And on this subject, anybody read Foxtrot today? (Monday 20 June)

I'm with Static. My dad was a red neck (really got skin cancer later in life) because he was a rancher and was out with the cows all day.

Redneck is a stero type. Here, we're all just Browncoats.

NOT hicks and racists. NOT. Typo.

Well, I would doubt many rednecks would be on this site, much less on the net at all. Real rednecks. Farmer types. Not the Suthern, Lowd and PROWD (drank beerm raise hail! drive faist tern left!) types. I'm a Southerner. But a more aristocratic type. Gentile. Old money. I have a problem with the intentionally ignorant. Or those proud (wtf?) of being in a trailer park. It's like being black and being proud (wtf?) of living in a shithole ghetto. Aspire to more! A house, a yard, an education! Love the South. Don't wallow in it's stereotypes. Prove to the world that just because we're mostly rural that we're just hicks and racists. Rise up my brethren!

As a lifelong resident of "redneck" central, any positive resurgance of Southern-pop culture will always be marred by a few bad eggs ruining everyone's fun. Right now, we've got a (potentially decent) Dukes of Hazzard movie on the horizon, the Blue Collar guys (I dig Ron White, but the others got old a while ago) and NASCAR becoming a bit edgier (not enough to interest me, though). And it's all ruined by Britney Spears (many forget she's a southerner).

I mean, my wife's pregnant, but she ain't barefoot. My truck has no Rebel flag and it's not on blocks. My lawn is freshly cut. Britney starts running around barefoot and pregnant in very unflattering attire with her greasy-ass husband - then, the people that DO remember she's from the South start to lump everyone else into that pattern of behavior.

Wow. Long-winded. Sorry.

That is a good point. All those "you might be a redneck" jokes probably didn't help any.

What bugs me is how 'Redneck' somehow became synonymous with "Racist" or "Ignorant" or "Stupid" or "Poor". . .when the fact is that when WE were kids, it just meant "Simple". Folks who lived the farm life. That's why their NECKS were RED. . .from being stooped over in a field all day.

It bugs me.

Having lived in the south for several years, I see this all the time. I saw a shirt once that said "There's no place like home" and had a picture of a trailer on it.
I don't get it, I don't try to understand it. And I don't understand why those that aren't from the south would try to imitate it. But I blame part of it on Coca Cola and Jessica Simpson.
(And let me say for those of you out there that are proud to be rednecks-that is a valid lifestyle choice. I just don't understand it. Never will.)