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Personally, as a white, rural southerner who grew up on a farm, I don't consider myself a redneck. But at my high school there was definately a clique of kids who considered themselves redneck and proud. They wore overalls, Wranglers, flannel shirts, etc., every day. During Spirit Week for homecoming at my high school we even had a "Farmer Day" and about 25% of the school would drive to school in tractors. Personally, I find redneck a tad offensive, but it's certainly much better than "white trash" or some other alternative. Besides, a lot of people are self-proclaimed rednecks. I think the issue comes in when you have families that consider themselves more as gentleman farmers that get called rednecks. I know that my grandfather would have been mortified to have been called a redneck, but I think that particular sting of class consciousness has really been dulled for me and my parents, yet we'd never really identify ourselves as "rednecks". But most of the kids I knew from really successful farming families wouldn't have called themselves "rednecks".
Does this make a bit of sense?
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