“You Might Be a Redneck If…” Boundary Work Among Rural, Southern Whites

“You might be a redneck if…” Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites

Carla D. Shirley, Memphis City Schools

Using 42 in-depth interviews with rural, Southern whites in Mississippi, I examine the intra-racial boundary work respondents use to construct their regional and racial identities in relation to other whites in their communities, particularly rednecks. I find Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 that rednecks are defined and categorized in multiple ways based on the respondents’ conceptions of Southerners, social statuses (i.e., age, gender, class and residential history), and intra-racial comparisons around these social characteristics. Primarily, they draw intra-racial distinctions to separate themselves from negative characterizations and to claim positive associations with being rural, Southern whites. Nonetheless, the multi-faceted intra-racial boundary work around redneck maintains the general hegemony of whiteness by marginalizing “lesser whites” and forms of whiteness and claiming an ideal type of whiteness that is considered untainted, normative and superior.

Introduction and Background Whiteness studies is a multidisciplinary area of scholarship that explores the constructions of “white identity” and experiences of “whiteness” in the United States (Frankenberg 1993; Hartigan 1999; Lewis 2003; McDermott 2006; McIntosh 1992[1988]; McKinney 2004; Perry 2002; Roediger 1991; Wray 2006).1 It fo- cuses on how whiteness is a socially constructed, unmarked racial norm. It is a relational identity that shapes and is shaped by other racial identities and a system of racialized, social and economic privilege (Anderson 2003). This conceptualization often leads scholars and lay people to view whiteness as a monolithic category, but white people are not homogenous racialized subjects; their identities, experiences and even degrees of privileges are localized, contextual and relative (McDermott and Sampson 2005). Differentiating the variations in whiteness does not deny the privilege that comes with just “being white,” but rather recognizes that those privileges may vary among whites based on a complex set of interconnecting social factors. Whites may use social characteristics such as region, gender and class to make distinctions among whites and to rank some forms of whiteness as more hegemonic and deserving of status and respect than other forms. This intra-racial boundary work among whites ultimately functions to maintain the general hegemony of whiteness by marginalizing “lesser whites” and forms of whiteness and thus, keeping whiteness “pure” – an untainted and superior standard and status.

I thank Donna Eder, Larry Griffin, Sandi Nenga, Robyn Ryle, Katy Hadley, Jeni Loftus, Anita Davis and three anonymous reviewers for their critical feedback. I also am grateful for the initial research support I received from the graduate students and faculty who participated in the Depart- ment of Sociology’s Gender, Race, and Class Workshop at Indiana University. Direct correspondence to Carla D. Shirley, Research Evaluator, Memphis City Schools, 2597 Avery Ave., Memphis, TN 38112.E-mail: [email protected].

Some scholars examine variations in white identities and experiences based on ethnicity (Jacobson 1999), on social class (Hartigan 1999) and on gender (Frankenberg 1993). However, the majority of these studies focus on the historical experiences of white, European immigrants, on the experiences of poor whites and white trash, and on the experiences of women or men. In addition, recent empirical investigations of whiteness involve mainly children, adolescents and college students

(Bonilla-Silva 2006; Gallagher 1995; Lewis 2003; McKinney 2004; Morris 2006; Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 Perry 2002), and they mostly study whites from urban areas and/or whites from the Northeast, Midwest, Southwest and West coast (Bonilla-Silva 2006; Feagin et al. 2001; Frankenberg 1993; Hartigan 1999; Lamont 2000; McDermott 2006). Missing from these studies, however, is a focus on working- and middle-class, rural, Southern whites, especially those living in the “Deep South.” Within this region, Mississippi is considered the “deepest” and “the most Southern place on Earth.”(Cobb 1992) This characterization is mostly due to the Civil Rights struggles in Mississippi that put the state significantly behind the rest of the United States (Dittmer 1995). Indeed, the rest of the nation saw Mississippi as the symbol of southern white resistance and it became the subject of social movement studies (e.g., Freedom Summer) and media representations (e.g., In the Heat of the Night). Due to the South’s history of slavery, Confederacy, Jim Crow era and Civil Rights Movement, it is understandable that mainly social historians (e.g., Hale 1998; Sokel 2006) address the significance and uniqueness of the South. However, despite the focus on social movements and social change, the prevalence of these historical studies creates a sense that the South and white Southerners are stuck in time. The lack of sociological research in whiteness studies on the rural South is perplexing given the region’s distinct historical legacy and current landscape (Griffin 2006; Killian 1970)2 and the recent studies showing that whites’ racial identities are significantly influenced by the fact that they have little to no interaction with people of color, especially blacks (McKinney 2004; Perry 2001, 2007). However, whites and blacks are the main constituents of the South, and the largest number and national share (53%) of the country’s black population is in the South (Wimberly 2008), with the highest percentage living in Mississippi at almost three times the national percentage (36.3% vs. 12.3%) (U.S. Census Bureau 2000). While existence of diversity does not necessarily mean there is interaction among diverse people, in the South, whites historically and currently interact more regularly with blacks, at least in public places, than whites and blacks in other areas of the country. Indeed, when Southern whites are set apart and studied as a population, it is mainly in national, quantitative surveys and polls focusing on race relations (e.g., 1990 General Social Survey). In both the past and the present, the South serves as a national scapegoat for undesirable American traits, like racism, even though undeniably, many Southern whites conduct themselves in ways that continue this legacy in the South (Cobb 2005). For better or worse, Southern whites may be the least likely white people to Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 37

purport a “color-blind” ideology, but social scientists overlook or study them limitedly based on stereotypical assumptions about their beliefs and practices. Rural, working-class Southern whites are often the focus of representations of the South. A key character in these representations is the redneck,3 which is a term that originated in Mississippi in the late 19th century and has been pejoratively used to describe rural, working-class, white male Southerners as uncouth, irre-

