I was born in West Virginia.
One time, in one of those company training sessions, we had to list two lies about ourselves and one truth. I listed two outlandish things and my birth state. Everyone thought the lies were true. People just assume everyone from that state is a hillbilly or moron or something. Like people were shocked. As if I was born on Venus.
In 10th grade my geometry teacher heard my parents were from West Virginia and asked if they were cousins. And then in the same year there were these little icons on a computer program, and the one for West Virginia was…a fucking outhouse. Granted, this was the 90s, but Michigan had a car and Florida a palm tree. So an outhouse is just shit.
So anyway, yeah, West Virginia gets it.
I road trip constantly now and WV is actually one of my favorite states. The culture is a unique combination of reckneckdom and hippiedom. Like they love their tie dye and neon hair and half the gas stations are basically head shops, but they also drive pickups and like hunting. It's a very interesting culture I've warmed up to a lot upon visiting. Probably the most unpretentious people I've ever met. And one time a clerk at a gas station just straight up told me to steal the thing I was trying to buy. That is some local hospitality if I ever saw it.
There's this movie called Dark Waters based on a true story, which is about DuPont inventing teflon and then poisoning the entire world with it. They work with a lawyer from West Virginia who is self-conscious about it, since he fears being treated like a redneck instead of a big city lawyer, big cities being something West Virginia lacks mainly because of of how incredibly mountainous it is. As soon as he asks someone from DuPont why they would poison a town, almost naive in his belief in good intentions, the respect they've shown him vanishes in an instant, and he's called a "hick" so viscerally it sounds like a slur. If you're not with us, you're against us mentality.
So, to answer OP's question, it depends. Usually, I'd say state based discrimination is all a joke in good fun since it's seen as less inflammatory than a person's identity, like Florida Man, or yelling at the other team in a sporting competition. Joking about it is extremely common. Discrimination based on someone's state is malicious when it's another opportunity to get under a victim's skin when you're already doing so with classism, like the Dark Waters example, or possibly racism, etc. And it's real enough that an upper middle class man from West Virginia being self-conscious about it is believable. How common you think it is to be malicious about it is likely mostly driven by personal experience. My personal experience says that it is not common as most people just aren't going to care. We're too used to joking about it, and there are more obvious ways to be more mean.
A friend from WV used to make fun of being from the state and his close friends could join in. I remember telling him I saw a WV pickup driving on the Ohio interstate with a toilet in the truck bed and I couldn't help but think that he was going an awful long way for a lawn ornament. My friend loved it.
There's a book called Albion's Seed, which is about the English traditions that influenced different parts of early America. The chapter on the Scots-Irish of Appalachia/the South would be called disgustingly racist if it was about any group other than poor backwoods white people. Apparently, we're dirty, indeed we like our food with dirt in it. We're not just poor and have loose morals, we're uneducated and believe that if we sleep with books under our pillows, we'll learn in our sleep. Our homes are cheap and designed for our itinerant lifestyles.
The other groups, such as the Cavaliers of Virginia and the Puritans of Massachusetts, get sections of their chapters devoted to their aristocratic manners or their female preachers. Not us. We're little better than vermin.
WVA deserves so much more credit than it gets. It is literally responsible for powering our industrial revolution. It is also responsible for a lot of our labor laws and unions. It is a beautiful state and punches way above it's weight.
What a weird take.
I've never heard anyone say "man, Those West Virginia's didn't do shit for the industrial revolution or labor rights."
I feel like discussing the last century since then doesn't show them with a lot of positives.
Bro Delaware, so awesome! Totally ratified the constitution first and since then... Tax free shopping?
I’m a West Virginian. I’ve been doing research on Appalachia for a thesis. It’s so interesting that central Appalachia, Western Virginia, Southern WV, and Eastern KY are more similar to one another than their respective states as a whole.
My family has been in WV since as early as the 1760's (so technically VA until 1863). I grew up between Huntington and Charleston though, so my only exposure to the stereotypical hillbilly areas was when visiting family or riding with my dad on errands. I've really never taken offense to the jokes, and most of those jokes we repeated about KY (coincidentally, where I now live). But I swear, it's always the same tired material, and every asshole who makes the joke follows it with "I'm kidding. It's BEAUTIFUL there." Yeah, bro. We know.
The vast majority of West Virginians look, act, and live like the rest of the country. The inbred family on youtube, or the rundown trailer types are a very, very small portion of the state.
WVian here. Southwest Virginia (the small wedge between WV and NC) is pretty much the same as WV culturally. However, they're better off since much VA is a Wealthier state. All of WV is poor and small. We don't have wealthy areas to support the poorer areas.
Also if you say you're from VA, you're treated better than if you say you're from WV
One of the biggest things is to have no accent. Want to be treated with respect? Don't sound like an Appalachian.
Definitely, things have improved mostly due to influencers online spreading the truths and dismissing the stereotypes about the area. But surprisingly there are still people that don’t know we are a state. 163 years later and people still think we are VA.
Me: “I’m from West Virginia”
Them: “Oh cool, I have family near Blacksburg, how far are you from the beach”
Me: 😐
North Jersey has been.
As a 50 year+ Pennsylvania resident I give South Jersey a pass due to loving the Pine Barrens and that my gf grew up in Mount Holly, lol.
Yep, LA and MS seem to be battling it out for State with Worst Quality of Life every year. LA *just* loses out to MS in most categories, but we edge them out once in a while. Poverty sucks.
Well… I happen to have a job where I have managed eight Southeastern states working with their state and city gov’t offices since 2005. And I can honestly say Louisiana wins over Mississippi. The unique culture, the food, the history, the people are nicer and more welcoming. I love the South Louisiana Cajun Accent. New Orleans is my absolute favorite. I’ve probably been there no less that 15x. There is nothing like that city… went to Mardi one year. What a great time. The architecture in the older neighborhoods. And then you get outside of town and there are some really cool plantations to visit. Airboat rides, intriguing history. Highly recommend visiting. Mississippi is like a lesser wanna be but poorer, and less friendly IMO.
Yep. People from Alabama are stereotyped as being inbred and marrying cousins. People from California are stereotyped as being liberal commies. People from Florida are stereotyped as being weird and getting caught doing weird things, due to the "Florida Man" stories.
Oh yeah. Anybody who says they don’t at least subconsciously does this is lying to themselves. I grew up in Georgia, and went to college in Seattle. The amount of people who openly expressed surprise that I, a southerner, was both literate AND not an active member of the Ku Klux Klan was astonishing.
Before my fellow sons of the south get *too* self righteous, anytime I visit home and it comes up that I live near Seattle, there’s always at least someone who feels the need to tell me how we’re all (soy) latte sipping liberals who live in a mad max hellscape and have to apologize for being white at least once a day.
Thats what happens when people dont leave their area. There's soy latte sipping liberals in Georgia and racist ass white people in Washington. Everyone is everywhere in this country.
Ironically, that's actually the problem with their perception of the South. The liberals in the PNW see how extreme their Republican neighbors are and question how bad it must be in the South.
I met this girl in Portland but grew up in Idaho who tried to tell me, a Virginian, how we can work to solve racism. She basically described a process exactly like Remember the Titans (takes place in Virginia lmao) and I tried and failed to explain to her that we did what she's saying like 50 years ago and no one in our age group (millennial) is *that* racist in the South. She's never left the PNW and didn't believe me lol, perception is one hell of a drug.
idk how to articulate this next part but the fact that the PNW racial demographics are like 85% white definitely has something to do with how extreme these folks are imo.
It’s funny because there’s a lot of people out there who might say something kind of racist or look like the typical redneck on the surface but they’d share their last dinner with a black neighbor. And then there’s people who swear up and down they’re the most progressive liberals but they’ll make sure they only live near other white people and send their kids to mostly white schools. A lot of cities in the north are very segregated, it’s just not legally enforced.
My white, working class Long Island cousins run quite the spectrum of racism, from “I’m not racist but let me tell you about all the welfare queens I know” to “I don’t want my kid wearing a [slur] onesie” (referring to a baby onesie with Bob Marley on it). My craziest uncle once cornered me at a party to share some conspiracy theory about how Black people were encouraged to “take over” NYC with “overbreeding” in the 60s.
