Rednecks — that’s what I remember “them” being called where I grew up in Oklahoma. In Cleveland, where Claire grew up, “they” were called hillbillies. So what’s the difference in a hillbilly and a redneck? That’s one of those things that I was pondering the other day, for no apparent reason — I just got to wondering. I have noticed a lot of people wearing camouflage and John Deere hats lately and most of them seem out-of-place dressed like that. It seems like it’s becoming “cool” to dress like a redneck (or hillbilly) even if you’re not one.
I haven’t run across any “official” definitions of either a redneck or a hillbilly — I’m guessing it’s mostly geographical. Often times, people may be talking about the same person and use a different term, just depending on where they live or where they grew up.
My extensive research into the origin of both terms turned out to be kind of interesting. The origin of the hillbilly moniker comes from Ulster. Ulster-Scottish (usually referred to, incorrectly, as “Scots-Irish” settled in the hill-country of Appalachia. Much of their music dealt with William, Prince of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James II of the Stuart family at the Battle of the Boyne, Ireland in 1690. Supporters of King William were known as Orangemen and Billy Boys and their North American counterparts were soon referred to as hill-billies.
Two theories about the term redneck caught my eye. One theory traces the term redneck to wealthy southern plantation owners who thought they needed to justify their own supremacy by degrading poor, uneducated white people. They coined the term redneck to belittle white field laborers who could be identified by the bright red sunburns on their necks. The other theory is that during the West Virginia miners strikes of the 1920s, the miners concentrated their effort to become organized, adopting a uniform that featured a red bandanna worn around the neck. The miners nicknamed themselves rednecks as a point of solidarity.
So various groups and individuals have always been tagged with some name — but I recon it don’t matter so much what you call people as it does how you treat them….
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