Are you white trash?

Yes. Ambrosia salad is my favorite meal

No...but I love to fuck white trash, trailer park guys

King of white trash

What is white trash? Are you talking about people who are economically and culturally impoverished or just hateful gross people? I know a lot of trash with money who think it gives them license to treat people like crap. But theyre not like, Federline-adjacent Fresno sewer rat types

My parents are both from the hollers of eastern Kentucky. Dad's family was trashier than mom's, but both were dirt poor. They escaped north at a young age and rode the post-WW2 prosperity wave.

My mother was obsessed with not appearing trashy. She wouldn't leave the house without being fully coiffed and made-up. Everything was all about appearances and acceptance. And she forced my dad to work overtime/all the time at his blue collar job to kick us up to a higher income level.

There were always worries and fights about money. I think their biggest fear was being perceived as 'poor, dumb hillbillies'.

I'm not, but the "white trash" stereotypical boy/man is my perfect type. I should move to the country. Like, really backwoods country.

I’m inclined to say no, but does white trash ever know that they are white trash?

I grew up working class and I love fried chicken.

Here are my pretentious non-white trash creds: graduate degree in fine arts, live in Kalorama in an apartment full of orchids, don’t wear flip flops, don’t like beer, read constantly, don’t get into petty squabbles with people, find science fascinating, don’t collect Americana, guns or war memorabilia, can spell, would never consider going on Judge Judy or Jerry Springer or on any exploitative daytime talk show...

Am I white trash?

Am I overcompensating?

Should I subscribe to GOOP?

How are we defining white trash?

There is something I don't understand about the term "white trash". It seems as though the term implies that whites are superior to all other races. Isn't that a bit of a reach?

"Today, the term “white trash” is used colloquially to identify white people who do not conform to the established ideas about what it means to be “white,” usually indicating they are poor, uneducated, unemployed, or backwards. This term emerged as a racial slur for white indentured servants — poor whites from England and other European countries that came to the United States in search of citizenship in exchange for labor. In a recent segment on NPR’s podcast Code Switch, sociologist Matt Wray discusses why “white trash” remains a powerful insult against poor whites and people of color alike.

Wray argues that although the term is meant to disparage poor whites, it simultaneously demeans other races by maintaining that there is something about being white that is superior to other racial groups. This is why the modifier “trash” is used. Code Switch news assistant Leah Donnella sums up Wray’s argument well:

“. . . ‘white’ is the only racial group that needs a modifier for it to become a slur. There’s no ‘black trash’ or ‘Hispanic trash’ or ‘Native American trash,’ presumably, because for most of American history, those people were assumed by those in power to be poor, uneducated and criminal.”

Wray also suggests that the term is used to reinforce the long-standing idea that poor whites are more racist than middle class or white elites. This allows affluent whites to escape criticism as racists, while stereotyping poor whites as representative of “real” racism. Accordingly, Wray states:

“Whites who use the term are saying, ‘Look, I’m not racist. The person down the road is racist. The one who drops the N-word, or has the Confederate flag flapping off the back of their truck. That’s real racism.’ “

In short, Wray’s research shows how the term “white trash” reinforces ideas of white superiority, today and throughout history. Since it first emerged in the colonial era, the term symbolized how important the intersection of race and class was — and still is — for personal belonging and worth in the United States."

No, I'm not white trash even though I was born in Mississippi and lived there until I was 18. I presently live in coastal Georgia but I'm not poor and don't act trashy.

Reading Paul Fussell's "Class" was a back-breaker for me. Anyone seriously interested in this topic should check it out. And after you read the lengthy and cutting account of how trashy you didn't realize you are, you can read his son's book, "Muscle" - his reaction to being raised by a snob was to leave Manhattan for Venice Beach to be a competitive body builder. Great double feature!

I think it is a racial slur, and not against white people.

The term relies on a common understanding that white people should meet a certain bare-minimum standard of economic and educational status, appearance and decorum. Which by implication says that white people are unique in this regard—otherwise, there’s no need to designate color.

So while this is not necessarily always the implication, many people will follow that logic to mean that nonwhite people are generally understood to be lesser in these regards.

So yeah, it’s racist.

There are also very specific connotations that I picked up growing up: people who live in trailer parks (a specific shorthand for impoverished people—again, living below the expected minimum acceptable standard for white people), people with mullets (outdated hairstyles—failure to comport with trends/keep up with the Joneses), getting into petty squabbles, drinking a lot, using meth or heroin, hoarding.

