http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4769679Oh my.
The large-proboscised primitive:
Cyrano (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-05-09 12:17 PM
Original message
What does "White trash" mean?
I've always hated the term "white trash." Although I can't document it, I believe this is a derogative Southern term intended to equate poor, ignorant whites with all black people. And we all know that by the (hopefully, mostly extinct) standards of the "Good Ole' South," black people are "less-than-human."
This is a realization that I've only recently reached. I am stating it as more of a theory than a fact. But if there are Southerners out there, or anyone else who can add to this "white trash" discussion, please let's hear from you.
Whoa-ho.
Like southerners are the only ones who use that term?
There's much primitive squibble-squabbling about the issue.
PeaceNikki (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-05-09 12:21 PM
Response to Original message
7. Check "teh Googlez"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_trash
White trash is a term referring to lower social class white people with poor prospects and/or low levels of education. It originated as a pejorative. To call someone white trash was to accuse a white person of being economically, educationally and/or culturally bankrupt. Over time, however, the term has become less offensive with use and often is used self-referentially. White trash should be differentiated from the term redneck, as each has a unique historical etymology and context in modern usage.
The term white trash originated in the Baltimore and Washington, DC area during the 1820s post-revolutionary war reconstruction boom. During that period, many poor people migrated to the area, and white and black semi-skilled workers were competing for the same jobs, resources and marriage partners.<1> The term white trash first came into common use in the 1830s as a pejorative used by upper-class United States southerners of all races against poor whites. It was synonymous with the slurs sand hiller and clay eater. White trash were hyperbolically assumed to farm ineptly on poor land, and therefore resort to eating clay in order to survive.
In 1854 Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the chapter "Poor White Trash" in her book A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe tells the reader that slavery not only produces "degraded, miserable slaves", but also poor whites who are even more degraded and miserable. The plantation system forced those whites to struggle for subsistence. Beyond economic factors, Stowe traces this class to the shortage of schools and churches in their community, and says that both blacks and whites in the area look down on these "poor white trash".<1> Sociologist Max Weber described white trash as " not owning slaves"
Cyrano (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-05-09 12:31 PM
Response to Reply #7
12. Harriet Beecher Stowe's take on this aside, what I'm reading in the above Wiki definition is that poor, ignorant whites are, for all practical purposes, blacks.
This aside, Wikipedia is a poor, flawed and often inaccurate "factual" reference source. The sooner it's removed from the net, the better.
Fat Che won't appreciate that last sentence.
But anyway, who appointed Oscar Wilde censor of the internet?
Isn't there something about "freedom of speech" involved here?
PeaceNikki (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-05-09 12:34 PM
Response to Reply #12
14. Is DU a ****ing thesis, ffs?
There are citations you can follow if you'd like.
nini (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-05-09 12:34 PM
Response to Original message
16. You mean there aren't stupid trashy white people outside of the south?
Using that logic - I guess everyone in the yankee states aren't racists, are well off and open minded.
White trash to me are the lazy, ignorant white people who think they are better than others simply because they are white. They are the idiots who vote repub with pride when it's against their best interests.
Cyrano (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-05-09 12:57 PM
Response to Reply #16
30. Yes, there are stupid white people outside of the South.
However, that's not the point of my OP. My theory is that it began as a Southern derogative term used by bigots and meant to equate poor, ignorant white people with all black people.
This isn't an issue of region. It's more of a question about the origins of the term "white trash."
It's a big blazing bonfire, but the primitives never resolve the issue.
