the term "white trash"

gavin - 1-9-2008 at 09:46 PM

rubs me the wrong way when people, esp. white people, use it

clevohardcore - 1-10-2008 at 11:58 AM

Its even worse when someone of another race uses it.

gavin - 1-10-2008 at 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by clevohardcore
Its even worse when someone of another race uses it.

ya think?
i feel like if a black dude uses it, its just to insult
but when i hear white people say it, it feels like a whole "i'm above you" type trip
its almost like a class issue in a way
like "im above you ya white trash because i dont aprove of the lifestyle you live or the choices you make"

i dunno
im looking to deeply into it

morgan - 1-10-2008 at 12:10 PM

I've always used it to describe someone who's an ignorant piece of shit regardless of their social standing.

DAK - 1-10-2008 at 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by morgan
I've always used it to describe someone who's an ignorant piece of shit regardless of their social standing.

yES

Jason the Magnificent - 1-10-2008 at 12:22 PM

That completely eliminates the B4B albums after Revenge... Instead of lyrics they just repeat 'white trash' to infinity.

JawnDiablo - 1-10-2008 at 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MrBadVibes

Quote:

Originally posted by clevohardcore
Its even worse when someone of another race uses it.

nah, I pretty much know what you are getting at and I think yer right on the money. I hear the phrase white trash being thrown around a lot more these days, and it usually seems as a way to make ones self seem superior to the one being slandered

JawnDiablo - 1-10-2008 at 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jason the Magnificent
That completely eliminates the B4B albums after Revenge... Instead of lyrics they just repeat 'white trash' to infinity.

kind of like rap dudes calling each other niggers all the time too

Discipline - 1-10-2008 at 02:20 PM

Never bothered me. I got it tattooed on me when I was about 19-20.

gavin - 1-10-2008 at 02:21 PM

its different for one to call ones self white trash

Jason the Magnificent - 1-10-2008 at 02:32 PM

So it's a politically correct arguement then? Akin to blacks being "able" to drop N bombs? I'm losing you.

Jason the Magnificent - 1-10-2008 at 02:34 PM

I'm guessing this stems from the Britney thread...is there anyone here that actually believes she is not rich white trash? It's not a socio-economical slur, trash is trash. Rich, poor, white, black...

and you didn't specify in the OP that white people could use it on themselves without rubbing you wrong, i.e. WT Rob, you just said white people period.

gavin - 1-10-2008 at 02:44 PM

its not an argument at all
its a thought and was asking for opinions is all
it doesnt really stem from the brittney thread but thats what made me think of it
i didnt think about white people using it on themselves until it was brought up in the thread

random - 1-10-2008 at 02:54 PM

I think MBV is getting at the real point... it's definitely a slur. But white trash is a weird term because it refers to different things depending on where you're at. Seems like in cities (at least in the northeast) it definitely refers to shit poor white people. Go to the south, and it usually refers to, well, the stereotype of white southerners (insert hick, redneck, inbred, etc here).

The BFB thing I see as being very similar to old rap groups like NWA reclaiming the word nigger... more of a "You and society treat me like shit because I grew up in a poor white/black ghetto, but I'm not gonna hate myself because of you" type of thing. In some sense, it's reclaiming a term so it doesn't have the same impact on you... but then people get carried away with that shit (see every rapper today).

clevohardcore - 1-10-2008 at 02:54 PM

when you think of it. White Trash. A white person who is only valued as garbage. Pretty mean spirited if it comes from someone else.

Jason the Magnificent - 1-10-2008 at 03:10 PM

well...I don't think anyone ever thought they were using it as a compliment.

if white on white slurs are out...i'm never leaving the house. :sniffle:

gavin - 1-10-2008 at 03:22 PM

here's a question for youz...............

if brittney was black and the exact same situations were happening with her, would you call her a nigger?

Discipline - 1-10-2008 at 03:47 PM

I'd likely call her ghetto trash.

Jason the Magnificent - 1-10-2008 at 04:43 PM

not anywhere near the same thing. not the same ballpark or even sport.

britney is white and she is trash...two adjectives together that describe her that bear NOWHERE near the same implications as the other word.

