Goombah
Goombah is the Americanized spelling of 'cumpa', a Southern Italian dialectic version of the Italian word 'compare' – a masculine 'friend'. Some would go as far as saying he was a macho Italian-American man but in our case he is a pseudonym for an Italian Redneck that likes to cook.
The term ‘Redneck’ should not be confused with the popular understanding of that term. The stereotype painted by some as a derogatory epithet of the lifestyle of the Southern lower class is far from what the title infers. This Goombah being Italian is proud of his heritage and ties to those who paid a high price to achieve equality of wages and social status.
The term redneck originated in Scotland around 1638 during the persecution of the Lowland Presbyterians by the Church of England. The Lowlanders protested and wore red pieces of cloth around their neck hence the term ‘redneck’ which became a Scottish slang word for dissenter. Many of these people settled in the Appalachian Mountains and the term was coined by an author in 1830. It eventually turned into a derogatory slang word referring to poor Southern white farmers. Redneck in this case refers to a completely different meaning of the term ‘redneck’.
Goombah's dad was a miner in the coal fields of Western Pennsylvania and a member of the United Mine Workers of America. The union and rival unions used the term redneck and a red bandana, in order to build multiracial unions of white, black, and immigrant miners in the strike-ridden coalfields of northern and central Appalachia between 1912 and 1936.
According to Wikipedia - - “The origin of redneck to mean "a union man" or "a striker" remain uncertain, but according to linguist David W. Maurer, the former definition of the word probably dates at least to the second decade of the twentieth century, if not earlier. The use of redneck to designate "a union member" was especially popular during the 1920s and 1930s in the coal-producing regions of southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania, where the word came to be specifically applied to a miner who belonged to a labor union.”