The Redneck Manifesto (book)
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The Redneck Manifesto is the title of a 1997 book by author Jim Goad in which he deliniates some of his views about what he sees to be the disenfranchisement by modern culture of some specific groups, and how certain aspects of our society such as racism and sexism cover what he sees as a deeper concern relating to class conflict. His thesis is that the rich and elite blind the poor and cause them to fight one another instead of working together for their mutual benefit and confronting the rich and elite. Goad, a journalist by training, claims that most U.S. American whites stem from poor Europeans who were brought to the New World in shackles, like the African slaves later. Convicts, beggars, orphans and kidnapped were sendt to America and the Carribean colonies to work the land. The writer compares their plight to slavery and argues that the institution of indentured servitude has been falsely portrayed as an option of free choise. His strong, albeit somewhat humorous and controversial defence of the white underclass, aka "white trash", is largely based on the assumption that its members have been wronged throughout history, while they have been denied their rights by the upper classes' insistence on portraying the position of the poor as a result of bad choise and character, unlike the poor of other etnic backgrounds.
