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Cake day: September 20th, 2024

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  • Noam_Parenti@lemm.eetomemes@lemmy.worldThey’re the same
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    4 days ago

    “Redneck” was literally a labor movement term before it became a insult for poor rural people. During the Coalfield Wars (1910s-20s), Appalachian miners—many wearing red bandanas as a union symbol (“red necks”)—waged open war against corporately bought private armies and the US military. The Battle of Blair Mountain (1921) saw 10,000+ armed miners (called rednecks by both sides) fighting cops and strikebreakers in the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. Socialists like Eugene Debs even rallied these “rednecks” as class warriors. The term got whitewashed later, but it started as a badge of honor for strikers.

    Blair Mountain