Posted on 07/14/2005 6:10:21 AM PDT by robowombat
Bias against Southerners misses the mark By RICHARD COX Published July 11, 2005
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Does prejudice exist in Pasco County, an area with a very diverse population and seemingly very progressive?
I am certain that African-Americans, Hispanics and people from other countries, the poor and homeless, as well as members of certain religious faiths, experience treatment different from the mainstream populace. However, I am a member of a minority who has experienced attitudes and reactions from many individuals who assume that I am intellectually and socially challenged.
A very large percentage of the population of New Port Richey in particular is from the Northeast. I personally like the outspokenness, mince-no-words attitude, the ability to criticize as well as accept criticism without being offended, that seems to represent the culture in which Northerners grew up.
My family members seem to have the disadvantage of being born and living most of our lives in the South, in our case, Tennessee. I grew up in Knoxville, a city that many people seem to associate only with the fanatical behavior of our college football fans, and my wife is from a small city near Chattanooga.
There still seems to be a stereotype that some people associate with Tennesseans. When those individuals heard the distinct accent of my wife, my stepdaughter, and myself, it seemed to conjure up that redneck image one might associate with the humor of Jeff Foxworthy and other Southern comedians. That image is of a culture of ignorant hillbillies (certainly due to inbreeding!), barefoot, living in a shack with no indoor plumbing (but certainly an outhouse in back), having a dog living under the front porch, and owning an overgrown lawn populated with broken-down, dilapidated automobiles. And, yes, we all chew tobacco and sit on the front porch swing playing the banjo. Everyone also flies a Confederate flag and reminisces about the War Between the States.
I first noticed this attitude when my stepdaughter, an honor student, came home from middle school several days in tears because several other students harassed her daily, calling her an ignorant redneck and hillbilly among other derogatory terms. My wife and I have experienced the sudden change in facial expressions from many when they hear our accent. They seem to associate our accent with ignorance, and speak in simpler terms so that we can understand what they are saying. Telephone conversations often produce the same reaction.
I beg to differ. Tennessee is the home of several major universities, four major metropolitan areas with all the drug and gang problems associated with other large cities, and the most visited national park in the United States. Oak Ridge, in the Knoxville area, probably has as high a percentage of residents with doctorate degrees as any city in the United States. Tennessee has a musical heritage equal to none, and it is not exclusively country or bluegrass genres. Many nationally prominent politicians are from my home state, including three former presidents.
Tennessee has produced many famous musicians, actors, scientists and other intellectual and talented natives.
Well, to set the story straight, rural areas of most states have their own populace and dwellings that approach this stereotype.
My wife and I grew up in your average suburban neighborhoods, we both graduated from major universities and had successful professional careers, and, to risk seeming boastful, are probably as intelligent and knowledgeable, if not more so, than the average American. Believe it or not, East Tennessee, the section of the state we are from, fervently supported the Union during the Civil War.
I have noticed in the Pasco Times notices of meetings for various groups from areas of the Northeast and from other countries. Perhaps Southerners in our area should form a similar group. With apologies to an African-American group with a similar title, we could call our group the NAASF, the National Association for the Advancement of Southern Folks, Pasco County Branch. I hope there are enough local Southern residents available to attract to our organization.
--Richard Cox, a retired middle school science teacher and department head, lives in New Port Richey
That's funny. When I lived in Chicago, Chicagoans thought they could use the n-word at liberty in front of me b/c I was from Mississippi. They were wrong. I bridled at the term above the Mason-Dixon line, just like I bridle at it below.
From your perspective though, I suppose I would have to give these guys credit for not trying to cover up their rudeness with a bunch of "smooth-talking cr-p." They were actually quite proud of their racist attiudes, and they didn't even think of apologizing. I guess that just makes them more "honest" though, right?
Funny. That's this Yankee's complaint about "townies/flatlanders/cityfolk, etc" who move out here and want to bring the city with them. I don't need, nor want Ann Arbor to expand 20 miles North.
"So, indulge me for a moment and tell me, if you were king of the world would these folks be prohibited from being anchormen just b/c you don't like Southern accents?"
