# I've invented a new word. Areaism. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 22, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841 "2003-05-22T17:02:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/21 "2003-05-22T19:54:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by In Conceivable \* > \*\* > I agree with her 100%. I think that redneck should count as such a slur. \*\* You going to count Jeff Foxworthy as a slur as well? let’s get rid of all colors, also, since they may offend people. The only safe color is vermillon, and then it sounds like vermin and is insensitive to rats, so must be discontiuned. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Conceivable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@In\_Conceivable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Conceivable)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/22 "2003-05-22T20:00:13Z")
Jeff Foxworthy can make fun of rednecks in the same way that black comics can make fun of niggers. I have nothing against the color red. I have something against the slur “redneck”. I am not worried about using words that “might” offend people. I am not offended when someone uses the word redneck. However, it is a slur just as much as the words fag or gyp. We think nothing of telling people not to use those words. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/23 "2003-05-22T20:07:04Z")
it depends on its use, **Tars Baby** \* - tar baby was once a very common slur for a certain ethnic group. I made the pun out of his name for effect. When used to demean, almost anything identifiable can be a slur. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/24 "2003-05-22T20:15:13Z")
OK, white people who think “redneck” is a slur as vile as “nigger” Shut the fuck up, you ignorant fools. White people were never enslaved by black people here. White people were never kept out of jobs and education by black people. White people weren’t kept segregated in shitty schools and crappy parts of town by black people. White people were never systematically brutalized by a system stacked against by the black power structure. Black people don’t burn crosses on white people’s lawns. Black people don’t paint “Die, redneck, die!” on the house of the first white family to move out of the hood into a nice black neighborhood. No white person was ever lynched by a crowd of blacks and taunted with “redneck.” White people are not depicted as skow-witted minstrel clowns on television. There are no old movies with subservient, bug-eyed, tapdancing, chicken-eating, dice-throwing white people used with derision and contempt by black people. Basketball players, drug dealers, and comedians are not the only successful white people depicted in the media. Even today, white people can get good jobs without it being assumed that they are incompetents hired only through affirmative action. White people are not looked at as potential shoplifters by storekeepers. White people in expensive cars are not stopped by cops for no reason. Don’t you DARE compare the term “nigger” to “redneck.” “Redneck” cannot shatter the soul of a white person as “nigger” does a black person. “Nigger” is a vile, disgusting word that only the trashiest white person would ever use. Besides, some of us from the rural South are proud of being rednecks. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/25 "2003-05-22T20:20:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NotMrKnowItAll \* > \*\*I live in the South, I spend all my time here. I have never, ever heard anyone use y’all in the singular. Could you please provide a citation demonstrating such? \*\* Typically regions on TV and in movies. However, consider that those are just actors reading from scripts that were probably written by, um, um, “transplanted or native neurotic New Yorkers.” ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/26 "2003-05-22T20:27:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\* > Don’t you DARE compare the term “nigger” to “redneck.” “Redneck” cannot shatter the soul of a white person as “nigger” does a black person. “Nigger” is a vile, disgusting word that only the trashiest white person would ever use. > > \*\* A-fucking-men ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/27 "2003-05-22T20:30:46Z")
**gobear** , you made a lot of stereotypical assumptions in your post. Besides, I never said “redneck” was as hurtful as “nigger.” But, as I’ve gone on about in previous threads on this subject, stereotyping anyone is a fool’s mistake. And has no place in polite society. Now, sometimes humor can be ok. But, IMHO, it should be the person’s own ethnicity, region, religion, whatever. I don’t think it’s funny to put someone down. However, you do make a very good point of just how hurtful words can be. While few words directed at any group have the effect as “N\*\*\*\*\*”, some people will find just about anything to hate, demean, and use as a weapon. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/28 "2003-05-22T20:37:51Z")
> [@](#): > > gobear, you made a lot of stereotypical assumptions in your post Name one. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/29 "2003-05-22T20:38:11Z")
