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Like I said above, Jeff Foxworthy has made a career out of "You might be a Redneck . . . "
That's been on all the mainstream media. I think he's even been on Disney. So, obviously, "redneck" has a meaning and use that is fully acceptable by mainstream society.
I highly doubt we'll be seeing a black comedian doing "You might be a N if . . ." on network TV any time soon.
Which proves the point. Words are nothing but a collection of letters, they alone have no meaning. They only mean what we as a society make them mean.
And we, as a society, have not made "redneck" anywhere near the level of insult as the N word. That's just a fact. I suppose if you wanted you could argue it shouldn't be that way, i.e., that "redneck" should carry the same heavy weight and be the same level of insult as the N word.
But should and is are two completely different things. And in American in 2006, the N word and "redneck" are nowhere near the same level of insult. It is simply impossible to effectively argue otherwise.
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