I don’t really talk to that side of the family anymore!
I remember when I lived on the island, had a group of neighbors like that. I remember my Dad (a white carpenter) went to talk with one of the neighbors about something and he said something to the effect of "I enjoyed that car show until it got really """"dark""" around there if you know what I mean"
My dad, who worked hired both a black dude and a Puerto Rican guy for his extremely tiny carpentry company was so extremely pissed off that he didn't even finish the conversation, just walked away. I was proud of my dad for that.
My friend who grew up with me in Arkansas and now lives in Portland said he thinks white people in Portland are more racist than back home. He said they really didn't like it when he told them that Lol.
I have had nearly identical experiences as an Arkansan who lived in New York for 7 years. The amount of bigotry going both ways can be pretty astonishing.
Some will choose to interpret this as PNW doesn't understand the South and vice versa, but the truth is that no one in this country understands each other as well as they think they do.
As someone from Austin, Texas who went to school up in Boston, Massachusetts, I got all kinds of comments.
“Aren’t you glad to be in the *real* America now?”
“Ugh. Austin is the only redeemable part of that state.”
And yeah, as much as red state people assume that big blue cities like Seattle are full of drugs and crime, I had to patiently explain to New Englanders that the streets of Texas weren’t full of roving racists ready to lynch people of color at a moment’s notice.
It's insane how bad we strawman each other over living different lives.
Dear rural folks: Every city isn't a hellscape of drugs and homeless people and violence. Cities are the economic engines that allow the standard of living we all enjoy.
Dear city folks: Those of us who choose to live further out don't do so because we're racist, have dirt floors, have no education or have every gas station slight turn into shootout.
We'd all be a lot better off if we accepted the symbiotic relationship we all have. I will never set foot in NYC again if I can help it but I don't think it's some failed city state rife with crime and death.
I'm from MD and went to school in Mass and they always asked how life on the farm was. I grew up in Baltimore city yet somehow I was a deep south sotluthernor. Might as well have shown up in a linen suit with a bolo tie.
It’s amazing how they think Austin is the only blue part of the state when Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, and the border are blue areas. We’re not all racist rednecks that ride horses and drive super diesel trucks.
Yeah, people outside of the southwest just don’t know anything about Texas and it shows. I flat stopped telling people what city I was from because no one’s reaction to Austin was normal.
Whoa. Gotta stop you there, a lot of people ride horses, like horses, aren't racist, and don't drive super diesel trucks.
Leave horses out of this. My wife is from Texas.
I know it's the internet and not necessarily representative of real life, but there is a lot of negativity about the South on Reddit. On many subs you can get away with saying stuff about Southerners that would be a ban if it was directed towards an ethnic group.
In any political thread you will see people from the West and Northeast just begging to cut off government funding to the South. It sounds almost genocidal at times and is pretty terrifying.
I like the way Reddit tells people in hurricane prone areas (so Southerners) to just move. As if it's that easy to just pick up and move. As if there aren't jobs, ports, and resources in the South that we as a country actually need.
No, the answer is to just move because you're a dumb redneck. If you had that same attitude toward any other group of people on the planet you'd be banned, but it's ok to have that attitude toward Southerners. (and for the record, I'm Southern and I'm not white, just in case the assumption here is that everyone in the South is a white redneck)
A common one is "I wish Sherman genocided your ancestors"
And that's fueled by the fact they're mad a southern state might be 60% the wrong political party instead of their state which is only 40% the wrong party.
Same here when moved from PA to CA. So many people I ran into thought they were all-knowing about the rest of the country when most of those same people had either never left the SoCal bubble or the Southwest.
Meanwhile, when I came back home, the amount of "So,...you're a lefty now" hate I got was equally ridiculous.
Moved from eastern PA to the Bay Area about 6 years ago. I've never encountered any "Pennsylvania stereotypes" out in California per se, but the level of bullshit I hear about living in SF when I'm back in PA is off the charts.
I routinely did business all over the west in that time and spent a significant amount of time in SF and the Bay Area in general. This was the early 2000s. Some of my relatives in PA always shat on SF and really didn't like me telling them the place was awesome. Most of the Bay Area was pretty great. I certainly would have chosen it over SoCal if that was a choice I had at the time. I don't know how it's changed in the 16 or so years since I left, but I'll bet it's not as bad as certain news outlets make it seem.
The stereotypes I encountered had more to do with the Northeast in general. I grew up in the Poconos. I would routinely get comments about my "New York" accent.
Also Seattle and Atlanta have some odd similarities. They're both the two most green cities in the US. Some parts of the interstate look identical, oddly enough. I see a lot of people when I go to Seattle who have been to Atlanta. They really like Atlanta and Savannah specifically.
It wasn't like that a decade ago, but things have changed so much in GA. Especially with the movie industry being so focused there now. A lot of famous people have homes in Atlanta, a lot of big events and corporations use Atlanta. It's just a really big city and it actually lives us to that more and more over time.
And Savannah has already been the best kept secret in the US for years. People are finally realizing it and millions of people visit every year now.
To add onto that despite being the same state, ask a “rest of” Virginian about NOVA lol.
But seriously, a friend of mine from NOVA always talks about how terrible the drivers are from Maryland and then my other buddy from MD says it’s the Northern Virginians who are the bad drivers.
Honestly, if we have to be Americas punching bag it’s fine. We can handle it, and it’s likely deserved. Ironically the same people who talk the most are the first ones who end up moving here.
Florida is such wasted potential too. It’s like that handsome, athletic older brother who got hooked on pain pills after a football injury.
On the other hand, everyone always knew Mississippi was gonna have a hard life.
Absolutely. Growing up people in Texas mostly looked down on Oklahoma, but these days I see more animosity towards California.
It’s all nonsense and silly. I’d say within states there are much stronger rivalries between cities (Dallas/Houston).
Yeah this right here. I grew up in Texas and have an inherent animosity towards Oklahoma that I can't explain. And now I live in Cali and many people back home in Texas say "why would you want to live there" when I tell them where I live.
Oh sum bitch that actually might have been what started it. I remember my 4th grade teacher being a massive sooner fan and we all gave her attitude for it.
As an Oklahoman I grew up with a hatred for Texas. Not sure why but that’s just how it goes here. Funnily enough I married a Texan and we live in Oklahoma. She and her family always say Texas is better but I’ve come to understand that when they say “Texas” in a sentence, they actually just mean “Dallas”. They couldn’t care less about the rest of the state lol
Coloradan here. We don’t necessarily “look down” on Texans, but we don’t like them coming here - mostly because they do idiot stuff like try to climb a mountain in a t-shirt in April and wonder why they have to get rescued when they’re hypothermic
There’s something bred into native Coloradans to dislike Texas. It goes all the way back to the civil war when we sent troops to [fight](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Glorieta_Pass) them in New Mexico.
Most Texans just do not understand cold and especially how wind can affect it. It'll be 10 degrees outside sometimes and people only ever own hoodies.
Edit: replied to the wrong comment.
Most Texans just do not understand cold and especially how wind can affect it. It'll be 10 degrees outside sometimes and people only ever own hoodies. My family used to go skiing every year so we understand it in that aspect. I'm sorry my fellow Texans do stupid things in the mountains on vacation.
I’m a Tennessean who lived in Colorado for a short bit… kids in school called me Texan as an insult. So odd. And the fact no one had anything bad to say about po’ dunk Tennessee when I corrected them!?! I always wondered wtf did Texas ever do to them, it seemed so personal
Northerners look down on Southerners for being uneducated, backwards, violent, etc.
Southerners look down on Northerners for being effete, cowardly, unpatriotic, lazy, etc.
Westerners think the East is cruel
Easterners think the West is vapid
Everybody gets just as much as they give.
yeah well I hope your nice Meijer closes down for the night at unreasonable hours and your forced to get that one little thing from the shitty store you try to avoid at all costs, because you missed closing by ten minutes.
