Southerners reserve three insults for outlanders and assorted other pathetic creatures. They are:
"Y'all ain't from around here, are you?"
"Yankee"
This blog is barely two weeks old, but it has already taken a few pot-shots at some sacred cows, such as "bait-and-wait" deer-hunting, litterbugs and low expectations in some local schools. The ensuing conversations have largely been delightfully rambunctious, but a few visitors have registered their disagreement by simply invoking the "Yankee" Doctrine: You ain't one of us, so shut the f*** up.
It's not always aimed at carpetbagging pantywaists from states that fought for the Union 132 years ago. Fourteen states were established after the Civil War, mostly in the West, which didn't have a dog in that fight, so there are tens of millions of Americans who never set foot on a Civil War battleground, period. And the last real Yankee has been dead for 51 years (Albert Woolson of Minnesota was a Union drummer boy who died in 1956.)
No, it seems that to a grumpy Southerner a "Yankee" is anyone who "ain't from around here." "Yankee" is never a term of endearment. That epithet is fired like a squirrel-shot at any outsider who doesn't leave his/her native sensibilities at the Mason-Dixon line ... or who doesn't agree with the insulter. ("You don't like grits? What a Yankee!")
That kind of xenophobia didn't hunt before the Civil War, it didn't wash in the civil rights era, and it's unlikely to work in the blogosphere. It might surprise those parochial Southerners who still wield the word like a revenooer's axe, but non-Southerners are rarely insulted by the term. They merely know you're trying to be insulting.
And for the record: The outlanders' habit of calling all Southerners "bubba" or "redneck" or "hillbilly" is equally xenophobic. I'm afraid the American tendency to coin a slur is infinite and knows no geographical bounds. And if you're lucky enough to be a non-Southerner living in the South, then you hear ALL of them!
So, Gator-Baiters, educate this Yankee from Wyoming who loves Texas. What exactly is a "Yankee"? Can you describe what you see in your mind when you use or hear the term? Whether you're a native Southerner or a lifelong Manhattanite, why do you think this apparently archaic term is still so widely used in the new millennium?
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52 Gator-baiters:
I'm "not from around here", either, and when I arrived here nearly 30 years ago, got the 'damn yankee' comment from some of the locals. Annoying, but expected, considering some of the Gomers who live in the backwoods.
For many of us who grew up in Southeast Texas, the term "Yankee" is used to describe someone from outside the community who moves here and then acts as if they are somehow better than "the rest of us." Name-calling like "Gomers" is a good example. Or comments like "Fortunately I did not go to a local school." Or "I'm a real hunter beacuse I used to hunt on foot ... in the snow!" The Y-bomb is usually dropped when someone feels that they and their communtity have been insulted by ... for lack of a better word, an outsider.
I have heard these comments made by local residents, to the point of rudeness, as in "We don't like your kind of people down here" or "if you're from anywhere north of Silsbee, you're a Yankee". Its this us versus them mentality that strikes me as negative.
On the other hand, I've heard the Y-bomb dropped in response to rude comments from outsiders.
Having moved here from Texas to The Otherside of America, I have found that "Yankees" may be defined by our food cultural icons.If you may go into any convenience store/gas station and pick up a cold drink and not refer to it as "pop", you may be cosidered as being from below the Mason Dixon line.Likewise, the lack of an edible taco is another food definer that leaves you yearning for the old taquerias we never appreciated till we didn't have them any more.Also, if you cannot pronounce the word ya'll, you're a Yankee.Thats the ultimate litmus test of Yankiness.
(GASP!) You're from Wyoming??
Is "Gator" from Wyoming?
Is that what "from a different perspective" means?
PLEASE people!!
Can we NOT we refer to "Yankee" as the "Y-bomb?"
Give me a friggin break people!!
Yankee is not only a location above the Mason-Dixon line but an attitude.
I along with most area Texans who were very happy with "Jap Road"; but along comes a bunch of "Yankee" interlopers wishing to upset the apple cart and change the name.