Someone surviving in a poor living situation that works hard, accepts their responsibilites and does what they have to do, day in and day out should have respect from anyone, white, black, rich, poor...good people are good people. Sometimes people get dealt shit hands in life...that doesn't make them trash, that makes them unlucky and/or underprivledged.

People that wallow in self pity, shun their responsibilites to family, friends, children, work and society are a totally differen't type of person. They can be rich, poor, purple, fat, short or emo. When you output trash, you are trash. How one can make a sensitivity arguement about the use of the term white trash really is beyond me. I can see your point about what a stereotypical slur white trash can be...but it has nowhere NEAR the same impact as the other word, it doesn't have the same history behind it.

Siczine.com - 1-10-2008 at 05:28 PM

White trash is perfectly fitting for so many people. It just rolls off the tongue.

JawnDiablo - 1-10-2008 at 06:48 PM

I have found myself using the term Yuppie in a derogatory sense more than once , when the acronym suggests nothing negative (Young Urban Professional)

DaveMoral - 1-10-2008 at 07:15 PM

Perhaps the question isn't so much using the term "white trash" but, if trash is trash... why not just call it trash. You know what I mean? Why qualify it with a racial indentifier at all? And why does "ghetto" have to be used as a qualifier for a black person? Why people live in ghettos, so do all types.

In a way, I'd go so far as to say that the term "white trash" is less derogatory of white people acting trashy, but towards non-white people. It's like saying this person is "trash" but is "white" and "white" people should be better than that. You know what I'm saying?

Discipline - 1-10-2008 at 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by juandiablo
I have found myself using the term Yuppie in a derogatory sense more than once , when the acronym suggests nothing negative (Young Urban Professional)

Done the same thing more times than I can count.

upyerbum - 1-10-2008 at 08:47 PM

It's all about context.

gavin - 1-10-2008 at 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jason the Magnificent
not anywhere near the same thing. not the same ballpark or even sport.

britney is white and she is trash...two adjectives together that describe her that bear NOWHERE near the same implications as the other word.

Someone surviving in a poor living situation that works hard, accepts their responsibilites and does what they have to do, day in and day out should have respect from anyone, white, black, rich, poor...good people are good people. Sometimes people get dealt shit hands in life...that doesn't make them trash, that makes them unlucky and/or underprivledged.

People that wallow in self pity, shun their responsibilites to family, friends, children, work and society are a totally differen't type of person. They can be rich, poor, purple, fat, short or emo. When you output trash, you are trash. How one can make a sensitivity arguement about the use of the term white trash really is beyond me. I can see your point about what a stereotypical slur white trash can be...but it has nowhere NEAR the same impact as the other word, it doesn't have the same history behind it.

ok
this is your definition of it
do you think everyone who uses the term thinks the same way?

and again, im not arguing this stuff at all
im just asking questions getting points of view
i dont feel strongly enough about it to argue honestly
im just interested in what people think about it

upyerbum - 1-10-2008 at 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jason the Magnificent
...but it has nowhere NEAR the same impact as the other word, it doesn't have the same history behind it.

Not if you lump all white people together, no.

Voodoobillyman - 1-11-2008 at 01:48 AM

I never really thought about this term before. I have used it in different contexts and never even really thought about it's impact. This is definitely an interesting subject to discuss. And yes, I will admit, I probabl;y would have let the N-bomb slip on Britney had she been black. Those are my demons and I am dealing with them.

Six66Mike - 1-11-2008 at 04:12 AM

i'm not getting into the debate, but I fucking laughed hard when Trump fired some dude off The Apprentice who wasn't even up for getting fired because he joked that he was himself a white trash kinda guy. Trump lost his shit & fired the guy hahaha.

Jason the Magnificent - 1-11-2008 at 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MrBadVibes

Quote:

I have no doubt that the word means something different to each person that uses it. That is the nature of words. It still doesn't make the two words comparable.

barc0debaby - 1-17-2008 at 12:07 AM

I don't mind white trash, i'm proud of my trailer park roots. Its better then gettin called a spud eatin mick any day, now thats fightin words.

random - 1-17-2008 at 12:14 AM

I meant to post this the other day and forgot about this thread...

