Thanks. Send me your e-mail address and I’ll be glad to.
- Snip -
If you say so. Course, Randy Newman didn’t do much to help out rednecks, either. I think rednecks, hillybillys, peckerwoods and white trash are all pretty similar. Where there’s an ocean of distinction are between rednecks and Southern good ole boys.
I would like to second that rednecks are good people (from my --humble, yet not limited-- experience).
To continue Sampiro’s point: rednecks also are always willing to help those around them. If a redneck is having a BBQ and you happen by, you are always welcome to join everyone for some ribs, chicken, and beer. The might have a huge Ameican flag and BUSH 2004 sign in their yard, but they are always more than happy to help their neighbor with the conflicting political sign. Politics don’t matter, people matter. (At least 'round here).
“White trash”-- you just want to stay away from white trash. They listen to a strange mix of country music and 80s hairbands. They hate “the man” who is constantly trying to keep them down. On and on.
Rednecks are lovely people. Trash (pf all varieties) is to be avoided for the sake of your sanity.
Sampiro … I, too, haunt your threads and would be honored if you emailed your latest work to me too!
Great thread, Sampiro (as usual) but frankly it scares the crap out of me. See, Mr. 'addi and I are palnning on moving from the Pacific Northwest to Athens one of these days. We’re not so much worried about now liking the folks down there, or the culture, or even the sweet sweet sweet sweet tea. We’re worried about the not fitting in. About making some kind of horrible Yankee faux pas that will be talked about on front porches for decades. About being just another Yankee baby boomer retiree couple clogging up the UofG parking lot.
I’m too old to remake myself into the picture of Southern gentility and I don’t know what the rules are (bless my heart). I really love Athens, but maybe this is a bad idea. 
One of the rules is probably previewing and correcting typos. Already, I am a pariah :smack:
If you’re giving out free subscriptions, I’d be delighted to read whatever you’d like to send!
I want to read Sampiro’s stuff too. I’m a big fan!
As long as you’re nice and don’t make condescending comments, you’ll be fine. Southerners worth knowing understand there are regional differences (like, there are places in the world where “Lou” and “Jean” are men’s names) and usually very accomodating. They can be a bit reserved but it’s nothing personal. It’s perfectly fine to complain about traffic, the heat, etc., but don’t insult the South itself and you’ll be fine. (Things like Roy Moore, the rebel flag on public buildings, etc., are things you’ll just sort of play by ear- like anywhere else you can usually tell the Fundies from the sinners pretty easily.)
I don’t know. That’s certainly a reasonable hypothesis. Is the South really that much lower than other regions in terms of socioeconomic status? If true, that raises another question, namely, “Why is that?” However, and I’m only spitballing, but I find it hard to believe that Vermont, or New Hampshire even, are that much higher, socioeconomically speaking, than Alabama. My mother grew up as rural as anyone, in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The biggest city is Burlington, and it just isn’t all that big. Yet the crime rate is far lower than most Southern states.
If there’s data to support your hypothesis, I’ll buy it, but it doesn’t leap out at me as the first best explanation.
And Sampiro, I’m not restricting this to hate crimes. I have no feel one way or the other about the rate of hate crimes. I’ve seen plenty of racism everywhere. The only difference between the North and the South in than regard, in my opinion, is the degree to which it was institutionalized and officially sanctioned.
Can I get in on this? (Although I’m afraid you’re setting yourself up for a long night of e-mailing…hope it doesn’t eat into your writing time.)
The families that look like a flock of mullets is wintering on their heads - Redneck or whitetrash?
I’m pretty sure mullet actually run in schools.
Mullets are glorious. Don’t ever confuse. A mullet is a wonderful thing. That said:
I think a mullet is usually a sign of white trash (especially extreme mullet). Yet, a mullet can also be found on a redneck.
We love us some mullets up here in Pittsburgh. Well, some of us do, anyway.
As much as I might like to forget, I had a mullet in the 80’s. And a Camaro. I was living in St. Louis at the time, so I don’t know if I can blame the era, the region, or if I’ve got nothing to blame but myself.
You really should listen to that song again. Newman takes some potshots at southerners, but they aren’t his main target.
Well, a really big reason is that we attempted to secede from the Union, fought a mainly defensive war on our own territory, were defeated, and subjected to unconditional surrender and occupation by the victorious army. Well that, and the fact that we had a slave-based agrarian economy that wasn’t economically viable after the Civil War and we had to attempt to catch up with our industrialized neighbors to the North and West.
Well that, and around the turn of the century, southern governors and mayors sought to attract northern industries to the area by touting the region’s modest tax rates and inexpensive labor, and by offering relocation subsidies. Because subsidies often included substantial tax incentives, industries contributed little to the generation of tax revenue. With modest tax revenues, local governments could not increase school spending, so the low-skilled labor pool remained that way and wages remained low. Furthermore, many of the industries that came south were declining in competitiveness and their move south was a temporary stop on their way overseas.
Changes in these trends came gradually, but their influence throughout the South lasted until the 1970s and continues to affect parts of the region today (Autry and others 1998, Cobb 1990). Since 1978, nearly 4 of every 10 jobs gained in the United States were in the South. During the same period, the number of jobs increased by 54 percent in the South and by 38 percent in the rest of the Nation. While the South has narrowed the gap, it still trails the Nation in per capita income. A generation ago the South depended on tobacco, textiles, other low-skilled blue-collar manufacturing processes, and northern capital. While portions of the South still depend on these economic sectors, today, southern industry draws on global capital to fuel a diversified economy that includes automotive, chemical, computer manufacturing, and blue- and white-collar service sectors (Bishop and others 2000). The South is also attracting new residents. Between April 1, 1990 and April 1, 2000 the South’s population grew by 13.9 percent, mostly attributed to immigration from other countries and migration to the South from other regions of the United States.
As for violent crime (and I know this is a pit thread) please show me your statistics. Poverty is a root cause of a lot of problems, and we have a lot of poverty still in the South. For example, I live in New Orleans. We’ve had a record year for murder in 2005, but if you’re not buying crack or not living in a neighborhood where crack is sold, you’re not very likely to get killed. Poverty, drugs, and crime go hand in hand down here.
Apologies to Sampiro for fouling his beautiful thread with statistics, facts, and the like. Please return to the warm banter. This is one of the few non-vitriolic southern threads I’ve seen on the SDMB.
Me too, please?
Ah, the one I know is Johnny Be Fair by Buffy Ste. Marie, which is apparently a varient of Shame and Scandal.
Both are funny, though. 
I’m using voice recognition software are really didn’t mean to make my email address into a lank.