Southern stereotypes and casual slurs

The BBQ Pit
1

Okay, a bit of intro to this pallid rant: I loathe cringing PC idiocies. They too often stifle honest talk under an unconvincing mask.

But over time I’ve noticed a particular stereotype used here with suprising venom and frequency–and seemingly, without thought. Specifically, Southerners (in the specific US sense) get casually sideswiped by completely casual slurs. If pressed, the discussions usually entail standard disclaimers, e.g. “well, not everybody”, etc.

Purely for perspective, as I’m as northern as they come, born and reared in Ohio, now live in Illinois. A great& grandfather lost an arm in the Civil War, fighting for the Union.

But I’ve lived in the American South briefly, and visited it often. In my experience, the ratio was about the same as anywhere: mostly great folks, a few jerks. Southern culture is different in some respects. So is desert southwest, high plains, Appalachian, Down Eastern, eastern urban, midwest, etc.

But it seems that Southerners come in for more casual, stupid, unthinking slams. No one can poke more joyous, defiant fun at the redneck stereotypes than southerners themselves. Jeff Foxworthy made a brief career of it. That’s one thing. (Translation for our Canadian friends: Newfie jokes.)

But it’s another to categorize people–regionally or by country, etc.–based on dubious boilerplate definitions. Insults toward New Yorkers, midwesterners and Californians received naplam in return.

So fair is fair. This is one northerner who’s pissed off and tired of the comfy, casual generalizations about people and things southern.

Wimpy, wordy, sincerely annoyed,
Veb

2

Thank you. I agree completely. I usually don’t say anything because PC hypersensitivities get on my nerves but no one ever really equates Southern slurs with other ones. I’m not clear on why calling someone a “Southern slur” is somehow not as bad as calling someone another slur but many Americans seem to think this way. Maybe someone who feels this way can give us some insight…

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3

Well, like I said in my “Confederate Flag” posts…some of it may be that a lot of it we bring on ourselves, or at least many of our Southern brothers and sisters do. Hanging on to that damned flag as some kind of symbol of “Southern pride” doesn’t help matters. The standard arguments just don’t wash. Also I think it’s the accent, which is something that we just can’t seem to throw off either. The accent has always been associated with stupidity, why I don’t know for sure. Well honestly, in some parts of the South it is a little thick. I guess it doesn’t sound any worse than a Jersey or Brooklyn accent. But when you think about it a Boston or New England accent sounds just a little more…arisotcratic maybe?

It is true though, seems like people will get called down for buying into stereotypes about minorities especially but we Southerners are fair game. Could it be that perhaps we aren’t the only ones with a little residual resentment left over from the war? Or a little ingrained cultural bias to put it better.

Oh well, along with our southern pride comes the notion that we just don’t give a damn Scarlett if you Yankees think we’re stupid or not! So there! But thanks for taking up for us, I’d be willing to bet though I could poll half a dozen good old boys who’d tell you they didn’t need your damned approval! Sometimes you can have to much pride, isn’t it one of the 7 deadlies. :smiley:

4

You are correct Veb. Everyone knows true shitkickers can come from any state that begins with a vowel.

5

Veb,

Thank you from someone who was born and raised in Texas and whose family came from Georgia and Tennesse.

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6

Thanks, TVeblen, for noticing this.

I try not to get bent out of shape about it. Hell, I can take a little ribbing.

It’s only when people seriously believe the stereotypes that I get bugged.

Personal anecdote: Not to blow my own horn, but I attended a prestigious college which shall remain nameless. When I got there, straight from the Georgia hills, thick hillbilly accent and all, I learned that I had been assigned to a freshman English composition class.

Well, that was a mistake. I had scored high enough on the achievement tests to be exempted from the class. I went in to talk to my advisor, a professor from New York. When I told him, in my stereotypically “stupid” Southern accent that I wasn’t supposed to be in freshman English, he just stared at me with a look that said “Yeah, right,” and then he said “Well a lot of people think they shouldn’t have to take freshman English…”

I had to track down the written transcript of my test scores before he believed me. When he saw the score, he was visibly astonished.

Just one example, but because of my accent, I have encountered many times the assumption that I must be stupid.

Movies and television promoted the stereotype relentlessly until the past few years. I have noticed a bit of a change, though, in the way southerners are portrayed. Maybe the stereotypes will gradually fade away. Until then, I guess we’ll just have to take it with a grin and try to prove them wrong. Glad to see we have convinced at least one person, TVeb. :wink:

7

Well, I for one, am offended at the OP. I take great pride in never flinging about casual slurs. Any slur I cast is done with method and malice aforethought.

Tom~

8

Perhaps I’ll be the only one to say this, but the stereotypes are true! Everywhere I go here in Louisiana, I see misspelled signs that stay up for years because the people who put them up are too ignorant to know or care about the correct spelling of anything.
Speaking of ignorance, how about the Alabama law that redefined the value of pi to an even 3! That law PASSED! Even more incredulous, Mississippi overwhelmingly passed a law that removed fractions and decimal points from public school curriculums! This is Southern idiocy at its finest, people!

Apparently nobody seems to mind the acts of these moronic politicians and nobody minds their corruption either. Here in LA, we had not one, but TWO indicted policitians who ran for re-election last year. One of them actually won! The former governer of Louisiana is currently on trial for all sorts of money making schemes and conspiracies. He faces something like 300 years in prison. While he was governer it was widely known that this shit was going on, yet he kept getting elected over and over. Hell this is the state where David Duke almost got elected governer!