sponsible, reactionary and racist (Campbell 1988; Huber 1994; Jarosz and Lawson Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 2002; Roebuck and Hickson1982). Redneck is a gendered, regional social type that was developed and imposed by upper-class Southerners in order to distinguish themselves from the “lower orders of Southern society,” particularly in terms of “manners” or lifestyles (Reed 1988:23). In response, white farmers and laborers also took up the term, and they used it as an expression of solidarity and intra-racial resistance in order to identify as honest, hardworking common folk (Huber and Drowne 2001). However, during the Jim Crow era, people mainly linked rednecks to interracial relations and saw them as extremely lawless and racist Southern whites. While this association is still prevalent today, the term’s redefinition in the 1970s represented rednecks as being working-class whites (Huber 1995), who take pride in a laid back, rural lifestyle, and resist American society’s insistence on cultural and material conformity (Cobb 2005). The regional link between rural, Southern whites and “redneckery” (Roebuck and Neff 1980) continues, aided by the rise of “redneck discourse” in popular culture and the mass media through the broad national appeal of Jeff Foxworthy’s redneck persona (Cobb 2005:228). No one is better known or more successful in popular culture than Foxworthy, who created the “You might be a redneck if…,” jokes beginning in the 1980s. Some of his jokes (2004) include the following commentaries on redneck identities and lifestyles: “You might be a redneck if: You use a fishing license as a form of I.D.” “Your screen door has no screen.” “You take your dog for a walk and you both use the tree at the corner.” These “jokes” play on different ideas of rednecks as rural, poor or working-class, uncultured folk, but they do not include reactionary and racist characterizations. Even though whiteness is generally presented as an unmarked or neutral category and other cultures are “marked,” meaning singled out and set apart, as “cultural” (Frankenberg 1993), rural, Southern whites and those referred to as rednecks are marked as specific racial, regional, gendered and socio-economic cultural identities (Hartigan 2003). Dominance and subordination are not fixed positions and qualities, but rather they are positions based on identities and statuses that are co-constructed and relational (Collins 1990; Connell 2005). Frankenberg (1993:198) alludes to this point in her claim that some whites think that there are only two kinds of whites: “those who are truly or only white, and those who are white but also something more – or is it something less?” This “something less” involves race intersecting with other social factors such as region, class, gender and age. 38 • Social Forces 89(1)

While no whites may completely measure up to the “only white,” ideal type of whiteness, those who successfully claim dominant status have more authority and power to define the standards and therefore, to decide what is an important or significant difference between them and “lesser whites.” However, because this process is localized, different white people and forms of whiteness may hold hegemonic and marginalized positions at different times and in different situa- 4 tions, and thus, the marked differences or social characteristics can change. To Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 successfully claim hegemony and avoid marginalization, whites do distinctive types of intra-racial boundary work to distinguish themselves from specific “lesser whites” or forms of whiteness. While rural, Southern whites have a long history of confronting the realities and perceptions of the South, an important change is that the mass media and internet enable the general public to have greater access to redneck characterizations and to be in dialogue with them in new ways. What is missing from sociological research is how these redneck characterizations and discourses shape rural, Southern whites’ identity formations. Using in-depth interviews with rural, Southern whites in Mississippi, I examine the emerging themes and boundary work patterns in how rural, Southern whites construct their own regional and racial identities in relation to other whites in their communities, mainly regarding their characterizations of and identifications withrednecks . This boundary work is the process of social differentiation in which people distinguish and establish their identities by comparing and contrasting themselves to other people (Lamont and Fournier 1992). In his work on white trash, Matt Wray (2006:14) claims that “one of the common, everyday ways that boundary work is performed is through the use of words and concepts that serve as socio-cultural dividing lines, or boundary terms.” Because the boundary term redneck can function as a foil for Southern and non-Southern whites (Campbell 1988; Hartigan 2003), we also can learn a lot by examining how whiteness is “constructed through redness” (Jarosz and Lawson 2002:16) in intra-racial boundary work. While I do not focus on whites’ inter-racial boundary work, I recognize that whiteness is primarily an identity defined in relation to racial “others,” namely blacks in the South, and that intra- and inter-racial boundary work are critically linked. This study fills a research gap by investigating populations, rural, Southern whites in general, and rednecks in particular, who are not just racial subjects who mark other whites and other races but also “marked racial subjects” (Hartigan 2003) themselves who are seen as different from other whites, but rarely quali- tatively studied to examine that claim. While rural, Southern whites are both a subject and an object of boundary work, the intra-racial boundary work around redneck functions to maintain the general hegemony of whiteness by assigning negative qualities to white identities associated with certain marginalized social characteristics, regarding regional culture and class, and by claiming an ideal type of whiteness that is considered normative and superior. Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 39 Methods and Sample The data for this article are from 42 audiotaped, face-to-face, semi-structured, in- depth interviews with rural, Southern adult whites. Because of the challenges in collecting such data, I chose four rural communities in two eastern counties in Mississippi, because they were familiar areas where I had networks for recruitment. In addition, I expected my “insider” status, as a white person who also grew up in a rural community in Mississippi, to give me insights into tacit race concepts and Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 to allow me to ask questions that would help respondents tap into their taken-for- granted ideas. My awareness of local, cultural understandings made it possible for me to use familiar language, further enabling the respondents to share their perspec- tives from a localized context in which they are expert “knowers.”(Collins 1991) As a result, I was able to establish rapport and credibility more quickly with respondents and to conduct in-depth interviews about very sensitive topics, such as race and class. The communities are at least 10 to 15 miles from small cities, and community development clubs and churches are the main forms of social organization. I contacted representatives from these groups, explained that I was researching the lives of rural, Southern whites, and asked for their help in recruiting subjects. From 1998 to 2002, through purposive and snowball sampling I completed the interviews, which lasted one to three hours and took place in private settings.5 The sample of respondents varied in age from 24 to 84, with a median age of 45, and included an equal number of females and males. Three people had less than a high school degree, 11 had a high-school degree, 14 had some college with no degree, 5 had an associate’s degree, 6 had a college degree, and 3 had a graduate degree. The nearby presence of several community colleges may partly explain the larger- than-expected number of respondents with some college and with an associate’s degree. Sixty-nine percent of the sample identified the social class of their nuclear family of origin as working class, whereas 81 percent of the sample identified their current nuclear family as middle class. The increased educational and economic opportunities in the area that made social mobility more of a possibility partly explains the changes in class identification. However, in examining the respondents’ education levels, occupational statuses and explanations of their social class identities, I found that they often derived their current class identifications from comparisons to their nuclear family of origin and to others in their community. Using a combination of education level and current occupation, I designate respondents as being either lower or higher status. The lower status category mainly includes people with a high-school degree and whose primary occupation is sales/office, construction, service, professional-related (such as teacher assistant or minister), unemployed or retired from a related occupation. The higher-status category mainly includes people with a college degree in manage- ment or a professional job (such as store manager or nurse) or retired from a related occupation. Approximately two-thirds of the sample (69%) is lower status, and a third of the sample (31%) is higher status. 40 • Social Forces 89(1)

