51-546: Redneck is a derogatory term mainly, but not exclusively, applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the Southern United States . Its meaning possibly stems from the sunburn found on farmers' necks dating back to the late 19th century. Its modern usage is similar in meaning to cracker (especially regarding Texas, Georgia, and Florida), hillbilly (especially regarding Appalachia and
102-559: A "Middle Eastern and North African" racial category to the 2020 census. The Trump administration nullified this change after coming to power in 2016. However, in 2024, the Office of Management and Budget under the Biden administration reinstated the proposed changes, announcing that the race categories used by the federal government would be updated, and that Middle Eastern and North African Americans will no longer be classified as white in
153-417: A Southern White Masculine Identity , emphasized the theme of masculinity in the 20th-century expansion of the term, noting: "The redneck has been stereotyped in the media and popular culture as a poor, dirty, uneducated, and racist Southern white man." The term originally characterized farmers that had a red neck , caused by sunburn from long hours working in the fields . A citation from 1893 provides
204-476: A debate surrounding Finnish whiteness and whether Finns should be classified as a Mongoloid peoples. David Roediger argues that the construction of the white race in the United States was an effort to mentally distance slave owners from slaves. The process of officially being defined as white by law often came about in court disputes over pursuit of citizenship . (share) The fifty states ,
255-400: A definition as "poorer inhabitants of the rural districts ... men who work in the field, as a matter of course, generally have their skin stained red and burnt by the sun, and especially is this true of the back of their necks". Hats were usually worn and they protected that wearer's head from the sun, but also provided psychological protection by shading the face from close scrutiny. The back of
306-491: A matter of controversy. In the early 20th century, there were a number of cases where people of Arab descent were denied entry into the United States or deported, because they were characterized as nonwhite. In the early 21st century, MENA Americans began lobbying for the creation of their own racial group and were successful; in 2015, the US Census Bureau announced that it had responded to their requests and would add
357-525: A minority in many American Indian reservations , parts of the South , especially areas part of the “ black belt ”, the District of Columbia , all US territories , and in many urban areas throughout the country. However, when including multiracial Americans , those who identify as part or fully White make up the majority of the population in every state except for Hawaii, along with Puerto Rico. Overall
408-605: A more official sense, the United States Census Bureau , which collects demographic data on Americans , defines "white" as "[a] person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa". This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. According to the 2020 census , 71%, or 235,411,507 people, were White alone or in combination, and 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were White alone. This represented
459-512: A national white demographic decline from a 72.4% white alone share of the US population in 2010. As of the latest American Community Survey in 2022, US Census Bureau estimates that 60.9% of the US population were White alone, while Non-Hispanic Whites were 57.7% of the population. Overall, 72.5% of Americans identified as White alone or in combination. European Americans are by far the largest panethnic group of white Americans and have constituted
510-445: A whole make up a racially diverse group and are the largest minority in the country. Beginning in 1930, Mexican was added as a distinct race on the US census with the explanation that "practically all Mexican laborers are of a racial mixture difficult to classify". The Mexican racial category was removed in 1940, with new direction that "Mexicans are to be regarded as white unless definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race"; this
561-596: Is "White" have changed throughout the history of the United States. The term "white American" can encompass many different ethnic groups. Although the United States census purports to reflect a social definition of race, the social dimensions of race are more complex than Census criteria. The 2000 US census states that racial categories "generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. They do not conform to any biological, anthropological or genetic criteria." The Census question on race lists
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#1732780993649612-473: Is difficult to track full or partial ancestry from Spain in White Hispanics , Mestizos , or Mulattoes since people of direct Spanish descent are also classified as Hispanic, and though the census does track Hispanics' national origin, it does not classify it by race. In 2021, 995,583 people of any race claimed ancestry from Spain, 0.3% of the total population. However, genetic studies have found that
663-702: Is that during the West Virginia Mine Wars of the early 1920s, workers organizing for labor rights donned red bandanas , worn tied around their necks, as they marched up Blair Mountain in a pivotal confrontation. The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum commemorates their struggle for fair wages. A monument in front of the George Buckley Community Center in Marmet, WV, part of the "Courage in the Hollers Project" of