My understanding of white trash is that it’s a way of making lower income white Southerners fell better about themselves. The white trash appellation was not self assumed but rather bestowed and did not exist, at least in my experience, without someone placing themselves above their neighbor not in socioeconomic terms but some amorphous group of behaviors which changed slightly from person to person.

The vast majority of Southerner whites were quite poor until after WWII and so income wasn’t an easy way to create class distinctions as has been typical in America. The way you set yourself above your other poor neighbors was having higher standards for manners, public behavior, and cleanliness.

IIRC, some of Fussell's prole markers (he said prole instead of trash, because he is classy): drinking out of jelly jars, displaying artwork by family members, having a gap between your suit collar and shirt collar, having a television as the center of your living room (this is everyone now, right?) and no books.

I am Pennsylvania's finest trash, darling.

I have lived low lows and high highs.

The collar thing he took really seriously. Prole Gape.

Oh for fucksakes, everything is now racist?

My grandparents travel across the border to go to "swap meets" in Montana.

And for the people that say that it's racist, it really isn't. There are loads of examples of "trash" in any country; but different terms are used.

Maybe...

Of course the term is racist, it says "white" doesn't it?

No, but I grew up with a lot of friends and classmates who were, and I can get down with them socially speaking. My family was on the upper end of middle class--not rich, but I was raised comfortably with my dad owning his own business, mom never had to work, we had a big house, never wanted for anything, I worked my way through through college and grad school, etc. Subjectively speaking, we might have looked rich to some people. That being said, both my parents came from blue-collar families with little means, and my mom always cooked like we were white trash. Let's just say I am no stranger to Hamburger Helper, green bean casseroles, and Totino's pizza. I also curse like a sailor. But by stereotypical standards (dirty wifebeater, Confederate flag on the wood paneling of my trailer, no teeth), absolutely not.

Is that because of an ill fitting suit, or not knowing how to wear a jacket?

Once a jelly jar drinker, always a jelly jar drinker.

R10-- it is amazing how well Fussell holds up-- that book was written about 35 years ago and large chunks of it are still valid.

His key point, which is often lost on DLers, is that money does not indicate social class, that many of what IIRC he referred to as "high proles" made more than the bourgeoisie (forget what he called that group). That's of note now, because the amplification of that gap and the scorn the High Proles feel is what makes them the core of Trump's base, Trump being the textbook example of High Prole himself.

And yes, the son's journey into old school hardcore bodybuilding is definitely a great bookend, too.

It is from buying off the rack, R22. Like Trump.

I secretly read about occult and mystic stuff and occasionally dabble in magical practices, sort of for fun but wishing something will come of it. I think most American Christians are pure evil.

Based on that last part, I don’t think I could be white trash. But WHAT AM I, THEN?

Classify me, classifiers of DL!!

most posters here are

IIRC R22, it was because they rarely wore suits and so did not know how to buy one that fit, and so their overly corpulent bodies would not fit into an off the rack suit--they'd need to buy a large size to fit their bellies which then left a gap at the neck.

I forgot about High Proles. Great book. He also emphasized that it is very difficult to completely change your inherited speech pattern, and thus very difficult to move into a higher class.

R24 This guy who wrote the book on how to discern white trash and then getting into “hardcore bodybuilding” is hilarious to me.

If there were one single inarguable marker of white trashism other than living in a trailer, for me it would be any home with grotesque muscle magazines with oily tanned cover models and huge plastic jars of “steroid alternatives” lying around.

No, the dad wrote the book and damaged the son who became the bodybuilder. Isn't it epic?

“ He also emphasized that it is very difficult to completely change your inherited speech pattern, and thus very difficult to move into a higher class.”

BRILLIANT! How in the world did he arrive at this realization?

He sounds like a real genius, this guy.

You would be surprised at the depths of self deception around here, R32.

Oh wait, you wouldn't.

They claimed that they were just happy that he had written a successful book. He had left a NYC publishing job for the bodybuilding thing. But I'm sure they were devastated, and he now lives in Montana or Idaho or something as a survivalist hunting guide.

New money people have a lot of anxiety about their place in society, don't they? And old money is anxious about new money...when they pay attention.

Old money needs new money to survive!

I was born plain white trash, but Fancy was my name!!!

Building your body to look like livestock for a human 4-H fair, poorly ‘dancing’ out mechanically choreographed dance moves while wearing a snap-on bow tie and collar with no shirt, living in Vegas, collecting guns, doing porn and stripping, red sports cars and oversized pickup trucks...

How to white trash:

The fact that I know the words to that song obviously says something, R39.

I mean R38.

I used to be White trash....now I only eat Cheez Whiz with a good Merlo.

No. More like aristocracy turned poor.

