h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Many years ago, on a sea voyage from Houston to West Africa I overheard this radio conversation between one of our young sailors, a girl, and I imagine her redneck Daddy.

Sailor 'Hi Daddy we're about 2 days from Africa'
Daddy 'So, how far's that from America'

Just about sums it up

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Same here! Although I did have doubts for a while after reading on one of those mistakes in movies websites that the elevated trains in Spiderman were inaccurate because New York only has a subway.

"and I imagine her redneck Daddy."

Mm. You imagine. No prejudice there, then.

I was disappointed there wasn't a big arrow pointing out his house...

Don't you think the redneck daddy just asked how far the ship was from America, as opposed to how far Africa was from America?

It was merely an example of an isolationist mindset that has little or no knowledgw of, or interest in, anything outside of America. If you want further proof of the syndrone try exporting anything from there.

Oh and btw when you've worked in, and with natives of, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama you recognise accents, intonations and phrases that indicate that particular stereotype.

And another btw I assume that you assume I am using the term perjoratively. Not necessarily so.

*Pops up briefly*

As an American born and raised in the Northeast and living in the Midwest, I can tell you that most of the time, as far as I'm concerned, the term "redneck" has mostly negative connotations.

*Sinks back down*

Oh we can do the isolationist, they don't matter over there mindset just as well as any American.


"Fog in the channel. Europe cut off."

I'm sure I even remember one of those wonderful Cultural Mosaic people, aka. a Canadian, once saying he wished Canada had a moat to keep its French at arms length.

"It was merely an example of an isolationist mindset that has little or no knowledgw of, or interest in, anything outside of America"

These are values you imagined him to have, not ones he demonstrated clearly to you in any way. From what you posted, you took a snippet of an overheard conversation and extrapolated an entire personality from it.

"Oh and btw when you've worked in, and with natives of, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama you recognise accents, intonations and phrases that indicate that particular stereotype"

I have. And in some fairly trying circumstances. From hairdressers to multiple-doctorate biochemists. I recognise the stereotype and then I work really hard not to apply it because, and I think this is important, stereotypes never ever describe real people.

'Redneck' is a label applied all-too easily to certain sections of a population so that someone else can feel superior. It's in the same class as the N-bomb, queer, geek etc. They're in the process of being taken back, but they still have an unpleasant implication.

Especially when they are used in contexts the one you used, where you juxtaposed redneck with a demonstration of what you assumed to be ignorance - and then back it up by saying it was a demonstration of isolationism - when it could have been and probably was a father showing interest in his daughter's job and giving her the opportunity to show off just a little of what she knew.

Of course, I wasn't there and cannot know for certain. All I can do is observe the event through the WanderingAlbatross filter. Y'all might want to clean that up some.

<<"It was merely an example of an isolationist mindset that has little or no knowledgw of, or interest in, anything outside of America"

These are values you imagined him to have, not ones he demonstrated clearly to you in any way. From what you posted, you took a snippet of an overheard conversation and extrapolated an entire personality from it.>>

I'm with Mr. Ross on this one... immediately following the '2 days from Africa' by asking how far that is from America suggests that the person asking the question is incapable of thinking of things in terms that don't involve the US.

"geek etc. They're in the process of being taken back..."

I was in a limo from JFK going through Manhattan, and the driver asked if I'd ever been there before. I said I'd never been out of Europe, to which he responded "Get outta here!". He couldn't believe it. (I've visited about 15 countries in Europe, whereas something like 85% of people in the USA don't even have a passport, but still...). I joked that I still knew my way around Manhattan pretty well, because I'd played a lot of Spiderman 2 on the Playstation 2. He said "Really? Gee... you must be a nerd!"

I replied "We in the nerd community prefer the word 'geek'."

Takin' it back, bro's.

SoRB

Fight tha powa!

But you aren't a nerd! You are a geek in the geek community.

When some calls me a nerd I reply: 'I am a geek not a nerd, thank you very much.'


Which usually gets the most confused non-plussed look you are likely to see.

When they ask what is the difference the reply: "We aren't allowed to tell civilians that sort of information'

Cue second confused look.

And to the question 'Whats a civilian?' The reply: 'look in a mirror.' Gets the third confused look.

Ah, I love being a

"immediately following the '2 days from Africa' by asking how far that is from America suggests that the person asking the question is incapable of thinking of things in terms that don't involve the US"

Objection, your honor, faulty logic.

The father clearly knows where he is. He very likely has a concept of Africa and is trying to locate it in real terms relative to his own location.

We may suppose and suggest any number of things from the content of his message - that he misses his daughter and that, in this emotional state, he wants to establish a single fact about her: how far away she is from him.

One may also suppose that if the man knows the distance to Africa and the speed of the ship's travel he can, with some knowledge of the course, plot his daughter's position and thus perhaps feel a little closer to her. A very human reaction when a loved one is far away.

None of the above supports the position that the man in question was a redneck isolationist, which was the original contention. Once again, I draw attention to the facts of the case: a man asks his daughter a question and from this the witness infers a very great deal, leading to his presentation of a largely distorted picture to the jury.

In fact, I challenge Mr. Ross and his supporters: without looking it up in either book or online, tell me: how wide is the Atlantic ocean?

It's not really one of those facts that most people keep in their heads, is it? Some people know it, certainly, just as some of us know how to create subnets from an IP address. But not everyone.

Does that make us all isolationists? No more than a lack of ability to subnet makes you worthy of a good, solid LARTing.

Please revist your assumptions and prejudices.

bah...

that should have been 'revisit'.

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Overruled, there was never any question of the father’s awareness of his location.

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Don’t see it myself... I wouldn’t do that, I’d ask questions about the journey. Besides, he never said how far from Anytown, Whateverstate, USA... he asked “how far from America” which is entirely different.

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Not wide enough!

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What’s a LARTing when it’s at home?

The width of the Atlantic depends where you start and finish unless you want a mean average.

More evidence regarding the appropriateness of the terminology. It would appear that rather than being a derogatory term it is in fact used with pride.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Redneck+hell+yeah&btnG=Google+Search

I've heard African-American people call each other n****r.

I've heard honosexuals call each other Q***r.

I think of "redneck" in the same terms.

And for the record, I'm not thrilled about being called a "Yank"