In general, people here are FAR more openly racist than they are in other parts of the country. Deny it all you want, but I see it every fucking day. I know people whose every other sentence begins with the words “That stupid nigger.” Yes there are racists up North, but at least they keep it to themselves because they know they’ll get the piss beat out of them if they don’t.

If you look at statistics, you’ll see that the states with the highest infant mortality rates, worst education, lowest pay, highest poverty rates, etc, etc will invariably be Southern states.

The only thing I can say about Southerners is that, in general, they’re very friendly people (if you’re white). Sometimes a little too friendly! I really don’t feel like starting a conversation with every random stranger I run into and none of them recognize my non-committal grunts as a subtle indicator of this fact. They just ramble on and on about how hot it is, how bad the traffic is, and stupid things that black people did.

I’m not saying that every Southern person is an idiot. There are some very smart Southerners. I’m saying that the general level of intelligence is lower here than it is in other areas. Come on, how many indicted Northern politicians would even have the audacity to run for re-election at all, let alone WIN?!

9

You had to go and spell governor wrong, didn’t you?

10

Well you have to admit neutron there are stupid people everywhere. Not just the South. And while I detest the word ‘nigger’ and can’t remember ever using it I’m sure the ‘Spics’ in New York would disagree with you on the fact that the South is the only place you find bigots and prejudice that seems to be in every state. And needs2know if you would get off soapbox about the flag maybe people would stop making such an issue of it. There are NOT that many people in the South that even own a Confederate flag much less fly one. Bringing it up over and over again leads people to the concept that we all have these flags flying all over the place. While I would defend someone’s right to have one, it’s not that big a deal. It is true that we do it to ourselves a lot of times, but usually slurs are made by people with low self-confidence looking for a scapegoat. With that in mind, sometimes it’s just better to let it roll off your back.

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11

What I have a problem with is the people who believe that the legends about Alabama passing a law rounding pi to 3 and Mississippi removing decimals and fractions from the school curriculum are true.

12

Two points:

  1. the slurs are not against all southerners, but rather just against the white ones. I never hear slurs about southern blacks, just Rednecks, which we all know are white.

  2. the other group that gets slurred constantly (which drives me nuts) is blonds. I hear all of the old Polock jokes recycled with “blond” thrown in.

13

neutron star, I sure hope you weren’t educated in Louisiana, because if you were, your post is a serious indictment of the school system there.

(Hint: Try actually reading the sites you linked. Including the fine print.)

14

I knew someone would go picking through my post looking for one little misspelling. The difference, of course, is that if I had it to do over again, I’d spell it correctly. Most of the people down here wouldn’t, at least from what I’ve seen.

Uhhhhh… have you ever BEEN to the South?! No, they don’t have flags flying high above their houses, but what they DO have is front license plates that feature the rebel flag, or a flag hanging in the back window of a pickup truck. Sometimes they have lame “No Fear” bumper stickers with the words written over a Confederate flag. These are EVERYWHERE and I mean everywhere. In fact, I can look out my window right now and see one in the parking lot of the apartments right across from mine.

A few months ago, I saw a car apparently driven by a VERY, VERY brave soul which had a bumper stick with a Confederate flag X-ed out. It said “Get over it. You lost.” I nearly rear-ended the guy as I lauged my ass off. He also had another sticker that said “Jesus Christ - Superfraud.” Like I said, a VERY brave soul …

15

Oh, thank God. I see from his other post that neutron star is a product of the Pennsylvania school system. We southerners can’t take responsibility for this one, folks. :wink:

16

Boy is MY face red! Actually this is a little confusing. The Mississppi law is true. The Mississippi page features the quote :

This is a little misleading. I figured that since the MS law was true and the KS rule was also true, that the AL law wasn’t an Urban Legend. Apparently it is. I failed to read through it thoroughly. I stand corrected.

17

And actually I went to one of the best public schools in the country. Mistakes like that are my own stupidity. :slight_smile:

18

In my experience, Southern blacks are beyond nice (for the most part). My only complaint is that due to years of segregation, their accents are completely incomprehensible (at least here in Cajun country. I don’t have much experience with Southerners elsewhere). I have to ask them to repeat things two, three, even four times or more until they decide that what they wanted to tell me wasn’t that important to begin with.

19

I may disagree with a lot that’s been said about Southerners, and I don’t believe in stereotypes, but I’ll back you up on this one.

I have lived in a number of areas, and have always relished the differences in regional cultures. Nevertheless, when I moved to the Southeastern U.S., I was utterly stunned by the blatant racism.

I was simply floored. I’d strike up conversations with all sorts of people — clerks, realtors, librarians, nurses — and invariably, I’d hear some racist phrase that left me speechless.

“…so there’s a charming neighborhood up the road a piece, and if you turn at the small blue house on the left — it’s a bit ugly, but it’s owned by a black family, you know — then you’ll see…”

“…I’ll put you on the list for that book. It was due to be returned last week — a black family still has it, I’m afraid — and then you can…”

When we were leaving and our house was on the market, there was a major uproar in the neighborhood because a realtor had shown our home to a black family from Trinidad. Neighbors were ready to pack up and leave, because…well, “there goes the neighborhood”.

Perhaps I was naïve, but I had never heard such things in all my life.

The fact is, many people, from all walks of life and all regions, are racist; but the only place I’ve ever heard so many folks advertise it so often was the Southeastern U.S.

20

Wrong again. If you’ll read the fine print at the bottom of the page, you’ll see that this is a piece of satire from The Onion.