Why is it people move from their home states because of things they didn't like want to make where they move to just like it?
Only a Yankee would ask the question. A real Texan knows why. If you need directions back to Wyoming, Ill donate the map.
"Why do Southerners love to drop the Y-bomb ... Yankee?" I read that on www.beaumontenterprise.com and smiled. It's funny as Hell.
I always laugh whenever I have been accused of being a "Yankee."
I was raised in one of those "other states" that were formed well after the Civil War.
(HINT- Ya' cant go much further west and I have been accused several times of being a "Granola Head" because of my home state.)
The thing is I have been in SE Texas for almost 15 years and I am just as much a Southerner as the next "Redneck" or "Bubba."
BUT when it comes to the whole "us/them - Southerner/Yankee" thing I am NOT proud to be a Southerner.
Ya' see TO ME it seems the whole "yer a Yankee, ya ain't from here" mentality stems from either the Civil War and/or the Civil Rights Movement.
SEEMS TO ME that in each instance people in the South were pissed off they were being told what to do by those "Outsiders" and/or "Yankees."
And don't tell me they were upset about interference, "states rights" and "our Southern heritage."
SEEMS TO ME that Southerners were (and sadly some still are) pissed about being told they could not own slaves and then that they would have to allow African-Americans to exercise the same rights as them. "Yankee" has also been trotted out when some pointed out that "honoring Japanese farmers" in Jefferson County by naming a road "Jap Lane" was kind of backwards.
(Sorry guys. A slur is a slur.)
Oh and while I am on my soapbox, and because I will now REALLY be called a "Yankee" let me say this...
I AM NOT insinuating only Southerners are racists. We have plenty where I grew up in Southern California. (Look up the racist asshole Tom Metzger who was born in the North)
Sadly Racism is as American as apple pie.
Oh and I was born in Memphis.
I AM a from the South.
I wasn't born in the South, but I've lived in the South most of my life. My mother's family has been in the South for generations, but originally came from the Old Country, then settled in New Orleans and various family members moved West to set up shop in Southeast Texas. My two cents on this "Yankee" thing is this - it's about someone who has no respect. People who have lived most or all of their life in Southeast Texas don't appriciate it when a guy from Wyoming or whetever comes in and starts disrespecting the area saying things like he was glad he didn't go to any schools here. What kind of thing is that to say? I would never say such a thing to the good people of Southeast Texas because I admire and respect them as neighbors and family. Clearly some people think this guy from Wyoming does not.
Anthony: Ain't nuthin' wrong with being proud, but don't be blinded by pride. It's become an accepted remark when talking about Texas' educational record for dyed-in-the-wool Texans to say, "Thank God for Mississippi." You obviously think you got a great education here, and that's good. It's even possibly true.
But I have said it here rather candidly: BISD has problems and they affect education. For one, 60% of students are dropping out of Central HS between freshman and sophomore years. The district admits it has let its infrastructure reach dangerous lows and needs almost $400 million to fix it. And there seems to be a rampant problem with teachers having sex with kids ... and allegedly being defended by the superintendent. Those are just a few recent examples of serious problems in Beaumont schools.
But to the point: If pointing those things out is being a "Yankee," then you're gonna have to get over it. Beaumont will never be a 100% native-born economy or community. Instead, it might be wise to embrace those folks (like me and others who commented here) who gladly come here of our own free will and participate in the process of improving the community. I don't care to make Beaumont exactly like the places I lived in the past ... I care about making Beaumont the place I want to live in the future.
I came to SETX 24 years ago from Iowa. I was called a Yankee then and still am. I think it shows a gigantic inferiority complex by Southerners who want to live on their own little island and not be part of the world. That's too bad because they end up insulting good people who are already friendly to the Southern culture.
To all my South'ner friends, I want to point out two things. One is that if you want respect, you show respect. Using slurs doesn't do that. Two is that disagreement does not equal disrespect. Y'all should know that since the War of Aggression was all about you disagreeing with the prevailing sentiment. Show respect for opinions you might not agree with and you will be respected more than you know.
