“I say rednecks come in every color, and redneck is what a humble, God-grateful society would tend to look like.”
You know....I have to agree with you as to how a humble, and God-grateful society would look like. However, a true ‘redneck’ isn’t someone from the South. It was someone who worked in the coal mines of W. Virginia, that wore a red bandana/handkerchief as a symbol of their intent to ‘unionize’. It’s called the “Battle of Blair Mountain”.
The coincident monicker arose in two contexts, one being the miners who had unionized to demand safer and saner mining practices, and the other being the common southern agricultural workers whose necks would be burned red in the outdoor sun.