What does Okie mean slang?

Definition of Okie

1 informal : a native or resident of Oklahoma. 2 informal + sometimes disparaging : a migrant agricultural worker especially : one from Oklahoma in the 1930s.

Why are they called Okies?

Because they arrived impoverished and because wages were low, many lived in filth and squalor in tents and shantytowns along the irrigation ditches. Consequently, they were despised as “Okies,” a term of disdain, even hate, pinned on economically degraded farm laborers no matter their state of origin.

Was the name Okies positive or negative?

In the early twentieth century people from Oklahoma were occasionally nicknamed “Okies,” a special appellation that seemed a natural shortening of the state’s name. With the publication of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, however, “Okie” took on negative connotations.

What type of people were Okies?

“Okies,” as Californians labeled them, were refugee farm families from the Southern Plains who migrated to California in the 1930s to escape the ruin of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.

What is an Oakie is this a term of endearment or a derogatory term?

“Okie” has been historically defined as “a migrant agricultural worker; esp: such a worker from Oklahoma” (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary). The term became derogatory in the 1930s when massive migration westward occurred.

What does Okie mean from a girl?

“Lovely”, “Cutie”, “Handsome”, “Bubba”, “Okie”, = You Got a Crush.

What jobs did Okies have?

There was some work, especially in the new fields of cotton that were being planted in California – a crop that southern plains people knew a lot about. But there was not enough work for everyone who came. Instead of immediate riches, they often found squalor in roadside ditch encampments.

What happened to Okies?

So-called “Okies” and “Arkies,” sporting once-insulting nicknames that Okies later reclaimed as their own, fled the natural and man-made ecological disasters that swept through Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri during the farm crisis of the 1920s and the Great Depression that followed.

What state is an Okie from?

Oklahoma
The migrants included people from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, but were all referred to as “Okies” and “Arkies.” More of the migrants were from Oklahoma than any other state, and a total of 15% of the Oklahoma population left for California.

What did Okies eat?

Chicken-fried steak, barbecue pork, fried okra, squash, blackeyed peas, cornbread, biscuits, sausage gravy, grits, corn, strawberries and pecan pie. That’s more than a meal. That’s a feast.

What were the villages the Okies lived in known as?

As the Depression worsened and millions of urban and rural families lost their jobs and depleted their savings, they also lost their homes. Desperate for shelter, homeless citizens built shantytowns in and around cities across the nation. These camps came to be called Hoovervilles, after the president.

Did Okies strike?

One of the largest was the 1933 cotton strike. More than 18,000 cotton workers stopped working and demanded better wages. The Okies did not join unions. They crossed picket lines and worked for less money.