I’ve never heard the expression “briars.” I think of redneck as being a state of mind and hillbilly denoting a location, although we just call ourselves country.
I just thought of this: why does a drawl mean dim-witted? It’s an accent, right? We don’t think French, Scottish etc. accents automatically equate stupid, so why are we so derisively dismissive of differently-spoken English? (Try saying that four times, fast.)
Fascinating how it’s such a regional term. I still live/work around Dayton, and frequently here the term being used.
So based on the responses in this zombie, it looks like there’s lots of overlap – but distinct differences – between
hillbillies
rednecks
good ol’ boys
white trash
My mother came from hillbilly stock in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. The term described backwards mountain folk, although by the mid-20th century, towns in the Ozarks were pushing the “hillbilly” tag for tourism. The football team of my mother’s high school was even called the Hillbillies.
Rednecks are the people I grew up among in West Texas. Knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers. But nary a mountain sight.
Briars. Never heard of them.
EDIT: Wait a minute. Briars. Maybe you’re thinking of Br’er? As in Br’er Rabbit, the Uncle Remus stories? If so, I believe that was regional for “brother.”
That would make great sense, if it’s true. Br’er and Bro and Bruh and Brah sound much alike if you say them like a rurally located person might.
We mustn’t ignore the power that Jeff Foxworthy has bestowed on Rednecks. It’s almost a badge of honor nowadays. Li’l Abner may be the prototype for Hillbillies that the Beverly Hills group attempted to emulate.
My all-time favorite depiction of White Trash was God’s Little Acre (1958) which was by the author of Tobacco Road (1941) and which led me to a favorite expression: “pluperfect hell.”
Fuckin’ A well tole Buddy Roe.
As someone who grew up in the South, this is my definition of a redneck. It is not so much as a pejorative as a culture/attitude. Its just another identifier like “hipster.”
I have a black friend that is constantly out hunting, fishing, is very conservative, and enjoys driving around in his big truck. When I describe him to someone else, he is “black redneck.”
Many people use it to mean racist and uneducated, but that side of the South has been fading out for many years. Is it still there? Of course. But most of the young “rednecks” I know are engineering majors and are not (overtly at least) racist.
Edited to add: A briar is a bush with thorns on it last I heard.
Damn if that don’t sound like Gus Grissom (as played by Fred Ward) in The Right Stuff (1983)
Briar does indeed come from briar hopper, and almost exclusively referred to people from Kentucky. So, hearing them referred to as Briars in and around Cincinnati/Dayton would be logical.
There were countryh/hillbilly singing groups on the radio from Cincinnati called “Briar Hopper Boys” as early as 1931.
I confess I’ve never heard of briars. When I hear redneck, I think southerners, NASCAR fans, NRA types, guys who fix things with duct tape. Hillbillies I think mountaineers, moonshiners, guys with missing teeth, guys who hate revenuers and keep shootin’ irons. A third class I use is hayseed, which would be northern or plains rural folk who hate the government and love their Bible, have their homemade pies every Sunday.
A redneck is poor, carries guns, and drinks and smokes to excess. A hillbilly is all of those things plus he sleeps with his sister.
Geographically, I associate rednecks with the South and hillbillies with Appalachia. Central West Virginia is full of hillbillies. Central North Carolina is full of rednecks.
To me hillbilly conveys a sense of ignorance due to social isolation. Redneck is more of a role someone is choosing to play, possibly as a way to excuse ignorant behavior. Never heard of briars.
I’m currently surveying all three of my Kentucky friends to see if they know of the term “briar”. Will report back with my findings.
Hillbillies are redneck-like people who dwell in and between the Appalachians and the Ozarks.
Rednecks are hillbilly-like people who dwell everywhere else.
Max, you hit the note. We got both kind here in NW Washington, but most a’ them 'necks have never been in the woods and hate on everyone that isn’t just like them.
I don’t know, I refer to myself as a redneck all the time. As a joke, but lots of people would say I was. I live in rural Illinois. I grew up on a farm, I wear a farmer’s/baseball cap all the time, I have a twangy accent, I work in a welding shop and get dirty at work, I am generally conservative in political opinions, and I am quite religious. But- I am not the slightest bit racist, nor do I drink beer. Nor am I most of the other unpleasant things associated with rednecks, like being mean to women or much of a gun person (I support gun rights, but have never fired a gun in my life). So am I a redneck, a hillbilly, a good ol’ boy, or something else?
Look for the tin of Skoal or pouch of Red Man in the pocket. You just met a Redneck. Rednecks are typically found in the suburbs or semi-rural areas. They very much love the country life but probably work blue collar jobs in town.
Hillbillies are the real thing. They actually live 40 miles from nowhere. Some in extreme poverty. The ones I’ve known were really good god loving people. Very proud of their heritage. But of course theres always bad people in any population.
I’ve lived in the South most of my life. Known a lot of rednecks and made a lot of friends. But they are different than your typical Southerner.
How can you tell if you’re a redneck? Here’s a start.
And here is some info on being a Bubba.
A person who went to Clemson and pledged to a fraternity is not a redneck.
Rednecks, however, can live anywhere; hillbillies have a geographic range.
Also, they are not mutually exclusive. A person can be both a redneck and a hillbilly.
Hillbilly is geographically limited: it means specifically Appalachian peoples (and Ozark too, I think). Flatlanders can’t be hillbillies, obviously. Rednecks can be from anywhere in the country (and they’re mostly flatlanders).
Then there’s Missouri, where “hoosier” is the worst, lowest, most offensive thing you can call somebody. It means an unlikable rural person with no redeeming qualities. I have no idea why Missourians have taken the word that Indianans call themselves with pride and turned it into a pejorative. But Missourians and Indianans don’t seem to take much notice of each other anyway. Just settle for knowing that the respectable Indiana term has a capital H, while the derogative Missouri term is lowercased.
Born and raised in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Never heard of “briar” in that sense in my life until now. Sometimes I wonder what’s Cleveland doing in Ohio anyway. There’s the Western Reserve and then there’s the rest of Ohio; it’s like two different states in one.