US Southerners Stereotyped as Poor, Less Educated
Mon Feb 10,10:42 AM ET


By Jacqueline Stenson

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Health) - Southerners face some persistent, not-so-charming stereotypes, new study findings suggest.

Having grown up in the South, Keisha Arrowood Burdick, a graduate student in psychology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, wanted to determine the extent of stereotypes people hold about Southerners. So she surveyed college students about their attitudes toward people from the South versus those from other parts of the country.

"I thought participants would rate the Southerners as less educated, making less money, more traditional--for instance, women are supposed to be at home and men are supposed to be bread-winners--and that's basically what I found," said Burdick, who reported her findings here Friday at a meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

The study involved 208 men and women attending colleges in the Northeast or the South. They were asked to either listen to or read a self-description of a man from the South and one from an unspecified region of the United States, and then answer questions regarding their impressions of those men.

Results showed that students rated men from the South as having lower socioeconomic status, more traditional attitudes and greater adherence to "culture of honor" norms--the belief that a man's reputation is his most valuable possession and is to be defended at great lengths--than the other men.

This appeared to be especially true for students who rated the men based on how they talked, results indicated. The lowest rating of socioeconomic status was given to the man with the Southern accent.

Students from both the Northeast and the South were equally likely to say that men from the South had the lowest socioeconomic status and more traditional social attitudes. However, students from the Southern university were more likely to say that Southern men adhered to culture-of-honor norms.

While it's true that some areas of the South are poorer than those of other parts of the country, Burdick said, this is not true across the board and doesn't fully explain the findings.

Much of the explanation probably lies with feelings about the distinctly Southern accent, she said.

Mainstream American speech--void of accents--is associated with smarter, more well-to-do people, she explained. "Standard American English is language that is used by educators and broadcasters," she told Reuters Health. "So if you're not using the standard language, you don't have above-average intelligence and so forth."

To hear Burdick talk, you wouldn't know she's from the South. But she says she launches into the accent when talking with her grandparents and others from home.

"Because of all the perceptions about the Southern accent, you tend to turn it off when you aren't around the people who use it," she said.

Because, statistically speaking, they ARE dumber, less educated, given to the "cult of honor" BS, and conform to all the other redneck stereotypes. In short, they are and always have been the dregs of America.

You are such an idiot. Did you know The New York Times has had an editor from Mississippi? William Faulkner was from Mississippi. Tennessee Williams was from the south. About a third of the population of Chicago is from the south. Oprah Winfrey, arguably the richest woman in the world, is from Kosiusko, Mississippi. Countless musicians are from the south. We southerns have infitrated every strata of American culture and each region bringing with us our rich heritage and, believe it or not, diversity! It was probably some lamebrain who is not from the south who was stupid enough to authorize the grant money for a southerner to conduct a study of an already well known fact. Yep, we sure is really dumb. Dumb and stupid as a fox.

Shameless Dixie Cuts...

Did you hear about the South Caroline redneck who passed away and let his entire estate in trust for his beloved widow? The only catch is that she can't touch it till she's 14.

How do you know when you're staying in a Kentucky hotel? When you call the front desk and say "I've got a leak in my sink," and the person at the front desk says, "Go ahead."

An Arkansas State trooper pulls over a pickup truck on I-40 and says to the driver, "Got any ID?" The driver says, "Bout what?"

Two Mississippians are walking toward each other, and one is carrying a sack. When they meet, one says,
"Hey Tommy Ray, whatacha got in th' bag?"
"Jes' some chickens."
"If I guesses how many they is, kin I have one?"
"Shoot, if ya guesses right, I'll give you both of 'em." "OK.
Ummmmmmmm.....five?"

An Alabamian came home and found his house on fire. He rushed next door, telephoned the fire department and shouted,
"Hurry over here-muh house is on fahr."
"OK" replied the fireman, "How do we get there?"
"Shucks, don't you fellers still have those big red trucks?"

Why do folks in Kentucky go to R-rated movies in groups of 18 or more?
Because they heard 17 and under aren't admitted.

