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
Indeed, maybe I am old fashioned in always preferring full size cars that don't bounce all over the joint.
"('scuze me while I spew sweet tea all over the keyboard.)"
I must be losing it in the translation, you mean 'iced tea/ice tea' spilled over your keyboard?
Here ---/
Do you really speak like that in public? "What's the matter, boy, scuze, Y'all" etc? Someone would have to be a complete blithering idiot to buy anything after hearing that nonsensical mumbo jumbo.
Like I needed to ask -lol
Your comments "The effete, wimpy, clueless, semi-transvestic yuppie collectors" is that description equally applicable to anyone not speaking in the manner you do?
I hope you realize the vast majority of Americans & the rest of the English speaking world might have difficulties trying to comprehend your spoken lingo.
"They want what meets their preconceived, obsessively held stereotype of authentic local Southern color. So they get it."
If those yuppie schlubs go for that stuff then they it serves them right getting royally japed for being dumb greedy pushovers. They have to be total chumps, and I really doubt you have had many 'junk takers' from the Tri-State area, (greater NY), nor Providence or Boston. These are real morons, as in first class mooks & schlemiels.
What you have tagged "beltway dwelling types", nothing wrong with living uptown, what's wrong with that?
I hope you're not going to tell me if you won a penthouse with an incredible view overlooking an entire city you would trade in for a mosquito infested swamp at 105 degrees?
How many of these neo-confederates do you think live in bunkers on their rural compounds and masturbate to the thought of a total breakdown of society? They probably hope that will let them get their slaves back.
I bet they were super prepared for Y2K.
Don't mistake lack of caring for ignorance. I understand the process of how a steak ends up on my plate. I just don't really care.
People need to see *why* you are the root of all the problems.
Too bad there's nothing that people like you can do to change the status quo. I bet that drives you crazy.
Those dirty people are so much less than you because they can be self reliant, unlike you, who are helpless to actually do any work to fend for yourself
When you say "fend for yourself" you're talking about some Grizzly Adams fantasy you might have. Most people in this country have gotten past such a quaint notion.
So, keep living in your compound, dreaming of the apocalypse. Make sure to stock up on tin foil, though.
Isabel, though that was a tropical storm by the time it hit us.
I've been through about 3 real hurricanes down in Florida. Didn't have any problems getting through them.
He said hurricane, not nuke. Right? Well, this figures. Anyone who's so big a doofus that they can't tell a "supply line disruption" from the apocalypse couldn't tell the difference between a hurricane and a nuke either.
No, it's just that the poster in question is pretty unhinged. You can never be exactly sure what he is talking about.
I guess this is an example of the "friendly, civilized Southron" the neo-Confederates are always talking about.
It says a lot about somebody that they would do something like this to a neighbor.
fwiw, i've worked relief for 5 MAJOR hurricanes & 4 MAJOR tornadoes (one was the PARIS TORNADO. that one was HORRIFYING!). at the time i was in the TXARNG & they were NOT fun, particularly CAMILLE.
anybody who underestimates the destructive force of a major hurricane is a FOOL! period. end of story.
free dixie,sw
it's good to see you still posting FOOLish, mean-spirited, arrogantly ignorant, BILGE on FR.
don't you get tired of being RIDICULED by everyone on FR, who has a functioning brain???
free dixie,sw
free dixie
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
as for me & my house, we are READY for the BIG ONE that WILL, i fear, hit this area before too much longer. we are prepared to live "independently" for 30 days, if necessary.
free dixie,sw
Well it's rather obvious to everyone that leaves you out Sammy!
"Isn't America great? Except for the South."
-Peter Griffin
are you also a RACIST like him/her/it too? (perhaps you can get him to REPOST his/her/its RACIST comment #645 for you, so that you can see for yourself what he/she/it is.)
my grandfather always said, "scratch a damnyankee & racist blood will drip from his wounds." my grandfather was CORRECT.
free dixie,sw
Some probably thought, this is it, the meltdown to total chaos & their only chance to ignite a second Civil War and this time the 'lost cause' will 'win'.
Some might have been dreaming & drooling of regaining all that was 'gone with the wind' coupled with all the 'free forced labour'. All these rubes & yokels have is their defeated past since being incapable of living in the here and now.
MOST people here think you and "m.eSPINola" are DUNCES of the first rank & simply "objects of ridicule".
free dixie,sw
Well, at least he/she knows that "i" needs to be capitalized.
my grandfather always said, "scratch a damnyankee & racist blood will drip from his wounds." my grandfather was CORRECT.
Right. Are any of these fine "Southrons" related to you, perhaps?
Without a doubt. At the very least, you have an obsession with the past.
MOST people here think you and "m.eSPINola" are DUNCES of the first rank & simply "objects of ridicule".
Maybe amongst your neo-Confederate KKKoven. That's fine with me: a man is known by his enemies and if you guys hate me, I wear that as a badge of honor.
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