okies
I read an essay " LIke a Mexican" and it had the writer grandmother said that everyone that was not Mexican, black, or Asian was an Okies. What does she mean by okies.
5 Answers
Hey, Steve, my parents and ancestors came from the hills of Eastern Kentucky, so I had no mind to be a-black guardin' you. 
I realize that in careful writing, "Okie" should only refer to dustbowl refugees from Oklahoma, but I wanted to point out that this term is used colloquially in a much broader sense as well.
Watch how you bandy those terms about James. You never know when there might be a slightly more educated, but still proud of his roots, hick or Okie in on the thread. One could use any of those terms to describe your's truly, and I sometimes do, you however should refrain from doing so, if'n you know what's good fer ya that is.
just kiddin, or as you guys would say lol.
James Santiago said:
What Steve says is all correct, but the term okie has expanded over time to refer in general to white people of low education and income, usually those from the southern and central parts of the US. Similar terms are hillbilly, redneck, and bumpkin. Similar terms in Spanish include rústico and paleto.
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What Steve says is all correct, but the term okie has expanded over time to refer in general to white people of low education and income, usually those from the southern and central parts of the US. Similar terms are hillbilly, redneck, and bumpkin. Similar terms in Spanish include rústico and paleto.
The word comes from Oklahoma, and refers to people who fled the "dustbowl" in that state and other states in the American southwestwest in the 1930's. They packed all their belongings and moved to California to pick fruit and vegetables as migrant farmworkers when they were kicked off the land they had farmed in their home states. Many had been tenant farmers(sharecroppers), others could no longer pay the mortgagaes on their farms because they could no longer grow enough food to sell any. Read the book (or watch the movie)The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck if you are so inclined. Their descendents are a large percentage of the population in the parts of california where they finally settled, especially the central valleywhere most of the farming is..
What do the term okies mean
