As a child, I was stigmatized after we moved to another state, so we had the image of being backward (probably largely because of our dialect) no matter how we really were.
My parents met at Auburn University as students. My mother was born and raised in Atlanta, GA. She told us people would be prejudiced against us and think us stupid, just by hearing our southern accents. She made us pay her nickels from our allowance for things like double negatives and ending a sentence with a preposition and other improper bits of grammar.
As a child I lived first in Mobile, AL where I was born, then cajun country of Louisiana SW of NOLA and then on to Atlanta for jr. high and high school. I've lived many places as an adult. I ended up buying a house in the foothills of the Appalachians, 40 miles north of Atlanta. Most people in our town were educated and refined. We did have some very country folk, too. The thing is, it's a very small minority of families who put their children in pageants. There are redneck, hillbilly families in the area, but even a lot of them are just regular folks who act nothing like the Honey Boo Boo show. You find people just as backward up here in Michigan. When it comes down to the brass tacks, though, most people anywhere you go have average IQs and aren't terribly deep thinkers. As long as people are getting along with each other, who cares? Honey Boo Boo is entertainment.
