Reflections on Southern Culture
International readers of this blog may be unaware of the clichés used to describe lower class people in the Southern states of the US, those states that tried to perpetuate the institution of slavery, leading to the bloody Civil War 1861-1865. While poor Southerners have generally been more likely to hold racist beliefs, believing themselves to be on a higher social rung than poor blacks, more educated whites have used the pejorative "white trash" or "redneck" to describe this particular lower class mentality. My friends and I had quite an interesting discussion as to why "rednecks" believe the things they do and exhibit the attitudes commonly associated with them. . .
