Perhaps that’s so, but those folks also need to understand that “He needed shootin’” is a valid defense against murder here.
And if his name is Earl, it is definitely a free pass. ;j
Oilfield trash here, rig life is something else (one day we might find out what).
unclviny
On a slightly lighter note, has anyone seen the Mr. Show skit where the trailer trash wife beater Ronnie Dobbs stars in a musical?
“Can’t a man enjoy his beer in silence?
Can’t a man control his bitch with violence?
Y’all are brutalizin’ me!”
Well, as luck would have it, I actually have been offered another job - in the computer industry, even. I’m not going to start that job until January, both for tax reasons, and because I have to get all that sticky THC out of my system for pre-employment drug testing (which I disagree with on principal, but in this job market, I don’t have much of a choice).
It pays less than my current job, so unfortunately I may have to work both jobs for a while. I have been putting up with these assholes for 5 years now and my soul is still intact, so I guess a couple more months won’t hurt. I don’t talk to them more often than is absolutely neccessary for my job. When they start with the racist/sexist/homophobic bullshit, I tend to just keep my mouth shut and concentrate on my work. Yeah, I know that’s not exactly fighting ignorance, but sometimes starting fights over things like this at the workplace will only make things worse.
There are times that it does work, though. One of the racists didn’t seem terribly stupid and he shared my interest in computers, so we do talk once in a while. I explained to him why black people comprise a larger percentage of the prison population than whites, and answered the rest of the questions he had. I’m not sure how much effect this conversation had on him, but, to his credit, I haven’t heard the n-word slip out of his mouth since I talked to him. Whether this is because he’s actually learned to think clearly about race, or because he’s sensitive to my feelings, I can’t say for sure, but at least it’s a start.
As for the rest of the questions posted in this thread, well, I work at (suprise, suprise!) a trucking company. I work in the office. Two of the three people I haven’t heard say “nigger” are the other two office workers. The rest are drivers/dockworkers. The sexist asshole happens to be one of the SWM racists, but, of course, I do know that the practice of spousal abuse is not confined to any specific group, and I wasn’t trying to create the impression that it was.
Also, I am married, but I’m waiting until I have a full time job in my field with a steady income before I start breeding.
Well, I’m about to head off to work to put up with these guys for another night. Thanks for the story, Meatros (boy, your uncle sounds like the king of the assholes :(), and thanks to everyone for the kind thoughts.
My guess?
They all work for Senator Trent Lott.
(…but don’t tell anybody - ssshhhhhhh…)
My brother and my girlfriend don’t say it. My best friend never would’ve went near it until he started dating his racist bitch christian fundie girlfriend but I’m slowly losing him to the dark side (she has him convinced that one of her professors hates her because she’s white in a school that’s a good 85% or more white.)
Beyond that, you can’t really ask for much more in this area of the country. I went to a high school where rednecks would stand out in the parking lot with two middle fingers in the air yelling “FUCK ALL YOU NIGGERS!!! FUCK YOU, I DARE YOU TO COME OUT HERE!!!” and the principle would just say something off the cuff like “awright settle down now.”
Now I don’t hang out with the dumb redneck types that I just described but I’m not going to sever all ties with a friend because he drops a word I don’t like every now and then.
I’m not certain that I’ve ever, in my adult life, actually heard someone use the n-word “in anger”. (I live in the SF Bay Area, which is about as liberal as it gets…)
It’s actually pretty surprising who you’ll hear use the word “nigger” and who you won’t. I used to work with 3 of the most backwards-assed rednecks ever known to civilization…they were all related, a uncle and 2 nephews. They were so redneck, when they first moved from (name of state withheld as to not cause offense) to Maryland, they were utterly flabbergasted to learn that they couldn’t walk around with a pistol stuck down the front of their pants.
They had no love for black people, but never used any kind of racial slur…and, in fact, took offense when they heard others use it. Their rationale was, in brief, “Just because I don’t like blacks doesn’t mean they ain’t human beings, and there ain’t no need to call em names.”
That attitude was interesting when compared to a girl I recently met…a 29 year old law student, comes from your stereotypical New England liberal family, traveled worldwide, fluent in 3 languages, etc. etc. etc. Once this girl got 3 vodkas in her, her hyper-quick and hyper-nasal verbal assault was very, very generously sprinkled with references to “niggers”, “coons”, “spics”, and, most uniquely, “shit people”, which I guess was a collective term for any non-white.
