So, I was reading about the Republican debate last night, and I got to thinking about this old Onion article, specifically, as it relates to Mike Huckabee. I know "What kind of a country..." is one of the most over-used beginnings to a rhetorical question in this, the Age of the Bush Doctrine, but still: What the fuck kind of country allows a hard-core nutter like Huckabee (anti-evolution, pro-guns, anti-abortion, pro-Guantanamo, anti-gay, anti-First-Amendment, anti-stem-cell-research) to assume the mantle of the nice-guy, uniter candidate on the following twin bases? He can make a decent Chuck Norris joke, and he doesn't want to stab all undocumented Mexicans in their hearts.At this point, I can't prognosticate as to which congenital liar the corn-shuckers are going to pick out of their teeth and spit back at our fat, dumb country, but let it be said, you won't unite me into your camo-wearing, Darwinism-denying, Jenny Craig administration, asshole. And, as for you, "liberal" media, yeah, I'm sure you're right; this time around the guy you want to get a beer with isn't going to turn out to be the next guy to put roofies in our PBR.
Speaking of rednecks, this reminds me: I stopped in a gas station restroom somewhere between Austin and San Antonio last week, and as I was engaging in my business, I heard a guy say to no one in particular, "You think in Mexico, they got bathrooms that say bannoh on top and bathroom underneath it?" As I went to the sink to wash my hands, he repeated this probing query into world cultures, and, I noticed, this time to me specifically.
Now, I weighed my responses. I could've said, (1) "Que, puta? No hablo Ingles;" (2) "Dude, look at me. Do you really think I'm on your team?"; (3) or nothing at all. I went with (3), but he kept on keeping on, and even added, "What the hell is a bannoh anyway?" This part I didn't quite understand. He hates Mexicans so much he's unable to logically reason that they would have a separate word for the very facility we were standing in? Shit, that's some hate.
Anyway, I ended up telling him, "it means bathroom, and wherever you're going with this, I'm probably not going to agree with you."
Then he lost his shit and slurred, "I'm entitled to my opinion!"
To which, I naturally responded, "And I'm entitled to think you're an ignorant redneck." And then I got the hell out of there, hoping he wouldn't spray buckshot into my face. Anyway, the point is, I messed with Texas, and it felt really fucking good.
16 comments:
I like the story of you telling him off so much that I'm almost able to overlook your cruel and dangerous stereotyping of Iowans as irrelevant corn shuckers.
JBell, I don't think Iowans are irrelevant; in fact, I think, despite this season's primary schedule changes, they're as influential as ever. And that's exactly the problem. Should Huckabee win Iowa and gain strength nationally, it would be because he's garnered the backing of a smallish group of caucasians, I means, caucus-goers. That's antidemocratic fundamentally. As for the corn-shuckers image, I just like the metaphor, what with the teeth and the spitting.
You know, during my years living in the south, I had many discussions about the appropriateness of the term "redneck"--those on your side of the offense, Anat, tend to wish their sense of victimization were given the same equivalence as that of black America. Let me say from the outset that I find this position outrageous.
While you too are entitled to your opinion, I emphatically disagree that the term as I use it and as it is popularly understood has even the remotest connection to its origins (which have to do, of course, with the effect of the sun upon the necks of white farm laborers), one reason why it is not an "ethnic" slur. Furthermore, stupid white people do not constitute an ethnicity by any stretch of the imagination.
Make no mistake--as it is widely used in Virginia and North Carolina--the term is certainly a pejorative, used to identify white people of a particular mindset, but given the veritable industry some whites (not necessarily southerners) have made of the term (see Jeff Foxworthy; see Jim Goad's Redneck Manifesto; see t-shirts worn in shopping malls throughout rural America) I feel zero remorse in using it myself.
"Redneck" is not the n-word. My use of it does not occur in a space where hate is combined with social power. It is a word used to identify those whose irrational bigotry is the single greatest cancer in American values today.
I am not Barack Obama. I don't care to reach across the aisle and assuage the hurt feelings of white people who think Mexicans are stealing their health care, who think the Rebel Flag is a symbol of pride, who think the War of Northern Aggression was purely about federalism.
While I think it's inappropriate to say all Irishmen are drunks or all Italians mafiosos (that is, to engage in ethnic slurs) I take profound pleasure in calling ignorant people who are white rednecks, hicks, crackers, what have you. I'm flawed, I know, but one day the Christian God will find it in his heart to deliver me from evil. And Jesus--blonde, flowing locks and all--will take me in his arms and forgive me.
clearly not all slurs are created equal. i didn't say that. and there is some dispute about whether redneck is an ethnic slur per se or just a derogatory sneer. whatever.
i'm trying to stand up as much for people who are stereotyped as poor ignorant back country farmers as much as for civil discourse.
despite the tone of your last paragraph, i dare say you might agree that it's not useful, productive, or progressive to think in these ways or treat anyone in that manner, regardless of what they think or how they treat others.
it's reductive and inherently flawed.
can we all just agree that i heart huckabees sucked and we hate jason schwartzman?
thanks.
1) I'm deeply ambivalent about Jason Schwartzman, and 2) no, Anat, I don't agree. I really don't.
