redneck/hillbilly

I'm sure someone will trot out locale specific derivations, to eruditely demonstrate such a difference--but, no, in practice either term is used to slight those who are not urban, and often applied in the United States to those of Southern origin. They're nasty terms, no matter how they are claimed to derive. The first time i travelled on a train in Ireland, a gentleman with whom i rode purported that the term redneck was first applied by the English ascendancy to desribe their tenants--whose necks would burn red in the day-long sun of an Irish summer. The Irish are very pale-skinned, and usually burn easily.

For whatever you may learn here, i would suggest caution in using such terms.

and then there are the "good ole boys"...country fried rednecks with a higher degree of social skills...both of these terms of endearment are somewhat derogatory in nature... however we Southerners use them frequently and openly to describe socio-economic standing here...redneck is often used within the redneck community as a social insult...even here there are degrees of "redneckedness"

hey guys im sorry if any offence was caused.i have heard of rednecks and hillbillies but didnt know the term was offensive.
i had also heard that"rednecks/hillbillies" were inbred,i didnt know if this was a joke or a serious thing,just thought someone could answer.
once again sorry if any offence was caused as this was not meant to.

so to put it in simple terms hillbillies are from the hills ,financially poor and under average intelligence whilst rednecks are socially a class lower still with very low iq.

Not quite, Iceman. Education does not necessarily correlate with intelligence. "Hillbillies" and "rednecks" can be quite intelligent, but they are generally considered down here to be without the exposure to a wider world view, gained through education or cross-cultural exposure, that is necessary in order to see beyond one's own little corner of existence. The "inbreeding" you have heard of is more a lack of cultural diversity than a genetic homogeneity.

That being said, we do have our jokes about the six-fingered results of inbreeding in certain parts of the woods, but those jokes are tacky...even if funny.

We're full of redneck jokes in the South. Try an internet search on Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck if...."

hillbillies live outside of society, they do not have jobs, they fend for themselves. they do not have electricity or any such modern commodities

rednecks live in society, mostly in trailor parks, and work menial labor jobs such as farming or lumber yard work

absolutely no offense here iceman71...this is a favorite subject of discussion over a bowl of grits and hog jowls at breakfast..what constitutes a redneck or hillbilly is a complex issue of more than mere topographic elevation...

i do consider myself to be a redneck to which i take no offense...as hiyall says, it is a matter of world views and exposure to cultural diversity...this simply doesnt apply in my case as i have traveled extensively...ive been all the way to Chattanooga, Tennessee and seen Rock City..and there is a college degree laying underneath the mismatched residents of my sock drawer...my claim to redneckdom is more ancestral than cultural

Good Lord, Catfish-- is Rock City still in existence?

sho nuff Mister Micawber....just follow the barns

See Rock City

Mister Micawber, since CatFisH is apparently off fishing for cats or something, I'll answer: Of course Rock City is still in existence. As long as there are faded red-roofed barns with "See Rock City" lettered in chipped white paint, as long as road signs warn "Watch for falling rocks" (don't avoid them, merely watch for them until they are well and truly fallen), as long as there are seven states to view from atop Lookout Mountain, as long as the red spotlights shine on underground Ruby Falls, as long as Fat-Man's Squeeze is not widened as a politically correct concession. . . there will be Rock City.

Ain't been there in 40 years, you understand, but I've heard tell. . . .

Oooops! My post seems to have bumped into CatFisH in cyberspace. Hey, CatFish!! Yup--foller the barns.

Thanks gents, you're dead ringers for the Ghost of Christmas Past. And you've given this cracker a rock to cling to in this changing world. I would have expected garden apartments where the barns used to be.

And the reptile zoo?

I tend to think of hillbillys as being of Scotch/Irish decent, if that sheds any helpful confusion.

I know plenty of rednecks making six figure salaries as engineers who have huge suburban houses. It's not about IQ, or employment status, or which neighborhood you live in. It's a culture.

Mr. M, I don't remember a reptile zoo at Rock City, but there were always plenty of them at gas stations along the back roads. Say, you from Gawja? I'd forgotten the term "cracker," which I have always for some reason associated with Georgia. Sort of a cross between a redneck and a hillbilly.

Roger, I think you have something there about hillbillies--lots of Scottish/Irish settled in the Appalachian hills way back when. They were instrumental (uh, no pun) in the development of the region's bluegrass/folk music, I think. (I'm basing this unresearched assumption on the wonderful "ballad" novels of Sharyn McCrumb.)

And, yes, mac11, you're absolutely right about smart, well-to-do rednecks. It is indeed a culture. But I wonder, do those city redneck engineers drive pickups with gun racks to work? Prolly!!

george bush is a redneck....

This is extremely rare...I do know of a "redneck" family that makes $200k/yr, the father is a manager and the wife is a housewife, their son is a good friend of mine...the wife and children came from a trailor park so they have the mentality, but now they have money to go with it. I cannot imagine how an engineer could be a redneck...

I guess what we need is a "you might be a redneck if...list"...I'm going to make here a list of prerequisities which is actually serious, for once.

1 - drive snowmobiles or 3/4-wheelers
2 - drink cheap beer
3 - go deer of pheasant hunting
4 - father owns a pickup truck which is probably a Ford
5 - children are overweight, eat lots of junk food, and play video games (tv not computer)
6 - children wear camouflage or ARMY shirts
7 - children are violent in nature and do poorly in school, usually get in trouble for swearing, threatening other students, or breaking things
8 - use white bread never wheat
9 - live in a trailor park
10 - parents have pig roasts
11 - if you are a dairy farmer, you ARE a redneck no matter what else
12 - old tires, cars, or metal parts left in yard either as decoration or land fill

so could rednecks be similiar to gypsies over here in the uk?