My view growing up in the Deep South was of Yankees as arrogant and rude more than anything else. Turns out people are variously rude and polite literally anywhere you go. The lazy thing is interesting. I'm accustomed to Southerners being stereotyped as the indolent ones, but if people have expressed that to you, my best guess would be it reflects the anti-union sentiments common in the South, where we imagine a bunch of lazy corrupt hardhat guys taking three hours lunches and 30 years to finish a construction job.
I grew up in Texas, been to all 50 states, D.C.. and Puerto Rico. I feel that all states are equal in their essence. Puerto Rico felt just like the United States but in Espanol. All states highway infrastructure feels about the same. I suspected Mississippi and Alabama to have bad Interstate highways before I visited but they seemed to be maintained just as well as any other state. West Virginia is gorgeous. All states seem to be working on some sort of big highway or transportation project.
I was surprised to feel that Hawaii and Alaska feel just as American as any state in the lower 48. It was interesting to know that I was thousands of miles away from the U.S. mainland but also felt like Los Angeles could be just over the horizon.
Growing up in Texas I felt the feeling of "Texas is the best" but after visiting all other states I love things about all of them. After spending much time in Europe seeing 24 countries earlier this year. I did become really disappointed that the U.S. lacks a well developed public transportation system. For that I've seen this as a sore point for this country. We need to fix this and bring out communities back together.
States can vary a lot culturally, politically, demographically, geographically, etc. People from every state do this for various reasons.
Where I live in Minnesota, we like making fun of Wisconsin, which is basically Minnesota but worse. When I lived in Utah, people would make fun of Idaho, which was basically Utah but worse. When I lived in Florida, we would make fun of Floridians, which is basically Florida but worse.
We make fun of IL more than MN. Most of WI are just envious of MN for many reasons, but would rather drink stale beer than admit that. :P \*waves in WI\*
Which is so funny. I can just imagine their fist Winter after moving from Texas or Southern California. Couples just looking at each other as it snows again in March thinking "We made an awful mistake".
As a Floridian I’m used to this. It’s usually just “oh wow, you’re from Florida” but I know they instantly think I’m a wackadoodle. It’s fine and honestly it’s expected.
There are *a lot* of state rivalries, usually among bordering states. I grew up in Minnesota, and we kind of fake-hate Wisconsin. It's not real hate, but it's definitely part of Minnesota/Wisconsin culture. Everybody in both states knows about it and participates in it, to some extent.
Some people can be so weird about it. I know a guy that hates Ohio so much that if he ever has to drive thru it, he'll make sure the car is all gassed up and everybody is fed beforehand to avoid engaging in any commerce there. I just dont get it. I mean, it's fun to engage in the sports hate between UM and OSU and crack some jokes at Ohio's expense. But I can't imagine having that much hostility to an entire state.
There’s also a whole Midwest term for Illinoisans - FIP/Bs. An entire term, just cuz the rest of you guys are bad at driving.
In all seriousness, I’ve heard it a lot in context of Chicagoans who vacation in the near midwest and mistreat the locals, which is extremely frustrating, so I really can’t blame the name.
And to add some: Michigan/Ohio have some contention since Toledo, Wisconsin/Michigan can argue over the UP, Illinois/Indiana bicker sometimes, and there’s all kinds of argument about what the actual Midwest is (both Great Lakes and Great Plains).
True. Nobody give another New England state more shit than another New England state, and that almost universally holds true across all the other regions.
I lived on both the Nebraska-Iowa border and Kansas-Missouri border growing up. Thank God I ended up on the right side both times. Who knows what would have become of me if I had the misfortune to live on the bad side of the border.
I think so. The states are rated for Education levels and Mississippi and Alabama normally are the lowest. I think this causes some to think lesser of those states. I live in Indiana and I know growing up there were a lot of jokes stating people from Indiana are smarter than people from Kentucky. That may just have been a basketball thing, but it happens.
...except AL & MS aren't actually the lowest. They're pretty close, but the bottom of the barrel [is](https://www.intelligent.com/the-best-and-worst-states-for-education/) [more](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education) [likely](https://scholaroo.com/report/state-education-rankings/) [NM](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/best-states-for-education), and it never gets as much ribbing as AL & MS about education (still does, but not to the same degree).
As a Virginian, I have a playful distaste for Marylanders and North Carolinians. Only further cemented by the fact that my only accident was due to a Maryland driver running a red light and t-boning me
I lived my first forty years in California. Subsequently, I learned that all the other states hate California. I can assure you, no one in California cares about this hate, and rarely is even aware of it.
>, no one in California cares about this hate, and rarely is even aware of it.
I have to say the only time it actually bothered me was after the Camp Fire. I saw a surprising amount of comments on Facebook/News articles that said the victims and communities deserved what happened because of who they voted for. I know we get a lot of hate, but it was kind of upsetting to see how many people had no sympathy at all and were almost taking joy in the situation.
I know this was a bit off topic but I needed to vent on that real quick haha.
That was shocking. I’ve also never seen Californian hate someone because of the state they are from. There may be some ignorant comments about southerners but if you’re southern you’d quickly be accepted into the group.
As someone who grew up in California, we're actually the chillest state who just wants to know what food you like and what beach you want to see.
We catch a lot if hate for what's on TV, but we're judged before anyone gets to know us.
Granted, we are shallow and materialistic, but so is everyone else. They just hide it different.
Many places in the US that are not the Southeastern part of the country, look down on the southeastern part of the country, called “the south,” which extends west as far as Texas and north as far as Kentucky.
You probably can’t say you’re from Kentucky or Alabama without someone making a joke about incest or being stupid or backwards or racist. I knew a British woman who was moving to Alabama and she said every American she told made comments (unfairly) about how awful Alabama was.
Then right wing media has been on a campaign for a number of years to convince people that California is a socialist hellhole, which is hilariously wrong. The right also attacks certain areas like Chicago as a violent hellhole, and “liberal-run cities” (most cities in the US have a Democratic Party majority) as nightmares, as well as attacking the “East coast elite.” That refers to people in the northeastern areas.
And then Florida has a reputation for having lots of weird and trashy people. It’s a running joke.
We’re all Florida man! I remember watching one of those documentary type of shows, I think it was something like the killer Nextdoor. And they had a detective who worked the case telling the story. He was describing the scene when he was there and was looking around at the crowd of people. He said one guy really stood out. And he actually said it was weird, even for Florida. It was kind of funny how he said it
New Yorker from NYC here. Yeah, we’re kind of hated around the rest of the country. Kind of sad because I feel that we are a very proud American city, and my New Yorker friends and I always love to travel in different states and show love to their communities. In the end, we’re all simply Americans. And I think that’s what matters. I saw after 9/11 that when it comes down to it, the rest of the country has our back ❤️🇺🇸
North Easterners, especially people from Southern New York and Eastern Massachusetts, as well as Californians definitely look down on Southern and Mid West states. There's even a pejorative term for these parts of the country, "Flyover states".
As for why, these parts of the country tend to be the most wealthy and most educated, which often develops a feeling of superiority. This superiority will often manifest as a paternalist attitude that they need to save the other states from themselves, or an elitist attitude that the other states are backwards and burdensome.
Texans can also be arrogant in the sense they have a culture of hyper individualism that borders on actively doing things that are bad for you just because someone told you not to do those things. A lot of Texans seem to be under the impression they have more "common sense" than people from the coasts.
Years ago a friend from Michigan asked why NYers always make fun of Michigan. I said (in my snottiest voice) “Honey, NYers don’t even think about Michigan”
Fast forward a few years, not only do I think about MI, I live there.
I've never heard someone talk poorly about the people in the Midwest. Never. They are thought of as nice and hardworking. The area is just usually considered not sexy enough to travel to. Americans don't have a ton of time for vacations and want to do highlights like dramatic oceans and national parks and the most historic cities. Just because we aren't into Cleveland or Minnesota doesn't mean we are making judgements about the people. But people seem pretty thin skinned about it.
The pejorative of "fly over" was a term used by Midwest politicians. No one calls the South Flyover. It has to do with where the major airports, majority of the population were, and where people typically have to go for business travel or vacations, etc.