So now we've finally got our very own 'white trash'

The demonisation of 'chavs' as a way of writing off those at the bottom of the social ladder has reached epidemic levels

John Harris
Tuesday March 6, 2007
The Guardian

For 20-odd years my mum has taught chemistry at a Catholic sixth-form college in Manchester. I did my A-levels at the same place: Loreto, a state-funded institution with a multiracial, multifaith roll, in inner-city Hulme. Since the early 90s, the area has been outwardly transformed, though its social indicators still speak volumes: at the last count, 65% of Hulme's residents lived in rented social housing. Set against that backdrop, Loreto is a beacon of Tony Blair's beloved opportunity society - two years ago, it was awarded the Queen's anniversary prize for higher and further education, thanks to "Educational provision in an urban context [and] raising achievement and aspiration".

It seemed a good a place to do an experiment: getting my mum to write "chav" on the whiteboard, and seeing what came back - from GCSE retake students, and a class taking its weekly dose of A-level general studies. And out it all came: many preferred the specifically north-western epithet "scally", though the distinguishing features of both archetypes were apparently the same - clothing brands Nike TN, Rockport, Paul & Shark, and racial profile (the unanimous answer came back in a flash) white. Chavs, the students said, are in the habit of "causing trouble, hanging round the streets, drinking and taking drugs". They are "working class, they live in council houses". Their parents "don't care, and they don't work".

"Some might change and go to uni," said one girl. "But not many. They're the exception." So how might they go up in the world? The only options were "theft, robbery, drug money or the lottery". In terms of background, these kids seemed as diverse as any opinion-poller could wish for - but what was fascinating was a shared indifference to the people they were talking about : neither threatening nor deserving of sympathy, chavs and scallies were simply a distant other.

Here, then, is a modern folk devil maligned just about everywhere, from schoolyards to the offices of upscale newspapers. The Daily Telegraph's venerable Simon Heffer, for example, almost exactly echoed the students' responses back in January: "Our underclass has been allowed to get out of control ... They and their children regard school as optional. Drug dealing and theft are the main careers, nicely supplementing the old staple of benefit fraud." He might loudly harrumph; millions crystallise the same sentiments in the habitual use of a single word.

Just lately, it's become unfashionable to worry about all this. A spurt of unease last year momentarily recast chav baiting as "nu-snobbery". This year hand-wringing about the bullying on Celebrity Big Brother - led, of course, by "queen chav" Jade Goody - found even the Sun appearing to call time on the term.

A couple of months on, the issue lies somewhere between passe and closed down, but scan the news wires, and the continued ubiquity of the chav is revealed. The Sun still uses the word with glee ("the transformation of Coleen McLoughlin from chip shop chav to catwalk queen has amazed critics," it marvelled last week). Elsewhere, the references pile up: "Bar bans 'chav' clothes," reports Blackpool Today; " 'Chav culture' crooks jailed," says the York Press; "A storm is raging this week, over claims made on a website that Burnham is a 'chav' town," reckons the Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News. The concept seems so ingrained as to be immovable.

What that says about modern Britain seems pretty straightforward. How else to understand it than as more evidence of our embrace of an increasingly American social model, in which there is opportunity for all - apart from the undeserving rump too feckless to seize it? In short, we've finally acquired our own equivalent of that dread term "white trash". As Lynsey Hanley's superb book Estates - superficially about council housing, but actually addressing much more - points out, at the bottom of the social ladder, class has been supplanted by caste, thanks to a con trick whereby successive governments have "hived off poorer working-class people from affluent society ... when, all the while, they have claimed that we are progressing inexorably towards a state of classlessness".

Given that Alan Milburn has again crashlanded in the news, this may be an apposite moment to recall one of his key contributions to the last election campaign: a call to allow "more people the opportunity to join the middle class" - such are the affectedly aspirational politics, running across all three main parties, that start out well intentioned but end up looking hopelessly crass; and there is something particularly depressing about leading members of the Labour party presenting the essential solution to poverty as individual escape. But that argument is for another time. What's relevant here is the way that the rhetoric dovetails with the "c" word, and where the latter sits in the culture: as a signifier used by millions for some of the unfortunates who have absolutely no chance of making that imagined leap.

As proved by the views of those young Mancunians, they're occasionally prodded and demonised, but largely left alone. The rest of us - in theory, anyway - can join the meritocracy and acquire the trappings of at least modest success; to paraphrase George Orwell's 1984, chavs and animals are free.