were established after the Civil War, mostly in the West, which didn't have a dog in that fight, so there are tens of millions of Americans who never set foot on a Civil War battleground, period. And the last real Yankee has been dead for 51 years (Albert Woolson of Minnesota was a Union drummer boy who died in 1956.)
No, it seems that to a grumpy Southerner a "Yankee" is anyone who "ain't from around here." "Yankee" is never a term of endearment. That epithet is fired like a squirrel-shot at any outsider who doesn't leave his/her native sensibilities at the Mason-Dixon line ... or who doesn't agree with the insulter. ("You don't like grits? What a Yankee!")
That kind of xenophobia didn't hunt before the Civil War, it didn't wash in the civil rights era, and it's unlikely to work in the blogosphere. It might surprise those parochial Southerners who still wield the word like a revenooer's axe, but non-Southerners are rarely insulted by the term. They merely know you're trying to be insulting.
And for the record: The outlanders' habit of calling all Southerners "bubba" or "redneck" or "hillbilly" is equally xenophobic. I'm afraid the American tendency to coin a slur is infinite and knows no geographical bounds. And if you're lucky enough to be a non-Southerner living in the South, then you hear ALL of them!
So, Gator-Baiters, educate this Yankee from Wyoming who loves Texas. What exactly is a "Yankee"? Can you describe what you see in your mind when you use or hear the term? Whether you're a native Southerner or a lifelong Manhattanite, why do you think this apparently archaic term is still so widely used in the new millennium?
Posted by GATOR at 3:25 AM
Labels: epithets, insults, prejudice, Southeast Texas, Texas, Yankee
1 Gator-baiting comments: buddy said... I'm "not from around here", either, and when I arrived here nearly 30 years ago, got the 'damn yankee' comment from some of the locals. Annoying, but expected, considering some of the Gomers who live in the backwoods.
November 3, 2007 8:07 AM Post a Comment
TheBayou@BeaumontEnterprise.com wildfires Write Your Own Caption Yankee
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Uh, ... maybe attitudes change over time on their own and you're just looking for someone to blame?
“Yankee” is never a term of endearment.
I couldn’t get past that. What BS.
Sounds pissed that Southerners don’t treat his as their better.
And I forgot to add:
“I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name, just hillbilly”
Hey! All I got was a red X!
Your post showed up as a red X on my screen.
It's a difference of culture.
A person who, being born north of the Mason/Dixon line, has an inflated opinion of himself and his intelligence. He believes that rapid speaking and condescension toward those born south of the Mason/Dixon line entitles him to assume that all such persons have never heard of indoor plumbing, (I actually had a cousin I'd never met before tell me that was one thing which suprised her about Alabama - the indoor plumbing), have never read anything longer than a comic strip, and never date outside the family.
If you, sir, hold no such opinions, then you cannot be called a true Yankee. :-D
A sociology professor told me once IIRC that Southern culture is distinctive because we are made up of comparatively few ethnic groups: Native American, African American, British Isles, and French. There were smatterings of other nationalities who settled here, but most of the Scandinavian, Slavic, and Mediteranian immigrants settled in the industrialized cities of the North.
“Oh really? Then why you all get your butts kicked then? You all saying you people are so pathetic you got your butts whipped by a bunch of girlie men?”
Lets see. The industrialized North against a primarily agricultural region whom you outnumbered four to one in troops and you’re bragging? Even then the wealthy elites from the Northeast didn’t go to war, they paid the poor to take their places. Most of the recruitment going on today is in the South, they’re even closing some recruiting offices in the Northern cities.
I do have a skeleton in my closet. While most of my ancestors were in the 10th Tennessee Cav. or the 1st Tennessee Infantry I had one ancestor who was with the 1st Michigan Cavalry. He made it all the way through the war and died on the train home from dysentery. Talk about bad luck.
A bunch of Germans show up in Huntsville at the end of a bitter war, and are able to fit in to the community. You yankees show up, and can’t fit in. Now, is the problem with the open and welcoming community, or the yankee kids with chips on their shoulders?
Don’t forget the Southern Scots, Irish, and Welsh settlers.
To hear Southerners talk about it, the Civil War is not yet over. Most of my forebears lived North of the Mason Dixon line, but one of my gg Grandfathers was heir to a slave worked plantation. He walked away from it, and was part of the Underground Railroad way before that war.
Just one of my rugged individual ancestors. :)
Yankees are just more demanding and abrupt.....it’s ethnicity and culture
not always bad either.
not all Yankees are smug and self righteous...just some....too many here obviously
Yankees trend more socially moderate to liberal.....that is unquestionable and rather obvious by SOME here on this board.
I refuse to qualify or equivocate but there are Yankees on this forum who defend the South and they should be given their due.
Women in Yankee homes tend to be openly in charge than down here....again unquestionable. Though women rule here too lest they’re haven’t the “power”
then came the whipping by "a good 'ole boy", who took umbrage at being called a filthy name and/or having his family/religion/state/region insulted.
face it, either the north generally only sends us the most arrogant & loutish of their "throwaways" or once in dixie, the DAMNyankee emigres decide that they are SUPERIOR to everyone/everything in dixie.
i have a LOT of friends in the north, but they are decidedly NOT DAMNyankees. instead they are ladies & gentlemen, who just happen to be from the north.
all ya'll ("ya'll" is singular. "all ya'll" is plural.) are WELCOME to come for a visit or to stay, but leave the negative, arrogant, loutish attitude/comments/behavior at home.
free dixie,sw
Yankees of old were abolitionists. Yankees of new are Kennedy/Kerry.
YEP, "the cape cod orca" & "hanoi john" fit that description to a T.
the more i learn about DAMNyankees, the better i like poisonous serpents, scorpions & spiders.
free dixie,sw
I defended this country for 20 years, but because I love the South, I have to put up with the constant assaults on my heritage. So I fight back.
One thing I've found though - trying to teach a Yankee the truth is like trying to teach a pig to sing - its a waste of your time and it annoys the pig.
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