Pride and Prejudice: What Does "Yankee Mean to You

The Bayou....Southeast Texas From a Different Perspective ^ | 11/3/07 | Ron Francell

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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

Blog Archive ▼ 2007 (44) ▼ November (8) Pride & Prejudice: What does 'Yankee' mean to you?... Daybreaker: How come we've never seen Mile Marker ... Write Your Own Caption: The best parking spot Death Reef: A new business idea for Port Arthur? Daybreaker: Zap a Southeast Texas litterbug Drop-out Factory: Stop making excuses for Central ... Soldier's Lament: A love song to Fred Phelps Daybreaker: Is it 'hunting' if you just sit there?... ► October (36) Image is Everything: Send Gator your spooky photos... The Big Flush: Water, water everywhere Daybreaker: You can have my embalmed human head wh... Exclusive Video! Does hooker's ghost still haunt e... Daybreaker: Did Carrol Thomas cover for molester? Coming tomorrow: A real Beaumont ghost on video? Texas report concludes ... Texas has too many repo... Drivers Test #66: Life in the Stupid Lane Dirty Dancing in Texas: Paging Kevin Bacon ... Daybreaker: Happy Monday! You're becoming extinct!... Before Your Sunday Nap: A millennial meditation Daybreaker: Don't try these tax-evasion tricks at ... Walk The Line ... and you'll get hit by a train Daybreaker: Is it 'All About Me Day' in SETX? Crisis Management: FEMA fakes a press briefing Spook Me, Baby: Send Gator your Halloween photos Unsafe Sox: Kevin Millar brews tempest in a Boston... Daybreaker: Early birds will eat the worm Scooby Done: A glamour pin-up ... doggie style Nothing to See Here: What major gas leak? Hair Today, Gone to Marxist: Che's hair on the blo... Daybreaker: Funnel cake conventions sucked 'em in Out of The Box: Bopper's casket hits the road Must-Seat TV: Buses get DVDs, not seatbelts Illegals working at the federal courthouse? Yep.Bu... Ghosts of Katrina: A lesson learned under fire Forget something? Texas has your stuff 'Sweetie, I'm sorry about that hit man thing...' Hollyweird: Who'll play you in the movies? Doubting Thomas: The Supe needs a raise Kick (Democrat) Ass: Walker, Texas Ranger endorses... Gas pains in Mid-County And they think we Southerners are stupid ... A Video Conversation With ... The director of upco... So, What Exactly Is In Ethylene? Not Funny: Alligator boots

[Ditter]

Interesting story, thanks.

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For an example of a “Good Yankee”, see my post #200!

[stand watie]

are you REALLY a big enough FOOL to believe the KNOWING, premeditated LIES told about Mary Surratt and CPT Wirz, in the face of all the DOCUMENTED facts to the contrary???

did the Judge Advocate General of the US Army LIE???

or could it be that the DAMNyankee radical, LEFTIST, revisionists are the LIARS and that they LIED out of inbred HATRED of both the southland & the TRUTH??? (YEP. that's the CORRECT answer.)

laughing AT you, BIGOT.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

"Wirz had a priest with him ---" = NOPE. not according to the Chief of Custody of the jail (a serving Union Army officer), who was PRESENT & said that (no quotes, as this is NOT exact, but it is CLOSE to a direct quote. the source document is in the USAMPS Museum.): the prisoner (CPT Wirz) begged for a priest of his faith to hear his confession & to administer the Last Rites of the church, but was adamantly refused the presence of any such person, on the order of Secretary Stanton.

i suspect that, given your constant "looking about" for information that you KNOW this.

laughing AT you, LIAR. (btw, WHO did you SAY you "used to be" before you are PERMANENTLY BANNED from FR??? provide PROOF as you will NOT be believed otherwise,m LIAR.)

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

why not "go all the way" and ADMIT that you are nothing more or less than a LIAR, who hates the south, southerners & the TRUTH, when telling the TRUTH makes the unionists look like the FILTH & WAR CRIMINALS that many of "lincoln's merry band of thugs" demonstrably were??

that would be the TRUTH, in your case.

free dixie,sw

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

DID I SAY ANYTHING ABOUT MARY SURRATT? I DID NOT!!!!

