What NOT to Paint on Your Car When Traveling in the Deep South
The International Emmy Award-winning BBC TV series, Top Gear, is a program about cars. Though motor vehicles are not normally a topic of concern for me personally, I could not help but sit with my mouth wide open while watching this clip from a 2008 episode filmed in Alabama.
The hosts are presented with the task of sabotaging one another's cars to see just how much "attention" they can amass. What ensues next is much more than they planned for. As the host says before the project begins, there are three religions in this territory:
- George Bush
- God
- Country & Western
Please note that I in no way, mean to insult Alabamians. I know that stereotyping any one group is dangerous and imprudent; and that of course, few citizens in the state would respond in this manner. However, the handful that they do encounter are rather astounding.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 10:45AM
Reader Comments (120)
Just a quick reply to those who condone this behaviour. I'm from the uk and the arguement about not going to an english football match with a rival jersey is rediculous. I can only imagine youve seen the film green street and take that as what goes on in britain. Football Holligans/Gangs mostly died off in the 80s/90s. And all the slogans, while obviously syereotyping the south, had no real offense behind the statements. They were all legitimate beliefs that exposed the homophobic and sexist population of the south. Reading through the comments weve heard from people from alabama who have agreed that the problem is rife in the south. It was a great piece of journalism that exposed a major problem.
Man, I hate rednecks. What a bunch of close minded arseholes. Also @ Willy G and Ryan, they're not pussies what the fuck do you want them to do go fight them? It's Alabama most people would have guns they'd probably be dead if they tried to do anything.
it is true about the small towns, its only in small areas that people are like that, i live in the south, i don't like nascar, never a liked bush, and i really not a fan of country and westerns, if i seen those car rolling by i would only laugh, and say good for you =D...not pelt them with rocks..and it is a wonder if they didn't get shot, would hate to have seen a good car goto waste, lol
In a way, I can understand why the people in this video were offended. It wasn't so much what was painted on the cars as it was the fact that they were quite obviously going through the town with the express intent of offending and insulting the people living there on a television show. Imagine if someone did something like this with stereotypes about people where you live, just to put this into perspective. It would be a nuisance.
Still, the reaction was very over the top. Being from North Carolina, I know that there are quite a few people like this living in the south (not so many here, luckily, but enough for me to know the type of person), and that they can be extremely violent and sometimes even borderline murderous over things that most people would see as just being annoying.
That was funny. I am from the south and that will happen depending on were you go down here.
They actually could have done a lot better to kill themselves out there.
If one of those limeys would have written something bad about Bear Bryant they would have been dead in a few minutes.
Yeah, typical white trash behavior. Eerily similar to America's foreign policy.
All i gotta say is, well, they're all you americans' problem. After all, your whole country used to be that way.
That said, that's real funny.
And also, people need to stop being tragic arses on the net. Oh woe is me, My hometown's beset with bigots! My friends had their feelings hurt and they happened to be black! Get off your high horse. Everyone has issues like this, you are no different, and remember the only thing worse than listening to people's problems is listening to them recite their dreams.
If there's one thing that both the video and the comments prove, it's that Americans by and large have nothing approaching a sense of humour.
"But here's the funny thing, any nothing tiny town in the North or West is just the same. Hahaha."
As someone from a "nothing tiny town in the North," I can say this would never happen in my town.
I live in Alabama, and I'd like to clarify a few things.
A:) We do not all live in trailers like Hollywood portrays Alabama in films.
B:) We're not all close-minded republicans.
C:) We don't hate Yankees.
D:) Having a camera crew and purposely putting that on your car to see what we'd do is just asking for trouble. We're not so ignorant as to ignore a camera crew. We do know what cameras are, we're smarter than that.
E:) We're not inbreds.
@Bondo
"People like that are the reason my country went through a civil war. Even though it's maybe a 20% minority that is like that, the rest of the world seems to lump us all into the same demographic."
