White trash
Petibacsi
Peti
James J. Griffith
people perceived to be coarse, unrefined,
undercivilized.
Jim G
Ralph Jones
> Can somebody give me a nice, dictionary-like definition for white trash?
It's an American term that is used more in the South than elsewhere. It refers
to a white person who is regarded as financially and/or culturally deprived.
--
I am focussed.
You have tunnel vision.
He is narrow-minded.
- rmj
Petibacsi
the South. Unfortunatelly we have enough here in the West.
So here is me description, how I know them from real life.
White trash: a person who is; abuses drug and/or alcohol, smokes, uneducated,
financially insecure having money problems all the time, no permanent job or
having underpaid primitive jobs, lives in bad appartments or motels,swears a
lot, not having reliable trasnportation (or only a shitty car), no possibility
to step higher in social life and don't even have the desire to do so, have
trouble with the law, have/had a screwed up family life.
Now of course not ALL of these have to fit to be a white trash, but most of
them. That's what I mean when I use the term.
Peti
JUST AN H
unemployed white people who actually believe they are "establishment," but
whose lives are going nowhere. These ignorant people blame all of their
personal shortcomings on "the niggers," the Jews," "the fags," "them lawyers"
and "the guv'mint."
For a more in-depth definition, read James Mitchener's "Chesapeake." In this
work of fiction, Mitchener's not so fictional Turlock family embody the spirit
of American "white trash."
> So here is me description, how I know them from real life.
>
> White trash: a person who is; abuses drug and/or alcohol, smokes,
>uneducated,
>financially insecure having money problems all the time, no permanent job or
>having underpaid primitive jobs, lives in bad appartments or motels,swears a
>lot, not having reliable trasnportation (or only a shitty car), no
>possibility
>to step higher in social life and don't even have the desire to do so, have
>trouble with the law, have/had a screwed up family life.
>
> Now of course not ALL of these have to fit to be a white trash, but most of
>them. That's what I mean when I use the term.
>
> Peti
>
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Opinicus
<199808081319...@ladder01.news.aol.com>...
> Can somebody give me a nice, dictionary-like definition for
white trash?
---
OUCH! Stop hitting me! OUCH! I couldn't resist.
Bob
janelaw
Or the characters in Tobacco Road or The Beans of (Somewhere)
Maine.
Caucasians who are poor, slovenly, ill-mannered, uneducated,
inbred, and alcoholic.
Petibacsi wrote:
>
> Can somebody give me a nice, dictionary-like definition for white trash?
>
> Peti
fred
citizens of the United States to describe those working-class
Caucasian-Americans who are often living in poverty and facing extreme
social and financial difficulties, especially when the causes of the
difficulties are misunderstood or are feared.
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Petibacsi
>citizens of the United States to describe those working-class
>Caucasian-Americans who are often living in poverty and facing extreme
>social and financial difficulties, especially when the causes of the
>difficulties are misunderstood or are feared.
Hm, I don't think this one is a good definition.
In my mind the person who is called white trash is in that social position
because of his/her fault because he/she doesn't WANT to change not that he/she
CAN't.
Yours is a very political correct definition.
Peti
fred
I agree. Clarifying the choice is important to the definition. I offered
the above definition as an alternative because I think labeling people
in distress sometimes precludes offering them better choices. I've
worked (as a mental health counselor and as a teacher) with people who
many would call white trash. Sometimes the "trashy" lifestyle is a
choice, sometimes it is an alleviable reaction to unfortunate
conditions. Of course, we can argue that any reaction to a condition is
a choice. My point is that some people mired in unfortunate conditions
are able to make positive choices with some guidance. In my opinion
those people aren't white trash.
As an aside, "politically correct" might simply be correct. I would hate
to see people abandon certain environmentally correct practices just
because the practices are also considered to be politically correct.
Pk2222
Eat 'em up!
My definition for "white trash" is equivalent to all the crummy words we use
for other undesirable ethnic or "groupable" people. OK, so maybe different
groups eat different food.
It seems that we use words of that ilk only to denegrate. Therefore, why not
excise them altogether? (BTW: I'm totally serious.) At a banquet for excellent
performers, I was amazed when my boss's wife claimed to have left a teaching
position because she didn't want to be associated with "white trash" and other
"expletives deleted." I was, at the time, too speechless to offer that her
husband, my husband, and my dispatcher (all in attendence) fit her definition
and enabled her affluent lifestyle! Think of the thousands of children she
spared!
pk
janelaw
>
> White Trash - (alt) A condescending term used by upper and middle-class
> citizens of the United States
I have almost always heard this phrase used by working-class
people.
janelaw
Sorry, I posted too quickly. I agree that the term "white
trash" is used to denigrate and distance. Maybe this has
changed, but IME the only people who needed a term to distance
themselves from "white trash" were other poor caucasians. By
using the term, one states implicitly, "We may be poor, but we
know better than to act as they are. We take education,
manners, housekeeping, work, and child rearing seriously."
howard
>
> Can somebody give me a nice, dictionary-like definition for white trash?
>
> Peti
Bear in mind it's a term applied to people by other people and look up
the words in a dictionary...
...or a selection of dictionaries. Should do the trick...
howard
--
*theabovemessagedoesnotnecessaril
managAr parChonmorliez? SilateezntelizSane
readRlips - deliriupS
"Olninezapa! telimuapan..."
stufftie gong-hall (y8a9m)
JUST AN H
this morning's paper of a corpulent Alabaman diving head first into a pool of
mud. He looked like a pig, and the admiring audience standing at the edge of
the mire was actually clapping.
The second instant was the fat woman I saw standing at the bus stop across the
street from our building. Her rolling hips and thighs looked as though they'd
been painted with purple and I found myself thinking, "Why do poor, fat
American women always dress themselves in purple polyester?"
