If The Shoe Fits--Wear It...

(stopping Political Correctness in it’s tracks)

I’m going on record here….this topic has been gnawing at me for a couple of days now and I finally found the necessary links to the story and enough background to authoritatively address the issue. Sean Hannity has mentioned it and Rush Lindbaugh brought it up today but neither gentleman can speak to the underlying issue like I can.

I ask that you bear with me here because in developing this topic I am going to use some words that many people might find offensive. It is not my intention to offend, but by omitting the words I will limit the effectiveness of this dissertation.

First, let me state that I’m speaking on behalf of an entire group of Americans that I feel infinitely qualified to represent.

I AM A REDNECK—self-proclaimed.

You can’t insult me by calling me a Redneck, because I often use the word Redneck to refer to myself. Further, I am very proud of my Redneck heritage. Some people might view themselves as cultured and enlightened or just might have industrial strength asshole personalities, but for whatever reason they think that they can offend me or define me or embarrass me by calling me a REDNECK, but as the old saying goes…”sticks and stones…”

Do you even know what the real meaning of the word “Redneck” is? Most people don’t—the word is just thrown around loosely and is generally intended as an insult. These people need to get it through their head—I AM NOT INSULTED BY BEING CALLED A REDNECK.

GET IT?

As I understand it, the word ”Redneck” originated as a derogatory term delivered by “city slickers” in reference to “country boys” who relocated to college campuses and urban areas in search of an education or employment. Young men from rural areas had “farmers suntans” that usually resulted in dark faces, arms, feet, and often sunburned necks--thus the term "redneck."

These same young men, like myself, having lived simple rural lifestyles during the first seventeen years of their lives, were not used to things like dinner table silverware settings including four or more forks, foods like caviar and fois gras, and we once considered sushi to be “fish bait.” Well, things can and do change with time, you know?

We (the South Alabama Rednecks) were also amazed that these same urban office dwellers would drive for hours and spend thousands of dollars to visit places like Panama City (The Redneck Rivera) to lounge like lizards on our beaches to get the very same suntan that we got for free. Ever seen a pasty white New York Yankee after two days of drunken sun worshiping beside the Gulf of Mexico? Can you say Lobster?

Any way, a Redneck, by definition, is not automatically stupid; we are just inexperienced and highly willing and able to learn. Like many slang terms, the word Redneck has been adopted by the Redneck population and can be used as a term of endearment (smile when you say that) or as an insult (want a knuckle sandwich?)

If you call me a Redneck, I answer back with “you’re damn right—and damn proud of it…”

Now, getting down to business. Let me say that I DO NOT NEED THE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS POLICE AND THE GOVERNMENT DEFENDING ME FROM THE WORD REDNECK!!!

You got that?

No you don’t. Here is the source of my consternation. I seems that on Monday Congressman Charles Rangel called former presidents Bill Clinton and Lyndon Johnson “Rednecks."

"I don’t have the slightest clue who Hillary really is," the dismayed Harlem Democrat tells New York Magazine this week. "All I see is a gal who knew she was as good as anyone else, and she saw this guy she could make something of, so she forfeited Illinois and went to Arkansas."

Rangel then added, "That’s a hell of a move to make for a redneck, which is all he was."

Asked on Tuesday morning if he really thought Clinton was a redneck, Rangel told WWRL Radio's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter: "Of course he is. He's from Arkansas."

Later in the interview Rangel tried to backpedal, telling Malzberg he thought the Clintons were "terrific people."

"You have to remember, you know, Lyndon Johnson was one of the best presidents we had and he was a redneck out of Texas," he explained.

The congressman's non-pejorative pejorative comes just days after Sen. Clinton stiffed him on the Diallo case, a move the New York Post described on Monday as "a slap in the face to Charles Rangel."

“Without Sen. Clinton's help, Rangel's legislation to grant Kadiatou Diallo and her family permanent resident status crashed and burned in the 2003-04 Congress and has attracted no other support this year.”

I can just see it now...the Political Correctness Police all opened their collective mouths, covered them with their hands, and uttered barely discernable “OH NO’s” in response. Sean Hannity said that his web site was flooded with E-mails demanding that he take up the issue by attacking Rangel for using the “R” word. Rush Lindbaugh talked about it on his show today briefly.

Naturally, since the story involves a white guy talking about another couple of white guys, the main stream media has continued to treat this as a non-story and for once I am damn glad that they are.

If Rangel had called Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton a couple of "fly niggers" the war in Iraq and every other world event would be relegated to page C-13 in the newspapers and theUS Congress would be considering impeachment proceedings.

On behalf of Rednecks everywhere I say, back the hell off of this everybody. I am not offended, and I refuse to see the word Redneck added to the list of slang references to Hebrews, Italians, Germans, Polish, and African Americans that are death-sentence taboos.

Based on history, it will ultimately end up where I can’t even say the word Redneck myself. You see what happened when the KKK adopted the flag of the Confederacy as their symbol? Polite southerners lost in the long run. My great great grandfather lost an arm fighting under St Andrews Cross in Perryville, Kentucky and it really sucks that everyone thinks that I’m a racist if I happen to own a copy of the Confederate Flag. (I do, and I’m not.)

As I said before…I AM A REDNECK, AND I AM PROUD OF IT.

The media and the Political Correctness crowd can all go to hell as far as I am concerned. They are full of crap and there is such an obvious ridiculous double standard when it comes to racial slurs that I want to vomit. If you go to any urban basketball court in Atlanta and sit for five minutes you will hear the black players utter the word “Nigger” fifty times, yet if New Gingrich or Zell Miller or I open my mouth and whisper the “N” word in earshot of a hyper-sensitive politically correct moron or God forbid a microphone we spend the rest of our lives stigmatized from the incident.

So everybody, just stop defending my peers and me. We are quite capable of taking care of ourselves and we don’t need a bunch of pantywaist idiots with notebooks, newspaper columns, or TV shows worrying about our tender feelings.

GOT IT? Now I think that you do…