What It Means to Be a 'Redneck' or a 'Hillbilly'

Vice Newsletter ^ | Apr 29 2016, 12:00am | Stacy Kranitz

[yldstrk]

You single?

[HangnJudge]

39 yrs married, and still alive

[Equine1952]

You know Texans got other names for you Cajuns, but according to Justin Wilson you guys have other names for them tooo. Being a hillbilly, I wouldn’t know a chicken gumbo from owl gumbo. :)

[Paal Gulli]

"Red Necks acquired red necks by bending over in the sun while they built this country."

That isn't the origin of the term. The first time it appeared in print was in connection with coal miners at the Blair Mountain mine in West Virginia when miners marching in support of collective bargaining all wore red bandanas as a sign of their solidarity.

[yldstrk]

I am looking for some hillbilly like you.

[HangnJudge]

My wife is the jealous type
First she’ll kill you, then she’ll kill me

[TMN78247]

I’m an educated Northeast Texas HILLBILLY & REDNECK from Camp County originally & now a retired soldier & lawman, resident in San Antonio. = Neither term offends me.

Yours, TMN78247
USA, Retired

[Salamander]

Thank God you posted that.

I’ve been sitting here clenching my teeth so hard I’ve got a tension headache.

Hillbillies don’t write essays on why they are hillbillies.

You are born to the blood and you either is or you ain’t.

[now everybody git outen my yard else I sic the porch hounds on ya]

:D

[Libloather]

...my travels through central Appalachia.

There aren't any rednecks in southern Kalifornia?

[rbg81]

In the Netflix series “Ozark”, it’s pretty clear that referring to a Hillbilly as a Redneck (even by mistake) is a death sentence.

[Equine1952]

I got the monikers from how and where I grew up. I worked to get them and qualify. Just don’t call me a sob-of-bit**. Mom is still alive and a very nice lady. Oh and leave the my wife, my dogs, and my truck out of it too. Boondocks are fine and ridge runner ain’t no issue either.

[foreverfree]

Bump

[yldstrk]

I am allergic to triangles, so she actually won’t have to kill me.

[TMN78247]

AGREED 100%. = The first Scots in our family arrived (BANISHED to the Carolinas by the English king in 1622 for “running off English cattle”) & intermarried with the local Amer-Indians, so I’m RED & HILLBILLY all over & clear down to the bone-marrow.

Yours, TMN78247

[crz]

“My grandfather was a rancher and he taught me a lot about caring for animals and for family. I have passed that along to my adult children.”

As do all goodly people. I think it be called respect?

[Viking2002]

'[now everybody git outen my yard else I sic the porch hounds on ya]'

Ah, I hear some Pennsylvaina Deutsch in there, ja? You're one of us, for sure.

[xrmusn]

I remember the term ‘ditch diggers tan’ when I was a lad, and I acquired a good one working in asphalt for 25 some years.

Ditch diggers tan is heavy tan/burn to ‘muscle’ area—above the high cuff roll, that pasty white skin ALL the way down.

(Since ONLY sun the body really saw was while working, I believe barroom pallor was the opposite)

[jy8z]

I grew up south of San Antonio in the country doing “country” things. I was often referred to as a sh:t kicker. I wonder how that compares to hillbillies and rednecks?

[Equine1952]

I grew up on the Missouri/Kansas border, it may be dumb but there’s still a taint of animosity there. We can bicker among ourselves, but you push a Jayhawker because he’s an American, then you’ll have a problem with me. Country boy don’t bother me either. We all bleed red, learned that in the Service. It is US Against those that would destroy us.

[Equine1952]

Farmboy, you’re a farm boy? Well it goes with the territory. :). Shitkicker takes in a lot of folks. Never thought folks in San Francisco would get there.