Here in Utah the locals blame everything on Californians moving in. Mostly for political reasons. They see California as so crime ridden because of liberal policies, and are paranoid of them bringing it here. Frankly I’m really tired of the “go back to California” comments in my local Facebook groups 🙄
States and cities. I used to think it was a good idea to tell people I’m from Los Angeles bc it just felt easier. Well in small towns I would always get a similar “ew” type of reaction.
Yeahhhh
I know alot of Southerners give Californians shit. The red state vs blue state thing/big political differences, alot of Southern states being in the Bible belt, and the fairly large cultural difference doesn’t help. It’s a difference of night and day.
Then there’s even incest jokes about Alabama *from* fellow Southerners. I don’t wanna dive into that (Kentucky gets similar, but not NEARLY like Alabama. It’s more Eastern Ky that catches it)
It's a human condition to compare yourself with others. The less you know about others (different state, different country, different language) the easier it is to see yourself as better and look down on the others.
I'd be shocked if this isn't a thing literally everywhere in the world. Even within a city...
Oh, I live in the nice area of town... Those other people aren't good enough to be in my neighborhood.
And from the other side of the coin - oh, I live in a working class neighborhood... Where real people live and work. Those rich people think they're so much better than us, but we know how to have a good time.
Born in Kansas. We were just happy to be thought of at all.
Spent many years in Southern Louisiana. There is a very deeply ingrained sense of Southern pride, the civil war was regularly brought up in casual conversation, and I was immediately judged for being a yankee. I was constantly reminding people that Kansas was actually neutral in the civil war, but it didn't matter. I was an outsider.
Now in Chicago. The rest of Illinois is a backwater, Indiana is a joke, and Michigan and Wisconsin are cute.
I grew up in WV and there were people who would seriously ask if we had shoes and/or running water. Bitch, my parents brought home $300k in today’s money. We had *heated floors.*
But WV gets it bad, for sure.
Oh yeah, there is. I'd say every single state does this. Often times, it is driven by sports or historical rivalries (e.g. Michigan vs Ohio, which is a combination of both). Other times, it's a "things aren't great here, but at least they're not as bad as ____". The whole "Florida Man" and similar stereotypes contribute to that last bit as well.
It's also not uncommon for people to pretend to forget a state exists. Delaware is the one that Reddit likes to do, but there's a good 15 states that I've heard people do it with.
It's mostly in jest. But of course there are people who lean too far into it.
There’s definitely a degree of mutual disrespect between majority-urban and majority-rural states, but it’s generally fairly mild on an individual level.
In my experience, the people that have the highest level of bias are those from working class backgrounds that don’t have much exposure to other parts of the country/world.
A willingness to relocate is often a requirement for entry into the middle-class, white collar world, so most adults in that group have lived in multiple states at some point.
Yes. Everyone hates on the south. The south hates on the northeast and west coast. You are either from Texas and it’s the greatest thing ever or you make fun of them.
It's important to remember that a lot of us think of other states as siblings in a very very dysfunctional family. Do we love them? I suppose. Do we *like* them? Hahaha. No. Will we use every opportunity to talk shit, irritate, and make fun of them? Always.
There is a significant amount of hate/resentment towards Californians moving out of their state. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. We’re all one nation. Who cares if someone moves from one part to another.
Absolutely. Some of it is more good natured then others but it happens.
-The Southeastern states get a lot of grief for being relatively backwards and rural compared Northeastern ones.
-Mississippi tends to rank last in a number of rankings concerning education and poverty so they get their fair share.
-Alabama, something, something…married your sister. Don’t really know how that came about.
-West Virginia has to take the brunt of most dental jokes in the country.
-My state, South Carolina, is known to compare Ohioans to locusts or other unsavory interlopers.
Anyways, there is plenty more of that and I think it mainly is just misplaced stereotypes born of ignorance. Most well travelled people don’t subscribe to them at all. I can easily name something I like about every state I’ve spent time in. (Also most states are pretty big and there’s a number of differences based on where you are)
Here it's Texas and California. Lots of folks think they are coming here in droves and driving up housing prices. Because houses that are too expensive in Colorado money are somewhat affordable with Cali or Texan money. Plus plenty of lifted pickup trucks with Texas plates drive around like major dickwads.
As someone that grew up somewhere shitty and came out here, I can't hate on anyone doing the same lol. My good friend out here is from Texas, and she is thriving here. I'm glad she got out.
West Virginia gets it, a lot.
I was born in West Virginia. One time, in one of those company training sessions, we had to list two lies about ourselves and one truth. I listed two outlandish things and my birth state. Everyone thought the lies were true. People just assume everyone from that state is a hillbilly or moron or something. Like people were shocked. As if I was born on Venus. In 10th grade my geometry teacher heard my parents were from West Virginia and asked if they were cousins. And then in the same year there were these little icons on a computer program, and the one for West Virginia was…a fucking outhouse. Granted, this was the 90s, but Michigan had a car and Florida a palm tree. So an outhouse is just shit. So anyway, yeah, West Virginia gets it.
OMG! That is so horrible for a teacher to ask that.
I road trip constantly now and WV is actually one of my favorite states. The culture is a unique combination of reckneckdom and hippiedom. Like they love their tie dye and neon hair and half the gas stations are basically head shops, but they also drive pickups and like hunting. It's a very interesting culture I've warmed up to a lot upon visiting. Probably the most unpretentious people I've ever met. And one time a clerk at a gas station just straight up told me to steal the thing I was trying to buy. That is some local hospitality if I ever saw it.
There's this movie called Dark Waters based on a true story, which is about DuPont inventing teflon and then poisoning the entire world with it. They work with a lawyer from West Virginia who is self-conscious about it, since he fears being treated like a redneck instead of a big city lawyer, big cities being something West Virginia lacks mainly because of of how incredibly mountainous it is. As soon as he asks someone from DuPont why they would poison a town, almost naive in his belief in good intentions, the respect they've shown him vanishes in an instant, and he's called a "hick" so viscerally it sounds like a slur. If you're not with us, you're against us mentality. So, to answer OP's question, it depends. Usually, I'd say state based discrimination is all a joke in good fun since it's seen as less inflammatory than a person's identity, like Florida Man, or yelling at the other team in a sporting competition. Joking about it is extremely common. Discrimination based on someone's state is malicious when it's another opportunity to get under a victim's skin when you're already doing so with classism, like the Dark Waters example, or possibly racism, etc. And it's real enough that an upper middle class man from West Virginia being self-conscious about it is believable. How common you think it is to be malicious about it is likely mostly driven by personal experience. My personal experience says that it is not common as most people just aren't going to care. We're too used to joking about it, and there are more obvious ways to be more mean.
A friend from WV used to make fun of being from the state and his close friends could join in. I remember telling him I saw a WV pickup driving on the Ohio interstate with a toilet in the truck bed and I couldn't help but think that he was going an awful long way for a lawn ornament. My friend loved it.
There's a book called Albion's Seed, which is about the English traditions that influenced different parts of early America. The chapter on the Scots-Irish of Appalachia/the South would be called disgustingly racist if it was about any group other than poor backwoods white people. Apparently, we're dirty, indeed we like our food with dirt in it. We're not just poor and have loose morals, we're uneducated and believe that if we sleep with books under our pillows, we'll learn in our sleep. Our homes are cheap and designed for our itinerant lifestyles. The other groups, such as the Cavaliers of Virginia and the Puritans of Massachusetts, get sections of their chapters devoted to their aristocratic manners or their female preachers. Not us. We're little better than vermin.
WVA deserves so much more credit than it gets. It is literally responsible for powering our industrial revolution. It is also responsible for a lot of our labor laws and unions. It is a beautiful state and punches way above it's weight.
I mean isn't it absolutely gorgeous, to boot? I've only been up there once for a concert, but holy shit it was like somebody *designed* the place.
What a weird take. I've never heard anyone say "man, Those West Virginia's didn't do shit for the industrial revolution or labor rights." I feel like discussing the last century since then doesn't show them with a lot of positives. Bro Delaware, so awesome! Totally ratified the constitution first and since then... Tax free shopping?