Wow, that was kind of cathartic.

Now, what documented facts are you talking about? I find plenty of documentation that talks about Father F.E. Boyle being on the gallows with Wirz and later writing a letter to Jefferson Davis about it. I don't suppose you have any documentation that you can actually present to the contrary, do you?

did the Judge Advocate General of the US Army LIE???

I don't know what he said, only what you claim he said. Did Father Boyle lie? Does Jefferson Davis lie about Boyle being there in his "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" (pages 498-500)? Did Louis Schade, Wirz's lawyer, lie when he talked about Father Boyle? What about US (and Confederate) Senator Benjamin H. Hill? Did he lie in his memoir when he talks about the execution of Wirz and the presence of Boyle?

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

So, about your claim that Wirz was "hauled up" instead of being dropped through the trap door, why do the pictures of the hanging show him standing atop the gallows, then hanging through the trap door? Did they walk him back down, then haul him up?

[rockrr]

Oh, you mean Henry Wirz...I thought you were talkin 'bout Leroy Wirz ;'}

[stand watie]

all i know about this subject is that:

1.President Davis was NOT present (thus his writing is hearsay),

2. i have NO idea WHO "Father Boyle" was (nor even if there was ever such a person), nor do i know that he was present OR for that matter WHAT his motives might have been &

3. the Chief of Custody (a serving MAJ of the US Army) was PRESENT & i see no reason that the MAJ had to lie about "denial of suitable clergy". (it certainly was NOT in his "informed self-interest", as a serving military officer, to lie.)

i have only your word on what you say is factual & everyone here KNOWS that you are a SERIAL LIAR & a south-HATER, thus absent independent PROOF, i can't say that i believe ANY of your post.

"bubba",your reputation is that of a BIGOT, a FOOL & a south-HATER & is RUINED forever on FR.

laughing AT you.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

IF what you said was factual (and i suspect it's just another in a LONG list of "bubba LIES"), then several eye witnesses to the extra-judicial killing (inasmuch as "the trial" from start to finish was a dishonest/dishonorable, cruel FARCE!)were lying, when they said that CPT Wirz strangled to death after struggling for more than 20 minutes.

persons dropped though a gallows trap suffer by broken neck and/or "cervical dislocation". they do NOT strangle to death.

those eye witnesses said that the assembled crowd "hooted & applauded wildly at his continuing struggles to breathe".

free dixie,sw

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

1.President Davis was NOT present (thus his writing is hearsay),

But Davis reprints, in its entirety, the letter that he received from Father Boyle. Are you saying that Davis was duped? What about Lewis Schade, Wirz's lawyer? He was present at the hanging and wrote a letter to the American public about it, and Father Boyle, that was reprinted on an SCV camp website. Is Schade lying? Is the SCV camp that reprinted the letter a bunch of liars, or just dupes?

have only your word on what you say is factual & everyone here KNOWS that you are a SERIAL LIAR & a south-HATER, thus absent independent PROOF, i can't say that i believe ANY of your post.

Davis's book is available in its entirely online here. The letter that he received from Father Boyle begins on page 499.

Here's another source, from csa-dixie.com, reprinting an article from the Southern Society Historical Papers, March, 1876 issue, that mentions Father Boyle.

How about this article August, 1900 edition of "The Southern Veteran" that mentions Boyle?

You plainly haven't got your southern partisan research down here. The usual southron take on the Wirz execution is to parade the claim that Wirz was approached, on the eve of his execution, with an offer that he'd be spared if he gave evidence implicating Davis, which Wirz refused. Boyle, along with Schade, is one of the witnesses to this offer, hence Davis's reprinting of the letter. Eliminate Boyle, and you lose the offer.

[avacado]

"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?"

No problem padner! I see Guidos!

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

persons dropped though a gallows trap suffer by broken neck and/or "cervical dislocation". they do NOT strangle to death.