Table 1: Key Sample Demographics Median Age Gender [range] Class Status Lived Most of Life Total 50% men 45 69% lower status 52% inside community (42) (21) (29) (22) 50% women [24-84] 31% higher status 48% outside community (21) (13) ( 20)

Note: Numbers of respondents are in parentheses. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021

Fifty-two percent of the respondents lived most of their lives (meaning more than half) inside their current community, and 48 percent lived most of their lives outside their current community, mainly in rural and metropolitan areas in the South. Where respondents have lived is connected to their identities, to how they view others, and to whom they compare themselves (Griffin and Thompson 2003). It is also closely related to class status, as almost all (91%) of the people who lived inside their current communities for most of their lives were lower status, while more than half (55%) of the people who lived outside their current community for most of their lives were higher status. The data are drawn from questions about Southerners and questions that indirectly and directly elicited responses about rednecks. I first asked a range of questions about what it means to be a Southerner and to be white. Then, I relayed that I had heard some Southerners and Northerners use the term redneck to talk about certain groups in the South. I asked the respondents what types of people are called redneck and whether there have been any changes in the meanings and usage of the term; often this led them to share their own definitions. When relevant, I also asked if the images of rednecks in the media, specifically in Jeff Foxworthy’s jokes, are accurate portrayals. If they did not address it, I asked whether the respondents saw differences in what types of people are called rednecks vs. white trash. Finally, I asked if people in the community applied or might apply a label such as redneck to community members, including their nuclear and extended family members. I included this question to allow the respondents to acknowledge that people in the community may view some members of their family as rednecks, even if the respondents do not. To analyze the interviews, I first used a deductive approach and “focused coding” to look at specific concepts of interest (e.g., redneck references). I then used an inductive approach and “open coding” to identify the meanings and the meaning-making processes employed by the respondents (Esterberg 2001), and thus, I primarily used grounded theory to understand the complex patterns that emerged from respondents’ identity constructions in relation to constructions of rednecks. I used the Atlas ti qualitative analysis computer program to help store and organize my interview transcripts in a format that facilitated efficient, systematic coding and record keeping. Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 41 Results I examine what redneck currently means to rural, Mississippi whites and how they use the term. Specifically, I explore the processes and patterns of intra-racial boundary work in the respondents’ regional and racial identity constructions. I find that there are negative, positive and mixed descriptions of rednecks; these descriptions are related to the respondents’ conception of Southerners, understanding of local race relations, and social status (particularly age, gender, class Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 and where they have lived).

Self-Characterizations of Southerners In order to understand how rural, Southern whites perceive the label redneck, we have to know what being a Southerner means to them. More than two-thirds (69%) of the respondents describe it as a lifestyle and a set of values. Besides references to geography and having a Southern accent, the importance of family and community are the main aspects people identified with Southerners. Chris (31, Lower, Outside)6 provides a common description in saying that being a Southerner means: “Being there for people; not hustle and bustle; not put focus on self.” Having a “slower” pace of life in the South is associated with having time to show “Southern hospitality” and to care for other people.

Characterizations of Southerners by Media and Non-Southerners The vast majority of the respondents (81%) report that the media and non-South- erners perceive of Southerners as primarily backwards and uneducated, racially prejudiced and associated with rednecks. Frank (62, Higher, Inside) captures the respondents’ perceptions of these definitions: “I think a lot of times that people that hadn’t had any experience with people from the South have some misgivings about what Southern lifestyle is like and what the people in the South are like.” These “misgivings” often are in contrast to respondents’ characterizations, and ultimately, they play a crucial role in how the respondents conceive of their own identities in relation to rednecks.

Backwards and Uneducated Almost half of the respondents (45%) report hearing Southerners described as backwards and uneducated. These respondents are more likely to be women (63% vs. 50% in the sample), to be younger (median age of 38 vs. 45), and to have lived outside their local community for most of their lives (63% vs. 48%).7 Rhonda (33, Lower, Outside) provides an example of these expectations:

“They think we’re stupid; we don’t have any sense; we all talk funny; we don’t talk right; we don’t say all the letters in a word; basically, we don’t have common sense. I worked 42 • Social Forces 89(1)

at [nationally-known company], and I talked to people all over the United States, and I have an accent, but I don’t have a drawl that would make you think that I have no sense… And, I even talked to a dealer one time and after our conversation about the work project he said, ‘I can’t believe I’m having a decent conversation with you.’

Because his mindset was that I was stupid because I was Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 from Mississippi; he did not think I could talk to him sensibly.”

The respondents perceive these low expectations as a regional devaluation of their culture and capabilities. However, Rhonda’s implication that there is an accent, a “drawl,” that could be equated with having “no sense” points towards other forms of intra-racial boundary work used to separate oneself from negative associations.

Racial Prejudice Part of the criticism for being “backwards” connects to the assumption that white racial prejudice and race relations in the South have not changed over time. More than a third (36%) of the respondents talk about how Southerners get a “bum rap” from history and from derogatory, or at least limited, media representations of race relations in the South that people generalize to all Southern whites. These respondents are much more likely to have lived most of their lives outside their current communities (67% vs. 48% in the sample). Half of the respondents who discuss racism claim that there were and still are some racist Southern whites, but they also emphasize that this characterization does not apply to everyone. The following examples represent how respondents grappled with external perceptions:

“People in some parts of the country think we are more prejudiced toward blacks. I think they don’t understand that we’re not all, you know, mistreating people.” (Kay, 76, Higher, Outside)

“You hear definitions of Southerners all over the place. They’re a bunch of ‘dumb rednecks’ or ‘prejudiced people’ or, you know, stuff like that.... It’s not what being a Southerner is about.” (John, 45, Lower, Outside)

It is interesting that redneck comes up at this point, with the implication that those portrayed as racist are a certain type of rural, Southern whites, different from others. Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 43

Table 2: Characterizations of Southerners by Media and Non-Southerners What are other definitions of Southerners that you have heard? Backwards & Associated with Uneducated Racial Prejudice Rednecks Frequency 45% 36% 31% (19) (15) (13) Gender 37% men 47% men 69% men* (7) (7) (9) 63% women* 53% women 31% women Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 (12) (8) (4) Median age 38* 45 40* [range] [24-76] [30-76] [24-65] Class status 68% lower status 60% lower status 77% lower status (13) (9) (10) 32% higher status 40% higher status 23% higher status (6) (6) (3) Lived most of life 37% inside community 33% inside community 54% inside community (7) (5) (7) 63% outside community* 67% outside community* 46% outside community (12) (10) (6) Notes: 1. Numbers of respondents are in parentheses. 2. Frequency percentages of themes do not add across to 100 because interviewees often used multiple characterizations. 3. Social status characteristics that are higher or “more likely” for respondents associated with a theme than the characteristics of the total sample (Table 1) are marked with an asterisk (See footnote 7).

