Quote:
Originally Posted by ScrantonWilkesBarre
Thanks for the responses. I was just hoping for a bit more of a concrete way to pinpoint someone as being "white trash" though. Can they live in rural, urban, and suburban environments alike? Can they be Republican or Democrat? Can they be college-educated and undercultured or high school dropouts yet rather well-read? I know when I think of "white trash," images like this come to my mind...
...but I was just wondering if there were any alternative meanings besides what you see in the photo above?  |
Sorry for the lengthy reply--it's an interesting topic to me....
I think the term is thrown around pretty loosely; it can be connected to any of the factors you mention.
The most stereotypical usage seems to apply to rural whites, typically of Anglo or Scots-Irish descent, who live in places such as Appalachia, the Bible Belt, etc. The Appalachians termed "white trash" tend to be associated with living in "hollers" or trailers, are often considered clannish (and sometimes even incestuous), and are seen as poor, independent and survivalist--perhaps even aloof. West Virginia and eastern Kentucky seem to be singled out in this way, but I've heard these features applied to mountain-dwellers as far south as central Alabama and as far north as inner Maine.
The rural southerners I've heard the term applied to (with the exception of southern Appalachians) tend to be descendants of sharecroppers and other Anglo or Scots-Irish folks who settled in the hardscrabble foothills and lowlands. These are the kind of people featured in Agee and Evans' "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," though the descendants of these men don't work so much in agriculture now. Historically, these whites were seen as "white n*****s" by more fortunate whites, because they did similar work in the fields as blacks.
Since the early 20th century, especially since WWII, many of these poor whites left for other parts of the country. The "Okies" of the Dust Bowl, as featured in Dorothea Lange's photos and in Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath," represent this migration; most of these people suffered continued discrimination. Many settled in various towns and cities along the way, others made it all the way to the West Coast where they worked in agriculture. In general, many of these poor whites assimilated into general white society over the decades, but many descendants of these families still live in a world of poverty and/or clannishness.
With the rise of cities over the past few decades, "white trash" has come to apply not only to many of the descendants of poor white settler or pioneering families, but perceived tastes and cultural preferences of such people have broadened the term's application to a wide range of supposedly "low class" lifestyles of white people. For example, country music and bluegrass--with origins in poor, pioneering white cultures--have attained a stigma in society, so any white who nowadays happens to like such music--regardless of that person's ancestry--is in danger of being classified as "white trash." Of course, music tastes alone will not work to prejudice opinion; this unfortunate label is often applied when a confluence of specific features shows up in a person.
Nowadays, the features that may earn a person the "white trash" label include: poverty, musical tastes, dwellings (such as trailers, hollers) reflective of poverty; clannishness; food preferences (such as Treet, wild game, sausage gravy and biscuits) reflective of poverty; low educational attainment; marginal or seasonal employment; adherence to certain kinds of protestant religious denominations (Baptists, Pentecostals, etc.). There are many more, but these seem to be among the most universal.
However, the label has also been amply applied to many more profiles of people, so you can have people with very different identities being labelled as "white trash." Though the original poor whites were often seen as coarse and crude, the term currently is often used to described people who are not cultivated, sometimes proudly so. The term also has been used to characterize people who value the superficial over the profound (plastic surgery is often targeted; McMansions), who value over-the-top glitz over modesty (the Elvis "look"; lots of jewels and rhinestones on things), and who value big, accessible, fast-moving technology over cultural artifacts that require more analysis or that have more whimper than bang (NASCAR, plasma TVs, Hummers, monster trucks). Also singled out are people who are very fat or obese, people with alcohol problems or certain kinds of drug problems (meth, for example), people who consistently and inappropriately wear informal clothing (sweatpants, "wife-beater" shirts) and/or "legible" or "iconic" clothing (caps with the phrase "Dukes of Hazzard" or with the confederate flag, for example).
Frequently, white southerners of any socio-economic level are termed "white trash" if they are seen as being anti-progressive or too traditional. An interesting example: KKK members. Many KKK members are descended from the agricultural elite of the Old South; this is the elite that helped create the "white trash" term in order to disparage whites in the lowest classes.
In other words, more recent usages of the term may apply to rural whites, urban whites, and suburban whites alike. The term has strayed a bit from its original, rural usage. Now, instead of "white trash" implying poverty, as used to be the case, we have economic distinctions such as "poor white trash" and "white trash with money." This shows that the term's pejorative intent has broadened to malign basically any white person--even whites of German or Danish or whatever descent--who is somehow deemed inferior to the user of the term. Even bona fide WASPs with ancestral pedigree may be called such if they display attitudes or tastes that some consider to be peasant (for rural folks) or "ghetto" (for urban folks).
And the "white trash with money" label is sometimes used by self-perceived superior whites (WASPs, people with college+ degrees, white-collar folks, etc.) to denigrate the financial success and point out the alleged lack of corresponding educational refinement in a person. The term "new money" or "nouveau riche" is just a slight step up from that term, but the sentiment communicated is the same. Frequently, the way a person speaks will invite the "white trash" label, especially if the accent is southern.
Because the term has grown way beyond its original usage, basically any combo of traits can pigeonhole a person as "white trash." Bill Clinton, a highly accomplished individual with a superlative education and socio-political ascent, was pretty much called "white trash" in Republican attack ads during the election campaigns (remember the ads showing the trailers, with twangy instrumental music in the background?); George W. Bush has often been cast as "white trash" (the way he speaks, his religious adherence, etc.), even though he has passed through significant, elite schools and comes from a pedigree family.
Basically, if someone doesn't like a certain white person, and if that person reflects any set of features that can be perceived as "vulgar"--and especially if that person *prefers* the vulgar, given a choice--the "white trash" label may be nearby.
In short, it's an unfortunate, despicable term that lumps too many different kinds of people together.
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