FWIW, I do admit that Blacks still don’t have it as good, for the most part, as whites in Average America. Slavery was wrong. And I have indeed seen racial profiling. Recently. It sickens me. But, guess what? I don’t do it. I don’t think that way. I try to live a little bit outside my own awareness. Where I need to change, I do. I think that’s what the OP was trying to point out about people’s stereotyping of The South. While not near as bad as the race issue, it’s still stupid. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/30 "2003-05-22T20:38:24Z")
I thought this thread was going to be about people who have a problem with [David Bowie](http://areaology.com/area.html). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/31 "2003-05-22T20:41:44Z")
Through completely unscientific observation, I conclude that 94.3% of all persons using the word “redneck” are from the South. If you _really_ want offensive, consider the word “Yankee”, indiscriminately applied to all Northerners, and highly distasteful, especially if you are a Red Sox fan. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/32 "2003-05-22T20:52:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Name one. \*\* Ok, so it wasn’t “a lot.” it was two. The references to cross burning and white trash. And, I think you read a bit too much into what was posted before, esp by Profane Creation. I apologize for any apparant flame fanning. As I hope I pointed out before ( in previous threads), we are all on the same side. We want fair treatment. We want an end to predjudice. ALL predjudice. The past is dead. At least, it _should_ be.) Let’s work on our future. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/33 "2003-05-22T21:02:10Z")
Actually, **gobear** , white people in the South were indeed systematically deprived of their rights to vote, to hold public office, to attend school, and were regularly terrorized and/or publicly ridiculed with no legal recourse. It was a fun little period called Reconstruction. In fact, the poverty and lack of widespread education caused by these governmental policies is the root of most of the insulting stereotypes people associate with the South to this day. So some folks assume black people are stupid and incompetent. Lots of folks assume white people from the South are not only stupid and incompetent, but racist cousin-fuckers to boot. Are you saying one set of prejudices is light-years worse than the other? I have to wonder who’s the ignorant fool, here. ---
**Author:** ![Profane\_Creation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@Profane\_Creation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane_Creation)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/34 "2003-05-22T21:09:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \* > \*\ ***gobear** , you made a lot of stereotypical assumptions in your post. > > Besides, I never said “redneck” was as hurtful as “nigger.” > > But, as I’ve gone on about in previous threads on this subject, stereotyping anyone is a fool’s mistake. And has no place in polite society. > > Now, sometimes humor can be ok. But, IMHO, it should be the person’s own ethnicity, region, religion, whatever. I don’t think it’s funny to put someone down. > However, you do make a very good point of just how hurtful words can be. > > While few words directed at any group have the effect as “N\*\*\*\*\*”, some people will find just about anything to hate, demean, and use as a weapon. \*\* I think gobear’s comment was likely directed at me. Funny thing is, that I had edited that sentence at the end specifically to _not_ say “just as offensive” in my first post. Or at least I thought I had. That was kinda my point on the ‘lower tier’ phrase. Sorry 'bout that. And by the way, **gobear** , there’s no reason to tell me to “shut the fuck up you ignorant fool” if indeed you were talking to me. If you have a point that you’d like to make to me, please make it. But there’s no need to say that. I am capable of reading and actually paying attention to your comment(s) without that kind of shit being directed at me. I’ll just chalk it up to you being fed up with hearing people say that ‘redneck’ is as bad as ‘nigger’ and needed to vent a little. And if you don’t agree that kike and whop are as offensive as the ‘big one’ in question, fine. We can all appreciate your post on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/35 "2003-05-22T21:36:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CrazyCatLady \* > \*\*Actually, **gobear** , white people in the South were indeed systematically deprived of their rights to vote, to hold public office, to attend school, and were regularly terrorized and/or publicly ridiculed with no legal recourse. It was a fun little period called Reconstruction. In fact, the poverty and lack of widespread education caused by these governmental policies is the root of most of the insulting stereotypes people associate with the South to this day. > > So some folks assume black people are stupid and incompetent. Lots of folks assume white people from the South are not only stupid and incompetent, but racist cousin-fuckers to boot. Are you saying one set of prejudices is light-years worse than the other? > > I have to wonder who’s the ignorant fool, here. \*\* That would be you. First, brush up on your history. This bit, "white people in the South were indeed systematically