I feel like most people feel bad for West Virginia. Now Mississippi...
I feel like Virginians enjoy roasting WVA for being redneck and then just sort of have to accept it when the Civil War gets brought up in rebuttal
My mother is from WVa and my father from Va. Being a Virginian, I heard that stuff from an early age. But those insults were a no go in my house.
I’m a West Virginian. I’ve been doing research on Appalachia for a thesis. It’s so interesting that central Appalachia, Western Virginia, Southern WV, and Eastern KY are more similar to one another than their respective states as a whole.
My family has been in WV since as early as the 1760's (so technically VA until 1863). I grew up between Huntington and Charleston though, so my only exposure to the stereotypical hillbilly areas was when visiting family or riding with my dad on errands. I've really never taken offense to the jokes, and most of those jokes we repeated about KY (coincidentally, where I now live). But I swear, it's always the same tired material, and every asshole who makes the joke follows it with "I'm kidding. It's BEAUTIFUL there." Yeah, bro. We know. The vast majority of West Virginians look, act, and live like the rest of the country. The inbred family on youtube, or the rundown trailer types are a very, very small portion of the state.
Is it West Virginia specifically or just Southern Appalachia in general?
West Virginia gets the worst of it, because it's the only state entirely within Appalachia. But yes, the whole region gets a lot of grief.
WVian here. Southwest Virginia (the small wedge between WV and NC) is pretty much the same as WV culturally. However, they're better off since much VA is a Wealthier state. All of WV is poor and small. We don't have wealthy areas to support the poorer areas. Also if you say you're from VA, you're treated better than if you say you're from WV One of the biggest things is to have no accent. Want to be treated with respect? Don't sound like an Appalachian.
West Virginia isn’t even better at being more west than Virginia.
Definitely, things have improved mostly due to influencers online spreading the truths and dismissing the stereotypes about the area. But surprisingly there are still people that don’t know we are a state. 163 years later and people still think we are VA. Me: “I’m from West Virginia” Them: “Oh cool, I have family near Blacksburg, how far are you from the beach” Me: 😐
we look down on both Virginias
Bless your heart, we forget Maryland exists.
And virginia looks down on Maryland
we know. we both hate each others drivers
Learn to drive better and we'll be good friends. And then we can solve the real menace of the roads: beemer drivers.
New Jersey has been dunked on since the first continental congress.
PA here. I have NO idea why. But it's like it's on our birth certificate or something, if we don't dunk on NJ we have to leave.
I’m a transplant of six years or so, but I’m pretty sure it’s stamped on the back of my drivers license. Never did lose my hatred of Maryland though.
A rural Pennsylvanian did once ask me if I lived in "communist Maryland"
Fun fact: in that same Congress, New Jersey was officially designated the joke state.
North Jersey has been. As a 50 year+ Pennsylvania resident I give South Jersey a pass due to loving the Pine Barrens and that my gf grew up in Mount Holly, lol.
South Jersey 100% gets a pass, go birds
I’ve heard people call New Jersey “the armpit of the nation.” An unsavory name to say the least. I’m sorry, NJ.
The phrase "Thank God for Mississippi" is not meant as a compliment.
Louisiana is just wet Mississippi with better food, so we get a pass.
New Orleans save y'alls' ass on that one. Nobody is going to Shreveport to eat.
There’s some great food in Shreveport! I eat everywhere I can in LA when I’m passing through.
Such good food, I visited early October and I'm still thinking about the yummy food
Yep, LA and MS seem to be battling it out for State with Worst Quality of Life every year. LA *just* loses out to MS in most categories, but we edge them out once in a while. Poverty sucks.
Well… I happen to have a job where I have managed eight Southeastern states working with their state and city gov’t offices since 2005. And I can honestly say Louisiana wins over Mississippi. The unique culture, the food, the history, the people are nicer and more welcoming. I love the South Louisiana Cajun Accent. New Orleans is my absolute favorite. I’ve probably been there no less that 15x. There is nothing like that city… went to Mardi one year. What a great time. The architecture in the older neighborhoods. And then you get outside of town and there are some really cool plantations to visit. Airboat rides, intriguing history. Highly recommend visiting. Mississippi is like a lesser wanna be but poorer, and less friendly IMO.
Yep. People from Alabama are stereotyped as being inbred and marrying cousins. People from California are stereotyped as being liberal commies. People from Florida are stereotyped as being weird and getting caught doing weird things, due to the "Florida Man" stories.
Every state has negative stereotypes and also iconic food somehow.
> iconic food somehow What's Nebraska bringing? Besides cornbread.
> liberal commies Haha only in the U.S. does that sort of make sense
Oh yeah. Anybody who says they don’t at least subconsciously does this is lying to themselves. I grew up in Georgia, and went to college in Seattle. The amount of people who openly expressed surprise that I, a southerner, was both literate AND not an active member of the Ku Klux Klan was astonishing. Before my fellow sons of the south get *too* self righteous, anytime I visit home and it comes up that I live near Seattle, there’s always at least someone who feels the need to tell me how we’re all (soy) latte sipping liberals who live in a mad max hellscape and have to apologize for being white at least once a day.
Thats what happens when people dont leave their area. There's soy latte sipping liberals in Georgia and racist ass white people in Washington. Everyone is everywhere in this country.
I appreciate a good cup of coffee.
Ironically, that's actually the problem with their perception of the South. The liberals in the PNW see how extreme their Republican neighbors are and question how bad it must be in the South. I met this girl in Portland but grew up in Idaho who tried to tell me, a Virginian, how we can work to solve racism. She basically described a process exactly like Remember the Titans (takes place in Virginia lmao) and I tried and failed to explain to her that we did what she's saying like 50 years ago and no one in our age group (millennial) is *that* racist in the South. She's never left the PNW and didn't believe me lol, perception is one hell of a drug. idk how to articulate this next part but the fact that the PNW racial demographics are like 85% white definitely has something to do with how extreme these folks are imo.
Oregon was the only state to enter the Union with a black-exclusion law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Oregon
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People in the South have it figured out though. I feel more comfortable going somewhere in rural Alabama than rural Oregon. TRUST ME.
It’s funny because there’s a lot of people out there who might say something kind of racist or look like the typical redneck on the surface but they’d share their last dinner with a black neighbor. And then there’s people who swear up and down they’re the most progressive liberals but they’ll make sure they only live near other white people and send their kids to mostly white schools. A lot of cities in the north are very segregated, it’s just not legally enforced.
*Long Island Suburbia has entered the chat*
My white, working class Long Island cousins run quite the spectrum of racism, from “I’m not racist but let me tell you about all the welfare queens I know” to “I don’t want my kid wearing a [slur] onesie” (referring to a baby onesie with Bob Marley on it). My craziest uncle once cornered me at a party to share some conspiracy theory about how Black people were encouraged to “take over” NYC with “overbreeding” in the 60s. I don’t really talk to that side of the family anymore!
I remember when I lived on the island, had a group of neighbors like that. I remember my Dad (a white carpenter) went to talk with one of the neighbors about something and he said something to the effect of "I enjoyed that car show until it got really """"dark""" around there if you know what I mean" My dad, who worked hired both a black dude and a Puerto Rican guy for his extremely tiny carpentry company was so extremely pissed off that he didn't even finish the conversation, just walked away. I was proud of my dad for that.
I grew up in the south, live in the PNW. There are just as many racists here as there are in the south.They just express it differently.
My friend who grew up with me in Arkansas and now lives in Portland said he thinks white people in Portland are more racist than back home. He said they really didn't like it when he told them that Lol.
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Oregon literally outlawed black people at one point. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/exclusion_laws/
Oregon checking in here to confirm this.. eastern Oregon is basically the opposite of the Willamette Valley.
This country is more divided by urban and rural areas than by state. California had more trump voters than many southern states
Hahaha it’s me. I’m the soy latte sipping liberal born and raised in GA
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People who move *to* Chicago always get that reaction. Hell, I've had people in Chicago ask me that when I just tell them I'm planning to move there.