"Y Bomb" is right!! I was married to one of them critters. She tried to feed me broccoli and califlower. She even snickered at Wal-Mart until she finally figured there ain't nowhere else to shop. I can tell you for sure that there is a difference between us and them. The only ones who think that there is no difference is them. For the most part they are concieted and rude and always in a hurry. I was in her country one time with my hat and boots and one rude Yankee wanted to show me to his friends. I'm six foot one and two hundred seventy five pounds. He said "geeze, I've never seen anybody as big as you." Then he asked me how to get to Montana. I told him to get to the big highway and turn right....
When I say "yankee" or "You're not from around here, are you?" I use it jokingly, because I truly have no animosity toward anyone from any other state. I don't think Texans are better than anyone else, nor do I believe that anyone else is better than me. We are all the same, we have the same needs and wants, fears, etc. My grandmother was from Illinois, so she was a "yankee" also.
Talking about Beaumont teachers and schools, there are people with good and bad behavior everywhere you go, the one who has constantly been in the news was an exception to the rule. I am a teacher, and most of us teach because we are trying to do our very best to see to it that our students succeed. Hopefully, justice will be served to teachers who abuse the honor of their duty. My mother and father went to the same Beaumont schools (and buildings) that I did, that my children went to, that my grandchildren go to now, that I teach in now. They are in deplorable condition because of age, not because of lack of maintenance.
And one final note about the drop out rate, every one of us who truly try to encourage our students to stay in school call parents, encourage students, have tutorials, help in every way we can. We can't do it for them, and there is such a thing as personal responsibility and choices. Any one can choose to quit, or choose to stay and work as hard as they can to succeed. The choice is theirs, it isn't because of the teachers. I had some teachers that I didn't particularly like, and had to be responsible for my own education. If you want to succeed, you will. I didn't quit school because I didn't want to. You can lead a kid to knowlege but you can't chain him to the desk.
Bless your heart means that you feel empathy for someone. In my mind, anyway. I joke about Yankee, and "you're not from around here, are you?" because I'm just making fun of ourselves, not all of us live where we have to pump in sunshine. Some of us are even educated. We are not all the same, and people that come from other states aren't all the same, either.
I ain't from around here, but got to Texas as quick as I could. Cam across the Sabine river when I was five. Sure glad I did, 'cause the "Yankees" I met in the USAF called me "Tex" instead of "Louise"
If you can't fly the Stars and Bars proudly you are ether a Yankee or a traitor. Get the fuck out
Hey, reb, do you wonder why the rest of the world thinks the South is full of stupid bigots? Look in the mirror.
I came to Texas almost 20 years ago from the Yankee state of Kansas. I love it here. I want nothing different from most of you natives but I'm sicked and tired of being treated like an outsider who is trying to impose my 'northern' ideas on you. If being ambitious for my family and wanting a good future for my kids is being judgemental, then I'm judgemental.
And if you call me a Yankee, don't be surprised if I call you stupid.
Hey Reb...
I cant fly the Stars n' Bars proudly because when I look at it I think... RACISM.
Sorry but I cant help it.
I have seen the Stars n' Bars waved by too many Klansmen and other white supremacists to have it conjure up any other image for me.
Before you tell me that I am a "Yankee traitor who should get the fuck out" think about this.
You proud "Southern Confederates" ALWAYS complain about the Stars n' Bars being maligned and how it is a "symbol of our heritage" so why is it none of you seem to take umbrage with the Klan and other white supremacists waving it too?
To me that heritage you are so proud of is one built on the ownership of slaves plain and simple.
I've got a confession. when I made the original comment about hunting I was trying to be sarcastic and poke fun at the redneck mentality around here. I'm not actually a Bubba. I moved here from New York in the late 70s. I never meant to cause such unrest. Can't we all get along?
