A semantics question about rednecks/WASPS/hillbillies/etc.

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

A redneck thread here in the WR reminded me that I often get confused with these terms, especially with the possible overlapping.

1 - As far as I can tell, a hillbilly = redneck ? Or is there a scale between both ?

2 - Is being a redneck a lifestyle or an ethnicity ? I just read that there are mexican rednecks. But I thought that rednecks/hillbillies had to be white.

2 - The term WASP : If I am not mistaken this term usually refers to a certain White Anglo Saxon Protestant elite. But I would bet that many hillbillies and rednecks are of WASP origins. When do you stop being a WASP and start being a redneck ? Is it just about being rich vs being poor ?

3- Last question : what's the line between a hillbilly and white trash ?

Txs for input. BTW I am white so this is not intended to be a racist thread.

 

[Denter]

Rednecks are different than hillbillies.

Rednecks can be found anywhere, and can frankly be of any ethnicity as long as they signal with speech, dress, and activities that they are rednecks. Hillbillies pretty much have to be white and live in isolated mountain communities in appalachia.

 

[Harmonica]

WASP elite are descendants of richest, most educated and most competent English who inhabited the 13 colonies.

 

[Furious George]

WASP is usually reserved for rich people.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Ok, then what about a rich white anglo saxon protestant farmer who drinks whiskey, shoots guns and listens to country music.

Is he a redneck or a WASP ?

 

[Tamriel Terror]

i live in nc and most people that consider themselves "southerns" are proud of being rednecks, however Hillbillies not so much, same with white trash.

Even though almost all of the "southerners" i went to high school with were trashy af. Most wore camo, dipped, drove trucks, blasted country, and were racist. It doesn't help that my school was trashy also. Our senior song was a country song of course

in nc:

rednecks=usually poor
hillbillies=always poor
white trash= ghetto white people

 

[Harmonica]

Ok, then what about a rich white anglo saxon protestant farmer who drinks whiskey, shoots guns and listens to country music.

Is he a redneck or a WASP ?

It's a matter of blood that runs through your veins, not what you do. A direct descendant of a farmer who inhabited Jamestown in 1607 can wear fancy suits all he wants, he will still be a peasant.

 

[SODACKER]

I always thought being redneck was more about the activities you enjoy. If you hunt and tinker on cars and overall don't enjoy city activities as much as you enjoy drinking a cheap bear and replacing a transmission with your buddies, your a redneck. Most rednecks are actually pretty well off.

Hillbillies are country white trash. Always poor.

 

[Allan__Martel]

rednecks aren't peoples living outside the city and enjoying the outdoors? I had no idea they could be in the city...

 

[Chesten_Hesten]

I thought WASP and Yuppy-Trash And Liberal Scum were all the same?

And Hillbilly meant inbred redneck, and redneck just meant Texan.

And White Trash and Cracker and Honky were interchangeable?

 

[frandie2b]

I'm European so I'm a bit lost.

What are these farmers white guys with a mullet and a wheat stem in the mouth ?

 

[Chesten_Hesten]

rednecks aren't peoples living outside the city and enjoying the outdoors? I had no idea they could be in the city...

 

[panamaican]

I thought redneck was a reference to white people who worked outside (thus, presumably, less educated). The extensive manual labor meant sunburn on the back of the neck - red neck.

So, I always thought it had to reference someone more country/rural, not necessarily poor, but more likely than not uneducated.

Hillbillies refer to those poor whites who live in the Appalachian mountain range areas (or similar areas). A very specific group, usually uneducated, inbred, and poor.

WASP's definitely was more of a blue blood term. Not just white, English and Protestant but also economically elite. Rich French, Italian, Spanish couldn't be WASP's.

White trash just means any white person who's broke, uneducated, and not making attempts to be upwardly mobile, both social and economically.

 

[SODACKER]

I'm European so I'm a bit lost.

What are these farmers white guys with a mullet and a wheat stem in the mouth ?

Rednecks. Full time farmers are rarely hillbillies.

 

[Denter]

Ok, then what about a rich white anglo saxon protestant farmer who drinks whiskey, shoots guns and listens to country music.

Is he a redneck or a WASP ?

Depends on how they eat dinner.

 

[Allan__Martel]

ok, but I heard them being referenced as urban cowboys.

 

[panamaican]

Depends on who they eat dinner with.

Fixed.

 

[felmmando]

If you hunt and tinker on cars and overall don't enjoy city activities as much as you enjoy drinking a cheap bear and replacing a transmission with your buddies, your a redneck.

Would an expensive bear go down any more easily? I'd choke on the fur before I even got to the claws. :icon_chee

 

[Denter]

Fixed.

And who they allow into their club to eat at those dinners, lol

 

[panamaican]

And who they allow into their club to eat at those dinners, lol

Agreed.