James McCaffery

5/25/17

Help Received: Prompt 2,  Google Search Hillbilly and Redneck https://www.google.com/search?q=Google&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Hillbilly, https://www.google.com/search?q=redneck&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

James McCaffery

Hillbilly: “An unsophisticated country person, associated originally with the remote regions of the Appalachians.”

Redneck: “A working-class white person, especially a politically reactionary one from a rural area.”

It seems that while Hillbilly hold a negative sense of feeling, and that of a more specific term, Redneck hold the opposite; being that of a positive term and also being generally more vague. I believe based upon these definitions, Hillbilly is a much older and greater used term then that of a redneck, and that while all hillbillies can be rednecks, not all rednecks can be hillbillies. Now yes this is a stereotype.  Both words are. But to me the biggest difference is how Google can define Hillbilly directly using Appalachian regions, while Redneck is broader. Like Hillbillies made the country music while Rednecks just listened to it.  Hillbillies make the moonshine while Rednecks just drink it.  Perhaps its simply that Rednecks are the modernized version of Hillbillies. The next Generation so to speak. These are the kids and grand kids mixing the city or suburban life with that of their ancestors. While Hillbillies were thought to be poor, Rednecks are the working class. They hold more of a say because they wanted more than the Hillbillies before them did. Maybe its the work of their ancestors that brought them to this. Who knows. The point is perhaps while they differ, they are more similar than initially thought.