Having been without power for six days, I haven't seen this thread, but being from the South I can't restrain myself from posting. A black guy who was very mad at me once called me a redneck interspersed with a long line of other attention grabbers and I'm pretty sure he wasn't being complimentary at the time. I had a similar experience growing up in Florida in the 60's when a black classmate called me a cracker. Between the two, I took more offense at the time of being called a cracker than I did a redneck. I'm guessing the big difference was that the two events happened about 35 years apart. Interestingly, my sister and I now take great pride in considering ourselves Florida Crackers, as do many native Floridians (ok, cut me some slack, and don't argue the "native" definition). So I guess all the comments about it being a matter of perspective are right.
|