Sometimes the drop is miscalculated. Sometimes it's too short and they strangle. Sometimes it's too long and their head comes off, as happened in hanging of one of Saddam's men back in January. Hanging didn't become a real science until the British perfected it in the early 1900s and published "Official Government Table of Drops" in 1913.

Now, how do you explain the photos that show Wirz standing on top of a gallows, then hanging through the trap door?

[stand watie]

inasmuch as NOTHING you posted (as usual) is ACTUAL proof of anything, your position remains that of a LIAR, absent PROOF.

and NOPE, i'm NOT an "expert", just a person who has read all the original data that i have at my disposal, as well as COL Wirtz's book.

fyi, COL Heinrich Wirtz is a personal friend of mine & i have (on occasions when he was in the USA) brought him to FReeps in DC.

frankly,you're wasting your time trying to convince anyone here that you are correct. we just don't believe ANYTHING you post, LIAR.

free dixie,sw

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

(it certainly was NOT in his "informed self-interest", as a serving military officer, to lie.)

Really? Because you regularly accuse serving military offficers of lying, as when you claim that the men of Ft. Sumter were gorging themselves on chocolate and other delicacies while their officers were writing to Washington claiming that they were close to being starved out.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

inasmuch as NOTHING you posted (as usual) is ACTUAL proof of anything, your position remains that of a LIAR, absent PROOF.

Right. So then you believe that Jefferson Davis was either a liar or a fool, duped by a fake letter. You believe that two different confederate veteran publications from over 100 years ago were liars or dupes.

fyi, COL Heinrich Wirtz is a personal friend of mine & i have (on occasions when he was in the USA) brought him to FReeps in DC.

Yeah, right.

[stand watie]

for starters, WHY should i BELIEVE that those pictures are of CPT Wirz's "judicial murder"???(they could be any of HUNDREDS of other hangings.)

also, the US Army's PM troops have had PLENTY of practice hanging criminals since 1776. (there used to be GIs hanged for theft in the 19th Century)

there was NO mistake. the evidence is that CPT Wirz was strangled ON PURPOSE.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

you know what, "bubba", you are WIDELY KNOWN on this forum as a SERIAL LIAR, a HATER & (if you are, as you CLAIM, the former "heyworth") a BIGOT of the FIRST RANK. thus, anything you post is considered a LIE, absent ABSOLUTE, independent, PROOF to the contrary.

KNOWING that to be true (if i were UNfortunate enough to be you), i would "slink back under my rock" & HOPE that FReepers would eventually forget (they won't.) that i was CAUGHT numerous times telling KNOWING, intentional, CLUMSY, stupid, LIES, as you are.

HONOR/truth/decency is evidently "a stranger" to you, but PLEASE continue to post your HATE-filled nonsense, as you damage the unionists with every STUPID lie you tell.

laughing AT you.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

say "bubba", i just got a PM from a NJ lady of the "FR canteen". (she "reads" but doesn't "post" here. at least i can't remember her ever doing so) =

"TRUTHFULNESS among DAMNyankees is as common as VIRTUE is among patrons of bawdy-houses".

fwiw, she has "your number". laughing AT you, LIAR!!!

free dixie,sw

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

for starters, WHY should i BELIEVE that those pictures are of CPT Wirz's "judicial murder"???(they could be any of HUNDREDS of other hangings.)

Because they're repeatedly identified as such an a large number of sources. If you know how, do a Google images search on "wirz" and "hanging." Here' the link to civilwarphotos.net's page which includes links to three photos of the hanging.

Here's a picture from the Library of Congress with a photo of the same hanging "

The caption reads:

Reading the death warrant to Wirz on the scaffold in Washington, D.C.

CREDIT: "Washington, D.C. Reading the Death Warrant to Wirz on the Scaffold." November 10, 1865. Selected Civil War Photographs, 1861-1865, Library of Congress.

So now, let's see...you've got Father Boyle a liar, Wirz's lawyer a liar, Jefferson Davis a fool for believing them, and the Library of Congress just wrong about the identifcation of a photo in their collection, several SCV chapters, a confederate veterans magazine and I don't know how many other sources that talk about Father Boyle being with Wirz in his cell and on the gallows also complete fools for believing this.