Billy Bob and Lester were talking one afternoon when Billy Bob tells Lester,
"Ha know, I reckon I'm about ready for a vacation. Only this year, I'm gonna do it a little different. The last few years, I took your suggestions as to where to go. Three years ago you said to go to Hawaii. I went toHawaii and Betty Sue got pregnant. Two years ago you said go to the Bahamas and Betty Sue got pregnant again. Last year you suggested Tahiti and
darned if Betty Sue didn't get pregnant again. So Lester asks Billy Bob, "what you gonna do different?" Billy Bob says, "This year I'm taking Betty Sue with
me."

Ida Mae passed away and Bubba called 911. The 911 operator told Bubba that she would send someone right away and asked where he lived. Bubba replied, "At the end of Eucalyptus Drive." The operator asked, "Can you spell that >for me?" After a long pause, Bubba said, "How 'bout I drag her over to Oak Street and you pick her up there?"

Know why they raised the minimum drinking age in Tennessee to 32? They wanted to keep alcohol out of the high schools.

What do they call reruns of "Hee Haw" in Mississippi?
Documentaries.

Where was the toothbrush invented? Arkansas. If it were invented anywhere else, it would have been called a teethbrush.

Did you hear about the $3,000,000 Tennessee State Lottery? The winner gets $3 a year for a million years.

>Why did O.J. Simpson want to move to West Virginia?
>Because everyone has the same DNA.

>A new law was recently passed in North Carolina so that when a couple gets divorced, they're still brother and sister.

Of course the south is full of dummies. Look at GW Bush!

Ever notice that all the best colleges are on the East Coast? New Englanders are over-educated. Southerners are dumb clucks. But we love their accents all the same. : )

Oh, yes, we know. The South will Rise Again. Here's the news on it:

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South Postpones Rising Yet For Another Year

HUNTSVILLE, AL—For the 135th straight year since Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, representatives for the South announced Monday that the region has postponed plans to rise again.


Above: Three of the estimated 45 million Southerners who have not yet gotten around to rising again.

"Make no mistake, the South shall rise again," said Knox Pritchard, president of the Huntsville-based Alliance Of Confederate States. "But we're just not quite ready to do it now. Hopefully, we'll be able to rise again real soon, maybe even in 2001."

Pritchard's fellow Southerners shared his confidence.

"Yes, sir. The South will rise again, and when it does, I'll be right up front waving the Stars and Bars," said Dock Mullins of Decatur, GA. "But first, I gotta get my truck fixed and get that rusty old stove out of my yard."

"Lord willing, and the creek don't rise, we gonna rise again," said Sumter, SC, radiator technician Hap Slidell, who describes himself as "Southern by the grace of God." "I don't know exactly when we're gonna do it, but one of these days, we're gonna show them Yankees how it's done."

"Save your Confederate dollars," Slidell added. "You can bet on that."

The Deep South states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Tennessee consistently rank at the bottom of the nation in a wide variety of statistical categories, including literacy, infant mortality, hospital beds, toilet-paper sales, and shoe usage. Even so, some experts believe the region could be poised for a renaissance.

"The way things stand, things in the Deep South almost have to get better. Otherwise, the people who live there will devolve into preverbal, overall-wearing sub-morons within a century," said Professor Dennis Lassiter of Princeton University. "Either Southerners will start improving themselves, or they'll be sold to middle-class Asians as pets."


Above: The Kentucky state capitol.

"My constituents are decent, hard-working folk," said Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, in his 22nd annual "Next Year, By God!" speech on the steps of North Carolina's capitol building. "We are a proud people who mayn't have all that much fancy-pants book-learnin', but we live and die with pride in our proud heritage and the dignity of our forebears."

Helms' speech was met with nearly 25 minutes of enthusiastic hoots and rebel yells by the 15,000 drunk, unemployed tobacco pickers in attendance.

Though Southerners are overwhelmingly in favor of rising again, few were able to provide specific details of the rising-again process.

