i wish
white trash-talking
The term “white trash” is so racist and offensive I cannot believe people ever use it. Like “female doctor” it has built into it the assumption that the norm for trash (for doctors) has been subverted here: that surely the usual condition of trashiness is blackness. It disgusts me that people use this term with almost a smug feeling, it seems, as though they are holding up a sign Look How Broad-Minded Am I, That I Can See How Even White People Can Be Human Trash, Too.
10 comments on “white trash-talking”
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You must stay with me for a while in the Hill Country of Mississippi! ”Smug” doesn’t even get the depth of human darkness!
I always felt like white trash because I was white and my life wasn’t worth anything to anyone. There was a time, a lot of people would have agreed. I was at the bottom and it made me feel better to own that title. People don’t look down on you just because of your race. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is.
Oh, Nikki, that’s horrible. Feeling that one’s life is worth nothing to anyone is so heartbreakingly cold and dismal. No one should have to experience that, but so many of us do. Thanks for understanding that I meant. I can understand the urge to own a slur or insulting label because it just feels more empowering, or less disempowering, to call yourself that than have other people inflict it. It creeps me out that it would not be ok to speak of someone as ‘black trash’ but it seems ok to talk of ‘white trash’ because that ability to cop an insult has so much racial assumption of superiority built into it.
I don’t disagree with you. I see now that it looks like I do in my last comment. It’s a powerful word. I’m not sure of the etymology, but I always thought it was created in the American South. There’s been a sort of understood caste system there since the abolition of slavery. I think the “trash” part is more important than the “white” part. The phrase used to be “Poor White Trash”, or “PWT”. My grandfather was a PWT. His family worked on my grandmother’s family’s farm. Their marriage was ill-advised at the time. Not many people know that.
It is from the south and is from the idea of class systems, from mining towns, from rural poor, etc. I thought it was a real anti-class thing that people started to “own it” in the 80s. I don’t want to get into it because I understand it is very complex and anything I say will sound very trite and not convey what I understand it to be, and my understanding is shallow compared to people who live it and other forms of discrimination.
But I will say this, Cathoel Jorss—you should read “The Little Friend” by Donna Tartt because I was just reminded of it and though it adds nothing to this conversation, it is a brilliant book.
A racist and classist term.
….but like all denigrating terms it has been co-opted by some of those targeted to deprive it of negative power. I think it’s a bit more complex too, as some others have indicated above.
It’s a condescending term one would use about someone whose living standards are not “up” to one’s own… a way to indicate one’s superiority.
I wonder just how many synonyms there are for “not equal to me.”
“I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”‘ Lyndon B. Johnson
Sadly, I feel he was right.
We should not be using this term, or others of its ilk. We are de-sensitised to so much of this type of behaviour in so many ways. One of the more insidious is via the field of ‘entertainment’ based on humiliation. A few of the examples are MKR, The Biggest Loser and so-called pranks such as those featured on commercial radio. Of course, pranks are harmless , and just for a laugh. Not so! Others might laugh, but the target of the prank is made to look foolish at best. At worst, lives are ended as was the case with Jacinta Saldanha.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jacintha_Saldanha
Reducing the incidence of insults, generalisations linked to put-downs and other negative labelling is a big challenge. But I continue to take it up..
I’ve read a lot tonight. It’s 3 am here in Australia. The racism and sexism of those in power has been staggering. Despite one US article suggesting one should not read Internet comments, I have been heartened by the thoughtful and compassionate responses here and commenting on our current situation. People often condemn technology and particularly social media, but I am constantly reminded that people of goodwill are everywhere and this is our voice.