Charles Riggs
> Can somebody give me a nice, dictionary-like definition for white trash?
>
> Peti
I can't go along with those definitions given here that strive to get
into the mind of the white trash and discover their motivations;
that's not the point of a descriptive definition. Anyway, here's
mine:
White trash is nearly always preceded by the adjective poor, since
they nearly always are. PWT is a derogatory term, somewhat similar to
redneck, applied to that group of American Southerners who are so lazy
and ignorant that the Southerners implied a comparison with negroes,
who they believe are universally lazy and ignorant. Thus they tacked
on the "white" to indicate it wasn't the blacks they were referring
to.
The term is dissimilar to redneck in that redneck need not be used in
a derogatory manner for originally it simply meant, as coined by
Faulkner, an agrarian worker (whose neck might well be red from work
in the sun). It took on its derogatory connotations from American
college students of the 60's who would apply this term to any
uneducated person they wanted to feel superior to.
My two pence worth,
Charles
CaseyKCKC
>White trash is nearly always preceded by the adjective poor, since
>they nearly always are. PWT is a derogatory term, somewhat similar to
>redneck, applied to that group of American Southerners who are so lazy
>and ignorant that the Southerners implied a comparison with negroes.....
>The term is dissimilar to redneck in that redneck need not be used in
>a derogatory manner for originally it simply meant, as coined by
>Faulkner, an agrarian worker (whose neck might well be red from work
>in the sun). It took on its derogatory connotations from American
>college students of the 60's who would apply this term to any
>uneducated person they wanted to feel superior to.
The main differences, it seems to me, between the terms "WT" or "PWT" and
"redneck" are (1) "WT" is always derogatory, while "redneck" is often used in
an affectionately humorous fashion; and (2) "redneck," in its negative
connotation, often refers to ignorant political or racial attitudes (book
burning, xenophobia, etc.), while poor white trash are generally perceived as
being apolitical, or at least are perceived from a socioeconomic rather than
political perspective (for instance, WT may use the "N" word because they have
no class; rednecks, because they are hateful).
Karen
CaseyKCKC
>I thought about this string twice today. The first was when I saw a picture
>in
>this morning's paper of a corpulent Alabaman diving head first into a pool of
>mud. He looked like a pig, and the admiring audience standing at the edge of
>the mire was actually clapping.
My first reaction to this item was to think about the three individuals I know
who come from Alabama. All of them are cultivated, sensitive, intellligent
people.
Then I remembered: They are _from_ Alabama.
>
>The second instant was the fat woman I saw standing at the bus stop across
>the
>street from our building. Her rolling hips and thighs looked as though
>they'd
>been painted with purple and I found myself thinking, "Why do poor, fat
>American women always dress themselves in purple polyester?"
They don't. Sometimes it's lime green polyester, powder blue polyester, or
even peach polyester.
Karen
Bill Fischer MD, FAAP
My interpretation of "poor white trash" has to do more with conscience
and nefarious behavior.
I've know many poor, illiterate people who I wouldn't classify as
trash. I've know some affluent people that I would. Money and station
have less to do with the definition of poor white trash than with the
way people behave and take care of their own.
Patronius
>>
>> Peti
Maybe somebody can, but I can't. All I can say is that it's typically part of
the phrase "poor white trash." It traditionally refers to lower-class, rural
Caucasians in the American South. (Thus "poor" for poverty-stricken, "white"
for Caucasian, and "trash" because they're treated with contempt by those of
higher social standing.)
I happen to be reading U. S. Grant's memoirs right now, and one thing he says
is that in the American Civil War, the "poor white trash" of the South needed
to be emancipated just as much as the slaves did. Both groups of people, he
says, were under the heel of the planter-aristocrats who believed they ruled by
divine right.
--Patrick
JUST AN H
contempt not only by those of higher social standing, but also by those whom
they themselves hold in contempt.
Patronius
>contempt not only by those of higher social standing, but also by those whom
>they themselves hold in contempt.
Maybe so. Civil War historians sometimes theorize that southern recruits
turned out in such large numbers because many of them were "poor white trash"
and wanted to keep slavery around--so that there'd be an even lower class to
look down upon. Once the slaves were freed, there'd be no class distinction
between the two groups--which must've been terrifying to a lot of poor, bigoted
whites. Misery may love company, but a miserable person especially loves to
see someone else even more miserable.
The slaves, of course, would have looked back at the "poor white trash" and
seen that they're no better people than themselves, and not much better off.
So as you say, the contempt may have been mutual.
Also, I suppose the "poor white trash" might have had (or still have) a bad
attitude toward higher-ups in society. So that contempt may have also been
mutual. I don't know. I'm no sociologist, and I've never lived in the South.
Btw, I'm not sure I buy the Civil War theory I alluded to above. I still cling
to the romantic notion that Johnny Reb was somehow fighting for something noble
and worthwhile--and that we lost something important when the Old South fell.
--Patrick
Dagnytgrt
> White trash: a person who is; abuses drug and/or alcohol, smokes,
>uneducated,
no college here
>financially insecure having money problems all the time, no permanent job or
>having underpaid primitive jobs, lives in bad appartments or motels,
>swears a
>lot,
F**k this one
> not having reliable trasnportation (or only a shitty car)
> have/had a screwed up family life.
damned near all accounts....
Sally Milo
White trash and Proud of it!
JUST AN H
Patronius
>Jackie Onassis chain smoked. Does she therefore count as "white trash?"
Maybe . . . but certainly not *poor* white trash. ;-)
--Patrick
Petibacsi
Just think about her, who she married and why.
Whore would be a better word.
Peti