714-455: The 1980 census 49,598,035 Americans cited that they were of English ancestry, making them 26% of the country and the largest group at the time, and in fact larger than the population of England itself. Slightly more than half of these people would cite that they were of " American" ancestry on subsequent censuses and virtually everywhere that "American" ancestry predominates on the 2000 census corresponds to places where "English" predominated on
765-835: The American Community Survey : (Mostly old-stock white Americans of British descent) (Not including French Canadian ) (No country specified) (Including Lebanese (583,719), Egyptian (334,574), Syrian (203,282), Palestinian (171,969), Iraqi (164,851), Moroccan (140,196), and all other Arab ancestries) (Including responses of "Spaniard," "Spanish," and "Spanish American." Many Hispanos of New Mexico identify as Spanish/Spaniard) (Not further specified) (Not further specified) (Not further specified) (No country specified) (Not further specified) (Not further specified) (No country specified) Bandanas Too Many Requests If you report this error to
816-640: The American Revolution . A 2015 genetic study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics analyzed the genetic ancestry of 148,789 European Americans . The study concluded that English ancestry is the most common European ancestry among white Americans, with this component ranging between 20% (Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota) and 55% (Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas) of the total population (regardless of race) in all 50 states. These states strongly correlated with those where
867-555: The District of Columbia , and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census White Americans constitute the majority of the 332 million people living in the United States, with 71% of the population in the 2020 United States Census , including 61.6% who identified as 'white alone.' This represented a national white demographic decline from a 72.4% share of the US's self-identified white alone population in 2010. The largest ethnic groups (by ancestry) among White Americans were English or British, followed by Germans and Irish. In
918-589: The Ozarks ), and white trash (but without the last term's suggestions of immorality). In Britain, the Cambridge Dictionary definition states: "A poor, white person without education, esp. one living in the countryside in the southern US, who is believed to have prejudiced ideas and beliefs. This word is usually considered offensive." People from the white South sometimes jocularly call themselves "rednecks" as insider humor. An alternative origin story
969-812: The US census parameters for race give each national origin a racial value. On some government documents, such as the 2007 SEER program's Coding and Staging Manual, people who reported Muslim (or a sect of Islam such as Shia or Sunni ), Jewish , Zoroastrian , Caucasian , or a MENA or Latin American ethnicity as their race in the "Some other race" section, without noting a country of origin or Native American tribal affiliation, were automatically tallied as White. The 1990 US census Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) listed " Caucasian " or " Aryan " among other terms as subgroups of "white" in their ancestry code listing, but 2005 and proceeding years of PUMS codes do not. In
1020-462: The 1920s and 1930s in the coal-producing regions of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. It was also used by union strikers to describe poor white strikebreakers . Writers Edward Abbey and Dave Foreman also use "redneck" as a political call to mobilize poor rural white Southerners. "In Defense of the Redneck" was a popular essay by Ed Abbey. One popular early Earth First! bumper sticker
1071-511: The 1980 census. White Americans alone (including White Hispanics) are the majority racial group in most of the United States. As of 2022, they are not the majority in Hawaii , California , Texas , New Mexico , Nevada, and Maryland , making up just under half of the population in the last four states. If White Hispanics are excluded, they are also a minority in Georgia. They are also
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#17327809936491122-574: The Indiana Democratic presidential primary because the state was "redneck conservative country". Indiana, he told Kennedy, was a state "suspicious of foreign entanglements, conservative in fiscal policy, and with a strong overlay of Southern segregationist sentiment". Writer William Safire observed that it is often used to attack white Southern conservatives , and more broadly to degrade working class and rural whites that are perceived by urban progressives to be insufficiently progressive. At
1173-459: The Middle East or North Africa. It includes people who indicated their race(s) as "White" or reported entries such as German, Italian, Lebanese, Arab, Moroccan, or Caucasian. In US census documents, the designation White overlaps, as do all other official racial categories, with the term Hispanic or Latino , which was introduced in the 1980 census as a category of ethnicity , separate and independent of race . Hispanic and Latino Americans as
1224-401: The Office of Management and Budget announced that the race categories used by the federal government would be updated, and that Middle Eastern and North African Americans will no longer be classified as white in the upcoming 2030 Census. The most commonly reported ancestries of White Americans include English (12.5%), German (7.6%), Irish (5.3%), Italian (3.2%), and Polish (1.3%). It
1275-515: The Presbyterians of Fayetteville (North Carolina)". An Afrikaans term which translates literally as "redneck", rooinek , is used as a disparaging term for English South Africans , in reference to their supposed naïveté as later arrivals in the region in failing to protect themselves from the sun. White Americans White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans ) are Americans who identify as white people . In
