A word on the word “Redneck”

Redneck is an interesting word. I don’t know what the etymology of it is, although I would guess it has something to do with the men (and women) who worked in the fields and the sun exposure. But, whatever it meant then, it now means something else (or, rather, a lot of somethings else. And yes, I know “somethings” is not a word).

In the south, redneck seems to mean something like the salt of the earth. It refers to someone who has no pretenses, isn’t afraid of manual labor, doesn’t aspire to material wealth, and is somewhat traditional in their thinking. They may possibly more politically conservative, but after meeting a few self-proclaimed rednecks in Georgia this past summer (including an eighty year old woman who worked her family farm as a child), I’m not entirely sure this is true. It is true that they were much more conservative than me and my liberal friends in some ways, but in others, they were fairly progressive and open which, yes, did surprise me.

While some folks I met in Georgia did use the term in an uncomplimentary way (more akin to what I grew up with), I found it interesting that it is a much more dimensional word than I ever suspected. For example, the country singer Gretchen Wilson made it big with her hit “Redneck Woman,” describing herself as someone who shops at Wal-Mart, keeps her Christmas lights on all year, and stands barefooted in the front yard with a baby on her hip. It all sounds kind of charming and harmless, doesn’t it?

But, in Northern California (where I grew up), if you refer to someone as a redneck, about the only thing they’ll have in common with Ms. Wilson’s version is that they’ll be standing in the front yard. They won’t have a baby on their hip, but they will be toting a huge-ass rifle and if you’re not white, it will be pointed at you. Hell, even if you are white it will probably be pointed at you since if you’re close enough to see the front yard, you’re probably trespassing. In California, there’s nothing charming about a redneck. They’re mean and bigoted. In fact, where I grew up, the terms “redneck” and “bigoted” are basically interchangeable. And god knows where they shop. Rednecks in California span the socio-economic spectrum and you’re just as likely to see on in Neiman Marcus as you are in Wal-Mart. It never occurred to me that it could be any different.

When I started thinking about the word “redneck” and its meanings I realized that while I had some idea of how the South and the West thinks about the word, I was struggling with the Massachusetts/Northeast definition of the word. I spent a lot of time there, I have a lot of friends there, it didn’t seem like it would be that hard to come up with a contextual definition of the word. But I couldn’t. I can’t. And after several days of digging through my memories, I realized that the word “redneck” isn’t really used in Massachusetts (or other parts of New England I’ve been to). I’m not sure if it’s because the word – like the word “Republican” – isn’t used in polite society (or at least not used politely in society) or just that it’s not part of the vocabulary. Either way, if you refer to someone as a redneck while you’re in Massachusetts, you’ll probably be met with a blank stare, and then the person to whom you are talking will just assume that you are referring to someone who got a little too much sun. Probably while vacationing at the Cape.

In summary…well there really isn’t a summary to this blog. I just thought it was interesting to discover that a word I grew up knowing positively what it meant can actually mean something else. And not only that, its meaning isn’t necessarily something to dislike. Bigots and bigotry are definitely something I don’t condone, but people like the ‘rednecks’ I met in Georgia – people who work hard, play hard, and (probably) pray hard – are people any one can respect.