Associated with “Rednecks” Before directly being asked, almost a third (31%) of the respondents reference rednecks in their descriptions of how others perceive Southerners. These respondents are more likely to be men (69% vs. 50% in the sample) and to be younger (median age 40 vs. 45). Arguably, respondents with these characteristics are more likely to be seen as the “redneck type,” so they may be more sensitive to these associations. It is clear that the national media affects the definition and application of the term redneck to Southerners. As Cliff (59, Lower, Inside) says, non-Southerners’ “immediate impression and definition of a Southerner is [from] Jeff Foxworthy.” Paul (65, Lower, Outside) explains that:

“There’s all kinds of clichés of ‘country bumpkins’ and ‘these rednecks’ and type things, which is unfair. I think Southerners kind of get a bum rap, so to speak, and I honestly feel like Mississippi gets their reputation on the media…. If they’ve got some smart-aleck remark to say about Southerners, it generally seems to be they are from 44 • Social Forces 89(1)

Mississippi, you know, and I resent that, and I’m from [nearby state], and I still resent it. It’s an unfair label.”

However, there is acknowledgement that Southerners use these terms among themselves, as well. Jennifer (24, Lower, Inside) claims that “everybody thinks we’re rednecks. There’s Southern people right here that call you a redneck.” The

respondents’ recognition of these multifaceted, varying definitions of Southerners Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 demonstrates that they understand the importance of context. Interestingly, there were no significant differences in the class status or residential history compared to the sample as a whole, suggesting that there is widespread awareness that Southerners are associated with rednecks.

Descriptions of “Rednecks” When asked what types of people are called rednecks, respondents mainly make comparisons to Southern rural lifestyles, focus on the media’s influence (particularly Jeff Foxworthy’s jokes), and refer almost exclusively to males and masculine characteristics.

Table 3: Descriptions of Rednecks What types of people are called rednecks? Have there been changes over time in the meanings or the use of the term? Does the term redneck refer more to males or females? Southern Rural Media Influence/ Lifestyles Foxworthy Jokes More Males Total frequency 67% 29% 95% (28) (12) (40) Gender 54% men 58% men 50% men (15) (7) (20) 46% women 42% women 50% women (13) (5) (20) Median age 39.5* 45 45 [range] [24-78] [30-70] [24-84] Class status 82% lower status* 58% lower Status 70% lower status (23) (7) (28) 18% higher status 42% higher status 30% higher status (5) (5) (12) Lived most of life 61% inside community* 42% inside community 53% inside community (17) (5) (21) 39% outside community 58% outside community 47% outside community (11) (7) (19) Notes: 1. Numbers of respondents are in parentheses. 2. Frequency percentages of themes do not add across to 100 because interviewees often used multiple descriptions. 3. Social status characteristics that are higher or “more likely” for respondents associated with a theme than the characteristics of the total sample (Table 1) are marked with an asterisk (See footnote 7). Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 45 Southern Rural Lifestyles More than two-thirds (67%) of the respondents associate rednecks with rural, Southern lifestyles. These respondents are more likely to be younger (median age 39.5 vs. 45 in the sample), to be lower status (82% vs. 69%), and to have lived most of their lives in their current community (61% vs. 52%). Cliff (59, Lower, Inside) provides a classic definition: “A redneck’s a person that just

works out in the sun and gets sunburnt, ’cause that’s what turns that old neck Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 red, you know.” While both older and younger people report hearing that this is how the term originated, there are generational differences in current definitions. Cliff claims that the “original meaning” of redneck has changed; “maybe you see some of these guys that grow a long beard and they hunt and fish continuously; I guess that’s what they mean by redneck.” The basis for defining redneck seems to have evolved from work attributes to leisure attributes. Regardless, redneck is sometimes a positive or at least neutral cultural description, which may explain why people who share characteristics associated with rednecks – younger, lower status and people who have lived most of their lives in their current rural communities – are more likely to link redneck to a Southern, rural lifestyle.

Media Influence/ Jeff Foxworthy Jokes Almost a third of the respondents (29%) reference media portrayals, particularly by Jeff Foxworthy, when they describe what types of people are called redneck, and the majority (90%) of those respondents do so without being asked. While respondents of all ages are familiar with Foxworthy’s material, there is a genera- tion gap in how familiar the respondents are with the term redneck. When asked whether the definition and usage of redneck has changed over time, 41 percent of respondents (median age 65) say that redneck is a more recent term, meaning that they did not hear it when they were growing up or until they heard Foxworthy’s jokes, and/or have heard it used more in recent years (mainly the past 10-15 years). This timing coincides with the beginning of Foxworthy’s national popularity in the 1980s. The fact that more than half of the respondents (55%), who say that the term was not new and that they had heard it all of their lives, are significantly younger (median age 36) also reflects the age difference. Most recent media references are to Jeff Foxworthy’s jokes. While Rhonda (33, Lower, Outside) claims that Foxworthy’s “You Might Be a Redneck If...” jokes should be changed to “You might live in the South if you know somebody that...,” many respondents feel that the redneck jokes are “a caricature” of Southerners (Michael, 34, Lower, Outside). Indeed Rhonda does boundary work to distance herself from rednecks by claiming that to live in the South and to be a Southerner is to know somebody else who has certain related behaviors and attitudes. As these respondents very likely encountered these jokes in the multiple places they lived, they have concerns that these exaggerated portrayals 46 • Social Forces 89(1)

may be the only information that non-Southerners have about the South, and that such misrepresentations negatively affect the image of Southerners.

“Even though some of the jokes are funny, [they] may give some people who don’t live in the South a misconception, you know, because we don’t all have three dogs up under

the porch, and I haven’t heard of somebody from around Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 here taking, like a beer, to the drive-in.” (David, 38, Lower, Outside)

“[Foxworthy] makes like we’re stupid.... Jeff Foxworthy says we’re an ignorant race, and I mean I know he’s got to make a living, but he could leave the South jokes off and start on the Northern people a little bit. I’m quite sure they have some rednecks up North. It’s just that Jeff’s from the South and he picks on the South. We don’t need any more picking on.” (Robin, 50, Lower, Inside)

It is interesting that Robin used the word “race” to describe rednecks. She seems to perceive herself and other rural, Southern whites as having specific regional, racial and cultural identities that face criticism from the “outside” and even from one of their own. While historically, rural, Southern whites contended with their culturally backwards and racist reputations, the rise of redneck in the mass media creates a unique contemporary environment and stereotypes against which to position themselves.8 Significantly, there are no social status differences between the respondents who discussed media influenceswithout being asked and the sample as a whole, which suggests that there is a broad awareness of media portrayals of rednecks.