R32, are you implying that the American dream is a lie?

You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition has given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you? And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed? Pure West Virginia. What's your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamb? You know how quickly the boys found you... all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars... while you could only dream of getting out... getting anywhere... getting all the way to the FBI.

R44 Trump and Bezos continue to invoke their rights to the American Dream: More! Better!! More than you!! Better than you!!!

Is the American dream about social mobility? Or just about making money? Or are we the classless society? Everyone is middle class?

They first crime family are definitely trash.

I’m sure the service staff cringes regularly.

We had to read Class as part of a college class on the Reagan era--the professors point was that in that era people became more aware of social class and aspired to be like the upper middle class, whereas in the 60s and 70s upper middle class was the last thing anyone wanted to be--and that "Class" pointed out the different social classes that already existed and how the whole "Yuppie" thing helped to end the myth that everyone in America south of the Howells and north of the people in the projects was "middle class"

(Or at least that is how I remember it 18 years later)

R47 That’s the problem: the American Dream of social mobility is also the American Dream of greed. Poor people aspire and work to become middle class people. Middle class people aspire to become rich people. Rich people aspire to be the richest and the best people. The richest people still feel entitled to upward mobility. Some become philanthropists for ego fulfillment and ever-greater public adoration, and others just follow the greed and become corrupt wannabe royalty. But most American people feel uncompromisingly entitled—because it’s the country’s marketing scheme—to more, more, more, bigger and better, both as the narrative arc of their own lives and as the mythic story arc of their successive generations.

So really, with people from the Carnegies and Rockefellers to the Gateses to the Trumps to the Bezoses, Musks and Zuckerbergs, they all expect to keep getting more throughout their lives, and they certainly do not forgo the American Dream of their children and grandchildren being entitled to even more. That is the promise of this country: you build onto what your ancestors built for you, and there’s no going backward and no stagnating. And that is how this two percent and one percent demographic will keep expanding until they blow us all up.

Sounds about right. I'd say we are back to the state of people not aspiring to upper middle class status. Our rich people now either hide behind gates or present as aggressively class-neutral (like Zuckerberg with his t shirts) or are trashy billionaire pop stars. They all go to an office to work, like chumps.

I was saying R49 sounded right. I also agree with R50. But the richies try not to air their megalomania, except Musk, and except for the gigantic foundations to save humanity from itself.

R23, do you mean mason jars or jelly jars? Nothing as good as Tang in Flintstone's glass. Or does anyone remember Xarex?

I mean jelly jars, as in Flintstone, R53.

George W Bush was the last of that WASPy Ivy preppy handbook thing. Unless Jeb! stages a comeback.

PLEASE CLAP!

At the bottom of all these details is who controls the economy. The rest is "fun".

Yeah, they scream "class warfare" when that conversation starts, R57.

Bill Barr is sort of a preppy holdout, especially with those glasses (which someone should tell him no longer fit his fat face). The militant Catholicism skews things a bit, but it didn't stop Buckley.

The mischling Barr is not a preppy

He went to Horace Mann and worked for the CIA.

I mean, I see your point. The fact that he's all you can point to now for preppiness does say something.

Horace Mann has very few Christian students

It's a common statement to say that 'white trash' is a racist term. It isn't. Just because something has white in it, doesn't mean it has to be compared against something else.

Do blacks and latinos want to be called trash too? No - because the term used is 'ghetto', which I would say isn't as bad as there is an underlying understanding that it's a result of low socio-economic bubble and lack of opportunities.

White trash is something different. There aren't the same racial barriers and societal circumstances when you're white, so there's an implied failure at taking opportunities and wanting to stay ignorant and classless.

But being poor alone does not make you white trash, just like being poor and black or latino doesn't make you ghetto either.

Horace Mann still feeds into the Ivies, thus making Barr a preppy, technically speaking.

Wow, I didn't realize Horace Mann was the Jewish prep school. So, Jewish preppy is a contradiction in terms? Does that mean they like Phish instead of the Dead?

It's one of them R66, it's a day school not a prep school.

While many NYC privates now have sizable numbers of Jewish students, HM, Dalton and Fieldston/Ethical Culture have had the reputation for generations.

So only boarding schools count as prep schools? I guess you don't really get the ruling class experience until you gang rape a classmate, probably fewer chances for that at day school.

I am white-trash adjacent.

Obviously I am not full white trash because I use hyphens.

But my best friend in high school was the classic. His mother ran off and left three kids with a father who would spend three days and nights a week at his girlfriend's, where he wore black silk pajamas. There was little furniture and the roaches would fall from the ceiling onto the table as we ate (my friend would invite me for dinner). His uncles lived in a teepee in his grandmother's yard down the street.

