The other day I was talking with this guy who kept complaining about my use of the word redneck to describe good ol’ boy, hard-working, living off-the-land country people. He kept correcting me, saying the term redneck was patently offensive, in essence a “white nigger”, leaving aside the fact that some African Americans have adopted their own use of the word “nigger”. I’ve always though obscenity was kind of silly, as words only have as much meaning as you give them. 

If you want to call yourself something offensive, is it offensive?

The best way to take a bite off obscenity is to use a word casually, like has long been common with the word “fuck”, in the sense of saying, that’s “really fucked up”. And indeed, a lot of rural people have long adopted the word redneck, not as an obscenity but a symbol of pride — self-reliance, hard working, not afraid of mud or muck. Not the backwards, racist meaning some give it.

I like the term redneck, as I think it describes a good lifestyle, one that is largely self-reliant and sustainable. One that isn’t based around high consumption, but making the best of the natural and mechanical resources available to you. Rednecks are often highly skilled in mechanical and natural systems, a point that is often ignored by the popular press. There is a lot of skill and knowledge that goes into farming and homesteading, to say nothing about mechanics. Just because a fix isn’t pretty, doesn’t mean it’s not real or effective.

I don’t buy that idea that calling somebody a redneck is a hate term, especially if they are more then willing to adopt the term. I don’t think the redneck lifestyle is pejorative or bad, indeed I would argue it’s good as it’s often more sustainable then the high-consumption lifestyle of the suburbanite — and closer to the land and realities of natural world. Sure, in the suburbs you have your soy-milk in your disposable plastic container, and maybe it looks good on a per-capita basis, but it’s not as real or close to the environment as a dairy goat or pig you’ve slaughtered yourself.

I don’t think calling a redneck a rural person has the same effect. There are plenty of yuppies and gentrified folk in Columbia County who raise sheep or horses. But they aren’t the same as the trailer-living, wrenching their own cars, pig-raising, hard-working country boys who live a life of mud and muck and grease, and aren’t such a distance from the land the live on.