More Males than Females Most of the visual media depictions of rednecks are males, and from their general descriptions of the types of people who are called rednecks, it is evident that the respondents think of men more than they think of women as rednecks. These descriptions include the use of male pronouns and references to rural, masculine lifestyles, such as “he chews tobacco, he has a pickup with a straight exhaust that makes a lot of noise.”[italics mine] (Richard, 74, Higher, Outside) In addition, when asked directly if redneck refers mostly to males or females, almost every respondent (95%) says males. The respondents’ main reasons for considering males to be rednecks are their lifestyles, interests and attitudes.

“They got a pick‑up truck, usually chew tobacco, love to hunt, love to fish, like good eating, home cooking, like to go mud-riding.” (Sarah, 39, Higher, Outside) Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 47

“I think that men have a tendency not to worry about the way they come across or the way they appear, and then especially like men around here. I mean not that they don’t want to dress well or whatever or use good manners, but I don’t think that is utmost in their minds. I think that when women go out, most of them that I know try to put their

best foot forward and – I wouldn’t say hide their country Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 roots – but you know, they think more about what other people may think of them.” (Judy, 33, Lower, Outside)

These descriptions are gendered characterizations of rednecks as men who have a rural, unrefined and unaffected masculine lifestyle and culture. The age, gender, class and residential history differences in the external characterizations of Southerners and the descriptions of rednecks foreshadow the more complex and fine-tuned, inter-racial boundary work in the respondents’ evaluations of and identifications with rednecks. Intra-Racial Boundary Work Around Label Because of the wide-ranging definitions of rednecks, rural, Southern whites do detailed boundary work using both negative and positive characterizations of rednecks to define themselves and others in their communities. The processes of self-identifying as rednecks especially illustrate the complexity of this positioning.

Negative Characterizations Almost half of the respondents (48%) describe the redneck identity negatively based on their own understandings. Carolyn (44, Higher, Outside) uses comparisons to define a redneck:

“Maybe somebody that’s just really rough – doesn’t try to use any discipline or something along that line – I really don’t know how to describe it. Different from me in that I don’t do those things, so I don’t really know that it’s right to call them a redneck. I don’t know whether that’s the proper label or why we should put that label on them, but they’re different. They don’t conform to what the other people in the community do.”

While she is not sure whether the term redneck captures what she describes, Carolyn’s statement about conformity implies that there is a normative standard that these other rural, Southern whites are not meeting and thus, marked as different. The three main negative characteristics ofrednecks that respondents identify and try to distance themselves from are crude and self-centered lifestyles; rebellious, combative and racist attitudes and behaviors; and similarities to white trash. 48 • Social Forces 89(1)

Table 4: Negative Characterizations of Rednecks What does the term redneck mean to you? Have there been changes over time in the meanings or the use of the term? Are there differences in what types of people are called rednecks vs. white trash? Crude and Self- Rebellious, Similar to White centered Lifestyle Combative, and Racist Trash Total frequency 24% 24% 21% (10) (10) (9) Gender 70% men* 60% men 56% men Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 (7) (6) (5) 30% women 40% women 44% women (3) (4) (4) Median age 40* 45 44 [range] [30-74] [33-65] [30-84] Class status 40% lower status 60% lower status 33% lower status (4) (6) (3) 60% higher status* 40% higher status 67% higher status* (6) (4) (6) Lived most of life 20% inside community 20% inside community 22% inside community (2) (2) (2) 80% outside community* 80% outside community* 78% outside community* (8) (8) (7) Notes: 1. Numbers of respondents are in parentheses. 2. Frequency percentages of themes do not add across to 100 because interviewees often used multiple descriptions. 3. Social status characteristics that are higher or “more likely” for respondents associated with a theme than the characteristics of the total sample (Table 1) are marked with an asterisk (See footnote 7).

Crude and Self-Centered Lifestyle Almost a fourth (24%) of the respondents point out that not all rural, Southern whites have what they consider a redneck lifestyle. These respondents are more likely to be men (70% vs. 50% in the sample), to be younger (median age 40 vs. 45), to be higher status (60% vs. 31%), and to have lived most of their lives outside their current community (80% vs. 48%). These examples illustrate the boundary work around lifestyles and labels:

“For me, a redneck is a really rough, country Southerner that doesn’t care where he spits his tobacco, and he doesn’t care where he’s drinking, or what he says, or who he says it around.” (John, 45, Lower, Outside)

“If it doesn’t happen in their house or home, they could care less. They’re living for the moment and not worried about state matters, national matters, or worldly matters Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 49

if it doesn’t affect them….They think only of themselves and don’t really care about anything that’s going on around them as long as they’re having a good time.” (Phillip, 39, Higher, Outside)

For these respondents, redneck represents a lifestyle that is in sharp contrast to the

positive descriptions of rural Southerners as hospitable, caring and community- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 minded. These younger, higher status men who have lived most of their lives outside their current community do not want to be associated with certain aspects of a rural, Southern lifestyle seen as outmoded and unsophisticated.

Rebellious, Combative and Racist Nearly a fourth of the respondents (24%) distinguish being a rural, Southern white from being a redneck rural, Southern white, who may demonstrate a range of hostile attitudes and behaviors, particularly towards black people.9 These respondents are more likely to have lived most of their lives outside their current communities (80% vs. 48% in the sample). Several respondents use “rebel” to describe rednecks as people who display confederate flags. More striking are the characterizations of rednecks as people who only care for themselves and those like them and not for anyone else, particularly non-whites.