They were so trashy they pulled the couch in from the front yard because it was better than the one in the house.

Ambrosia salad? What a fool. White trash would look at it and think someone was putting on a fake front and going above their larnin'.

Yes my whole family is obsessed with amusement parks especially Disney.

Because I’m the child of European immigrants, I’m not white trash. Even though we were dirt poor, my parents aggressive striving for themselves and us created an ambition and drive that meant we always saw ourselves apart form “those” people. I can’t imagine what it was like to be a multi-generational American. I think it gives you a confidence - but also a laziness - that I never knew.

That's funny, R71. I think you may want to specify Northern European there. And if you are including the UK in Europe, as some few people insist on, you might also specify English. Because non-Nordic European immigrants did not get their white cards upon arrival.

My friend from high school loved WWE wrestling (or as I called it- Wrasslin') dragged me to monster truck pulls and watched NASCAR at home. He was half Chinese and half black.

I guess you don't have to be white to be white trash.

R73 demonstrates the superiority of "prole" over "white trash" as a generic descriptor of classlessness and tastelessness.

R72 - don't be stupid it's not 1890 or even 1920. R71 said his parents - so presuming they came over in the last 50 years. There is some discrimination against immigrants from former Soviet republics, but otherwise, no real crushing oppression or discrimination.

R71 is right - I do believe a laziness develops in latter generations, which is understandable. The people who immigrate here are strivers and want to have some success and they pass that desperation on to their children. By their grand or great grand children, that fire is diminished considerably.

R71 would be a lot more believable coming from South Asia. No European with skills or class ever had to come to the US.

Is the US not a repository for trashy immigrants? If you were on top, why would you leave your country? You can just invest your money here.

I wish. is there any urban white trash? it seems to be a rural phenomenon

Yes, or at least I meet a fair few of the stereotypes

Donald Trump IS the very personification of the American dream.

Is there urban white trash? Hello? Southie?

Trump is scheming Eurotrash triumphant.

Kind of. In my dad's family, his generation was the first to graduate high school. For generations, they were poor tenant farmers and servants for rich land owners. My mom's family wasn't rich, but they were a bit prissy about dressing and acting like they were. I was raised in a large, soulless, mainly-Republican suburb where many people proudly refer to themselves as "rednecks". I have a Masters degree, but most people who see me or meet me for the first time would probably consider me "white trash" because I don't feel the need to dress expensively (lesbian, so jeans and t-shirt) or speak in a polished manner.

Well I guess Eurotrash isn't quite right. Human trash from Europe is what I was going for.

ah, I forgot about Boston. hmm, maybe

What about black trash. It is that term ghetto? I know many ghetto blacks and blacks know very well what is ghetto. Is the same as white trash?

Ask Bill Cosby, R86. It involves the word that shall not be spoken.

I'm no authority but I can tell you ghetto makes a very firm distinction between the two. ie, ghetto considers themselves completely the opposite of white trash (and I guess vice versa)

I get so tired of the Nazis around here who think DL should be nothing but a brainless masc gold star glory hole.

Wrong thread.....

If you have anybody named Brandon or Kaylee in your family your white trash

No. Not white.

I’ve never used the term in polite or angry conversation, nor have I called people the “N” word.

Being from NY, I’ve said, Dominicans, Porto (Puerto Rican), I-Talian, Micks, or Irish, & of course, white people, or Jewish people, but those terms weren’t considered racist, nor negative.

The first time I came across the slur was when reading Gone With The Wind, in the 6th grade. Emily Slattery was called POOR white trash, and the father of her child was also this, and eventually became a carpetbagger. IIRC, Mammy used the term, as did Scarlett. However, Scarlett’s mother was to refined of a lady to do so, as was Melanie.

I’ve never heard a black person use the term, anywhere, and the only time I’ve heard a white person use it, is here in the south. That was a few times and I barely engaged this person at work, anyhow.

R92, the term you're searching for is cracker, and is considered by some (most?) more offensive than white trash-- you can't possibly believe black people don't use this term. I don't know where you live but I have heard it many times, usually incorrectly applied (it's just any white person who happens to be annoying the black person at that moment.)

I ve also heard the word nigger used, every day, many times per day--I've never heard it used by a white person. It is exclusively used by teen aged/younger black or Latino guys. occasionally girls, but mostly guys. it's the default way the refer to each other. I'm surprised more white people don't realize this. I'm in a liberal city in the NE. I expect it varies by location.

I’m fascinated by white trash gays. Especially their asses.

Define White Trash