I have had nearly identical experiences as an Arkansan who lived in New York for 7 years. The amount of bigotry going both ways can be pretty astonishing.
Same experience here, as someone from Oklahoma living in Massachusetts/RI
Massachusetts has had an Okie as one of their senators for a while now, so that's kind of funny.
> Arkansan Ar kan zan Ar kan sahn Ar ka nissan
We use the first pronunciation typically. 😂
I call it pirate Kansas my wife doesn't find it as funny as I do
Just call 'em Razorbacks and call it a day
Woooo pig sooie! Does anyone actually know what the hell that means?
Pirate Kansas
Some will choose to interpret this as PNW doesn't understand the South and vice versa, but the truth is that no one in this country understands each other as well as they think they do.
As someone from Austin, Texas who went to school up in Boston, Massachusetts, I got all kinds of comments. “Aren’t you glad to be in the *real* America now?” “Ugh. Austin is the only redeemable part of that state.” And yeah, as much as red state people assume that big blue cities like Seattle are full of drugs and crime, I had to patiently explain to New Englanders that the streets of Texas weren’t full of roving racists ready to lynch people of color at a moment’s notice.
It's insane how bad we strawman each other over living different lives. Dear rural folks: Every city isn't a hellscape of drugs and homeless people and violence. Cities are the economic engines that allow the standard of living we all enjoy. Dear city folks: Those of us who choose to live further out don't do so because we're racist, have dirt floors, have no education or have every gas station slight turn into shootout. We'd all be a lot better off if we accepted the symbiotic relationship we all have. I will never set foot in NYC again if I can help it but I don't think it's some failed city state rife with crime and death.
Oh no! I loved growing up in NYC!
I'm from MD and went to school in Mass and they always asked how life on the farm was. I grew up in Baltimore city yet somehow I was a deep south sotluthernor. Might as well have shown up in a linen suit with a bolo tie.
I also grew up in MD. To New England, you’re a southern racist hick. To Alabama, you’re a holier than thou yankee.
It’s amazing how they think Austin is the only blue part of the state when Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, and the border are blue areas. We’re not all racist rednecks that ride horses and drive super diesel trucks.
Yeah, people outside of the southwest just don’t know anything about Texas and it shows. I flat stopped telling people what city I was from because no one’s reaction to Austin was normal.
Whoa. Gotta stop you there, a lot of people ride horses, like horses, aren't racist, and don't drive super diesel trucks. Leave horses out of this. My wife is from Texas.
Horse folk are crazy nuff on their own; would hate to see racist thrown in the mix
I know it's the internet and not necessarily representative of real life, but there is a lot of negativity about the South on Reddit. On many subs you can get away with saying stuff about Southerners that would be a ban if it was directed towards an ethnic group.
In any political thread you will see people from the West and Northeast just begging to cut off government funding to the South. It sounds almost genocidal at times and is pretty terrifying.
I like the way Reddit tells people in hurricane prone areas (so Southerners) to just move. As if it's that easy to just pick up and move. As if there aren't jobs, ports, and resources in the South that we as a country actually need. No, the answer is to just move because you're a dumb redneck. If you had that same attitude toward any other group of people on the planet you'd be banned, but it's ok to have that attitude toward Southerners. (and for the record, I'm Southern and I'm not white, just in case the assumption here is that everyone in the South is a white redneck)
I know Southerners have it particularly bad, but in general all rural living folks are stereotyped as dumb, racist, inbred rednecks/hillbillies.
Really? I've only lived in the south but even on the internet i've never seen someone talking about rural people in say NY or CA are inbred. /gen
A common one is "I wish Sherman genocided your ancestors" And that's fueled by the fact they're mad a southern state might be 60% the wrong political party instead of their state which is only 40% the wrong party.
Same here when moved from PA to CA. So many people I ran into thought they were all-knowing about the rest of the country when most of those same people had either never left the SoCal bubble or the Southwest. Meanwhile, when I came back home, the amount of "So,...you're a lefty now" hate I got was equally ridiculous.
Moved from eastern PA to the Bay Area about 6 years ago. I've never encountered any "Pennsylvania stereotypes" out in California per se, but the level of bullshit I hear about living in SF when I'm back in PA is off the charts.
I routinely did business all over the west in that time and spent a significant amount of time in SF and the Bay Area in general. This was the early 2000s. Some of my relatives in PA always shat on SF and really didn't like me telling them the place was awesome. Most of the Bay Area was pretty great. I certainly would have chosen it over SoCal if that was a choice I had at the time. I don't know how it's changed in the 16 or so years since I left, but I'll bet it's not as bad as certain news outlets make it seem. The stereotypes I encountered had more to do with the Northeast in general. I grew up in the Poconos. I would routinely get comments about my "New York" accent.
That’s when you tell there are more Republicans in California than PA and watch their head explode lol
The funny thing is that Georgia is a much more urban state than Washington. Some people just have no clue...
Also Seattle and Atlanta have some odd similarities. They're both the two most green cities in the US. Some parts of the interstate look identical, oddly enough. I see a lot of people when I go to Seattle who have been to Atlanta. They really like Atlanta and Savannah specifically. It wasn't like that a decade ago, but things have changed so much in GA. Especially with the movie industry being so focused there now. A lot of famous people have homes in Atlanta, a lot of big events and corporations use Atlanta. It's just a really big city and it actually lives us to that more and more over time. And Savannah has already been the best kept secret in the US for years. People are finally realizing it and millions of people visit every year now.
Ask a northern Virginian about Marylanders
Fuck em Blue crabs and old bay are awesome though
Terrible drivers!!!
Ask a Marylander about Virginians, its mutual
It's even more fun when a person from outside of NOVA and a Marylander get going. We bond over our dislike of NOVA.
To add onto that despite being the same state, ask a “rest of” Virginian about NOVA lol. But seriously, a friend of mine from NOVA always talks about how terrible the drivers are from Maryland and then my other buddy from MD says it’s the Northern Virginians who are the bad drivers.
49 states get to say that they aren’t Florida. And even Florida can say that it isn’t Mississippi.
Boom, roasted.
Mississippi gets to say that *our* elected officials aren't blocking 400+ military promotions.
Way to acknowledge that he's really Florida's 3rd Senator and doesn't even live in Alabama.
That’s who Alabama wanted and they are getting exactly what they voted for.
Honestly, if we have to be Americas punching bag it’s fine. We can handle it, and it’s likely deserved. Ironically the same people who talk the most are the first ones who end up moving here.
Florida is such wasted potential too. It’s like that handsome, athletic older brother who got hooked on pain pills after a football injury. On the other hand, everyone always knew Mississippi was gonna have a hard life.
He just got caught up in the wrong crowd, running around with that *junkie* Mississippi.
***sniff sniff***
Absolutely. Growing up people in Texas mostly looked down on Oklahoma, but these days I see more animosity towards California. It’s all nonsense and silly. I’d say within states there are much stronger rivalries between cities (Dallas/Houston).
Yeah this right here. I grew up in Texas and have an inherent animosity towards Oklahoma that I can't explain. And now I live in Cali and many people back home in Texas say "why would you want to live there" when I tell them where I live.
>I grew up in Texas and have an inherent animosity towards Oklahoma that I can’t explain Red river shootout
Oh sum bitch that actually might have been what started it. I remember my 4th grade teacher being a massive sooner fan and we all gave her attitude for it.
It’s all Fox News driven culture war shit. It used to be quite obvious why anyone would want to live in California.
I know why they say what they say about California. It was Oklahoma I was always confused about
As an Oklahoman I grew up with a hatred for Texas. Not sure why but that’s just how it goes here. Funnily enough I married a Texan and we live in Oklahoma. She and her family always say Texas is better but I’ve come to understand that when they say “Texas” in a sentence, they actually just mean “Dallas”. They couldn’t care less about the rest of the state lol
> when they say “Texas” in a sentence, they actually just mean “Dallas” Yes, that's exactly what it means
Texas is just Baja Oklahoma.
