In the age of Political Correctness, where everyone is offended for one reason or another, I have tried to maintain some form of common sense by not letting things get to me. However, I've started to notice a trend picking up across the nation, especially in the New England states that has started to rub me the wrong way. It's the use of a four letter word that many people probably don't realize they're using. Y'ALL. Yep, that's it. But why does it matter?
You see, from my youngest memories of going anywhere outside of the south, I remember people joking about my accent, the stereotypes of the dumb, inbred, red-neck hicks that made up the south. People assumed because of my geographical location and the fact that I talked different that my thoughts were somehow less important and intelligent than their own thoughts blanketed in a funny accent. Yes, New England, you all have funny accents. However, as I grew up I ignored the jabs and held my head high with confidence as I made more trips across the Mason Dixon Line.
However, like I said before. I've noticed a current trend from Cosmo magazines to friends from up north all "y'all". The same word that they used to joke about. But sometime in the last year or so it's gone from a redneck pronoun to a socially acceptable form of addressing a group of people.
But why am I offended? Much like the conversations of whether it's socially acceptable for white women to wear cornrows if they refuse to recognize the African American culture, or the refusal to use people of ethnic backgrounds in runway shows designed around the ideas, it seems like the very people who made innappropriate jokes about the south and making incorrect assumptions about southern people are the ones picking and choosing what parts they find okay while continuing to make inbred jokes and assume that we're all racist bigots.
While I realize that this is only a word, and a very minuet one at that, the concept behind it stands firm. Why is it okay for people of a different geological area to say that certain parts of the southern culture are okay but continue to criticize and belittle us? To put it simply you can't pick and choose what to take from a culture. You either accept it all or follow the words of a smart southern woman. "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all."
So yes, I am offended, I wish I weren't, that I was able to rise above this but I am. While people may write this off as a butt hurt college students whining, or a privileged white woman looking for something to complain about, I urge you to think about it. If your culture was constantly belittled would you be okay with the very people who belittled it choosing parts of your culture to claim as their own?