If I were the "king of the world" as you put it, Southern accents would not be a priority in light of the threats the world is confronting.
"And while Southerners do indeed come off as extremely friendly, in my experience, the friendliness is often cosmetic. For example, I can recall in the not so distant past attending a mixed-race business meeting in Columbia, South Carolina. The local boys were real nice to the me and the black guy, almost to the point of making us feel uncomfortable. But after the black guy left to catch a flight back to New York, one of the good 'ol boys, who must of forgot that I was a Yankee, said right in front of me and five of his southern colleagues, 'I really like Thomas. He's not a bad for a n....r.' As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he knew he had made a mistake, but rather than keeping his mouth shut, he and his buddies started in with that smooth talking southern crap, basically telling me that 'its no big deal,' 'everyone uses the N word down here, even they do,' and in Byrd like fashion, 'it ain't a racist thing or anything 'cause everyone knows there are white n.....s and colored n.....s'"
What of it? You ran into a closet racist from the South. There are plenty up North, too, just ask Al Sharpton. Smooth talking, backpedaling racists are not confined to the South, your anecdotal association notwithstanding.
"Nuff said. Waving around a battle flag isn't exactly holding out the welcome mat.
"Funny. That's this Yankee's complaint about 'townies/flatlanders/cityfolk, etc' who move out here and want to bring the city with them. I don't need, nor want Ann Arbor to expand 20 miles North."
It just so happens being from Florida, I saw them from the getgo, and they were universally from Noo Yawk, so I associate the accent with the behavior we both dislike. Heck, even a special name has attaced to them in the South--carpetbaggers--though damnYankees will do in a pinch.
However, as we've discussed before, there are certainly plenty of Yankees I'd be happy to have in the neighborhood, even marrying my daughter, and that includes Yankees whose accents are like nails on a chalkboard to one who spent years in a nest of damnYankees. It's the folks who insist the world must do things different to accommodate their needs and help them make a quick buck that annoy the living hell out of me.
er, that's 'attached.'
Y'all come back now, y'hear!
If I ever become a "damnyankee"(one who moves South and stays), I'm not going to complain about how we did it back up North. I will however complain if things are being done like they are in Detroit or Ann Arbor......
wouldn't want to talk about who's doing that crime would we?
What is a redneck?
Excellent response and right on the money -- you beat me to it.
I get sick of hearing from the neo rebs how dangerous those "Yankee" cities are when they are sitting in places with twice the crime rate of even New York City. I have travled around the country, and it is a fact that it's far easier to get yourself in a bad way outside the NE than inside it. Don't ask me why, although I do have my suspicions.
It sounds like this thread was directed at you and your ilk.
Black crime is a problem here and in the North.
We have more blacks and they commit more crime disproportionately...hence our poor stats.
That is simply a fact and is precisely why towns such as Memphis, Birmingham, Jackson MS, Little Rock, Charlotte, Atlanta, New Orleans etc have crimes rates as bad or worse than Detroit or Cleveland or Wash DC
I don't think that is a good stick to beat on the South with but use if you like.
Btw....please name the Neo Rebs here....ya'll always say that.
Tell me who of my regional compadres is calling for rebellion or secession.
Meanwhile, some here bash the South with a vitriol that would never be tolerated by the AMs here if the targets were not White southerners. Damn shame but they do give self explanatory reason for why many of us resent some Yankees. I realize there are plenty of decent non South hating Yankees having lived there 8 years part time.
Yankee sanctimony was pivotal in my move from left to right in my early 20s in Manhattan. I owe ya'll for that thanks.
PS: You are not really anywhere near the worst of the nasty folk here and I prefer to be civil with you but there are a few here who can chupa mi la mondan.
Now...for my fav Yankee environs for posterity:
Minnesota and Wisconsin....just a friendly as Southerners
but talk funny
The Thumb
Maine and New Hampshire
Way upstate NYC
Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge....fuggedaboutit
Columbus....babes
Pike County Illinois.....whitetail mecca
Rural PA....bucolic
lower midwest....not much different than KY
that's enuff for now
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