Post by twayne on Jan 12, 2005 13:10:37 GMT -5
Redneck Slurs Are the New Song of the South
by ALEX LEKAS, Up & Coming Weekly, January 12 - 18, 2005 January 12, 2005
It's almost that time of year, when lots of concerned people rub their chins, nod knowingly, and engage in collective navel-gazing about how well the nation's ethnic and cultural stew is mixing.
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They'll miss the irony that Martin Luther King Jr. Day - a holiday meant to honor a man who sought to erase skin color from the public consciousness - has morphed into something that considers nothing else. Most people are afraid to speak honestly and those who do are condemned as either racists or traitors. The quaint notion of measuring a person by the content of his character has been effectively bludgeoned into submission by the twin cudgels of tolerance and diversity.
Fear not friends, for even in the land of the aggrieved and offended, there remains one group that can be laughed at without repercussion. Their traditions can be ridiculed, their history can be trashed, and their faults become easy jokes. A writer profiling the success of the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" was apparently struck by his own cleverness in describing the audience at one concert stop as "regular folks without quality dental care who could benefit from a few hours on the treadmill." Ah yes; overweight rednecks with bad teeth. No one's thought of that before.
Southerners represent a happy oasis in the desert of political correctness. What could be a better target than people who work, pay their taxes, raise normal children, and believe in God, mom, and country? Of course, the same could be said for the great majority in every other part of the country, but there is just something about Southerners that compels the rest of the country to make fun of them. Maybe it's because they tend to believe in values like honesty, integrity, faith, and patriotism. They tend to be red staters, too, though no one would make fun of them because of that, would they?
Southerners include all the hues of the American mosaic, but the standard issue punch line is a hat-wearing white male with a gut, a Marlboro in one hand and a Bud in the other. He did not attend college and his work shirts likely have his first name stitched on the front pocket, something like Cooter, John Ed, or Eli. He has a fondness for guns, country music, and NASCAR, though lately NASCAR's not been too fond of him. For those smarter than the rest of us, Redneckus Caucasus is the universally recognized symbol of all that's wrong with the country. It doesn't matter that his kind exists in virtually every state and often has access to indoor plumbing in a home without wheels.
Despite evidence to the contrary, the South remains forever trapped in the Jim Crow era. Engaged in some serious channel surfing recently, I came across a promo for an upcoming show about the neo-Nazi skinhead movement in the Pacific Northwest. Included was an interview clip with a member of the latte class who just couldn't help himself: "You would think this type of thing only happened in Texas or Mississippi."
Someone get this guy, and his fellow travelers, a history book and a date with reality. The South invented neither bigotry nor slavery, and the region's progress is a testament to the power of goodwill among people of all races. The South will never fully escape its past, of course, but that's how history works. It can't be sanitized to conform to modern-day sensibilities, though that's being tried in several communities where references to anything named "Dixie" and "Confederate" are being erased with a fervor that Sherman would have envied. Heritage/hate, to-may-to/to-mah-to; we can debate these things on their merits. Instead, some are hoping that if they pretend long enough and hard enough that the past never existed, other people will forget about it, too. At least, they'll forget long enough to spend their tourist dollars.
Looking at the past through the prism of the present produces a warped view of events, robbing them of context, texture, and meaning. Erasing names and symbols not only hides history's blemishes, it also shades the highlights. You can't recognize the importance of today's victories if you don't understand what shaped yesterday's battles. And that's no joke.
©Up & Coming Magazine 2005
by ALEX LEKAS, Up & Coming Weekly, January 12 - 18, 2005 January 12, 2005
It's almost that time of year, when lots of concerned people rub their chins, nod knowingly, and engage in collective navel-gazing about how well the nation's ethnic and cultural stew is mixing.
Advertisement
They'll miss the irony that Martin Luther King Jr. Day - a holiday meant to honor a man who sought to erase skin color from the public consciousness - has morphed into something that considers nothing else. Most people are afraid to speak honestly and those who do are condemned as either racists or traitors. The quaint notion of measuring a person by the content of his character has been effectively bludgeoned into submission by the twin cudgels of tolerance and diversity.
Fear not friends, for even in the land of the aggrieved and offended, there remains one group that can be laughed at without repercussion. Their traditions can be ridiculed, their history can be trashed, and their faults become easy jokes. A writer profiling the success of the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" was apparently struck by his own cleverness in describing the audience at one concert stop as "regular folks without quality dental care who could benefit from a few hours on the treadmill." Ah yes; overweight rednecks with bad teeth. No one's thought of that before.
Southerners represent a happy oasis in the desert of political correctness. What could be a better target than people who work, pay their taxes, raise normal children, and believe in God, mom, and country? Of course, the same could be said for the great majority in every other part of the country, but there is just something about Southerners that compels the rest of the country to make fun of them. Maybe it's because they tend to believe in values like honesty, integrity, faith, and patriotism. They tend to be red staters, too, though no one would make fun of them because of that, would they?
Southerners include all the hues of the American mosaic, but the standard issue punch line is a hat-wearing white male with a gut, a Marlboro in one hand and a Bud in the other. He did not attend college and his work shirts likely have his first name stitched on the front pocket, something like Cooter, John Ed, or Eli. He has a fondness for guns, country music, and NASCAR, though lately NASCAR's not been too fond of him. For those smarter than the rest of us, Redneckus Caucasus is the universally recognized symbol of all that's wrong with the country. It doesn't matter that his kind exists in virtually every state and often has access to indoor plumbing in a home without wheels.
Despite evidence to the contrary, the South remains forever trapped in the Jim Crow era. Engaged in some serious channel surfing recently, I came across a promo for an upcoming show about the neo-Nazi skinhead movement in the Pacific Northwest. Included was an interview clip with a member of the latte class who just couldn't help himself: "You would think this type of thing only happened in Texas or Mississippi."
Someone get this guy, and his fellow travelers, a history book and a date with reality. The South invented neither bigotry nor slavery, and the region's progress is a testament to the power of goodwill among people of all races. The South will never fully escape its past, of course, but that's how history works. It can't be sanitized to conform to modern-day sensibilities, though that's being tried in several communities where references to anything named "Dixie" and "Confederate" are being erased with a fervor that Sherman would have envied. Heritage/hate, to-may-to/to-mah-to; we can debate these things on their merits. Instead, some are hoping that if they pretend long enough and hard enough that the past never existed, other people will forget about it, too. At least, they'll forget long enough to spend their tourist dollars.
Looking at the past through the prism of the present produces a warped view of events, robbing them of context, texture, and meaning. Erasing names and symbols not only hides history's blemishes, it also shades the highlights. You can't recognize the importance of today's victories if you don't understand what shaped yesterday's battles. And that's no joke.
©Up & Coming Magazine 2005