re: stereotyping

["Julie O'Neill" <riding101@hotmail.com>]

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 08:59:48 -0500
From: rides2far@juno.com (Angela C. McGhee)
To: dwheeler@icx.net
Cc: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: stereotyping
Message-ID: <19981217.085949.8686.0.Rides2far@juno.com>
No more so than when a northerner visits the south & southerners think 
they are rude because they are always in a hurry & talk so fast.  Or 
when a girl from Tennessee (me) goes to Boston on business & everyone 
wants to hear me talk -- about anything -- because they "just love the 
way I talk".  Both of these perceptions & actions are rude IMO because 
we are stereotyping people that are not like ourselves. To each his own.  
I'm another Tennessee girl, and love to be asked to say
something, "because they like to hear the way I talk".  Think about it, 
these poor people have been exposed to Hollywood's version of the
Southern accent so much, they need to hear the real thing.  Lynda Corry 
says I sound more like Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter than 
Scarlett O'Hara.  That's O.K.  Sissy's cool.  
The only thing that gets my dander up is when a Yankee doesn't know the 
difference in a Redneck and a Southerner and seems to think the two are 
interchangeable.  Believe me, Southerners are used to allowing for 
"Major cultural differences in speech and manners".  So...what do you 
think? Should all international competitor's be Southern?  :-)  
Just wondering, why do people in the Northeast have an "R" on their
keyboard?  They don't have one in their vocabulary...they drink "watah" 
drive a "cah" to go to the shop to buy "lobstah". Finally, a warning, it 
can be dangerous to travel between the north and south too.  My brother 
asked a waitress for "a little ice" and almost got
slapped.
Angie
Hey Angie,
 I have had some hard times traveling cross country over the years. 
Being a city girl from Chicago the first time I went to TN the people 
just kept asking me to repeat myself. It was like I was in a foreign 
country were they didn't speak English. :-) Being young at the time I 
didn't understand that the problem was I couldn't understand them and 
they couldn't understand me. I finally caught on when my friend from TN 
came to Chicago and tried to order a burger from Mickey D's's and the 
poor person at the counter just looked at my friend with this really 
strange look at his face.
 One time going to Cal. via TX we stop at a gas station with a little 
diner. I went in to get some cans of pop for the road. It was quite busy 
and two state cops were sitting next to the cashier where I asking if 
they have any pop. The cashier keeps saying back to me POT! I keep 
saying no POP! I'm getting real nerves as it's the mid 70's and who 
knows what these cops are thinking. I thinking I don't want to be in 
jail in TX. Finally I remember my Aunt from MO calling pop, soddie
(sp?) so I kind of blurt it out. The cashier looks at me and finally 
says no they don't have any cans of soda. Boy that was a tough one.
 I love to listen to English speaking people. When I visited London I 
would sit around to listen to them talk. Maybe not a nice thing to do 
but I enjoyed it. :-)
 Also do people from Chicago say clock differently than anywhere else?
I had a teacher who would always ask me to say clock for him. Strange!  
I also like the way you southerners talk. :-) 

Julie A. O'Neill
214 E. State St.
Mascoutah, Ill. 62258
riding101@hotmail.com
I love riding my horse!


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