Rednecks

by Taylor Brown

“Let them remember. We are rock, Moo, till the stars fall and the seas dry up. They will break against us.”

To Logan! To Mingo! Free our boys! Let God take the rest!

Aidee set her bare foot on the first step of the staircase, then turned, walked back to him, put both hands on his cheeks, and kissed him on the mouth, hard and long and sweet, and it was the first time ever. Then she was gone, up into the mote-swirling dimness of the stairs, her bare feet flashing as she went. His heart was a crazy thing in his chest.

THE TERM “REDNECK” To quote the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum: “Although the term ‘redneck’ predates the Mine Wars era, this period is often understood as the birth of the term as slang in America. It was originally used in the popular media to denigrate an Appalachian working class uprising as backward, uneducated, and dangerous, and the stereotype and negative use of the term persists today.”