Did you even pay attention in history class? I take it that by "people like that" you mean people who support slavery and white supremacy. The Civil War was fought over states rights and the southern states' desire to succeed from the union, not slavery. Abraham Lincoln himself had no desire to take away the right of the southern states to have slaves, but when they tried to succeed from the union feeling that the federal government was infringing upon their right, he had no choice but to declare war. Abolishing slavery was just a side effect.
Also understand that in the pre-civil war era, slavery in the south was in fact a necessary evil in that the entire southern economy depended upon it, and the north depended upon the goods that it supplied. The only reason the North did not have slaves was because they were not necessary to their economy which had shifted more towards industrial development with the increase in immigration to northern cities. In the time period before and after the American revolution, all colonies and states used slavery because they were for the most part agrarian much like the south was in the time before the civil war.
And please, do not misconstrue all of this as me supporting the mindset of white superiority or anything like that; hell I doubt that you will even read this. I wrote this because I don't support ignorance in any form. Your statement was based on ignorance and was no better than the hate and bigotry espoused by the people in the video.
Not that the local's reactions are reasonable, but you would run into this no matter what country you go to. Go any where and mock the local culture's strongly held beliefs and someone will want to thump you for it. Football in England perhaps?
I'm a black man from southern Bama, and while this type of behavior does exist there, it alos exists all over this country called America. I've lived in Florida, Bama, Cali, Wisconsin, Philly, and NYC and the racism in this country comes in 2 flavors. The first is the in-your-face southern type, easy to deal with b/c you know it there. The other type is the coastal, soft-passive racism or the mid-western, I'm only familiar with blacks from tv racism. Its real easy to pick on the south for its racist history, but the coasts are by far more racist, b/c they have the money and the power. If it would not have been for the North's need for cotton and other raw materials, there would not have been a need for slave labor in the south. Also, if you go to the fbi.gov or the southern poverty law center's web site, you will see that most of the hate groups in America are based in California and New Jersey. Think about that the next time you're driving down the NJ turnpike or I-5.
Was I the only one that wanted them to lite the gas station on tire?
You don't drive thru a town with painted messages on car...
you have to remember the farther south you go the more the family tree looks like a pole.
While entertaining, this is stupid and proves nothing. The same if not worse would happen if you were to show up in certain London bars with signs saying "Chelsea sucks".
The show's not a documentary, it's a set up - a series of comedy skits hung (very) loosely around cars. Most of this stuff is scripted and/or heavily edited for laughs.
I'd like to see these ponces wander around Manchester UK with "Man United are cunts" tshirts. Then we could see some *real* violent provincialism.
Thank god i don¨t live there ^^, btw top gear best program ever, had a good time lauhing :D
Anyone a bit gullible? I would recommend watching the video a second time for those of you who missed it the first time. First, the owner of the station never said anything about “calling in the boys.” She wanted the cameras turned off. Second, the truck did not appear to be filled with angry rednecks. It was a glimpse of a random vehicle entering the parking lot of a gas station, thus the reason it was only a glimpse. Did anyone witness people throwing rocks? No, you heard it said and believed it. I find it interesting that the cameraman was supposedly witness to an angry mob of rednecks bombarding the gas station but didn’t feel compelled to capture any actual footage. They didn’t even show you any damage done to their vehicles after the supposed confrontation. Also, please note that there is no apparent damage to any of the vehicles when the camera crew captures them leaving the area. The so called “rednecks” didn’t give the reaction that was hoped for so the producers played the whole thing up. Don’t be so gullible, watch it again.
Wow. It was funny and sad at the same time! Come to Oregon next time you want to try that! You'll pick up a caravan!
The surprising part is that the attackers were literate enough to be enraged.
ok, I live in Alabama. If they had been pretty much anywhere else in Alabama they would have just gotten a few laughs.
Every state has that town and those people.
but then again who doesn't love antagonizing rednecks? :D
Herrm, you're a cocksucking hick who fails at life. Congratulations.