“A lot of Southerners claim that they’re redneck, and that’s usually a rebel – you know, somebody that doesn’t want to go along with the crowd. They’re going to do just exactly what they want to do and the heck with everybody else. But, I don’t think all Southerners are rednecks. I think most of the Southerners that I know are just plain old gentlemen, gentle ladies, easy going, laid back, not easily riled up.” (Carl, 52, Lower, Inside)

“When I think of redneck, I think of your guy in the truck with the rebel flags and this ‘like it or leave it’ mentality. That thinks they’re superior than anything else, whether you’re a middle class or upper class or any type of white, and every type of black. That doesn’t know any better. No, that knows better and doesn’t care.” (Rhonda, 33, Lower, Outside)

At the least, these descriptions are attempts to criticize the external perceptions that all rural, white Southerners are racist. For example, we see “redneck as racist” used in a way to show that those rural, white Southerners are the ones who are culturally and socially backwards, compared to the rural, white Southerners who “know better” and presumably “do care.” 50 • Social Forces 89(1)

These critiques of rednecks as being crude, self-centered, rebellious, combative and racist imply that they are not genteel and that signifies negative evaluations of their combined race, gender and social class statuses. In particular, they relate back to the concerns over people’s perceptions of Southerners as backwards, uneducated and racially prejudiced.

Similar to “White Trash” Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 Social class boundary work is also evident when higher status whites lump “lesser whites” together and do not specifically distinguish rednecks from white trash. A fifth of the respondents (21%) describe rednecks as similar to white trash. These respondents are more likely to be higher status (67% vs. 31% in the sample) and to have lived outside their current communities for most of their lives (78% vs. 48 %). People considered to be white trash are marked and marginalized based on cultural, material and moral factors. John (45, Lower, Outside) sums up the main description of white trash: “people that don’t care, they don’t take care of themselves, they don’t take care their families, and their home.” These characterizations are in contrast to the positive descriptions of Southern lifestyles as hard working and family/community oriented. However, a related complaint from higher status respondents is that both rednecks and white trash do not try to improve themselves or their situations. Edna (84, Higher, Inside) claims that the character of rednecks is very similar to that of white trash, and she definesredneck as “a white person who wasn’t too good... a white person who doesn’t work, doesn’t take care of his family, and doesn’t participate in the community as he should.” Likewise, Thomas (35, Higher, Outside) thinks that as “derogatory slang terms, they’re synonymous in their uses;” he defines both as “a person that is ignorant and refuses to change.” These higher status respondents who have lived most of their lives outside their current communities do broad intra-racial boundary work to distinguish themselves from these negative characterizations of “lesser” whites (rednecks and white trash). Thus, in a sense they do not have to work as hard as other whites to construct and differentiate their own positive rural Southern white identities, at least within their communities.

Positive Characterizations Distinguish from “White Trash” Because the distinction between redneck and white trash is often unclear for people, particularly outside the rural South, some respondents do explicit boundary work to separate the two terms. Almost a third of the respondents (31%) positively describe rednecks in comparison to white trash. These respondents are slightly more likely to be women (62% vs. 50% in the sample) and more likely to be younger (median age 39 vs. 45), higher status (54% vs. 31%), and to have lived most of their lives outside their current communities (69% vs. 48%). Many of these respondents see both groups as negative, but they make a point to rank rednecks higher than white trash in their localized context. Philip (39, Higher, Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 51

Table 5: Positive Characterizations of Rednecks What does the term redneck mean to you? Have there been changes over time in the meanings or the use of the term? Are there differences in what types of people are called rednecks vs. white trash? Distinguish from White Trash Total frequency 31% (13) Gender 38% men (5) Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 62% women* (8) Median age 39* [range] [24-76] Class status 46% lower status (6) 54% higher status* (7) Lived most of life 31% inside community (4) 69% outside community* (9) Notes: 1. Numbers of respondents are in parentheses. 2. Social status characteristics that are higher or “more likely” for respondents associated with a theme than the characteristics of the total sample are marked with an asterisk (See footnote 7).

Outside) conveys the main sentiment: “Rednecks may not amount to much in terms of worth by people’s standards, but white trash do not amount to much at all.”

“Now, a redneck will work so he can put the money into a car, white trash won’t – they just don’t wanna work, don’t wanna take responsibility.” (Kathryn, 30, Lower, Outside)

“To me there is a difference between dirty dirt and clean dirt. You have a man come in here who’s worked all day. He’s hot and sweaty, that to me is honest, clean dirt. You have others who come in here whose hands are so filthy you know they haven’t washed them in god knows when. You can see the dirt on their neck, you can see their hair hanging in clumps. That’s not like going out and working all day.” (Elaine, 59, Higher, Outside)

Even though people often view the lifestyles and attitudes of rednecks unfavorably, they also see them as hardworking laborers who care more for themselves and their family than those labeled white trash. 52 • Social Forces 89(1)

Interestingly, half of these respondents also make up two-thirds of the people who initially described rednecks similarly to white trash. When asked to define white trash and to compare that group to rednecks, they make explicit distinctions between the two. These respondents are more likely to be higher status and to have lived most of their lives outside their current communities. They may do more work to distinguish rednecks positively from white trash due to their knowledge

of the confounding of rural, white Southerners with rednecks and the confound- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 ing of rednecks with white trash by people outside the rural South. Thus, they do boundary work to distinguish themselves within their local contexts, as away from rednecks and white trash, and to distinguish themselves within a broader context, away from what they perceive as a national tendency to lump all rural Southern whites together and make generalizations. As a result, these respondents work to demonstrate hegemony in their local communities, but also recognize that they may still be seen as marginalized nationally; thus, they want to lay claim to being different from a more widely marginalized and group of “lesser whites” or white trash. The degree of fine-tuning in their boundary work and in their claims to hegemony depends then not only on their status, but also on the expectations and audiences in particular contexts.

Identifications with “Rednecks” More than a third of respondents (38%) explicitly identified some of their male relatives and themselves as rednecks. In addition, almost two-thirds (62%) of these respondents acknowledge the association of rednecks with rural Southerners. However, identifications with redneck are problematized by the respondents’ knowledge of competing external and internal definitions.

