I mean… redneck is definitely a pejorative term…
However, most people I would use it in front of would understand that it is redneck(affectionate) rather than redneck(scornful)
Possibly not if you use it for a slapdash job.
The “cleaned-up” version I heard while growing up was Afro-engineering.
Oh yeah, that’s way better.
There’s an article on Rawstory right now about what insult Trump might settle on for Kamala Harris, and a note about concern that some Republicans would lean in on the racism. Then the article uses the term “the natives are getting restless”. I probably wouldn’t have paused over the term if it weren’t for the irony of it being in an article mentioning racism, but that phrase has obvious problematic origins itself.
“Alabama engineering”. Still pejorative, but that’s okay because it’s pejorative against Alabama.
::ducks and runs::
Hmm. Not often, but I have heard of “ghetto engineering” (as in Open Mike Eagle…) referring to unsafe/improvised/jury construction such as one might find in a ghetto or slum anywhere in the world.
I’d say that’s still racist. While there may be slums everywhere in the world, in any particular location “ghetto” will almost certainly have either a Black or Jewish connotation.
I’d go for “jury-rigged” or “slapdash”. I’ve also heard “good enough for government work”, which is a slur of sorts but not on any particular social group.
If “jerry-rigged” is a slur on anyone, it’d be Germans, but that seems unlikely, given that “German engineering” is generally considered to be of extremely high precision, quality and expense.
I had no idea that was a real saying! I thought it was made up by Ren & Stimpy / Kricfalusi (btw, I watched R&S way too much when I was younger). Skip to 2:30 for what I thought was an original saying until a few minutes ago.
Sure, now 
but it was not so terribly long ago that “made in Germany” was intended as a pejorative. Although in this case that’s a red herring anyway. It’s not a slur on anyone except, possibly, someone named Jerry.
“Jerry built,” “Jerry builder” etc. in reference to something shoddily constructed date back at least to the early 1830s, when you could jokingly refer to the “Jerry Builders Society” and their influence on Liverpudlian housing. Or, e.g., a July 20th, 1832 article in the Liverpool Mercury decrying
JERRY BUILDINGS.—In consequence of our statement respecting the shameful quality of the mixture, miscalled mortar, used in the building of certain houses in Toxteth-park
(By the end of the 19th century it would be speculated that it might have been the name of a specific builder named Jerry, or possibly in reference to the walls of Jericho)
“Jury” in the nautical sense of being an improvised or temporary (though not necessarily bad) solution dates back earlier still—the OED’s first cite is from 1616. They seem to have become conflated, also by the British, in the latter half of the 19th century, i.e. a ship with a “jerry stern” temporarily constructed for passing through locks is described in 1888, and a “jerry rigged” house in 1890. As @Nyvaak noted, how the two drifted together isn’t entirely clear, but it doesn’t run through Berlin.
I’ve never heard the term used for a slapdash fix, just for a fix that is creative. Also I usually use it for something I’ve done, not what someone else has done.
I could use the term “Hammack engineering” but no one but my family would understand
It is even in the Hobbit.
Oddly, the one thing we do call jerry is the “Jerry can” which indeed was named after the Germans in WW2. However, the British in the desert found out that their cans tended to leak - very bad for gasoline- and so they grabbed jerry cans whenever they could,
This says the phrase was first recorded in a translation from a Spanish book in 1707. Jonathan Swift used it in a book written between 1700 and 1710; his usage suggests that the phrase was already proverbial by that time.
It was referred to in The Hobbit, published in 1937. In the chapter Riddles in the Dark, while Gollum is pondering the “egg” riddle, the narrator says
But suddenly Gollum remembered thieving from nests long ago, and sitting under the river bank teaching his grandmother, teaching his grandmother to suck – “Eggses!” he hissed.
I read The Hobbit at least twice when I was very young but don’t remember it from there. But, cool to learn this saying is a real saying. Now I need to reread and see if there is any mention of whizzing on electric fences!
Unfortunately, the golliwog was quite a prominent thing here in the UK. I had a stuffed ragdoll toy golliwog as a child (in the 1970s) - I think it was a gift obtained by sending in tokens from jars of Robertson’s marmalade - there were promotional collectible figurines, enamel badges and other items available by sending in tokens from the jars (the golliwog, later just named ‘golly’ was their mascot until it was officially retired in 2002).
I think it’s probably still the case that the majority of public opinion here in the UK is that there’s nothing racist about them, even though IMO there pretty obviously is.
So-called “rednecks” aren’t mocked for their creativity. They’re made fun of for supposed backwardness. Typically something that’s called a redneck fix would be duct tape holding together a pickup truck (sloppily or badly).
Growing up in the 1970s, everyone around me used the term “Japs” when referring to the Japanese in WWII. Even my grade school history teacher used the term.
So for decades I thought it was normal and acceptable. Around ten years go I used the term in a SDMB thread, and was immediately given a warning. I (seriously) had no idea it was a racial slur. I now know better.
More recently, there was an episode of Extras where Maggie dates a Black man and realizes too late that her childhood golliwog is still on display in her bedroom.