Stereotypes of Southerners in the US

[Austri Surget]

Stereotypes, insults, name calling, discrimination and even defamation of Southerners is prevalent in American pop culture, as well as in the media and in historical depictions of Southerners. There is a huge conspiracy in the media to constantly portray Southerners as hyper-realistic, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ultraconservative and jingoistic white trash. Southerners who visit the North encounter verbal attacks and mockery. Many are perceived as unintelligent morons just because of their accent. This is one of the saddest things that I have experienced, especially since the term "redneck" is rooted in the struggle of the workers.

"The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and rival miners' unions appropriated both the term redneck and its literal manifestation, the red bandana, in order to build multiracial unions of white, black, and immigrant miners in the strike-ridden coalfields of northern and central Appalachia between 1912 and 1936."

We need to band together to stop discrimination of the Southern people. This has gone on for far too long.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

I understand what you're saying but I think the focus should be ending discrimination in general, outright. I've always thought it was weird that people in the north think southern accents are weird or indicative of someones mental faculties when to me, northern accents sound just as silly as southern ones. In my head, as an outsiders, west coast English, like the monotone accent of the pacific northwest is how American English is supposed to sound without any dialect at all. These are just my opinions of course.

[StalinInAScarf]

As a Southerner I agree, but sadly the stereotype is quite real around where I live.

[Blake's Baby]

By 'Southerners' and 'Southern people' do you mean exclusively white people from the southern USA? Because I'm not aware of those stereotypes being applied to Latino or African-American people from the south.

That kinda implies that all those other non-white (or in the case of Latinos, otherwise-white) people aren't really Southerners. Which might be thought just a teeny bit racist.

Most countries have something similar. In England for instance people from 'the West Country' (ie the south-western quarter) are regarded as stupid hicks because of their accents (think Sam Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings, or any pirate with a bit less 'Arrgh!'). It's a generally rural area: people from cities take the piss out of people from rural areas and if they have strong or distinctive accents it's going to make it worse. Can't see that it's big deal in the US unless Northerners start organising secret societies where they dress up in hoods that cover their faces and go around lynching Southerners and/or running them out of town.

[nomad05273k]

I love Southerners, without you guys I wouldn't have my Jim Beam now would I? Haha

[Markovich]

I actually haven't seen or talked to anybody from the south of the USA, but everytime me and my friends talk about them we all picture a "redneck". A guy with moonshine, shotguns, a pick-up and are wearing dungarees :p

That is how I see people from the souths through the media, tv shows and movies.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I'm not convinced that there's discrimination against southern whites, although it is true that there's definitely bigotry. But I'm not sure that anyone's being excluded from anything purely on the basis that they're from the southern United States.

The one thing I will say though that is uniquely fucked up regarding "anti-redneck" bigotry is that it sometimes seems like leftists and/or "progressives" somehow think it's more acceptable to engage in than other forms of bigotry. Classic example being when Sarah Palin was nominated as John McCain's vice president, there were some atrocious talking points coming out of certain liberal websites/people, I remember being pretty offended at the characterization of my home state.

[nomad05273k]

I'm not convinced that there's discrimination against southern whites, although it is true that there's definitely bigotry. But I'm not sure that anyone's being excluded from anything purely on the basis that they're from the southern United States.

The one thing I will say though that is uniquely fucked up regarding "anti-redneck" bigotry is that it sometimes seems like leftists and/or "progressives" somehow think it's more acceptable to engage in than other forms of bigotry. Classic example being when Sarah Palin was nominated as John McCain's vice president, there were some atrocious talking points coming out of certain liberal websites/people, I remember being pretty offended at the characterization of my home state.

That's because people think "rednecks" are these backward, ultra-conservative assholes. Average Southern Americans are being put in this category too. I don't know how this all started but I really wish they'd would put a stop it

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Some would view this kind of bigotted attitude to Southerners in the US as essentially 'harmless' and just a joke. But that's no better than saying racist jokes are only meant in jest; there's always some degree of malice there and that's not acceptable, in my view.
TV and movies don't help matters, always seeing these stereotypes in comedies and some dramas.
Is this just a hang up from the civil war? Is it a chicken and egg scenario? (what came first, the real red-neck yokel hick or the stereotype of him)

[Blake's Baby]

There is a bit of a difference between saying that white people stereotyping other white people is the same white people being racist against black people. Now, can I put my finger on what it is?