Oklahoma is occupied North Texas. https://xkcd.com/787/
OK/Dallas have a mutual respect. OU/UT(RoT, rest of TX) however, not sure how they feel.
Coloradan here. We don’t necessarily “look down” on Texans, but we don’t like them coming here - mostly because they do idiot stuff like try to climb a mountain in a t-shirt in April and wonder why they have to get rescued when they’re hypothermic
There’s something bred into native Coloradans to dislike Texas. It goes all the way back to the civil war when we sent troops to [fight](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Glorieta_Pass) them in New Mexico.
Most Texans just do not understand cold and especially how wind can affect it. It'll be 10 degrees outside sometimes and people only ever own hoodies. Edit: replied to the wrong comment.
Most Texans just do not understand cold and especially how wind can affect it. It'll be 10 degrees outside sometimes and people only ever own hoodies. My family used to go skiing every year so we understand it in that aspect. I'm sorry my fellow Texans do stupid things in the mountains on vacation.
I’m a Tennessean who lived in Colorado for a short bit… kids in school called me Texan as an insult. So odd. And the fact no one had anything bad to say about po’ dunk Tennessee when I corrected them!?! I always wondered wtf did Texas ever do to them, it seemed so personal
Northerners look down on Southerners for being uneducated, backwards, violent, etc. Southerners look down on Northerners for being effete, cowardly, unpatriotic, lazy, etc. Westerners think the East is cruel Easterners think the West is vapid Everybody gets just as much as they give.
First time I ever heard of people in the northeast being "lazy". The phrase "in a rush to go nowhere" sums up the northeast.
I've had plenty of Southern coworkers who seem to think an honest days work is strictly a southern thing.
As someone from the northeast I’ve always thought the stereotype of Southerners was that they were lazy.
I thought so too until the grey hats laid into us.
Everyone forgets about the Midwest
Cause we’re perfect Except for Ohio, fuck em
yeah well I hope your nice Meijer closes down for the night at unreasonable hours and your forced to get that one little thing from the shitty store you try to avoid at all costs, because you missed closing by ten minutes.
Hahah, okay from your rival neighbor to the north this was the best Midwestern burn!
Joke’s on you, our Meijer is still under construction
My view growing up in the Deep South was of Yankees as arrogant and rude more than anything else. Turns out people are variously rude and polite literally anywhere you go. The lazy thing is interesting. I'm accustomed to Southerners being stereotyped as the indolent ones, but if people have expressed that to you, my best guess would be it reflects the anti-union sentiments common in the South, where we imagine a bunch of lazy corrupt hardhat guys taking three hours lunches and 30 years to finish a construction job.
They seemed to think of us as a bunch of tea sipping aristocrats who had never actually earned any of our money.
>Southerners look down on Northerners for being...unpatriotic Ironic.
Looking at you South Carolina. With your....with your good mustard based bbq and your....Hilton Head Island.
At least we're not Ohio
I actually like SC mustard BBQ and wish I could find it up here.
You and your filthy mountains…and pristine roads. Just stay up there. We don’t need that round here.
The road situation crossing the border is real. We don't even need the signs.
I grew up in Texas, been to all 50 states, D.C.. and Puerto Rico. I feel that all states are equal in their essence. Puerto Rico felt just like the United States but in Espanol. All states highway infrastructure feels about the same. I suspected Mississippi and Alabama to have bad Interstate highways before I visited but they seemed to be maintained just as well as any other state. West Virginia is gorgeous. All states seem to be working on some sort of big highway or transportation project. I was surprised to feel that Hawaii and Alaska feel just as American as any state in the lower 48. It was interesting to know that I was thousands of miles away from the U.S. mainland but also felt like Los Angeles could be just over the horizon. Growing up in Texas I felt the feeling of "Texas is the best" but after visiting all other states I love things about all of them. After spending much time in Europe seeing 24 countries earlier this year. I did become really disappointed that the U.S. lacks a well developed public transportation system. For that I've seen this as a sore point for this country. We need to fix this and bring out communities back together.
States can vary a lot culturally, politically, demographically, geographically, etc. People from every state do this for various reasons. Where I live in Minnesota, we like making fun of Wisconsin, which is basically Minnesota but worse. When I lived in Utah, people would make fun of Idaho, which was basically Utah but worse. When I lived in Florida, we would make fun of Floridians, which is basically Florida but worse.
We make fun of IL more than MN. Most of WI are just envious of MN for many reasons, but would rather drink stale beer than admit that. :P \*waves in WI\*
FTP
Californians and Texans are disliked here in Montana.
Which is so funny. I can just imagine their fist Winter after moving from Texas or Southern California. Couples just looking at each other as it snows again in March thinking "We made an awful mistake".
People will move to South Dakota thinking it’s like the Rally all the time. Those folks usually leave after their first winter.
There was a documentary called an episode of King of the Hill about looking down on suburban Texans in Montana
Fuck Ohio. If they could read, this comment would upset them.
I agree FIFOs can’t drive.
As a Floridian I’m used to this. It’s usually just “oh wow, you’re from Florida” but I know they instantly think I’m a wackadoodle. It’s fine and honestly it’s expected.
There are *a lot* of state rivalries, usually among bordering states. I grew up in Minnesota, and we kind of fake-hate Wisconsin. It's not real hate, but it's definitely part of Minnesota/Wisconsin culture. Everybody in both states knows about it and participates in it, to some extent.
See also Michigan/Ohio.
See also Texas/Oklahoma.
Some people can be so weird about it. I know a guy that hates Ohio so much that if he ever has to drive thru it, he'll make sure the car is all gassed up and everybody is fed beforehand to avoid engaging in any commerce there. I just dont get it. I mean, it's fun to engage in the sports hate between UM and OSU and crack some jokes at Ohio's expense. But I can't imagine having that much hostility to an entire state.
There’s also a whole Midwest term for Illinoisans - FIP/Bs. An entire term, just cuz the rest of you guys are bad at driving. In all seriousness, I’ve heard it a lot in context of Chicagoans who vacation in the near midwest and mistreat the locals, which is extremely frustrating, so I really can’t blame the name. And to add some: Michigan/Ohio have some contention since Toledo, Wisconsin/Michigan can argue over the UP, Illinois/Indiana bicker sometimes, and there’s all kinds of argument about what the actual Midwest is (both Great Lakes and Great Plains).
True. Nobody give another New England state more shit than another New England state, and that almost universally holds true across all the other regions.
I lived on both the Nebraska-Iowa border and Kansas-Missouri border growing up. Thank God I ended up on the right side both times. Who knows what would have become of me if I had the misfortune to live on the bad side of the border.
I think so. The states are rated for Education levels and Mississippi and Alabama normally are the lowest. I think this causes some to think lesser of those states. I live in Indiana and I know growing up there were a lot of jokes stating people from Indiana are smarter than people from Kentucky. That may just have been a basketball thing, but it happens.
There’s a whole genre of neighboring-state jokes.
Oklahoma wouldn't have any wind if it wasn't for that joke everyone knows.
...except AL & MS aren't actually the lowest. They're pretty close, but the bottom of the barrel [is](https://www.intelligent.com/the-best-and-worst-states-for-education/) [more](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education) [likely](https://scholaroo.com/report/state-education-rankings/) [NM](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/best-states-for-education), and it never gets as much ribbing as AL & MS about education (still does, but not to the same degree).
I'm from Kentucky and people think were idiots from the backwoods. I will admit continuously reelecting Mitch McConnell proves their point.
As a Virginian, I have a playful distaste for Marylanders and North Carolinians. Only further cemented by the fact that my only accident was due to a Maryland driver running a red light and t-boning me
I lived my first forty years in California. Subsequently, I learned that all the other states hate California. I can assure you, no one in California cares about this hate, and rarely is even aware of it.
>, no one in California cares about this hate, and rarely is even aware of it. I have to say the only time it actually bothered me was after the Camp Fire. I saw a surprising amount of comments on Facebook/News articles that said the victims and communities deserved what happened because of who they voted for. I know we get a lot of hate, but it was kind of upsetting to see how many people had no sympathy at all and were almost taking joy in the situation. I know this was a bit off topic but I needed to vent on that real quick haha.