deprived of their rights to vote, to hold public office, to attend school, and were regularly terrorized and/or publicly ridiculed with no legal recourse. It was a fun little period called Reconstruction, " is woefully inaccurate. No whites were deprived of the right to attend school during Reconstruction, and only men who refused to take the oath of loyalty to the union were excluded from voting and public office. May I suggest you read Eric Foner’s _Reconstruction_ and stop getting your information from old movies? > [@](#): > > Lots of folks assume white people from the South are not only stupid and incompetent, but racist cousin-fuckers to boot. Are you saying one set of prejudices is light-years worse than the other? Absolutely, unless you’re suggesting that rural whites have suffered as much as blacks have. And as a born and bred Southerner and as a student of history, I can safely say you do not know what you are talking about. > [@](#): > > I think gobear’s comment was likely directed at me. no, they weren’t. My initial post was not directed at any specific person but to all people who trhink that “redneck” is as hurtful or has the resonance of the epithet, “nigger,” which is ahistorical nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/36 "2003-05-22T21:48:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Absolutely, unless you’re suggesting that rural whites have suffered as much as blacks have. And as a born and bred Southerner and as a student of history, I can safely say you do not know what you are talking about. I believe you’re seriously misreading here, **gobear**. She is not saying that one _epithet_ is as bad as the other. She’s saying that the _prejudices_ are equally bad, and I have to agree. “Nigger” is definitely the worse epithet, but I can’t honestly say that a prejudice against black people is worse than a prejudice against rural white people. They’re, as far as I can tell, equally ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/37 "2003-05-22T21:55:37Z")
Oh, I agree, **Ogre** prejudices are equal in nature, but I submit that they are very different in effect. No matter how much Yankees might see Southerners through the prism of _Hee Haw_ and _The Dukes of Hazzard_, Southerners are not discriminated against with the same severity or pervasive degree that black people endure. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/38 "2003-05-22T22:22:13Z")
OK, this is actually a fascinating question to me, and I wonder (seriously, not snarkily) how you quantify such a statement. Much institutionalized racism against blacks has rightfully been eliminated by legal action and policy changes. In some cases, blacks have even been given a hiring advantage over white people of the same qualifications (not to turn this into an Affirmative Action argument.) But fundamentally, how is it possible to say that “blacks are discriminated against more” without relying utterly on anecdotal and hypersensationalized data? How do you actually _know_ that there is a continuing (present tense) problem with racism against blacks that is worse than any other given widespread prejudice? I could, after all, give you story after story about how I was asked when I went to work for a (very) liberal NGO in Washington, “You mean you’re actually _from_ Alabama? What do you do down there?” and “You know you’ll have to work with lots of people from other cultures here, right? And that racial epithets and jokes are unacceptable?” and “Alabama? Isn’t that where that black guy was dragged to death behind a car?” So on and so on, including a number of anecdotes showing that my grandfather was denied jobs based on his earlier years as a poor, white sharecropper from Georgia. Seriously, where is the data? ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/39 "2003-05-22T22:25:21Z")
I should also point out that, as a natural scientist, my area of expertise is not sociology, nor (although I am a serious student of it) history. ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841/40 "2003-05-22T22:26:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by In Conceivable \* > \*\* > I am not worried about using words that “might” offend people. I am not offended when someone uses the word redneck. However, it is a slur just as much as the words fag or gyp. We think nothing of telling people not to use those words. \*\* What the hell makes “gyp” an offensive term? What, are there a bunch of gypsies worried that the word will somehow tarnish their reputation? Is that even the etymology of “gyp”? Heck, I said it alot growing up, I never spelled the word, I had no idea that was the correct spelling. And gypsies aren’t really an ethicity either. That woman who got caught on video beating her child was described as a gypsie, and she didn’t look eastern european or mediterranean. If gypsies aren’t an ethnicity, then it can’t be an ethnic slur. And if we’re going to play **gobear** ’s little “who’s more persecuted” contest and rank words according to which groups they offend and why, “gyp” has got to be among the _least_ offensive slurs, if it is one. I know people who say “I got jewed” when they get ripped off, now _that_ is an ethnic slur. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-invented-a-new-word-areaism/176841.md?page=3)