I appreciate that you want to stand up for a dispossessed class of people, but it's not reductive or inherently flawed to be uncivil to someone who himself is uncivil to you. Had I seen a guy who looks like Toby Keith at that gas station, and said, "You're an ignorant redneck," I'd be engaging in stereotyping. But had I seen Toby Keith himself--a misogynist, a racist, a willfully uninformed person--absolutely I would say, "You're an ignorant redneck," and I'd be justified.
People should be made to account for their words and for their actions. The very fact that someone feels comfortable enough to say what that guy said to me (obviously, a person of color) without fear of consequence enrages me. If I made him uncomfortable, if I pissed him off, if I hurt his feelings, I'm at peace with that.
Carrots or sticks, people like that aren't going to change their philosophies. So, they need to be marginalized. It's inherently flawed to think that bigots will release their grip over this country because we treat them with respect.
ps - I usually do this sort of thing with Heidi; so, it's nice that I get to mix it up with you today.
Totally offensive. Not even close. Why didn't you stop at "ignorant"? What was "redneck" supposed to add? Rant about relative offensiveness of other slurs/stereotypes completely irrelevant. Who cares that it's not the n-word? Disclosure: it's Alex. (And I'm not just blindly supporting Anat.)
adil, can alex and i announce our wedding via your blog? we feel it is interweb detritus worthy.
no, let's just continue this debate instead.
alex, i like the bulleted point format of your comment.
as for my my rant about the relative offensiveness of slurs,(1) this whole blog is an extended rant, so i'm pretty perplexed that you would identify the comments above as problematic for keeping true to form, and (2) no, the rant wasn't irrelevant; anat said i was using an
"ethnic slur," a charge i deny for the reasons above. i illustrated my point by comparing "redneck
" to the n-word, which is actually an ethnic slur. doing so was both relevant and in-bounds clearly.
as for your point, it's purely tautological: "whatever, don't change the subject, the word's inappropriate because it's wrong." forgive me if i mischaracterize, but you don't give me a whole lot to work with. while i appreciate that you feel the way you do, your feelings are not persuasive to me: i think it's okay to offend offensive people by using terms that speak purely to their offensive qualities (their ignorant, arrogant sense of racist entitlement).
again, to be clear, i would never call a white person of limited means, a farmer, a pick-up truck driver, a nascar fan, etc., a "redneck." that would be wrong because it would equate those habits, those ways of being, with a bigoted philosophy.
while it seems to me you and anat define "redneck" as an offensive, identifying marker for any kind of white person of particular means or one from a particular locale, i simply don't. nor do scores of pissed-off, progressive white people in the south; nor do many southern blacks i've encountered. they use the term everyday as a means of lashing out against certain kinds of racist white people. i don't deny that it's meant to hurt those people.
for eunice's sake, i'm willing to leave it there, if you are.
and, anat, eunice and i will get cracking on your wedding announcement. we demand exclusive coverage, so, you better not be announcing in the _times_. though if you do, i will be ceaselessly amused.
anat, alex, please provide me and c4ts with a conjoined head photo, stat.
otherwise, i'll be forced to photoshop my own creation.
which, in fact, i may do anyway.
who's "eunice"
It's anonymous Alex again. You wrote:
"again, to be clear, i would never call a white person of limited means, a farmer, a pick-up truck driver, a nascar fan, etc., a "redneck." that would be wrong because it would equate those habits, those ways of being, with a bigoted philosophy."
Who were you actually speaking to? In your original post, all we readers were told about the person you were speaking to is that he was "a guy" in a bathroom in San Antonio, right?
So if you yourself had read your own original post, you wouldn't even be able to answer the question "Is what Adil said offensive?" because you would still need to know more about the person being so labeled, right? The answer would be yes if the person fit a certain description.
So those of us who are commenting on this can't be that crazy.
(If there was a more complete description of the person you were speaking to in one of your subsequent posts I missed it.)
anonymous alex, let me interject here. and not just to wish all of you away.
c4ts has clearly stated that the term "redneck" is directed at a certain type of person, specifically, and using his own words: certain kinds of racist white people.
therefore, c4ts didn't need to provide any physical or other sociological description of said guy from san antonio aside from his disdain for the usage of a whole other language other than english, which seems to prove his racist tendencies. who knows. maybe he's a linguist and c4ts just jumped to hasty conclusions.
anyway, it pains me to defend c4ts in any way considering how unreasonable he's been about the whole perfect strangers/family matters connection, but so be it.
Alex, E is right. There was no description of the guy in the post or in the comments precisely because it was irrelevant, and it was meaningless to me what he looked like. I was only interested in what he was saying. I was only responding to him on that basis.
If you suspect that secretly I was casting aspersions because of the guy's appearance, rest assured, that was not the case. He was--to my recollection--fairly non-descript, and, by his looks alone, would be perfectly at home anywhere in Manhattan or San Franciso: khakis, glasses, button-down shirt, a little on the short side, 40-something. His insistence on mispronouncing the word "bano," btw, I suspect was deliberate (not the result of genuine ignorance).
Also, E, Eunice is Eunice Kennedy Shriver. I know Alex's fondness for RFK, so I thought I could invoke his sister's name in closing this discussion. For Eunice's sake, and her sake alone.
Lastly, why does nobody care that Ron Paul looks like Magneto?
Alex, I would do anything for fame, but I won't do that.
Note to self (and to E): Let's get Meatlof to guestblog.
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