Oh, yeah; 'racism' is about the perceived superiority of supposedly different biological groups, and the legacy of 300 years of slavery and genocide of one of them; anti-'Southerner' jokes (or taking the piss out of Mumerset accents in England) are the result of some people thinking other people are stupid because of their accent.

There is a huge difference between racism and slavery based on notions of biological superiority on the one hand and taking the piss out of different cultural groups for having funny accents on the other.

[teflon_john]

this is the nice thing about being from Texas: i'm only a "Southerner" when i want to be.

[Raúl Duke]

The whole issue becomes blurred in Florida...particularly South Florida...

I met Southern people from north Florida or who live in Florida yet have family roots elsewhere like the Carolinas and shit. One of my best friends says that in his family people fought either both in the Confederacy and the Union or mostly all in the Confederacy. They're pretty normal.

The whole stereotype gets unjustly pushed to Southerners because I think poverty is more prevalent here yet there are Northern yankee rednecks and other hillbillies elsewhere. So, all I'm saying, the whole image fits well with white thrash, which could be fucking anywhere in North America, but it isn't applicable to every Southerner.

[L.A.P.]

The discrimination against Southern European-American workers is the result of the white liberal petit bourgeoisie and the hegemony of liberal multiculturalism. Ideologically, the white working class (majority of the United States) has become a figure of ignorance and intolernace that must be looked down upon by the righteous white liberals. Their idea of fighting discrimination is to discriminate a whole demographic of people that are stereotyped into being racist. The root of racism is not that "rednecks" are just morons, it's a result of the economic conditions. This liberal idealist view of intolernace only furthers the divide and alienation between black and white workers as "inherent enemies".

All it really comes down to is to give the bourgeoisie a legitamized excuse to show utter contempt for the majority proletariat of the United States. While also enforcing the racism that is blamed on Southern workers. It's amazing that a rich liberal who lives in Nassau County views himself as more tolerant than a worker who lives in Birmingham, Alabama even though that "redneck" has probably dealt with more brown people than that wealthy Long Islander will ever see in his life.


there are Northern yankee rednecks and other hillbillies elsewhere.

Being from Upstate New York, I can definetely confirm this. I used to jokingly call these people "Appalacian hillbillies".

[Revolutionary_Marxist]

Stereotypes, insults, name calling, discrimination and even defamation of Southerners is prevalent in American pop culture, as well as in the media and in historical depictions of Southerners. There is a huge conspiracy in the media to constantly portray Southerners as hyper-realistic, racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, ultraconservative and jingoistic white trash. Southerners who visit the North encounter verbal attacks and mockery. Many are perceived as unintelligent morons just because of their accent. This is one of the saddest things that I have experienced, especially since the term "redneck" is rooted in the struggle of the workers.

"The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and rival miners' unions appropriated both the term redneck and its literal manifestation, the red bandana, in order to build multiracial unions of white, black, and immigrant miners in the strike-ridden coalfields of northern and central Appalachia between 1912 and 1936."

We need to band together to stop discrimination of the Southern people. This has gone on for far too long.

I have to disagree, sterotyping isn't really discrimanation if it isn't affecting job application. With the risk of speaking in ignorance, these sterotypes don't really do any negative form of harm down in the South. Stereotypes down south exist as well for the Northerners as well, the famous "Northern Yankee", but regardless this is all inevitable considering the longtime mistrust between the North and South.

[Revolution starts with U]

If you fly a confederate flag, you're a piece of shit.

If not, I don't care. And this is generally the mindset of my "southern hater" friends as well. Plenty of them have guns, drive pick-ups, are Christians, enjoy NASCAR, etc, etc. But the confederate flag is simply unacceptable.

I guess I just don't see where this "southern hate" is so prevalent for all southerners, rather than jingoistic confederate conservatives... which happen to be a large portion of the white south (or at least northerners who try to be southern)

[Os Cangaceiros]

Being from Upstate New York, I can definetely confirm this. I used to jokingly call these people "Appalacian hillbillies".

It's known by me as the "Deep North".

