The Hillbilly Bone: Prejudices Against the Heartland

The Hillbilly Bone: Prejudices Against the Heartland When you think about Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc . . . like everyone else you probably think about country music, fried chicken, southern drawls, moonshine whiskey, and idiots who own more farm animals than IQ points. Like with every stereotype, there are some truths to this one. Southerners really do like their chicken (and everything else) fried, and we do for the most part prefer a nice country beat over that electronic mess pumping out of club speakers, but there is still two sides to everything, and the second side of this stereotype is straight up, over-exaggerated propaganda used to run down a great group of hard working individuals. This article aims to pick apart and evaluate a classic southern stereotype so that the truth of the matter can be brought to light.

Growing up in western Kentucky I have heard it all from the highly unoriginal, “She has to be a hillbilly just listen to her talk” to the slightly more offensive occasions when nothing is said, but the point gets across just fine when intelligent people purposely dumb down their vocabulary as if because I was born in Kentucky I couldn’t possibly give them the definition of any word over five letters long. By now I’ve desensitized myself to such prejudicial behavior, but that doesn’t make it okay. Anytime a group of people is being ran down something is very wrong. The problem is unlike sexism, racism, or religious discrimination no one pays attention to this form regional discrimination. Some insist it isn’t as important or maybe doesn’t hurt as much, but some are inherently wrong. It does hurt and it is wrong, and it’s time it be brought to light.

Unless born in the south you’ve probably made a joke about those good-hearted, gullible hillbillies, and why not? The media supports your assumption that they’re invalids, and the media is always right. Right? Wrong. The media is frequently wrong, and the media is steering you wrong if you let it teach you to mock perfect strangers. Instead you should consider these following points, and remember that all people no matter gender, skin color, and place of birth are just that—people.

Southern IQ Numbers are WAY Down South Too. This part of the southern stereotype is clear: Being born in the south somehow makes you stupid. However, according to regional NAEP test scores data from 2010 students in the southern states rank about average and are scattered out among the northern states with no region being obviously more intelligent than the other. North Carolina ranks seventh, Pennsylvania ranks twelfth, Ohio ranks seventeenth, Kentucky thirty-second, and the lowest testing area is actually District of Columbia. It’s quite apparent that children in the south aren’t anymore stupid then children in California, who by the way rank forty-sixth.

Barefoot and Pregnant. Somehow southern teenagers are thought to be bible thumpers, but also horny than dogs in heat. Apparently, they never use contraceptives, and always end up pregnant like the idiots that they are. This is also false. In my high school (An average, small town Kentucky high school with around 500 students in all) we have a single pregnant student, and last year we didn’t have any. Statistically speaking California had the most reported teen pregnancies in 2006 with around 96,490 pregnant teens. Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois followed with around 30,000 to 70,000 each. Once again this data clearly shows that southern girls are no more prone to accidental pregnancies than girls from any other region. It doesn’t matter where you are born if you don’t use a condom, birth control, or some form of contraceptive you run the risk of becoming pregnant being from the south has nothing to do with it.

Racist Religious Bigots. To my understanding the southern stereotype still has us all listed as members of the confederacy and bible thumping southern baptists. This isn’t true at all. The south has plenty religious diversity. A close friend of mine is a Wiccan, another is Catholic, another handful are southern baptists, and I’m an atheist. Clearly Kentucky doesn’t lack in religious diversity. I even know a Jewish girl, and someone who’s Buddhist and from India. There’s a mosque right down the road from my school. None of these groups are looked down upon, and as far as I know this same diversity and acceptance exists all across the region. They’re are Indian, African American, and Mexican students in my school all of which are at least have at least one person from the group that are marginally popular. No discrimination here just misconceptions at least in my region which is a classic small, southern town if there ever was one.

These are just a few of the negative stereotypes surrounding the south. I’ve managed to pick them apart, but to pick apart all of the various parts of this old age stereotype would take pages and pages to fully accomplish. So this is something you’ll have to take into your own hands, and decide for yourself to live above all prejudices not just the ones you hear about all the time. Do right by everyone not just by a few.

Sources:

  1. U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births, and Abortions: National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity
  2. NAEP State Comparisons

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