[lbo-talk] gibson, missionaries, shrub's distraction

[Michael Dawson -PSU]

Carrol is right.  Plus, what good does Kelley's ridicule of southern speech
do anybody but her?  Evangelical religion is a disaster, but it is not
monolithic.  (E.g.: Check out "What Would Jesus Drive?" -- not perfect, but
pretty decent and surprising.)  Strategically, it's just dumb to engage in
mockery of habits of people we want to win over.  And coming from redneck
land doesn't give you a license to scurrilously rip on people.  Does Condi
Rice get a pass because she's black?


> kelley at pulpculture.org wrote:
> >
>
> > (aside to the offended: i'm from upstate redneck new york (hi carl!) so
> > check your outrage button, cause it's gotten sticky or sumpin'!)
>
> Nope, won't check it. I also dislike the term redneck -- I find it's
> original meaning (sunburnt from overlong hours working in the sun) still
> too prominent for me. And about the vilest stuff ever published in the
> Illinois State University student paper was by three smug liberal
> students (who more than fit the template of "Love me, I'm a liberal")
> writing about their "experience" in a politely choreographed
> 'confrontation' of demonstrators and "rednecks" in some small southern
> town about 16 years ago.
>
> I get the same queasy feeling in my stomach when I see the term "white
> trash" tossed around: I agree with those who say it has never lost its
> original primary force as a white-racist slogan. It means whites as
> disgusting as those black people, and all the whitewashing in the world
> won't change it.
>
> Carrol