More myths of the modern-day redneck

I'm a redneck and I am not at all ashamed of saying this is the case. I live in the country because I want to, I own guns, I vote conservative (for the most part,) and I own and prefer a pickup truck. However, there are a lot of myths about my people that you might not believe it, but we find them hurtful because they are untrue for the most part.

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We have no sense of fashion

This one is totally untrue. We have a "different sense" of fashion for sure but to suggest that we do not care what we look like would be completely untrue. There used to be a club years ago in Greenville, NC (where I live) that was called the Texas 2-Step. It was 2 bars in one; one side was country-western and the other side of the club had more of what would be considered a typical night-club.

Obviously the country-western side was more along the lines of where "my people" would hang out.

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Do you have any idea how much a proper Stetson (cowboy hat) costs? A great deal of time and effort goes into selecting just the right one and our jeans and shirts are similarly selected for comfort and style. Boots are essential and these are also extremely expensive and there is a certain fashion to them all. This might seem unfashionable to people outside of our circle, but to us, this is formal wear and just because it isn't your fashion, doesn't mean it isn't fashion.

We are all a bunch of racists

I'm not going to suggest that there zero racists in the redneck community, but going back to the Texas 2-Step club, on any given popular night at that club, a great many of the people in attendance were black or Hispanic and nobody EVER treated these people any differently.

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If any of my brethren exhibit attitudes of blanket racism, myself and the boys wont tolerate it. We are country people and most of the people in my community are in fact, Caucasian. But the suggestion that we are all a bunch of racists is a horrible and vicious rumor that isn't any more true than any other segment of society.

We all smoke or use "dip" tobacco

There might have been a time that this was the truth but when I look around these days, the college student population of nearby East Carolina University, presumably comprised of people who for the most part would consider themselves to NOT be rednecks, smoke in far greater numbers than my people do.

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I would say it was around 10 years or so that the societal changes that swept most of the nation (I'm referring to USA) and the increased prices as well and smaller and smaller areas where smoking was actually allowed lead the rednecks to follow suit with the rest of the country and give it up. Chewing tobacco was never fashionable in redneck culture and even though North Carolina is a tobacco state, the cost of these products were enough to convince most of our community to quit that also.

We're afraid of cancer too folks, we're not as stupid as people sometimes think

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I think that'll do it for now because someone mentioned that 600 words is enough and making things too long just encourages people to not read it. I'd be happy to answer any redneck questions you might have as I now consider myself to be a diplomat of sorts for my community... lol