Shanny,,, I TOOK YOUR PLACE! Let's just decide that I took your place and you took mine! I'll take care of your family here and you may feel free to let my relatives there drive you nuts. What a concept! Hopefully you still have some left here in Oskaloosa. Mine are mostly in Beaumont. I chickened out after the hurricane Rita encounter and crossed the Red River on my way north.Any way,unless you are in the theater watching "Damn Yankees", it's just rude to call anyone that to their face, unless you're spoiling for a fight or just working on getting your iq back up to 17 by using two syllable words.
I love being called a yankee. For the simple reason that the following is true of the south:
1. Highest rate of obesity.
2. Highest rate of teenage pregnancy.
3. Highest crime rates in nearly every category.
4. Highest rate of race based crime.
5. Highest high school dropout rate.
6. Highest drug abuse rate per capita.
7. Highest unemployment rates.
8. The only area where the prohibit sex toy stores from opening and try to legislate against gays by trying to enforce archaic laws.
I could go on but it is pointless. Please, please secede from the Union already.
To the idiot poster who posted 11/04/07 at 12:14 p.m. ....
Learn a little bit about our history and culture before making stupid comments. There is a difference between the "Stars and Bars" and the Confederate Battle flag which is malaligned with losers like the Klan.
Of course you arelike a lot of other Yankees....running off their mouth before engaging mind.
I might be the only one her who admits being exactly what these bubbas mean when they say Yankee. I was sent here by my employer 2 years ago from Washington St. I didn't choose to live here and I definitely won't put down roots. I find the overt racism to be awful unsettling and the lack of motivation by the natives make me wonder how anything gets done. I don't go around yelling that but I get the drift in thiese postings that anybody is a Yankee who isn't comfortable with a trashy smelly place where everybody thinks its ok to say racist stuff out loud. People here don't seem to take much pride in their city. So I'm a Yankee and you can bet your ass I won't stay any longer than I have to. No need to send a map.
To the idiot bubba redneck who posted 11/4 at 5:38 p.m.....
At least with a Yankee the mind eventually gets engaged!
That certain Anonymous never said the Stars and Bars was anything except a symbol of the South. I'm not confused at all about its origins and the poster was responding to Reb who said it should be flown proudly or people should get the #### out of the South. Whatever flag you got from the Civil War, it symbolizes racism to me and a lot of people. So don't pull some goofy history lesson out of your ass as an excuse for the South's reputation as a bigoted place.
This whole conversation is about Southern bigotry except we're not talking about the N-word. And all the bubbas here are defending their use of the "Y-word" as vigorously as they have defended use of the "N-word." Until you get past this blatant bigotry against people who "aren't from around here", you won't get any respect from anybody anywhere.
Honestly, folks. All of this talk about the term "Yankee" has become a red herring for the real issue here. The United States has been growing and developing since its inception. A whether the politicos want to admit it or not, the country has been developing separate and distinct cultures based around all of the factors that determine national identity. The 'Yankee' issue is just one of the earliest example highlighted by the divisions that this separate development led to which in turn led to the Not-So-Civil War. These cultural distinctions have continued to develop to the point that it's no longer just about Yankee vs. Southerner. It's about New Englanders being separate from Midwesterners being separate from Southeasterners being separate from Northwesterners being separate from Plain Dwellers being separate from Californians being separate from Southwesterners being separate from Alaskans being separate from Hawaiians being separate from Texans. Dr. Thomas Naylor has written extensively about this trend toward decentralization and it was a centerpiece of John Naisbitt's work in Global Paradox. Don't take the 'epithet bait'. The issue is deeper and more important than a single word.
This is a cool discussion and I went out to do some research about it. I found a very interesting report from about 10 years back that says Southern males are way more sensitive to insults than men from other parts of the USA. Sorta ironic that we're talking about Southern insults!!
Lab Study Says Southern Men Take Insults Seriously
All of you saying the flag has something to do with racism have no idea what you are talking about. You invented the word bigot. The flag means freadom and you get to speak without being incarcerated for you opinions and you do need a history lesson. Us southerners do get tired of "yankees" when they act superior and make derogatory comments. Our home is home to us, smog and all.