"I don't know, I reckon we'll build us a bunch of big, fancy buildins and pave us up a whole mess of roads," said Bobby Lee Fuller of Greenville, MS. "I ain't exactly sure where we're gonna get the money for that, but when Johnny Reb sets his mind to something, you best get out of his way."

"Oh, it'll happen, sure as the sun come up in the morning," said Buford Comstock, 26, a student at Over 'N' Back Diesel Driving School in Union City, TN. "The South is gonna rise up, just as soon as we get together and get all our **** back in one sock. Then, look out, Northerners!"

"Yesiree," Comstock added, "one day soon, the Mason-Dixon Line will be the boundary between a great nation and one whose time done passed."

http://www.theonion.com/onion3613/south_postpones.html

Oh, that sure is kind of you ma'm! Thank you so much for your compliment...but your posts comes across very ignorant indeed! You love our accents even though you think we're stupid...geesh, you'd think you were talking about a cute puppy or something.

Dead wrong about southern people,they are just as educated as others in this country. It's just the other people thinks they are better than people that live in the south. I've been all over the United States and people in the south are very educated and will help a person out. I believe it is very inaccurate for anyone to state that the people in the south are more lowly than other parts of the country for any reason.Very biased poll.

But if I see one more business with the spelling, "Kuntry," "Kountry," "Po'," or anything with the "ing" altered to an "'n," I am going to scream. No wonder people stereotype us so badly! At the restaurant, "Po' Folks," you drink from JARS! That might be a cute little gimmick to the place, but don't get offended when people start to snicker behind our backs. "Windy" is an adjective that describes the weather, not a restaurant!!! "Tin" is a metal, not a number! Not everyone on the highway likes to see you driving with a gored deer in the back of your truck, guts flailing and head bobbing out the side! Of course the whole country (or should I say, 'kuntry') is laughing at us! We seem to be embracing underachievement!

I would suggest to all pseudo-cultural northern boys to look inside their own self before passing judgment. I live in Chicago, but I have to say that the people I meet from the South are extremely, friendly, educated and fun to be with.. and yes the women.. ah..are just so beautiful and not like the cows of the northeast or midwest.

Don't let the Yankees know about the true South. We have kept those guys out for years... Let them think we are dumb and uneducated... If they ever do figure it out we'll be over run with the jerks...

I like our South just the way it is, and don't really care what they think of us..

It really amazes me (and embarrasses me) to go to the Northeast and out West to find VERY stupid Americans from all walks of life... And usually much more ingnorant and under-educated than my 93 year old SOUTHERN grandmother who did not go to college but could hold her own with anyone from anywhere on any subject....

Our entire nation should mourn our education system. Yes, you will find a few exceptional people who will go to Yale and other institutions of higher education, but the majority of the U.S. population doesn't function beyond the level of 8th grade education levels.... It's really pitiful.

>>I like our South just the way it is, and don't really care what they think of us.<<

Yeah, where Jim Crow can be made to feel at home, people who floss can do so with rope, kids can go right on up through the sixth grade and girls don't have to change their monogrammed initials after they marry.

Your 93-year-old grammy probably could hold her own agin' any SOUTHERNER. But come on, once you get north of Pedro's South of the Border on I-95, the world expects more of people, intellectually speaking.

This whole arguement on whether or not people from the South are less intelligent than people from the North is ridiculous. It's like something from high school, who's school rules, and who's doesn't!

Are not used to people who say thank you or your welcome. Help people they have never met, Or enjoy life plain and simple without always being arrogant and uptight. It actually makes very good sense why they would think of us as simple and dumb. They are LOST!

This is not a stereotype of Southerners, it’s a caricature. Stereotype is derived from the Greek stereos, meaning solid. I wish that social scientists were more generally literate. Now, how's that for a caricature? I wouldn't normally complain about this, but the Mother Tongue appears to have been deprived of a word meaning three-dimensional portrait. Must be those Eastern Ivy League schools. Give me Sewanee any day.