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Originally Posted by Eugene Church
No problem, enuttage.
Sometimes I am a little too sensitive. I lived in Cleveland for a year and my co-workers there were surprised that I was educated because my speech was slow and regionalized. I told them not to judge people because of a different speech pattern and their ethnic origins. It was no indication of their educational background. Not bragging, but they soon found out that I had a pretty good college education and had studied two languages and could function in both and was well-versed in history, politics, music, sports, movies and tv. One of them said I wasn't like other Southerners. I told her there were a lot more like me in the South.
How a Redneck from the South could have an education bewildered them.
They also couldn't under the fact that I was not prejudiced in racial relations as "all" Southerners are "supposed" to be.
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I've got sort of the same aversion to wisecracks on the South (I've probably been TOO defensive in OT about this same thing of late).
You are not alone, that's for sure. I've experienced this first-hand, but not as bad as a former co-worker of mine in New Jersey. Man she got put through the ringer. She had a thick Texas twang, but was a Latina lady, and it just baffled the folks in Jersey. They had a hard time getting past it.
At first she didn't mind the attention, but it got really old, really quick with her. Not with them, though.
But, hey. Whatcha gonna do. Roll with it and surprise 'em, as you did.
-E