Identification of Male Relatives Several respondents (14%) identify their sons, husbands or other male relatives as rednecks. All of these respondents are women, who are much more likely to have lived in their current communities most of their lives (83% vs. 52% in the sample). Most women refer to lifestyle characteristics and/or jokes when identifying their male family members as rednecks. For example, Ruby (60, Lower, Inside) laughingly said “probably my son would be determined a redneck. Now, he doesn’t chew tobacco, but he smokes and he loves to go hunting and be leisurely, but he works hard. But, he can be kind of crude sometimes with his manners.” Like others, Ruby finds a way to construct a suitable identity of her son as aredneck by combining rural, Southern lifestyle associations and some of the negative aspects (e.g., crude manners) of rednecks while making sure that the most negative characterizations, similarities to white trash, are addressed (e.g., distinguishing being leisurely from not working hard). Foxworthy’s jokes have provided characterizations with which some respondents identify, but the acceptance of associating these conceptions of redneck Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 53 with their family members ranges. Cheryl says that she calls her son a redneck all the time, because:

“There’s a lot of things that you can pull out and say that’s true, that’s exactly right, we do that, and to me it’s just something that you can laugh at yourself. I mean it doesn’t

make you less of a person or it’s not a cut down.” (Cheryl, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 30, Lower, Inside) (7) (3) (9) (1) (5) (5) 39* (10) 24% [24-70] 70% men* 30% women ? 90% lower status* 10% higher status Self Identifications 50% inside community 50% outside community rednecks redneck to any of your family members? 46 (6) (0) (6) (5) (1) (5) (1) 14% [30-60] 0% men 100% women* 83% lower status 17% higher status 83% inside community* 17% outside community Identifications of Male Relatives redneck mean to you? Whether fair or not, have people in your community ever applied labels like frequency Total What does the term Are there people in your community who are considered by you or others as Gender Median age [range] Class status Lived most of life Table 6: Identifications with Rednecks Table Notes: 1. Numbers of respondents are in parentheses. 2. Frequency percentages of themes do not add across to 100 because interviewees often used multiple descriptions. 3. Social status characteristics that are higher or “more likely” for respondents associated with a theme than the 1) are marked with an asterisk (See footnote 7). characteristics of the total sample (Table 54 • Social Forces 89(1)

However, Judy feels very differently:

“My son loves to be called a redneck, but I think he’s just proud that he’s from the South is what it amounts to… Being a redneck and being Southern are not the same.” (Judy, 33, Lower, Inside) Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 On the one hand, these women demonstrate that the redneck label can be taken lightheartedly and applied in fun, at least with close relatives and friends. However, there is some unease with considering redneck and Southerner as similar, probably due to the concern over external and internal misconceptions of both identities. These respondents are women, but unlike the previous pattern of distinguishing rednecks from white trash, they are more likely to have lived in their current local communities most of their lives. However, both groups of women are leery of external definitions. It is interesting that men were less likely than women to identify specific people asrednecks even though they are more likely than women to associate a rural, Southern lifestyle with rednecks. This pattern may further indicate the discomfort around this label and the labeling process.

Self-Identifications About a fourth of the respondents (24%) explicitly claim to be redneck in some way. They are more likely to be men (70% vs. 50% in the sample), younger (median age 39 vs. 45), and lower status (90% vs. 69%). The focus of this discussion is on the young, lower status males, because these intersecting statuses are most often labeled rednecks and because the few self-identified redneck females largely dealt with a different process of identification.10 The vast majority of these men tentatively identify as redneck by pointing out that it is only one aspect of their lives.

“I was probably borderline redneck growing up.” (Michael, 34, Lower, Outside)

“Most of the men I know, they may have a redneckish side to them or whatever but they’re country and they’re gentlemen...I don’t put no stock in the rough redneck or this prejudice stuff. It’s not what being a Southerner is about.” (John, 45, Lower, Outside)

“To tell you the truth, I consider myself a little redneck because I consider living in the country as being a little redneck, and like I said it all goes back in with being a Southerner too, you know the traditional sets of values, and Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 55

it’s basically a term that’s just been slung at us, slung at us, slung at us. So, we pick our battles and I guess generally the term redneck is just not one battle that we choose to say, ‘Well, we’re not rednecks’ or anything like that and it’s just a term that stuck. But now, other people that I’ve talked to when you’re off somewhere and say you’re from Mississippi,

if they do bring up rednecks it’s more like a degrading term.” Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 (David, 38, Lower, Outside)

The men qualify their identifications because they recognize the variation in the definitions and usage of the label. While some of them do claim to have a rural, Southern masculine lifestyle associated with rednecks, they do boundary work around this identity label because they are conscious that they want to identify as redneck on their own terms and not others’ terms, which they know or at least expect to be derogatory. Interestingly, this pattern is true regardless of the men’s residential history. Respondents direct most of their skepticism towards external definitions, but there is also concern about how other Southerners may categorize and scapegoat them. For example, Frank (62, Higher, Inside) says: “It just seems like if somebody wants to be critical of someone they might use that term and never give a whole lot of thought to who a redneck is and why he’s a redneck or even if he is a redneck.” The respondents understand that it is not only important how the term is defined but possibly, more significantly,who is using it to describe whom. Thus, it is understandable that more people did not identify their male relatives or themselves as rednecks because indeed some rural, Southerners decide not to “battle” or do intra-racial boundary work over the term to distinguish themselves from negative lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors associated with rednecks. For rural Southern whites, the complex categorizations of rednecks function as something to define oneself against, something to claim, and/or something to ignore, based on context, one’s understandings and social statuses. The mostly tentative claims by only some of the respondents to be “borderline redneck” reflect the culmination of this ambiguity. Discussion and Conclusion I argue that one way to better understand the complexities of whiteness in our society is to examine the intra-racial boundary work whites do to distinguish themselves from one another and to form their particular white identities. This study adds to that understanding by examining how respondents construct their regional and racial identities relative to their understandings of societal perceptions of rural, Southern whites, such as associations with being backwards and uneducated, racially prejudiced and rednecks. I find that respondents define and categorize rednecks in multiple ways based on their social statuses, especially age, gender, class and residential history, and based on the intra-racial distinctions 56 • Social Forces 89(1)

they draw to separate themselves from negative characterizations and to claim positive associations with being rural Southern whites. This process still allows them to claim their regional identity on positive terms. Social class status distinctions play a key role in the intra-racial boundary work around identity constructions. Respondents with lower class statuses are more likely to associate rednecks with a rural, Southern lifestyle and to self-iden-

