I think that if you look closely into why we feel free to insult our fellow Americans that you will find some "race and color" in the mix. Why were people, who could be the ancestors of some people called "rednecks", in the bayous and deepest hollers etc...? Some were driven. Some were of mixed race, either African American or Native American. Some were Melungeon and other people of unknown ancestry, but certainly not entirely Northern European..DNA tests are showing that Melungeons who claimed Turkish ancestry were right. Read up on their history and see how it could overlap with some "redneck" geography and even traits..that had survival value at the time of great discrimination. We don't need to continue the discrimination now..or do we? Must we still cast around for people to insult and feel superior to and get social permission to do so? Social permission is very interesting...as soon as we get the memo that it is not cool to insult Irish, or Jews, or lesbians, or coal miners, then we start looking around for someone that it is socially permissible to be better than and let them know it. They had better be white male, so that limits the field quite a bit..but not white males like "us" or our family members. It is best if they talk funny, wear funny clothes, eat funny food, listen to corny music, etc. mg