The Confederate battle flag stands for freedom? What kind of freedom exactly? The freedom to enslave humans? The freedom to do whatever you damn well please irregardless of the whole country's interests?
Curious gets right to the heart of the matter when he or she says that Southerners don't want anybody telling them that clean air is better than dirty air. That's not superior Yankees trying to show up Southerners. That's just self-preservation!! If you think somebody wanting clean air or less crime or good schools is a nasty Yankee, you are delusional!!
Ken D.
Minnesota Yankee
P.S.: Very cool blog!
Instructions to all Yankees. There is aother blog specifying where Mile marker Number Zero is.
Start there, and go north or northeast at least 1000 miles, and don't come back.
Carpetbaggers started it in 1866, and have't stopped since. They're like fleas and lice, I tell ya!!!!
See y'all never okay???
I was born & raised in Beaumont. Lived in Texas until I was 22. I now live in NYC and have realized that 'breaking into' the Texas culture, for an outsider, is about as easy as fitting into a cannibalistic tribe in South America. However, NYC, although it prides itself on its cosmopolitan reputation & acceptance of outsiders, really focuses only on itself, in a similar way to the way Texans think about their state.
The Yankee insult seems to be simply a defense mechanism for insecure people which is used to marginalize the opinions of those who are not like them, while elevating their status amongst their own 'tribe'. This is really no different from the 'Yankee' who belittles southerners as 'rednecks', 'hicks', or as simply uneducated. Unfortunately, one of the things that seems to be common to all cultures, at varying levels, is fear, bigotry, stereotyping, violence, & murder. Certainly we need to treat each other more like brothers & less like suspects.
JSC
If all Yankees abandoned Southeast Texas, it would be a catastrophe. Nobody would know how to run anything but it wouldn't matter because nobody would show up for work anyway. It would be a very interesting story for the Enterprise to show how much of the local economy is driven by allegedly 'outside' leaders and investment. I think we'd all see how good it is for everyone to be a diverse community where it doesn't matter what color your skin is or where you come from. It is also ironic that the South's trouble really started when it imported outsiders to do all its work.
here and annoyed
Hate to break it to you, Reb, but flying the Confederate naval jack (which is NOT the 'Stars and Bars,' but I don't expect you to know anything about history) makes YOU a traitor, not those of us whose loyalties lie with the United States of America.
You're either with us, or with our enemies.
And if you CAN be educated: the battle flag with the X design is square. The rectangular flag is the naval ensign. The 'Stars and Bars' (3-stripes) was the official flag of the Confederacy. Later the flag was a white flag with the battle flag in the upper left, and then the same flag had a red bar added to the right side.
So you're flying a naval flag on land, and you're worshipping traitors who traded in human beings. And before you say "it wasn't about slavery," feel free to Google "articles of secession" for each state in the CSA and count how many times a form of the word "slave" is mentioned. I think you'll be enlightened, if such a thing is possible for a troglodyte that wishes for a bygone era when people of color were property.
fuck you Yankee. you don't know shit
Not to worry. Being from Wyoming you might already be a Texan.
When the Republic of Texas was Annexed into the United States, its territory was split into different states. The original territory became the state of Texas, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Kansas.
If and when called a yankee you can boast "I may be a yankee but I am a yankee from Texas.
Dannis
Dannis: It appears that Texas splashed its DNA all over the Interior West!
Thanks for the tip!
I came here (actually, to West Texas) over 20 years ago from another country. I have never been, nor have I been called, a Yankee. It's not necessarily that a person is criticizing something or someone local. Its HOW they do it. I can sit along and bitch about the government, federal or local, with friends and co-workers and no one is offended. When I bitch about something, I bitch as one of the locals. I don't say things like "why can't we be more like...." or "thank God I didn't go to school here" A Yankee does!
