Joe Bageant: Redneck Writer

I'm sorry to just be learning about Joe Bageant today. His work was (and still is) so significant and important to the backbone of our country. It resonates so deeply within me as a 5th generation redneck, myself.

This article so articulately written by Lisa Pruitt, a professor of law from UC-Davis, and shared by the Daily Yonder.

If you struggle with the urban/rural or working class/white collar divide in this country (or even in Nebraska), this is a great article.

From the article:

Bageant—consistent with his rural roots—expressed this distinction between the settled and the hard living as that between rednecks and white trash, explaining:
Life is about work for the American redneck. … [T]he work ethic is burned into their genetic code. (Incidentally, I am not talking about white trash here. I am talking about rednecks, the difference being that rednecks work themselves to death and will never accept a handout. White trash folks do not have the same hang-up). In the redneck mind, lazy is the worst thing a person can be—worse than dumb, drunk or mean, worse than being a liar and a jailbird or crazy. The absolute worst thing that a redneck can say about anyone is: “He doesn’t want to work.”
Joe Bageant: Redneck Writer