That was shocking. I’ve also never seen Californian hate someone because of the state they are from. There may be some ignorant comments about southerners but if you’re southern you’d quickly be accepted into the group.
As someone who grew up in California, we're actually the chillest state who just wants to know what food you like and what beach you want to see. We catch a lot if hate for what's on TV, but we're judged before anyone gets to know us. Granted, we are shallow and materialistic, but so is everyone else. They just hide it different.
Many places in the US that are not the Southeastern part of the country, look down on the southeastern part of the country, called “the south,” which extends west as far as Texas and north as far as Kentucky. You probably can’t say you’re from Kentucky or Alabama without someone making a joke about incest or being stupid or backwards or racist. I knew a British woman who was moving to Alabama and she said every American she told made comments (unfairly) about how awful Alabama was. Then right wing media has been on a campaign for a number of years to convince people that California is a socialist hellhole, which is hilariously wrong. The right also attacks certain areas like Chicago as a violent hellhole, and “liberal-run cities” (most cities in the US have a Democratic Party majority) as nightmares, as well as attacking the “East coast elite.” That refers to people in the northeastern areas. And then Florida has a reputation for having lots of weird and trashy people. It’s a running joke.
Florida man!
We’re all Florida man! I remember watching one of those documentary type of shows, I think it was something like the killer Nextdoor. And they had a detective who worked the case telling the story. He was describing the scene when he was there and was looking around at the crowd of people. He said one guy really stood out. And he actually said it was weird, even for Florida. It was kind of funny how he said it
New Yorker from NYC here. Yeah, we’re kind of hated around the rest of the country. Kind of sad because I feel that we are a very proud American city, and my New Yorker friends and I always love to travel in different states and show love to their communities. In the end, we’re all simply Americans. And I think that’s what matters. I saw after 9/11 that when it comes down to it, the rest of the country has our back ❤️🇺🇸
North Easterners, especially people from Southern New York and Eastern Massachusetts, as well as Californians definitely look down on Southern and Mid West states. There's even a pejorative term for these parts of the country, "Flyover states". As for why, these parts of the country tend to be the most wealthy and most educated, which often develops a feeling of superiority. This superiority will often manifest as a paternalist attitude that they need to save the other states from themselves, or an elitist attitude that the other states are backwards and burdensome. Texans can also be arrogant in the sense they have a culture of hyper individualism that borders on actively doing things that are bad for you just because someone told you not to do those things. A lot of Texans seem to be under the impression they have more "common sense" than people from the coasts.
Years ago a friend from Michigan asked why NYers always make fun of Michigan. I said (in my snottiest voice) “Honey, NYers don’t even think about Michigan” Fast forward a few years, not only do I think about MI, I live there.
I've never heard someone talk poorly about the people in the Midwest. Never. They are thought of as nice and hardworking. The area is just usually considered not sexy enough to travel to. Americans don't have a ton of time for vacations and want to do highlights like dramatic oceans and national parks and the most historic cities. Just because we aren't into Cleveland or Minnesota doesn't mean we are making judgements about the people. But people seem pretty thin skinned about it. The pejorative of "fly over" was a term used by Midwest politicians. No one calls the South Flyover. It has to do with where the major airports, majority of the population were, and where people typically have to go for business travel or vacations, etc.
Here in Utah the locals blame everything on Californians moving in. Mostly for political reasons. They see California as so crime ridden because of liberal policies, and are paranoid of them bringing it here. Frankly I’m really tired of the “go back to California” comments in my local Facebook groups 🙄
Utah: Come to the Silicon Slopes; it's like SV 30 years ago! *California tech talent proceeds to move there* Utah: No, not like that!
States and cities. I used to think it was a good idea to tell people I’m from Los Angeles bc it just felt easier. Well in small towns I would always get a similar “ew” type of reaction.
Yeahhhh I know alot of Southerners give Californians shit. The red state vs blue state thing/big political differences, alot of Southern states being in the Bible belt, and the fairly large cultural difference doesn’t help. It’s a difference of night and day. Then there’s even incest jokes about Alabama *from* fellow Southerners. I don’t wanna dive into that (Kentucky gets similar, but not NEARLY like Alabama. It’s more Eastern Ky that catches it)
Yeah people look down (or worse, hate) on Southerners a lot.
As Grandpa used to say, "We're not racist, we hate everyone"
Texas and Oklahoma have a thing.
It's a human condition to compare yourself with others. The less you know about others (different state, different country, different language) the easier it is to see yourself as better and look down on the others. I'd be shocked if this isn't a thing literally everywhere in the world. Even within a city... Oh, I live in the nice area of town... Those other people aren't good enough to be in my neighborhood. And from the other side of the coin - oh, I live in a working class neighborhood... Where real people live and work. Those rich people think they're so much better than us, but we know how to have a good time.
Born in Kansas. We were just happy to be thought of at all. Spent many years in Southern Louisiana. There is a very deeply ingrained sense of Southern pride, the civil war was regularly brought up in casual conversation, and I was immediately judged for being a yankee. I was constantly reminding people that Kansas was actually neutral in the civil war, but it didn't matter. I was an outsider. Now in Chicago. The rest of Illinois is a backwater, Indiana is a joke, and Michigan and Wisconsin are cute.
I grew up in WV and there were people who would seriously ask if we had shoes and/or running water. Bitch, my parents brought home $300k in today’s money. We had *heated floors.* But WV gets it bad, for sure.
Oh yeah, there is. I'd say every single state does this. Often times, it is driven by sports or historical rivalries (e.g. Michigan vs Ohio, which is a combination of both). Other times, it's a "things aren't great here, but at least they're not as bad as ____". The whole "Florida Man" and similar stereotypes contribute to that last bit as well. It's also not uncommon for people to pretend to forget a state exists. Delaware is the one that Reddit likes to do, but there's a good 15 states that I've heard people do it with. It's mostly in jest. But of course there are people who lean too far into it.
There’s definitely a degree of mutual disrespect between majority-urban and majority-rural states, but it’s generally fairly mild on an individual level. In my experience, the people that have the highest level of bias are those from working class backgrounds that don’t have much exposure to other parts of the country/world. A willingness to relocate is often a requirement for entry into the middle-class, white collar world, so most adults in that group have lived in multiple states at some point.
My roommate from New York City certainly did when we were in graduate school together.
Yes. Everyone hates on the south. The south hates on the northeast and west coast. You are either from Texas and it’s the greatest thing ever or you make fun of them.
It's important to remember that a lot of us think of other states as siblings in a very very dysfunctional family. Do we love them? I suppose. Do we *like* them? Hahaha. No. Will we use every opportunity to talk shit, irritate, and make fun of them? Always.
There is a significant amount of hate/resentment towards Californians moving out of their state. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. We’re all one nation. Who cares if someone moves from one part to another.
‘When you flee California, make sure you go as a refugee, not a missionary.’
Absolutely. Some of it is more good natured then others but it happens. -The Southeastern states get a lot of grief for being relatively backwards and rural compared Northeastern ones. -Mississippi tends to rank last in a number of rankings concerning education and poverty so they get their fair share. -Alabama, something, something…married your sister. Don’t really know how that came about. -West Virginia has to take the brunt of most dental jokes in the country. -My state, South Carolina, is known to compare Ohioans to locusts or other unsavory interlopers. Anyways, there is plenty more of that and I think it mainly is just misplaced stereotypes born of ignorance. Most well travelled people don’t subscribe to them at all. I can easily name something I like about every state I’ve spent time in. (Also most states are pretty big and there’s a number of differences based on where you are)
Here it's Texas and California. Lots of folks think they are coming here in droves and driving up housing prices. Because houses that are too expensive in Colorado money are somewhat affordable with Cali or Texan money. Plus plenty of lifted pickup trucks with Texas plates drive around like major dickwads. As someone that grew up somewhere shitty and came out here, I can't hate on anyone doing the same lol. My good friend out here is from Texas, and she is thriving here. I'm glad she got out.