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
"AMERICAN BY BIRTH. SOUTHERN BY THE GRACE OF GOD!"
Agree totally.
A woman with a true southern accent can have a man wrapped around her finger in no time flat, if she wants.
Oh, and a joke I heard this morning, just for you 8-)
What's worse than a male chauvenist pig?
A woman who won't do what she's told.
Southerners are more polite too (on a whole). And friendlier. Heck, if I didn't already live down here, I reckon I'd move here too. Poor yankees, they just want what we have, and are jealous of us. That's all it is.
I dunno. I've certainly come to expect stupidity from anyone with a "Kennedy accent" (or should that be "Bahs-ton" accent).
I don't blame them. I wouldn't want to either. ;-)
That even includes the northerners of California.
We have air-conditioning, but most people don't.
We have two units, one upstairs and one downstairs. Yesterday, the upstairs unit broke. It was 87 degrees upstairs in the evening. That's hot!
I slept downstairs in the air conditioning.
IIRC, they drop dead like flies any time the temp approaches 100. Dumb yankees.
Everything that comes out of Hollywood and New York equates a southern accent with ignorance. That's why the mere presence of Bush in the Oval Office drives so many of those people crazy. ;)
uh...is that 'spose to be a 'bad thing'?
Why would anyone not have a/c? Hello! What's the use of having modern conveniences if you don't use them?
Sheesh!
Tuesday night at 10:30 it was 84F with the heat index at 92F
Not everything!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092974/
I can certainly relate to this article. Our son attended Deerfield Academy in the early seventies and the attitude was alive and well then. Almost every time we meet (d#@% Yankees) in our travels, they tend to condescend and are totally surprised at our knowledge of history, culture, etc.--"so impressed, my dear, with your world knowledge!"
Incidentally, I attached the d#@% to Yankee because a teacher of mine in HS (Texas) said it was a part of the word Yankee, not because of any cultural bias.
I just tell them, yes, we have three bedrooms and a path, and running water when we run all the way to the well and back. Also learned to read in remedial college English before earning my BA and MS.
vaudine
"IIRC, they drop dead like flies any time the temp approaches 100. Dumb yankees."
Not really.... I prefer warm weather. It regularly gets up to about 105 in my shop...doesn't bother me a bit.
We won't even get into southerners driving in a "blizzard" when they get 3/8ths of an inch of the white stuff on the ground. Us Yankees can't wait to get home and watch the evening news when you clueless southerners get a dusting of snow. "Break out the pop corn"!
Southern by birth, Tarheel by the grace of God. ;-)
Typical ignorance and arrogance. I've experienced the same - when my employer sold her business to a large corporation in New York. The condescension of the New Yorkers toward us Southerners was so obvious. In time we've come to realize that those folks up north aren't very smart.
Heck, we Southerners love a good blizzard...make sure there's enough beer - time to party!
Blizzard 1978 in the country west of Atlanta. Tied the canoe to the tracker with a 40 ft rope, and rode the cow pastures till we wore a hole in the back of the canoe. About 25 of us got "snowed in"' for two days. One of us was the "mayor" who conned a store owner to open on Sunday and bring us more beer - and pizza.
tracker = tractor for us southern rednecks
I could maybe see not having A/C in San Francisco, Oakland, or the Northern Coast. It really does rarely get over 80 degrees in those cities. It also cools off and usually is overcast until the afternoon. However, if you go inland a few miles it starts to get hot.
Personally, if it gets above 80 or 90 degrees for more than a few weeks then you need A/C. We didn't A/C for a few years, and my husband (a Californian) finally broke down when it got to be 113 degrees. I was ready at 90 degrees.
Can you tell I'm from the South (Texas!)?
Don't get me about the way they talk. I'm sorry,but a Coke is a Coke not a soda. And now that I mention a Sprite, Orange Soda, etc is a coke. Everything is a coke except Dr. Pepper.
LOL, I wonder why that is? At restaraunts, if you ask for a coke, they bring you whatever cola they have, coke or pepsi.
"Heck, we Southerners love a good blizzard...make sure there's enough beer - time to party!
Blizzard 1978 in the country west of Atlanta. Tied the canoe to the tracker with a 40 ft rope, and rode the cow pastures till we wore a hole in the back of the canoe. About 25 of us got "snowed in"' for two days. One of us was the "mayor" who conned a store owner to open on Sunday and bring us more beer - and pizza."
heheheheh...good one! Ok...maybe there are a FEW of you who know what to do in a snow storm. ;)
"course another blizzard in Atlanta hit about 3pm without any warning, and we were blindsided! Folks pouring out of downtown Atlanta got stranded on interstates. They'd just leave their cars on the interstates and walk to the nearest hotel or bar and hunker down. Hotels would open their bars and lobbies to stranded folks. People didn't get home for days.
We learned after that snow storm. That's why we Atlantans tend to get frantic when snow storms approach.
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