I used safari as my search engine but urbandictionary.com as my source for the words “hillbilly” and “redneck.” “Often used as an insult and racial slur against White folks who live in the country. A hillbilly is a person who lives in a remote, rural area in the South, often in the Appalachian Mountains and therefore is isolated and somewhat out of touch with modern culture.” This is the definition that urbandictionary.com provided. As used by yourdictionary.com a “redneck” is described as, “a slang and derogatory term for a poor white person, often who lives in rural Southern United States and who often has conservative or bigoted attitudes.
Most of the time these terms are used in a condescending way to joke or mock these groups of people. “Hillbilly,” is mostly seen in a negative connotation, it divulges two meanings, which ultimately ends in negative connotations. One connotation is that they are self sufficient and independent individuals who have no problem being on their own. The other direction it takes is that they are violent and illiterate tempered individuals. The term “redneck” is mostly used in a derogatory way. The term came about from poor farmers who worked in the field for hours during the day and got sunburnt on their necks because they could not afford hats to protect their skin. Unfortunately “redneck” made a name for itself expanding into the political field of the Democratic Party where these poor white famers would proudly were red flannels and red neckerchiefs to rallies and political events. This was were the rich drew the line. They saw these poor white famers as illiterate, violent, and worthless.
Most of examples of these terms come from people who live in the boonies or the middle of nowhere. These people proudly wear the badge, “hillbilly” and “redneck,” as they ride in their jacked up trucks with confederate flags waving in the rear. “Rednecks” are described as the people who hunt and shot game for food, drink beer straight from the can, and wear camaflouge religiously. “Hillbillies,” are symbolized as the folks who live in the trailer parks and speak in a thick southern accent that are illiterate and mostly poor.
Speaking in a rational way the two terms are different but it all varies on where you are in that point of time. ‘Hillbilly,” is mostly seen by the society as a derogatory term, it refers to being violent, illiterate and isolated in the mountains. On the other hand “redneck” is a derogatory term but these people are not seen as illiterate, they are mostly viewed as poor famers that are sunburnt and ignorant. I think that a person can be both of these terms, yes there are different meanings of “hillbilly” and “redneck” but both of these terms generally depict the people that live in the Appalachian area. Both of these terms refer to people who are illiterate, rough, isolated, and come off as repulsive or undesired by the urban society.
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