Often used as an insult to describe poor, uneducated, rural Americans, the term “redneck” is being embraced by a new generation who are viscerally proud of their country and its traditions. They generally live in the agricultural states of the South and share the same tastes for country music, big polluting engines and firearms. This fringe of white America is hostile to foreigners, voted massively for Donald Trump, still supports him and no longer feels represented by Washington elites.
The Redneck Festival in Texas is one of their biggest gatherings in the country. Over 10,000 people attend this four-day festival to celebrate their XXL cars, designed to be as polluting as possible, or compete in naked mud jumps and downhill beer runs.
In recent years, this new generation of rednecks has also been able to count on a musical movement that proudly asserts their customs: country rap. In Tennessee, Shocka Hustleman, the genre’s rising star, lives out his “American dream” of guns and big polluting engines. He could easily double his salary by leaving Tennesse but, for him, being a redneck is a way of life. Nevertheless, for these people, often poor and living in remote areas where the economic crisis has left thousands of workers unemployed, the pitfalls are many: alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic violence… Where is redneck America headed?