Its even evident from the comments here. People commenting how we "should get over" this and that. How we have an inferiority complex. How we are uneducated, or resent the civil war, or, one of my favorites we are "NOT SENSITIVE ENOUGH"!
It seems that most of the time the "us vs. them" mentality starts with the Yankee, not us.
Imagine someone coming over to your home, and then talking about how you didn't clean good enough, how they really think your walls should be a different color, how you should plant flower in the front yard to make it look more like their house....
Just how long would it be before you'd get pissed and kick them out of the house? Well, its hard to kick out those people from Texas, so we just call them Yankees and hope they get the hint... Unfortunately, they usually don't.....
I got a question for all you proud Southeast Texas natives ... don't you wish you went to a good school someplace up North?
My guess is that you would say no. My guess is that you are proud of your education in SE Texas. My guess is that you feel you got the schooling you wanted from people you respected. That's good.
But yet you keep coming back to insult somebody who said he is glad he didn't attend school in this town. You are whiny and all insulted even though you would say the same god damned thing!!!! grow up!!!!
I am glad I went to school where I went to school too and I am glad it wasn't in SE Texas where there are so many problems. Lots of people feel that way and it's not because they feel superior to you. It's just a fact for them. You don't like being told to get over it but you gotta get over it. Seeing as how you haven't been able to get over the civil war I doubt you will get over something much more trivial like this.
LN
I have an idea.... let the native Texans pay all the taxes for the local schools so that they can finally say nobody else can complain about local schools. Until you stop taxing the beejeezus out of us "yankees," then don't tell us wer can't have an opinion abvout how our kids get educated.
until that never-never day when you natives are picking up the tab 100% for Southeast Texas schools, government, museums, roads, economy, etc etc etc. then don't tell everybody else they can't have an opinion about it. This isn't YOUR home ... it's OUR home ... and sometimes I feel excatly the way you do Chris that you bubba natives don't give a shit about trashing MY home and it's time for us to kick YOU out.
Chris, you seem to have a chip on your shoulder. I am a born and raised Texan and I really haven't bumped into a lot of people in my 53 years who were coming here to show how superior they were to me. I've met wonderful "yankees" who I'd trust with my life. I married one and I don't regret one single minute. If you want to see an insult in every little thing then you will always feel iunsulted even if no insult was intended. It has always made me wonder why we say the South is a friendlier place than anywhere because I think there are a lot of people here who are very very unfriendly and calling every new person a yankee is an example of it. Be more mature please.
Linda374
After looking at the syntax and grammar in your little tirade, I am extremely proud to have been educated in Southeast Texas.
Dang, you don't see that every day ... a Southerner giving a grammar lesson! Hey, Anonymous English Teacher, how would you diagram the sentence "Fuck you Yankee. you don't know shit"? Or do you only care about bashing Yankee grammar and syntax? Bless your heart.
I'm positive that there's a statement out there that says something to the effect that profanity is the bastion of the uneducated ... since they don't know any bigger words, they result to profane ones. "Fuck you, Yankee, you don't know shit" -- so elegantly phrased. I'm sure all SETX English teachers are proud of people like that -- they know they had SUCH a good education.
And by the way, I, too, have enjoyed this discussion, although I haven't been impressed when it's descended into rude insults and name-calling. Many SE Texans are kind, loving people who are proud of where they live. I'm sure they would be embarrassed by their fellow citizens' rudeness here.
And elsewhere.
"Grammar and syntax are the last refuge of people who don't have a better argument."
Paris Hilton (maybe)
Thank You Betty. I have enjoyed this blog also and I also agree that profanity makes the user appear common and ignorant. It is unfortunate that some hang on to antiquated ideas and also unfortunate that others feel superior. Can't we all get along?
Jokester, I think that quote was from Brittney Spears.
Anonymous English Teacher
Hey now! Watch your language! Only northern people can use the Y-word! That is their word!
Yo im Moving To Texas Next Month,im Not A Locak infact im Not Even From America!! im from Britain.....dus that make me a yankee? i can tell im guna have a hard time lol!
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