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

Well, i have been to many parts of the United States and you all sound the same, i always feel like i have to chew gum to talk american english to make the weird long sounds...

[Raúl Duke]

If you fly a confederate flag, you're a piece of shit. I agree

Since my father is from NY and my family is quite Northern (New Hampshire, Quebec) me and this New Hampshire friend always planned to burn confederate flags wherever we see them...but we never did.


Being from Upstate New York, I can definetely confirm this. I used to jokingly call these people "Appalacian hillbillies". lol

although I thought the Appalachian started within the South (North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee)


Well, i have been to many parts of the United States and you all sound the same, i always feel like i have to chew gum to talk american english to make the weird long sounds...lol

well than, I guess all you Germans sound the same as well! ;P

(I personally don't speak like a Southerner; in fact my accent is rather "exotic-sounding" to most people, the third-culture kid Puerto Rican Spanish-American English accent)

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

I agree

Since my father is from NY and my family is quite Northern (New Hampshire, Quebec) me and this New Hampshire friend always planned to burn confederate flags wherever we see them...but we never did.

lol

although I thought the Appalachian started within the South (North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee)

lol

well than, I guess all you Germans sound the same as well! ;P

(I personally don't speak like a Southerner; in fact my accent is rather "exotic-sounding" to most people, the third-culture kid Puerto Rican Spanish-American English accent)

Haha! Well, not to get into a land proud argument, but honestly, I can't understand certain German dialects. I am Bavarian and the old generation still only speaks Bavarian but since I moved to the city I speak a "high" universal German with maybe a little southern dialect. But in Bavarian we have a whole other words for the same thing. For instance, in high German "we" is called 'Wir' and in Bavarian "we" is 'Mia', and "down" in German is "runter" and in Bavarian 'Obie', so the words are often completely different. It used to be like this for every 200 kilometers that people had different dialects here 100 years ago, 50 years ago the cities really got rid of their dialects and now the countryside is getting universalized German.

[Niall]

the confederate flag, what is the deal with it? Why is flying it making you a scumbag? Maybe a daft question but thats how we learn isnt it/ By asking daft questions

[Deicide]

the confederate flag, what is the deal with it? Why is flying it making you a scumbag? Maybe a daft question but thats how we learn isnt it/ By asking daft questions

Because they were pro-slavery scumbags.

[StalinInAScarf]

If I were to discriminate based on accent alone, those "Noo yolk tuff" guys wouldnt be happy. :D

[Niall]

and that was the flag they used then?

[Revolution starts with U]

yup

[Rhizome]

the confederate flag, what is the deal with it? Why is flying it making you a scumbag? Maybe a daft question but thats how we learn isnt it/ By asking daft questions

To be fair, flying a Confederate flag doesn't make you any more of a racist scumbag than flying an American flag.

[Yuppie Grinder]

White Southerners are stereotyped as poor, stupid, incesttuous, reactionary, and racist. The American liberal-left has a paternalistic attitude towards these folks. The working-poor whites are too stupid to know what's good for them, enlightened wealthy people have to decide things for them. This is why the white working class in the midwest and south feel so much contempt for the Democratic party.
Blacks are seen as lazy, incompetent, violent, and drug-addled. Liberals have the same despotic attitude towards the black, southern working-poor.

[Drowzy_Shooter]

To be fair, flying a Confederate flag doesn't make you any more of a racist scumbag than flying an American flag.

Damn straight.


That said, I don't care to show respect to either banners of hate.

[#FF0000]

and that was the flag they used then?

It's not actually. Very similar, tho. The original CSA flags had the Stars/Bars on a white field with some variation. The "Confederate Flag" flown today by mouthbreathing simpletons is closer to the second Confederate Navy Jack or the flag of the Army of Tennessee.

It's probs actually from the Army of Tennessee now that I think of it.

[Fawkes]

To be fair, flying a Confederate flag doesn't make you any more of a racist scumbag than flying an American flag.

um, yes it does. We have an entire culture focused on validating and justifying American actions. Every bomb dropped in Iraq or person kidnapped in Guatemala is done so in the name of freedom and liberty and all that fun stuff. The same cannot be said of the South, you aint dancing around slavery, it happened and even public school history textbooks don't try to justify it.