With all due respect Mr. Brokaw, I took some offense to your lumping rednecks in with bigots.
Just to jog your memory, here’s your direct quote from Tuesday’s Inauguration coverage…
“Listen, I just want to say one thing. Having been in the South in the ’60s and Los Angeles, in Watts and northern urban areas, when we were evolving as a country, I’m thinking of all the bigots and rednecks and people I met along the way. I’m saying to them, “Take this.” You know?”
I can appreciate the civil rights abuses you have witnessed – a whole lot of hate, injustice and oppression I imagine, especially during the ’60s.
But please, get your terminology straight before you start slinging hate yourself, because I think you meant “racist,” not redneck. For the record, these words are not interchangeable. I also know they are not mutually exclusive – I’m sure there are some racist rednecks, just as I’m sure there are racists found amongst other ethnicities. But my experience with “rednecks” has been mostly of the positive variety.
I grew up in Atlanta (1970s and ’80s) and now reside in the great state of Texas – I know, and have even dated, my fair share of rednecks. Hell, I’m a loud and proud graduate of Texas A&M University, I know of what I speak.
Rednecks are the guys you see driving trucks, usually with a sweet thang sitting along side, maybe with a gun rack, probably with a Calvin sticker pissin on something. They’ve got their country music turned up, and they’re looking forward to hitting the downtown Dairy Queen for a dilly bar, before heading home to enjoy a cold Keystone and some hot lovin.
Note that I did not say they would be swinging by the local Martinizing establishment to pick up their hoods.
Think more Jeff Foxworthy – less “A Time to Kill.”
Rednecks like to whoop and holler over the likes of Jeff Gordon or Dale Jr., they enjoy a good tailgate, and they’ve been known to paint themselves to show their beloved alma mater support during football games, even if it’s just the local high school.
Note: Please do not confuse good ole boys with rednecks. Good ole boys are rednecks with money – an important distinction.
Think George W. and Bill Clinton.
(Come to think of it, I dated good ole boys, not rednecks.)
Now a bigot, that’s a whole other animal. These are people who are completely intolerant of opinions, lifestyles or identities differing from his or her own. The bigot can be found hiding under a white robe, as well as working in a nicely tailored suit or Chanel jacket.
Note: you don’t have to be Caucasian to be a bigot, unlike a redneck. Rednecks are pretty much all white, minus the neck of course, and maybe the arms thanks to their sleeveless shirts.
No Tom, bigots come in all shapes and sizes, races and religions. An equal opportunity offender, if you will. Bigots are hateful little people who will have to answer to someone bigger than you.
So from this Aggie lovin, SUV drivin, NASCAR Santa displayin, Southern lady, go ahead and consider me a redneck – I’ll gladly take you down to D.Q. Country and split a steak finger basket with you.
I’ll even let you pay, sugar.
Edited to add: there is a woman on the NBC Nightly News blog (it’s official, everyone blogs) who points out that some of the more radical civil rights leaders who might have utilized questionable actions to further their cause back in the ’60s are now embraced today because they acknowledged their mistakes and now proceed with more acceptable means. Would it be too great a leap to consider that maybe the “rednecks,” racists and bigots of yesterday, whom Mr. Brokaw referenced, are now enlightened and educated Baby Boomers of today?
Just another thought to throw on the cerebral fire.
