observations.

What defines a redneck? I’m sure online somewhere—anywhere, one can find a “definition” of redneck on some joker’s website who does doesn’t really understand. Someone who sees people on TV on COPS or on CMT or even at Country Thunder and assumes instantly that they know those people’s life story, no doubt due to their vast knowledge, educated by endless (worthless?) hours of MTV, Joe Dirt and Raising Arizona to name a few schools that may have laid out the groundwork for the world to view, or begin to view, the redneck as a part of society.

Nicer and less dark than the title of “white trash”, redneck lends itself as a label from the stupid idiot type of simpleton of Joe Dirt on up to how cool and hip it can be in any Big and Rich video. The problem is that many people’s definition of a redneck includes a lowered IQ. I don’t think it is possible to simply entrap redneck as any person or group of people. I think redneck is a thing or something, and people may “do redneck-ish things” rather than “be A redneck”. Does anyone see where I’m going here? (well not where I’m going but where I’m coming from, you couldn’t possibly begin to fathom where I’ve been or where I’m going)

Even I tend to lump people who I don’t understand together with low IQ, such as racist folks. No matter what the context, I always parallel racism with stupidity, and I am even sure that there are really really racist people who are quite intelligent. Hitler was, wasn’t he? I don’t know, I’m not totally knowledgeable of things Hitler, although that would be something interesting to look up someday.

The other day while I was smoothing out the freshly poured gravel in my driveway with a snowplow attached to the front of a rusty Dodge pickup with a construction rack in the back, I couldn’t help but be self conscious of my position. As people drove by I wondered, “Do they think I’m a redneck? White trash? An idiot?”, and my neighbors, what do they think? I looked over at their rusty 1984 GMC Safari van next to their 1978 Dodge motor home and figured they probably didn’t care and in fact were probably wondering why I didn’t plow their driveway for them this winter.

Of course I don’t consider myself super intelligent but I don’t consider myself stupid either. I am still pondering this question and may never really answer it wholly. I think that I, along with so many others, am a product of my upbringing. I didn’t try and be one who said I couldn’t wait to get away, etc. I love where I grew up, I love those who affected me and still affect me today.

Because I cannot afford a sweet road grader or a tractor with a back blade and choose to use a borrowed plow truck to grade my driveway does not make me stupid or does not define me. It only shows that I care about my driveway.

The next time you find yourself putting someone into a category of any kind, stop and consider why. What is it about them that causes you to start that thought process without knowing them, “those type” of people, or any thing about anything for that matter…give it a shot and I bet it gives you new insight to yourself. I don’t know, it’s just a thought, just a blog post, and I’m just some guy.