AHC: Diverse rednecks/hillbillies

Copperhead

History Learner said:
Just depends on your region; in Alabama and Mississippi, for example, your average rural dweller is often Black. In Tennessee, Florida and Texas it's pretty normal to meet Black and Hispanic "Rednecks". I'm an Appalachian so it's been rather interesting to notice the cultural similarities despite different topographies and racial backgrounds; I've met more than one Black person that listens to Hank Williams, flies a Confederate flag and chews tobacco just like their White counterparts.
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I'm born and raised in Florida but I've lived in Jacksonville so my perspective may be skewed
 
MuricanTauri1776

MuricanTauri1776

History Learner said:
Just depends on your region; in Alabama and Mississippi, for example, your average rural dweller is often Black. In Tennessee, Florida and Texas it's pretty normal to meet Black and Hispanic "Rednecks". I'm an Appalachian so it's been rather interesting to notice the cultural similarities despite different topographies and racial backgrounds; I've met more than one Black person that listens to Hank Williams, flies a Confederate flag and chews tobacco just like their White counterparts.
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Why would a black guy fly a CSA flag? Please explain.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Raferty said:
If what you are referring to is redneck culture, then it already meets the challenge.

At my last job, where I lived in South Carolina, we had a pretty diverse workforce that regardless of ethnicity overwhelmingly voted hog hunting as our company retreat, routinely had "Raise Hell Praise Dale" bumper stickers on their cars, insisted that chitlins were acceptable pot luck lunch options, and used Bass Pro Shop gift cards as Christmas gifts for Yankee Swap.

Culturally, I really couldn't tell the difference. Now, I would say that the one Asian guy in the office didn't really fit the rest of the workforce, but he was a good sport about it.

Maybe you'd need some kind of different immigration patterns to get Asian rednecks.
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And sometimes Asians fit right into the southern context, like in Louisiana. Chinese American Sheriff Bobby Lee looked like "Boss Hog" from the Dukes of Hazzard. Vietnamese refugees embraced the creole seafood culture. They've spread it up here where to where I live in northern Virginia, running two places themes that way, Hot and Juicy Crawfish, and Chasin' Tails. The latter place features a southern inspired seafood smorgasbord that plays on both southern speech patterns and the owning family's surname, they call it 'the Whole Dang Thang'
 

Don Corleone

raharris1973 said:
And sometimes Asians fit right into the southern context, like in Louisiana. Chinese American Sheriff Bobby Lee looked like "Boss Hog" from the Dukes of Hazzard. Vietnamese refugees embraced the creole seafood culture. They've spread it up here where to where I live in northern Virginia, running two places themes that way, Hot and Juicy Crawfish, and Chasin' Tails. The latter place features a southern inspired seafood smorgasbord that plays on both southern speech patterns and the owning family's surname, they call it 'the Whole Dang Thang'
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Harry Lee.

His daughter is the current president of Jefferson Parish (County).
 

NorCalifornio

LostInNewDelhi said:
If we're talking rednecks like people who live over multiple generations in small towns or rural areas generally, and that comes out in their cultural preferences, for Asians (and I'm counting Indians) you're for sure gonna need changes. Asian farmers and rural laborers were very important for Hawaii but you could argue the islands are too small to foster an insular "redneck" culture; in larger states like California, the government resisted Japanese land ownership right up until Internment. After Hart Celler you still had people coming seeking land, but visa programs and such have skewed the demographic more toward people who, rich or poor, see their future in the cities.

So in a way, if the laws were less (making Asian land ownership easier) and more (restricting immigration generally, but not distinguishing by occupation) discriminatory you'd probably get a distinct class of rural Asians in the West. If you want them in the South though, I think the window for coming in/getting land/putting down roots is kinda closed after the Cotton Era, but there might be a second window around Reconstruction. That's when you could have Asians carving out a niche amid the New South.
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California's Asian population being overwhelmingly urban/suburban is a relatively recent phenomenon, and it's still not as thoroughly urban/suburban as most other states. One frequent recurring element in stories of Japanese interment is, after all, the confiscation of their farms. A lot of towns in the Delta had really significant Asian populations until fairly recently (and many still do, by the rest of the country's standards). Filipino farmworkers were once so common that they had their own separate union. Further back, there were a lot of Chinese immigrants in the goldfields.

Even now, there's still a few notable rural Asian populations in the state. The area around Yuba City has a lot of Sikhs, for instance, and Hmong people can be found in small towns throughout the Central Valley (particularly the San Joaquin Valley). Filipinos are still relatively common in some rural agricultural areas too.
 

Wendell

raharris1973 said:
And sometimes Asians fit right into the southern context, like in Louisiana. Chinese American Sheriff Bobby Lee looked like "Boss Hog" from the Dukes of Hazzard. Vietnamese refugees embraced the creole seafood culture. They've spread it up here where to where I live in northern Virginia, running two places themes that way, Hot and Juicy Crawfish, and Chasin' Tails. The latter place features a southern inspired seafood smorgasbord that plays on both southern speech patterns and the owning family's surname, they call it 'the Whole Dang Thang'
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Sounds like a good place to try.
 

frustrated progressive

LostInNewDelhi said:
If we're talking rednecks like people who live over multiple generations in small towns or rural areas generally, and that comes out in their cultural preferences, for Asians (and I'm counting Indians) you're for sure gonna need changes. Asian farmers and rural laborers were very important for Hawaii but you could argue the islands are too small to foster an insular "redneck" culture; in larger states like California, the government resisted Japanese land ownership right up until Internment. After Hart Celler you still had people coming seeking land, but visa programs and such have skewed the demographic more toward people who, rich or poor, see their future in the cities.

So in a way, if the laws were less (making Asian land ownership easier) and more (restricting immigration generally, but not distinguishing by occupation) discriminatory you'd probably get a distinct class of rural Asians in the West. If you want them in the South though, I think the window for coming in/getting land/putting down roots is kinda closed after the Cotton Era, but there might be a second window around Reconstruction. That's when you could have Asians carving out a niche amid the New South.
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Does "Paniolo" culture count as rednecky?
 
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