A Journey into the Redneck State of Mind

[marmar]

from the Texas Observer, via AlterNet:



A Journey into the Redneck State of Mind

By John MacCormack, Texas Observer. Posted September 14, 2007.


Beyond the heavy drinking and blue collar rowdiness, what exactly makes a redneck in this enlightened age? A visit to the Texas Redneck Games offers some answers.


On a remote East Texas ranch, surrounded by thousands of rowdy Southern whites, many drinking heavily and driving all-terrain vehicles at eye-popping speeds, the young German confronted images of mayhem and depravity. Flula Borg, a tall, curly haired musician, was an accidental visitor to the Texas Redneck Games outside Athens in early August. He came as part of a Los Angeles film crew keen on recording a bit of the backwoods revelry.

The 26-year-old Borg's only preparation for the resulting cultural collision had come in Germany, first from watching popular American shows like the "The Dukes of Hazzard" as a child, later from grown-up movies that cast rural Southern whites in a far harsher light.

With a goodly number of Confederate flags flying, crude signs asking women to disrobe, and the occasional "White Pride" tattoo on a sallow chest, the event's early signs were unsettling. "They seem friendly. I was a little scared. You see movies. You think they'll be loud, throwing people around," Borg said shortly after arriving, still feeling conspicuous as a foreigner. Having a tall, black cameraman with flowing dreadlocks in his group only added to Borg's anxiety.

"I was worried they'd be racist. I'm worried because I don't have tattoos and everyone else is wearing wife-beaters," he confided early that Saturday morning. Hours later, after viewing various gross and silly contests, including some that resemble ancient rites of public humiliation, and competing in the mattress chunk (taking third place), Borg had relaxed.

"Wow, it's crazy. It feels a little like a movie. I don't know anything like this in Germany," he said with open amazement. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/62148/

[tomreedtoon]

1. Science fiction conventions are better.

Because when people dress up as part of the 501st Imperial Legion, a Starfleet officer or Inuyasha, they know on some level they're only "cosplaying." Stormtroopers don't necessarily support the right-wing politics or the inherent racism of the <i>Star Wars</i> villains. As a popular song at conventions goes, "What happens at the con, stays at the con."

But it sounds like many rednecks don't know where "playing a character" ends and real life begins. Too often, they keep playing their characters and can't become a normal person again. They really would elect Charlie Daniels as President of the Confederacy, and until then they'll take George Bush.