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
My mother from the north referred to my black friends as the "colorerds" or the "colored boy." I would always respond, "What color is that? Pink? Blue? Aqua?" And then I would duck to avoid the slap to the face. Our next door neighbor, who was born and bred in "peanut country," Virgina would use the "N" word to refer to my friends, often to their face.
Granted I'm not aware of the housing market in NY but is it a possiblity that's the cheapest place to live but stay in NY? Just curious.
"You know, 140 years is not a long time in the scheme of things. It is hard to forget, especially when you hear stories of reconstruction from your Grandparents......."
You're right. But time marches on and we're stronger marching to the beat of the same drummer.
My next trip down south will definately involve more historical sites.
I find the fact that southerners hold their family history as it pertains to the struggles of this Republic so close to heart an admirable trait.
It was a premeditated campaign of vilification with an ulterior purpose.
Remember that scene in 48 Hours in which Eddie Murphy beats up all the rednecks in a kicker bar (with a battleflag on the wall, in case someone from Maine's backwoods missed all the other cultural clues) and then, contemplating his next move, suddenly sweeps a stack of bar glasses off onto the floor with a mighty crash, crying out, "Now, let's see what else we can ____ with!" ? Remember that? Well that's exactly what the NAACP campaign that began at the start of the 90's was like.
It began as a way to get the membership's pulse going again, after years on cruise control, and to regenerate a sense of mission and embattlement among the membership (and help them get over the sex and financial scandals the leadership had fallen into) by taking on a powerful symbol of those people, the evil Ancient Enemies. Things had been going too well, and the NAACP had about been ruined by success, and so the leadership undertook a campaign to drive the Confederate flag completely underground and Confederate monuments -- even the word "confederate" -- out of sight. In short, they decided to stomp the rest of us flatter than a tortilla and take white Southerners' history away, for something to do, and to keep the membership entertained and engaged in a sense of purposeful effort.
You'd think they could have done a public-health drive or something.
And The New York Times decided to help them, and launched an official press campaign, sealing the Hate-the-Flag Movement into the official agenda of the New Class.
They've been at it ever since. I predict they won't stop until they are regularly getting convictions and jail sentences or heavy fines for people who display Confederalia of any sort, and the public monuments in small towns all across the South are being removed or destroyed.
Since you asked and all.
I agree. There are fine schools in both the North and South as well as bad. I guess to some all those kids in public schools in the North are graduating as certified geniuses. I think the problems with education is countrywide and not limited to a particular region.
Yours, I suppose?
Thanks for thinking of us. At least we have a "wanted on voyage" sticker on our foreheads. Gives me a new sense of purpose. Serving you and yours. Thanks, boss!
"Yours, I suppose?"
Nope. wrong again, I was thinking more like "ours"... but if you still want to play the roll of the victim, you have my sincere pity and prayers.
Two words: Jeff Foxworthy.
Two more words: Hee Haw
I could go two more and throw out "Minnie Pearl", but I think you've got the idea already.
hahahah...ok, ya got me....
blushing here!
LOL
Um, sorry, but I was talking in present terms not what happened many years ago.
But, Texans fought in the Confederate Army? Good for them.
Sam Houston and David Crockett went from Tennessee to Texas to help defend a fledgling nation? Good for them.
My remark was not meant to be unkind in nature. I meant it as a compliment. If you did not take it as such then I apologize for my poor words causing your misunderstanding. I view Texas and its people as an entity onto itself. I would be proud if somebody from outside my state viewed it that way but it is not so.
Well said. That's the one thing that never turns up on these threads (which are posted every week or two).
There are some "Northern accents" that would get you thrown out of a country club in suburban Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Chicago in under an hour -- or at least shown to the tradesmen's entrance.
It must be the same for some Southern accents. Surely there are some accents that are like a howling cat or screeching on a chalkboard to people in Buckhead or the Garden District.
We know that some of the assumptions that we're told "Northerners" make about "Southerners" aren't so very different from those the Southern gentry makes about back country or common Southerners, but all we hear about is the North vs. South thing.
More like condescension and derision -- which means we were right about you the first time.
Thanks for dropping in to be our topical poster boy today. "Good of you to come."
Very well put. Indeed, there is a huge difference between the way my country cousins, south Georgia farmers, and I in Atlanta speak.
There's a certain affectation in the voices of the women in the country club set in Columbus, GA where I grew up.
I work with a woman from Louisiana who has the typical southern cultered voice. Her accent is yet different from mine, my south Georgia cousins, and my friend in Columbus.
And the SMART northerner is the one who will distinguish between the country and the cultured southerner.
I suppose I could say the same about you...but that would be redundant. Some people like to build bridges while others like to burn them.
If the shoe fits.....
Peace.
:)
Saw him live once. Good show, funny guy.
But would he be as funny telling the exact same jokes with say a Bronx accent? Or would it pi** you off to hear some Yankee stereotyping the South?
I mean only that your regional assignment was erroneous. The eastern part of Texas is part of the Piney Woods belt which extends for thousands of miles along the southern and eastern coast and is a geomorphological artifact of a shared geological history. The eastern section of the State having been most heavily populated in the 19th century, the cultural affinities of Texas have been closest to the South.
There are Mexican and High Plains sections of the state, but those physiographic provinces have always been less heavily populated.
That's all.
No polite Southerner would have made that remark. The guy who said that about your friend was (1) rude, and (2) a show-off.
Polite Southerners will do anything not to offend someone.
I've often said, a polite southern woman will never say to your face - what she can say behind your back. :~)
"What is a redneck?"
http://www.fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm
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