As far as woman-beating goes, it’s something of a secret shame for most men, so you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who even admits it, let alone brags about it. One exception is a current co-worker of mine, a fundamentalist Christian who’s a seemingly nice guy until you get onto the subject of women. He apparently dislikes most women, especially women who display any sign of “whorishness” (defined by him as wearing a skirt that goes above the mid-shin) and has no problem telling anyone how he smacks his wife or makes her GO TO BED WITHOUT HAVING DINNER for offenses such as “backtalk” or failing to get the laundry done within a specified amount of time.
The sad thing is, I’ve met this guy’s wife, and she apparently loves him to death…she might be putting on a public face, but I believe that between her husband and her own fundamentalist beliefs, she’s just brainwashed herself into thinking that she deserves such treatment.
Redneck , n., Used as a disparaging term for a member of the white rural laboring class, especially in the southern United States.
I fail to see how calling people ‘redneck’ is any better then calling people ‘nigger’.
Uhhh, come down south RobertTB, they call themselves that and they’re “damn proud” of it.
Sure, and in how many rap tunes is ‘Nigger’ (Niggah) used? Doesn’t mean people should go around calling others either.
I knew you’d say that. That’s why I added “and they’re ‘damn proud’ of it” They like being called that, alot of them wear shirts and hats that say Redneck. I went to highschool with a guy that bleached the word into all of his bluejeans. Get off your high horse.
My dad was raised in West Texas…and for those of you who live in Texas, that would really be all you need to know, but for those of you outside the state…West Texas is known as the Last Bastion of The Original Redneck. My dad frequently uses the words “nigger” and “wetback” and “chink” to describe, well, anyone who isn’t white and male.
He was outraged when he found out that Rice University started allowing black people to enroll…because he said that “on their original charter, they were forbidden! Who do these modern fuckers think they are to change the charter? To re-write the way the founders wanted their school to run?”
He calls anyone of Latin descent a “Meskin,” and the last time he came to see me, we drove past a school that had just let out…and he started yelling, “GODDAMIT! Why do they fucking BREED so much! They’re everywhere!”
I should insert here that my fiance is one of the dreaded “Meskins,” so dear ol’ Dad disowned me for awhile…he’s your basic white supremacist and he has mentioned to me that he thinks white babies are by far the most beautiful and that he wants grandchildren with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Whatever. This kind of racism will only die when my dad does. I love him b/c he’s my dad, but I can’t stand him and I see him as little as possible. Cisco is correct…time, and future generations, are the only thing that will kill this.
And even then we’ll find new reasons to hate each other.
:rolleyes:
I am sorry.
I am not up to speed on my double-standards. If you would be so kind as to send me a copy of your double-standards rulebook, I promise to change my erring ways.
Did I mention, for the record, that he’s also a “devout Christian?” :rolleyes:
I’d say the difference lies less in dictionary terms than it does in real-life semantics and application.
Most so-called “rednecks” don’t mind at all when they’re referred to as such by friends or family. Strangers, yes.
Quite a few black people call each other “nigger” when amongst friends or acquaintances. I doubt, however, that they feel as comfortable when a white person calls them that.
Words really are just words. It’s their context and implied meaning that cause offense.
A Hispanic friend of mine routinely refers to anyone he finds disreputable as a “nigger”…whites, blacks, hispanics, Indians, eskimos, anyone can be a nigger in his book. For him the word doesn’t have racial implications…it’s a synonym for “loser”.
A feminist acquaintance of mine uses the word “bitch” to describe women she doesn’t like. Given her political/social beliefs, is she really likening a fellow human female to a female dog? Or just a careless, thoughtless word?
I’m not defending anyone who uses any kind of slur. I do think that life would be much better if we stopped throwing demeaning, generalizing labels on each other.
I just think this whole issue of the word “nigger”, just like any kind of slur like “redneck” or “spic” or “cunt” for that matter, is more complex in usage than most people would like to admit. But I’m not a linguist or a sociologist; I’d like to hear their takes on it.
For what its worth, redneck is not a derogatory term in many parts of the country, its actually a compliment, no matter who is saying it.
Around here, redneck is taken as a joking, good humored thing when it comes from people who live here or in other rural areas. If someone who is upper-middle class or wealthy and from a city uses it, the people I live around don’t take too kindly to it, but they’re not likely to get bent out of shape over that one.
Now if someone were to hop out of a limo and call them hicks or hillbillies, they tend to get downright mad. It’s not the implication that they’re lower-middle class that bothers them, or the implication that they do manual labor work. It’s the thing about how rednecks/hicks/hillbillies are stupid and inbred. Sure, my town’s got its village idiots, but just being a poor person from a coal patch doesn’t make a person stupid or inbred.
It’s where I came from, and (if I may cave to my egotism) I am neither stupid nor inbred.