My cousins delineating the heirarchy (sp?) of redneck, hillbilly, hilljack, and white trash.

That sounds like a conversation my brother and I need to hear. I believe we are rednecks, though Our People are hillbillies.

What is a Hilljack?

The one word origin thing that I heard was false was that picnic comes from picaninnies (sp). We did stop having an end of year picnic and started having a cookout- which in fact was much more descriptive of what we did, since it did not involve baskets

My DexH called himself a Mountain William.

What is a Hilljack?

From what I gathered, one who lives in a run-down trailer, rv, or vehicle, on a tract of land that is questionable in owenership, though noone really bothers with it. Almost living entirely off the grid and without running water.

Interesting. I had never heard that term. Upstate NY is full of poor rural white people, but we don't seem to have names.

Oh, and on the language usage thing- I no longer use gypped now that I know the origin (and how to spell it), but if I was, I don't know, writing from the point of view of Archie Bunker, I think it would be bad if I shied away from using the offensive term, as it is totally something he would say.

I used to be much more *on* the language debate train(although even I am having a hard time permanently removing "lame" and "retarded" from reasonably-frequent usage..."gypped" was easier not to use, ironically, since I know more crips than Romany.) Then I went to a disability site and got dinged for calling someone/something "crazy", something else "stupid" and something else "smart". All in one day. (apparently, that site views referring to someone's intellectual capacity at all as a sign of elitism. Which I find a bridge too fucking far, and a sign that maybe you can be too careful. But maybe I'm just vain about being smart?)

apparently, that site views referring to someone's intellectual capacity at all as a sign of elitism. Which I find a bridge too fucking far, and a sign that maybe you can be too careful. But maybe I'm just vain about being smart?

The Feminists With Disabilities site? I agree with you.

Yeah, erika, that was when my brain just exploded. Any comparative term at all could be argued to be oppressive.

I use words to mean things and if I think there's a chance the people who read my words might misunderstand, I try to use different words.

I have been called out on this board for trying to be funny and coming off as offensive and I make an effort to avoid making those kinds of jokes here now.

If I posted on Mark Reads I would be even more careful about my choice of words.