big john

Here in L.A., I've never had a problem with anyone but white people. I always feel safer in a poor area than in an upper middle class area.

Hard for them to know your attitude when they drive up behind you.
Some seem to say they have more problems with pick-up trucks, but I don't think it has anything to do with the vehicle. I had stuff thrown at me from all kinds of cars, including a late model BMW, old Toyotas and Volkswagens, you name it.

I also don't begrudge you driving any vehicle you want, as long as you don't use it as a weapon. Your truck is a very mild lift and looks pretty good like that. I am a mechanic at a Chevy dealer and some of the monsters I have to work on are so high we have to stand on a bench just to open the hood. When I drive these things I can't see cars to the right, let alone a bicycle.

bryroth

I have Elmers Glue colored skin but it's not the rednecks that bother me, it's the mobs of pitchfork-wielding townsfolk who ascend to my castle in Germania that bother me.



And I'm no psychologist, but if you have a chip on your shoulder that causes you to find a reason behind each dumbass, meaningless truck yodel then the yodels will seem like they come way more often and louder, too. If you blow off the rednecks then it's easier to enjoy the ride.

Duke of Kent

You guys know that a "redneck" is a person who works outdoors for a living, usually as a farmer, right? The term "redneck" derives from the continual sunburn seen on the back of the neck of farmers before the advent of the fully enclosed canopy on tractors.

As a person who worked on a farm for 3 years, I can tell you that damn near every farmer I've met is about as nice as can be. It's the people who are too dumb to run a profitable farming operation that are the source of your harassment.

So, you can use "white trash" to describe these people, but don't confuse them with good, honest, hard working farmers. 95% of those guys are great people, who, while they might be NASCAR fans, wouldn't bother you out on the roads.

joshwa

just going to defend rural places here for a minute since no one else seems to want to. i grew up in the Blue Ridge Mtns in VA but went to college for 4 years in northern VA (now grad school in KY). I couldn't get out of NOVA fast enough. I got so sick of strip malls and traffic. i like being able to walk down the street, make eye contact and say hello to a stranger and not be looked at like i'm some kind of freak. i like being able to swim in the river that runs through the middle of my redneck town. yes ignorant rednecks suck but city folk who live for their jobs and worldy possessions seem just as ignorant to me.

big john

There are probably as many definitions for "redneck" as there are for "fred". Better to not use such terms to describe the sick cowards who attack helpless people.

I agree with you about farmers. When we toured through farmland, we were invited to stay at farmers homes, offered help on the road, and given cold drinks by farm people. If we were stopped somewhere, farmers would come up and talk to us, just to be friendly, and always ask if we needed anything.
I will never forget these kindnesses just as I will never forget the screaming, spitting, and throwing things by young white punks.

BikeIndustryGuy

If only that were true.

I say fight back, ride in pack blaring progressive new -age music, ....swarm pickups at stoplights and throw sticky empty gel packets at them, ...yell, "Brokeback mountain" every time you pass a pickup.

BikeIndustryGuy

No it doesn't. That's maybe how the term originated, but we all know what it means.

It wasn't that long ago that a non-white man would get hung for talking to a white woman in public. This was done by "hard working farmers". Red neck is well-earned term for ignorant xenophobic racists.

oakback

I hope you carry.

FlashBazbo

Not true. Around here, there are PLENTY of rednecks and 98% of them are extremely courteous to cyclists. The monster truck crowd are the most likely (around here) to give you a full lane when possible, and to slow down behind when it's not. I've had zero problems from rednecks. When they yell, it's generally some kind of positive comment! Our local white "good ol' boys" will return whatever respect / lack of respect they receive.

The problems here? A couple of road-raged minivans/SUVs from out of town. Unlicensed migrant workers (a politically correct version of "illegal aliens"). Old folks who can't see beyond their steering wheel.

FlashBazbo

Actually, you're both wrong.

The ORIGINAL rednecks were radical unionists from Pennsylvania. They actually took up arms in order to unionize various businesses through threats of violence and extortion. In a couple of cases, they organized their forces against the government and actually took over a few counties for a time.

The MODERN term "redneck" is itself a racist epithet meant to demean any white person of a lower socio-economic status or class. All racists claim the epithets are "well earned." "We all know how they are."

