THE REDNECK PROBLEM

nypost.com ^ | May 17, 2005 | WILLIAM RASPBERRY

[Destro]

THE REDNECK PROBLEM

By WILLIAM RASPBERRY

May 17, 2005 -- THE plight of have-not blacks in America's urban ghettos, says economist Thomas Sowell, can be laid at the feet of white people. And not just any white folks. The culprits are that particular breed of white people known as "rednecks."

If you've followed the writings of Sowell for as long as I have, you'll know that he's not saying anything as simple as racism accounts for today's black poverty. He's saying something much more complex and, to my mind, far more intriguing.

Immigration from the British Isles to the New World was not so random as many of us imagine. Most of the settlers of Massachusetts, for instance, came from near Haverhill in East Anglia. Virginia aristocrats came from the south and west of England.

And the Deep South was populated largely by immigrants from the northern borderlands, Ulster and the Scottish Highlands — from "among people who were called 'rednecks' and 'crackers' in Britain before they ever saw America." And these are the people who formed the culture — the speech patterns, preaching styles, social behaviors, propensity for violence and attitudes toward schooling — that became the culture of Southern blacks, Sowell claims in his new book, "Black Rednecks and White Liberals."

And it is this cultural heritage, he argues, "more so than survivals of African cultures," that has produced the urban black culture of today.

[Destro]

Makes sense since African slaves would have worked side by side with redneck indentured servants and learned from them.

[King Prout]

interesting take on the issue

[JAWs]

Well, not all Redneck culture is detrimental!

[Destro]

Black Rednecks And White Liberals by Thomas Sowell

and for counter point...

The REDNECK MANIFESTO: HOW HILLBILLIES HICKS AND WHITE TRASH BECAME AMERICAS SCAPEGOATS by Jim Goad

[Bluegrass Conservative]

I've always argued that there isn't as big of a difference in black vs. white as there is in rural vs. urban, especially when the rural is redneck.

Take a look at the stereotypical culture of black teens and the reality of redneck teens and you'll find that there really isn't that much of a difference.

[motormouth]

ping

[frithguild]

So the plight of the modern blacks is a result of thier acting like conservatives?

[An Old Marine]

Here's a thought... stop whining and get out to do something for yourself. Waiting around for someone to provide you with something you "deserve" or an opportunity is lazy, stupid, and inevitably doomed to failure.

[Disambiguator]

This still boils down to blaming someone else for your own failures.

[Destro]

Gansta Rapper Ice T argues that there is o difference content wise between Gasta Rap and traditional country music from artists like Johnny Cash.

[steve8714]

There still is the discrimination against the "redneck" today. Ask any WASP country club golf fan who he'd rather see succeed- Tiger Woods or John Daly.

[stompk]

Here's a thought... stop whining and get out to do something for yourself. Waiting around for someone to provide you with something you "deserve" or an opportunity is lazy, stupid, and inevitably doomed to failure.

applause!! whistles!! applause!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Heard Sowell being interviewed on Rush's show a month ago. Sowell illustrated his point by noting there were more dairy cows in the civil war era south than in the north. But in the north, there was more cheese and butter (more hard working Germans).

[Bluegrass Conservative]

Gansta Rapper Ice T argues that there is o difference content wise between Gasta Rap and traditional country music from artists like Johnny Cash.

I might not go quite that far, but I'm sure there are a lot of similarities in some songs.

[wideawake]

And it is this cultural heritage, he argues, "more so than survivals of African cultures," that has produced the urban black culture of today.

The pathology of the urban underclass is not explained by slandering African culture or by slandering the culture of the Celtic borderlands.

The shiftlessness, laziness, criminality and violence we see today was not in evidence in the 1940s and 1950s. Poor white and poor black Southerners at that time both believed in the virtues of hard work and Christian living and abided by them as well as any other Americans.

What happened was the rise of socialist ideology in the 1960s - the false ideology of pan-Africanism, the idolization of Third World Communist movements, the sexual liberation movement, the victim culture and the paternalism of the Great Society.

Poor black and white Southern men before the 1960s generally married the mothers of their children, avoided drug abuse and crime and went to church on Sunday.

Then race hustlers and poverty pimps encouraged illiteracy, disrespect for law and order, rejection of the work ethic and disdain for traditional Christianity.

The cultural plight of the black underclass was created by white Northerners in universities, not by white sharecroppers on the farm.

[Hatteras]

"THE REDNECK PROBLEM"

Please, we prefer the term, "Agro-Americans" thankyou...

[ctlpdad]

Tiger - then I get to see his wife.

[Destro]

He said it on Conan in terms of gun use and singing about women who are no ood - getting high and their rides.

[JimWforBush]

That's my kind of redneck woman.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

So the plight of the modern blacks is a result of thier acting like conservatives?

Stop and think about what 5 or 6 traits you would say define rednecks. Now think about how many of those traits are also exhibited by young urban blacks.