1326-486: The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum depicts the silhouettes of four mine workers cut from steel plate, wearing bright red bandanas around their necks or holding them in their hands. By the 1970s, the term had become offensive slang, its meaning expanded to include racism, loutishness, and opposition to modern ways. Patrick Huber, in his monograph A Short History of Redneck: The Fashioning of
1377-413: The categories White or European American , Black or African American , American Indian and Alaska Native , Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander , Asian , plus "Some other race", with the respondent having the ability to mark more than one racial or ethnic category. The Census Bureau defines White people as follows: "White" refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe,
1428-536: The census group corresponding most closely to those persons who identify as and are perceived to be white in common usage; similarly not all Hispanic/Latino people identify as "white", "black", or any other listed racial category. In 2015, the Census Bureau announced their intention to make Hispanic/Latino and Middle Eastern/North African racial categories similar to "white" or "black", with respondents able to choose one, two, or more racial categories; this change
1479-548: The contemporary United States, essentially anyone of European descent is typically considered white. People of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) descent may also be considered white. However, many of the ethnic groups classified as white by the US census, such as Arab Americans , Berber Americans , Jewish Americans of European or MENA descent, and Hispanics and Latinos of European or MENA descent may not always identify as, and may not always be perceived to be, white. Social perceptions of whiteness have evolved over
1530-746: The course of American history. For example, Benjamin Franklin commented that the Saxons of Germany and the English "make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth". Historically, many individuals of European descent were not readily integrated into mainstream American society and found themselves caught on the "dark" side of the white/black binary, including Irish, Italians, Greeks and Slavs. In Minnesota, increasing numbers of Finnish immigrants led to
1581-463: The educational attainment for Whites being higher for those born outside the United States: 38% of foreign born, and 30% of native born Whites had a college degree. Both figures are above the national average of 27%. Gender income inequality was the greatest among Whites, with White men outearning White women by 48%. Census Bureau data for 2005 reveals that the median income of White females
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1632-542: The highest concentration of those referred to as "non-Hispanic whites" by the Census Bureau are found in the Midwest , New England , the northern Rocky Mountain states, Kentucky , West Virginia , and East Tennessee . The lowest concentration of whites was found in southern and mid-Atlantic states. (2022 est.) Although all large geographical areas are dominated by White Americans, much larger differences can be seen between specific parts of large cities. States with
1683-400: The highest percentages of White Americans, either White Alone or in combination with another race as of 2020: States with the highest percentages of non-Latino/Hispanic whites, as of 2020: [REDACTED] White Americans have the second highest median household income and personal income levels in the nation, by cultural background. The median income per household member was also
1734-411: The highest, since White Americans had the smallest households of any racial demographic in the nation. In 2006, the median individual income of a White American age 25 or older was $ 33,030, with those who were full-time employed, and of age 25 to 64, earning $ 34,432. Since 42% of all households had two income earners, the median household income was considerably higher than the median personal income, which
1785-399: The largest number of people identified with "American" ancestry on the census. Many white Americans also have ancestry from multiple countries. According to the 2022 American Community Survey , 76,678,228 Americans identified with multiple European, Middle Eastern, or North African ancestry groups, with the large majority of these identifying with various European groups. Definitions of who
1836-656: The majority population of the United States since the nation's founding. The US Census Bureau uses a particular definition of "white" that differs from some colloquial uses of the term. The Bureau defines "White" people to be those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe , the Middle East or North Africa ". Within official census definitions, people of all racial categories may be further divided into those who identify as " not Hispanic or Latino " and those who do identify as " Hispanic or Latino ". The term "non-Hispanic white", rather than just "white", may be
1887-751: The neck however was more exposed to the sun and allowed closer scrutiny about the person's background in the same way callused working hands could not be easily covered. By 1900, "rednecks" was in common use to designate the political factions inside the Democratic Party comprising poor white farmers in the South. The same group was also often called the "wool hat boys" (for they opposed the rich men, who wore expensive silk hats). A newspaper notice in Mississippi in August 1891 called on rednecks to rally at
1938-559: The political supporters of the Mississippi Democratic Party politician James K. Vardaman —chiefly poor white farmers—began to describe themselves proudly as "rednecks", even to the point of wearing red neckerchiefs to political rallies and picnics. Linguist Sterling Eisiminger, based on the testimony of informants from the Southern United States, speculated that the prevalence of pellagra in