Racism from any direction is evil. Grow up.

Grumpy McTrumpy

I just realized that Jeff Foxworthy's hair is too long for his neck to get red.

Kai Winters

There are aholes everywhere.
I generally ignore them or to piss them off I wave as though I know them.

Where in NNY are you Swimbike? I am in Brownville, next door to Watertown, and in the 4 years I have lived here I have had maybe one or two negative interactions with drivers. I actually have had a few give a bit of a wave as they passed by. This is a much friendlier area than when I was living in the Brockton MA area.

Fast story:
Group of us out on Sunday training ride. Maybe 10 of us all working hard in a paceline. Beat up old pickup truck passes us real close and does a little "swerve towards us" move. Several of us, yep me too, give him the finger. Several minutes later he is coming towards us and wings a beer bottle at us. It misses and we mock him and give him the finger again. He again passes us on our side and this time we have to veer as he nearly side swipes us. We are all yelling and cursing at him while we continue to ride...sheesh we were nuts then. We come to an intersection with a 4 way stop and there is a local cop sitting in his car. We approach and describe the incidents including our giving him the finger. Cop says he will keep an eye out. Sure enough here he comes again for another pass. We point him out and the cops lights up and stops him. We follow and watch as the cop checks him out. Next thing we see the cop takes him out of the car, finds a bag of weed on him and cuffs his scruffy arse. We are all across the road mocking him and laughing our asses off. His wife/girl friend is standing there crying as the cops drives away and we leave as well.
All in all a GREAT ride lol.

JohnKScott

I drive a mini van. Am I a redneck?

Of course, being born and raised in Minnesota, I'll probably never reach that status

JohnKScott

Here Here as a fellow past farm worker in my youth!

I've had the most problems with soccer moms in SUV's where live just not being able to wait to get around the blind curve before they pass you. Mind you, there are many others that are extremely courteous. In fact the vast majority.

So maybe it's just bad apples no matter what race/socio-economic/gender/locaton...

wmt3rd

My wife and I grew up in the deep, deep South. She refers to the jacked up trucks as an....

I have a dick truck. A really little dick truck.

LSPlo

cyclezealot

A couple rednecks in So Cal tried to run me off the road and throw crap at me.. I figured like twice a month some encounter with an aze hole was about right.. Nothing is as bad as being run off the road.. as they say, sticks and stones.... But, the scariest might have been in Klamath Falls, Or... Don't tell me its always lycra.. That time I was wearing wind pants and a normal street jacket since it was just a ride about the town.... .. Bunch of punk kids chased me with clubs, and fists out.. I did nothing but ride by their trailer park. They said they were going to beat the crap out of people on bikes.. Luckily my bike was faster than they could run...

furiousferret

Let me preface this by saying I grew up in Oakland and Santa Cruz, so my knowledge of rednecks is limited.

I firmly believe that the people knock rednecks so much because it sates their need to hate on someone. Hating on Asians, Blacks, or Hispanics is politically incorrect, so they turn to rednecks and call it okay. Hypocrites.

White males tend to give me crap when I cycle, but twice I've been threatened twice by Black teens while running. You can stereotype negative things about every group that more often than not are true, but it doesn't make it right either.

OneArmedScissor

Many of us do carry while biking.

OneArmedScissor

I stereotype pickup trucks because it saves my life.

Stereotyping is a human adaptation because it tends to work.
I give pickup trucks lots of room and sometimes even pull over to let them pass when i hear their characteristic burble going by.

Subarus, on the other hand, I tend to not worry about when I hear their broken weedwhacker sound.

dcbikeguy

And most of us think those of you who do are idiots.

khatfull

I lived in KY for 26 years and I assure you it was genuine. Kentuckians are the recipients of such a bad stereotype. When I moved here to MN I heard about this "thing" called "Minnesota Nice". B****HIT. People in KY were much nicer, much more gracious, much more friendly.

tntyz

Me too, PLUS I play the banjo! My only saving grace is being from Wisconsin.

Paul Barnard

That's an opinion without a statistically supported foundation.

milliWatts

I find I have far fewer problems with the local yocals when I'm wearing my RW&B jersey/helmet. They are more likely to wave/salute than throw beer bottles.

I'll assume there's already been at least one "you know you are riding in redneckville when" thread.