Okie: Difference between revisions
PoV tweaking |
Modern man (talk | contribs) mNo edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
'''Okie''' is a term referring to a person from the U.S. state of [[Oklahoma]]. Historically considered offensive, in modern times it is used proudly by some Oklahomans, who are often unaware of its pejorative origins. |
'''Okie''' is a term referring to a person from the U.S. state of [[Oklahoma]]. Historically and currently considered offensive, in modern times it is occassionally used proudly by some Oklahomans, who are often unaware of its pejorative origins. |
||
== Dust Bowl usage == |
== Dust Bowl usage == |
||
Revision as of 12:35, 16 April 2006
Okie is a term referring to a person from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Historically and currently considered offensive, in modern times it is occassionally used proudly by some Oklahomans, who are often unaware of its pejorative origins.
Dust Bowl usage
In the 1930s, during the Dust Bowl era, large numbers of farmers, fleeing ecological disaster, migrated from the Great Plains region to California along Route 66. More of the migrants were from Oklahoma than any other state, and some 15% of the Oklahoma population left for California. Californians called the migrants "Okies", regardless of whether or not they were actually from Oklahoma. The term was disrespectful and used in a derogatory manner, with connotations of homelessness, poverty, and hickishness. The term was made famous nationwide by John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath.
Modern usage
In the later half of the twentieth century, the term "Okie" took on a new meaning, with a few uninformed Oklahomans (both former and present) wearing the label as a badge of honor (as a symbol of the Okie survivor attitude).
Some Oklahomans who lived through the Dust Bowl who stayed in Oklahoma still see the term negatively because they see the "Okie" migrants as being quitters who fled Oklahoma.
The term Okie is also sometimes used derogatorily to refer to Midwesterners in general.
Usage in fiction
In the Cities In Flight series of science fiction novels by James Blish, the term "Okie" was applied in a similar context to entire cities that, thanks to an anti-gravity device, took flight to the stars in order to escape the Earth's economic collapse. Working as a migrant labour force, these cities came to act as cultural pollinators, spreading technology and knowledge throughout the expanding human civilization. The later novels focus on the travels of New York, N.Y. as one such Okie city, though there are hundreds more.
Also in "On the Road", the road-novel written by Jack Kerouac between 1948 and 1949 (although it was not published until 1957), the term appears to refer to some of the people the main character finds while working on the cotton plantations of the south during his trips around the States.