1989-452: The polls at the upcoming primary election: Primary on the 25th. And the "rednecks" will be there. And the "Yaller-heels" will be there, also. And the "hayseeds" and "gray dillers", they'll be there, too. And the "subordinates" and "subalterns" will be there to rebuke their slanderers and traducers. And the men who pay ten, twenty, thirty, etc. etc. per cent on borrowed money will be on hand, and they'll remember it, too. By 1910 ,
2040-490: The region during the Great Depression may have contributed to the rise in popularity of the term; red, inflamed skin is one of the first symptoms of that disorder to appear. The term "redneck" in the early 20th century was occasionally used in reference to American coal miner union members who wore red bandanas for solidarity. The sense of "a union man" dates at least to the 1910s and was especially popular during
2091-506: The rise of Cromwell . Eventually, the term began to mean simply " Presbyterian ", especially in communities along the Scottish border. Because of the large number of Scottish immigrants in the pre-revolutionary American South, some historians have suggested that this may be the origin of the term in the United States. Dictionaries document the earliest American citation of the term's use for Presbyterians in 1830 , as "a name bestowed upon
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2142-420: The rural white working-class and celebration of what member Max Neely described as "redneck culture". According to Chapman and Kipfer in their "Dictionary of American Slang", by 1975 the term had expanded in meaning beyond the poor Southerner to refer to "a bigoted and conventional person, a loutish ultra-conservative". For example, in 1960 John Bartlow Martin expressed Senator John F. Kennedy should not enter
2193-521: The same time, some white Southerners have reappropriated the word, using it with pride and defiance as a self-identifier. In Scotland in the 1640s, the Covenanters rejected rule by bishops, often signing manifestos using their own blood. Some wore red cloth around their neck to signify their position, and were called rednecks by the Scottish ruling class to denote that they were the rebels in what came to be known as The Bishop's War that preceded
2244-407: The second-lowest of any racial group, with 11% of white individuals living below the poverty line, 3% lower than the national average. However, due to Whites' majority status, 48% of Americans living in poverty are white. White Americans' educational attainment is the second-highest in the country, after Asian Americans'. Overall, nearly one-third of White Americans had a Bachelor's degree , with
2295-400: The upcoming 2030 Census, and Hispanic and Latino will also be treated similar to a racial, rather than ethnic, category. The Census Bureau defines the planned definition of White people as follows: "Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, including, for example, English, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, and scottish." In cases where individuals do not self-identify,
2346-404: The vast majority of Hispanics in the US have varying amounts of European ancestry, with the largest component being Spanish or Iberian. The English Americans ' demography is also considered a serious under-count, as the stock tend to self-report and identify as simply " Americans " (7%), due to the length of time they have inhabited the United States, particularly if their family arrived prior to
2397-411: Was "Rednecks for Wilderness". Murray Bookchin , an urban leftist and social ecologist , objected strongly to Earth First!'s use of the term as "at the very least, insensitive". However, many Southerners have proudly embraced the term as a self-identifier . Similarly to Earth First!'s use, the self-described "anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor" group Redneck Revolt have used the term to signal its roots in
2448-464: Was $ 48,554 in 2005. Jewish Americans rank first in household income, personal income, and educational attainment among White Americans. In 2005, White households had a median household income of $ 48,977, which is 10% above the national median of $ 44,389. Among Cuban Americans , with 86% classified as White, those born in the US have a higher median income and educational attainment level than most other Whites. The poverty rates for White Americans are
2499-542: Was canceled during the Trump administration. Other persons who are classified as "white" by the US census but may or may not identify as or be perceived as white include Arab Americans and Jewish Americans of European or MENA descent. In the United States, the term White people generally denotes a person of European ancestry, but has been legally extended to people of West Asian and North African (Middle Eastern, West Asian, and North African) ancestry. However, in 2024,
2550-652: Was continued in 1950. 1970 saw the creation of the Spanish Origin category, which superseded previous classifications for Latin Americans and is now represented by the Hispanic or Latino ethnic category. Hispanic or Latino was again to be raised to racial status for the 2020 census (along with Middle Eastern and North African), but this was canceled by President Donald J. Trump. The characterization of Middle Eastern and North African Americans as white has been
2601-409: Was lower than that of males of all races. In 2005, the median income for White American females was only slightly higher than that of African American females. White Americans are more likely to live in suburbs and small cities than their black counterparts. The following table lists all self-reported European and Middle Eastern ancestries with over 50,000 members, according to 2022 estimates from
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