tify as rednecks. Generally, there are more positive or at least neutral understand- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 ings of rednecks by lower status respondents and more negative characterizations by higher status respondents. Class status is closely related to residential history, as almost all (91%) of the people who had lived in their current communities for most of their lives are lower status, while more than half (55%) of the people who had lived outside their current communities for most of their lives are higher status. Respondents who lived in their current community for most of their lives are more likely to describe rednecks as associated with a rural, Southern lifestyle and to identify their male relatives as rednecks. In comparison, almost all of the negative characterizations of rednecks are from respondents who are both more likely to be higher status and to have lived outside their current communities for most of their lives. Local meaning making and comparisons are critical, but people also use their experiences from other locations where they have lived or visited to decide how to identify and characterize themselves. Thus, higher-status respondents who trav- elled and lived elsewhere may do different boundary work. For example, respondents who lived most of their lives outside their current communities are more likely to bring up racial prejudice and racism than “insiders” when describing how the media and non-Southerners characterize Southerners and when providing their own negative characterizations of rednecks. These patterns may indicate that the respondents who moved around are more aware of external associations of rural white Southerners with racism and that leads them to separate out the racist, rural Southern white characterization as something from the past that the media and non-Southerners still believe, but that currently only applies to a small group of other rural, Southern whites. Ultimately, the respondents who self-identify as rednecks are more likely to be younger, male and lower status. These patterns reflect the typical characterizations of rednecks by the media. It also fits with the fact that younger, males are more likely to say that non-Southerners associate Southerners with rednecks and the fact that younger, lower status respondents are more likely to describe rednecks as having rural, Southern lifestyles. Nonetheless, there is no significant difference in the residential backgrounds of the respondents who self-identify as rednecks, which indicates that both groups of people are willing to associate with this term. The fact that self-identifications are often relegated to the past or are tentative at best demonstrates that there is also a general awareness that who defines the term, for whom, and in what context matters. This understanding comes with Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 57

the knowledge that they are constructing their identities in relation to local and national conceptualizations of rural Southern whites and rednecks and in relation to the expectations of “other” whites, both inside and outside the South. The “lesser” types of whiteness, marked as specific cultural and material identities, function as a foil or as a scapegoat for higher status, white Mississippians and for other white Southerners and Americans (Campbell 1988; Hartigan 2003)

who align themselves with hegemonic whiteness. Denying an association with Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 redneck characterizations and identifying as rednecks on one’s own terms can both be forms of resistance to marginalization (e.g., based on region, race and class). Nevertheless, the distinctions still involve ranking some forms of whiteness as more hegemonic and deserving of status and respect than other forms. This intra- racial boundary work among whites ultimately functions to maintain the general hegemony of whiteness by marginalizing “lesser whites” and forms of whiteness and by claiming an ideal type of whiteness considered untainted, normative and superior. This flexible identity construction, even among marginalized whites, is a key form of white privilege, and understanding these complexities helps explain how white identities exhibit both the “long term staying power of white privilege and the multifarious manifestations of the experience of whiteness.”(McDermott and Samson 2005:256) Whites who are seen as not conforming to the hegemonic standards of whiteness, namely cultural refinement and material success, are marginalized and marked as an exception in order to keep whiteness “pure,” hegemonic and ultimately, distinguishable from other races. Thus, there is a critical link between whites’ intra-racial boundary work and their inter-racial boundary work, which they do to distinguish themselves from other races, particularly blacks. For example, rednecks may be seen as “too white,” associated with overt white racism, and “not white enough,” associated with being uncultured and uneducated. Hence, they call into question a “color-blind” society, because the marking of rednecks points out color – their own and others – and distinguishes “colors” of whiteness by characterizing certain whites as rural, backwards and racist. These groups are literally and figuratively seen as “off color.” Indeed, the process of marking “lesser whites” as having specific cultural characteristics vs. seeing their whiteness as an unmarked and assumed racial norm, is similar to the ways whites mark other racial groups as having specific cultural characteristics, often viewed derogatively, to distinguish and rank racial groups (Frankenberg 1993). Future research needs to analyze the important connections between intra-racial and inter-racial boundary work and its functions, including upholding hegemonic whiteness on local, regional and national levels. We know that when whites from lower socioeconomic backgrounds mark blacks (and other racial groups) as “other” and “inferior,” in order to cling to their “wages of whiteness,” this process keeps hegemonic whiteness and hegemonic whites in their dominant position, by using racism to pit similar class groups against each other (Roediger 1991). Additionally, we need to examine how constructions of “lesser whites,” including rednecks and white trash, and 58 • Social Forces 89(1)

their marginalization of other racial groups play a pivotal role in the boundary work that maintains hegemonic class and gender statuses, as well. Ultimately, we should explore further whites’ super-ordinate and sub-ordinate statuses, not in abstraction, but in how they are constructed and lived concurrently in localized contexts that are influenced by and can influence broader social contexts and hierarchies.

Notes Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/89/1/35/2235475 by guest on 24 September 2021 1. Black scholars, including Ida B. Wells, W.E. DuBois, Angela Davis, Toni Morrison, bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins, have examined and written about white privilege for more than 100 years. Some white scholars, including McKinney (2004) and Roediger (1998), note this legacy in their work. 2. Sociological studies on the South and white Southerners were prominent between 1930s and 1980s, including the well-known work of John Shelton Reed (Griffin 2001). However, the current studies that do exist mainly concentrate on Appalachia. 3. I put the term rednecks (and later white trash) in italics to emphasize that it is a constructed category. 4. I develop the concepts of hegemonic whiteness and marginalized whiteness to help describe the variations in white identities and experiences. My concepts build on Connell’s (1995) theory of multiple masculinities, including “hegemonic masculinity” and “marginalized masculinities.” Some men are not able to align themselves successfully with the dominant images of masculinity due to racial, class and sexuality barriers. Likewise, we can think of whiteness as a plural not a singular concept. Hegemonic whiteness is the ideal-type of whiteness that is dominant and considered normative and standard, even while going unmarked. Marginalized whiteness encompasses the forms of whiteness that are subordinated and stigmatized for not meeting the ideal type. 5. As part of Institutional Review Board approval, I provided respondents with consent forms informing them of the purpose of the study, their rights as a voluntary participant and my request to audiotape the interview. The respondents’ names are pseudonyms. 6. Each time a respondent is introduced, I put in parentheses their age, class status (Lower or Higher) and where they have lived for most of their lives (Inside or Outside their current community). 7. As this is a qualitative analysis of 42 people, we should use caution when representing and interpreting patterns quantitatively. I have looked for important patterns mostly in the difference between the social characteristics of the sample compared to that of the respondents associated with each theme. When those characteristics differ by 20 percent or more (meaning two or more people would have to change categories to match up to sample statistics in Table 1) then I consider that a significant difference, describe the pattern and designate it as “more likely.” I also examine the social status patterns found across multiple themes in order to make stronger arguments about how social characteristics relate to intra-racial boundary work. 8. It is important to note that the “redneck jokes” from insiders, including Foxworthy, usually do not refer to racism. 9. While I did not ask the question explicitly, nearly all of the respondents directly or indirectly use redneck to describe whites. Boundary Work among Rural, Southern Whites • 59

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