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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We'll see how well that works.
He is nothing more than a liberal slug, and needs to be treated no better. Ignore him, and he will go away.
It's truly sad that you consider anyone who didn't join the rebellion to be liberals.
This southern inferiority complex is getting quite silly.
Why X, what an ugly thing to say! Does this mean we're not friends anymore? If you were not my friend, I just don't think I could bear it. (/Sarcasm)
Count me among the third generation of "I don't give a sh*t what you think". Know whut ah mean Vern?!
It may be heresy, but I was including those in the British group. (gasp)LOL
Reading your story I can almost take a stab that your family’s close ties might have brought about the experience more than anything. Y’all “stuck together” instead of trying to get in with your school buddies.
A turtle that shells up is going to get poked with alot of sticks down here.
If he doesnt shell up, the fun of poking it goes away, but now you have something new to ponder.
At least, thats how we do things by the river.
IMHO, Louisiana is kind of unique with regards to the insular nature of its families and communities. I suspect your being, "shunned and ostracized," was the result of being an oustider moreso than being a "Yankee." I've known families from Alabama or Mississippi who were generally treated the same way upon arrival in Louisiana.
I was thinking more of the Japanese than the Nazis though Hitler too had his contempt for the Yankees.
Yankee to me means Winner of the War!!!! I am very proud of that fact!!!!
Hey, no prob. All Americans. Sorry you experience was bad. Hope we don’t let you down next chance you give.
PITY that you seem to be so clueLESS.
free dixie,sw
fyi, most readers of your arrogant/hate-FILLED/bigoted/foolish nonsense & bilge think you're RETARDED & (at least) the DUMBEST of the DUMB-bunnies of "the DAMNyankee coven of fools, bigots, lunatics,nitwits, LEFTISTS & a racist."
but PLEASE keep spewing you usual load of liquefied manure onto the forum, as you DAMAGE the "unionist cause" with every post/emission.
free dixie,sw
As a very good friend / southerner once explained to me, "Do you want to know the difference between a 'Yankee' and a 'Damn Yankee?' The Yankees eventually go back home."
as he is "the Minister of DAMNyankee Propaganda" & spreads that HATE-filled, arrogant, ANTI-southern nonsense allover the forum, he converts NEUTRAL southerners to SOUTHRONS. this is a GOOD thing.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
It was written “the British Isles”.
You’re right largely about the ethnicities in the huge bulk expanse of the South, but here in MD (and part of the Virginia mountains), we have a huge influx of Germans. From the very beginning. And wouldn’t you know many of the latter-day were SOUTHERN Germans, like from Bavaria.
“Yankee Doodle” was indeed a derogatory song against the “Americans” (rebels) in the AmRevWar.
The rebels turned it around on them and used it anyway, as if laughing it off.
lol. I actually love that. It is really interesting. I guess because I lived in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, and Tennessee I can understand that humor. My home state is Pennsylvania though.
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