Rednecks

[Lynete]

No: HPFGUIDX 133550

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Avery Ke <avery at u...> wrote:
> cayres1 wrote:
> >My little brother (who, at age 20, is not that little) made me
> >laugh when he said: "Voldemort's a redneck!" (Though, to be
> >perfectly correct, it's his mother's family, not him).
> 
> Well, not precisely, since a redneck is defined as a "a poor white
> person in the southern United States." I don't know the British
> equivalent. A peasant, a yeoman? 
> 
My reply: I found this scene poignant as well. I'm reading a book 
called "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America" by James 
Webb which probably shaped my response. I'll share some quotes fom 
the book on the Scot-Irish character:

"Most of them had little or no schooling, knew no refined trade and 
had read no book...Few would have had any idea why someone would even 
want to sit down in front of an easel with a dozen pots of colored 
oils and paint a picture...But they were strong, keen of practical 
intellect...And if any man, no matter how highly born, should strike 
or offend them, it was their credo to strike back twice as hard." p88-
89.

This scene put me in mind of the Scots at the time of William Wallace 
called upon to acknowledge the lordship of the English or the 
Highlanders after the Battle of Culloden who were persecuted by the 
English for wearing kilts, speaking the Gaelic and playing the 
bagpipes. And, as Mr. Webb acknowledges, in the USA we call them 
Rednecks (in Canada, they are callled Newfies - Newfoundland was 
heavily settled by the Scots and Irish). 

The question I had is: why are these people being told they have 
broken laws they obviously had no ken existed, and that they must 
answer to an authority they obviously don't acknowledge?  And 
although they are obviously a mean-spirited and even criminal pair, I 
admit this Scots-Irish American felt a moment of sympathy.