Shantell Powell<p>A while back, I was in a writing workshop. I submitted a story for critique written from a redneck POV. The instructor cautioned me to be careful about using slurs like "redneck," although she saw nothing objectionable in the content of my story.</p><p>This startled me. I was raised on the land and off the grid in rural and remote areas across Canada because my father couldn't find work. I lived in trailer parks and campgrounds, and sometimes we squatted in people's yards living in an RV. One other person in the workshop was also a self-proclaimed redneck living in US Appalachia.</p><p>I do not use "redneck" as a pejorative, and think that those who do are engaging in classism. </p><p>It makes me wonder how many redneck stories get published. I know I've had a hard time with some of my stories written in Maritimes vernacular from the POV of redneck characters. I've had an editor tell me that I need to run my story through Grammarly. So yes, there's an elitism going on when the use of vernacular is deemed "wrong." That's how folks actually talk. It should have representation. <a href="https://c.im/tags/classism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>classism</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/redneck" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>redneck</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/WritingCommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WritingCommunity</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/publishing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>publishing</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/discrimination" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>discrimination</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/representation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>representation</span></a></p>