In the link below, I couldn't find any references to searches for "hillbilly, hick, redneck, racist, goober, peckerwood " or any of the other terms commonly applied to Southerners, so this map is not a real reflection of all hate speech. But I will guarantee that I will have this beaten on my head because I am from the South. Institutionalized hate like the comic strip "Snuffy Smith" and various "redneck" reality shows constantly demean us rural types but are deemed "okay" and "harmless fun" because they are aimed at whites, yet even that distinction fails when looking at some of the other white, ethnic subsets.
For instance, it seems perfectly fine to recite redneck jokes but woe be unto the government official who tells a joke involving Americans of Polish descent. Even our own government thinks redneck bashing is just fine. One government study, approved and passed on to Congress, advocating the great Appalachian land grab (called by flatlanders the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the TVA), said there would be few problems with the locals because they were all "marginal people." (Yes, that is a direct quote.) So it's all just fine because we're just barely human.
Hate in 140 Characters, Mapped | Crooks and Liars
2 comments:
This fellow Southerner says THANK YOU for this article. You are exactly right, and it's high time someone said it. You said it well.
I've been beating this horse since the 70's. I once was even published in Science News for "tirade" I wrote about an alleged scientific study that claimed that incest was more common in NC than anywhere else. The study was so badly flawed that if it had been physics the author would have spun a Galvani and claimed electricity flowed out of frog legs.
Oh. And thanks-- it's nice to known someone occasionally reads my stuff.
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