The phrase "White Trash"

Post Reply New Topic

Riddle me this please. Why is the phrase white trash so terrible and offensive, even more than just "trash"?

I have heard this phrase all my life and use it. Is it so terrible because some people think it implies that all black people are trash? If that's so, it most certainly doesn't. Is it because its calling someone trash, which some people mistakenly believe means that they should be discarded and done away with? Because that's not right either. Is it because its acknowledging that the person is white? Because that's stupid.

In a similar vein I was accused here a while back of being a horrible racist by some nut because when telling a story about my sons high school principal I gave a physical description of him and since he's black I included that. Because I included it this nutjob called me racist and went on and on about it. I feel he was nuts rather than misguided because he went to far as to throw in some sort of comparison between himself and Nelson Mandela and somehow connected reading my post with being in South African prison for 27 years. This was last year around my 27th anniversary which is why I remember it so well. His prison comment gave me an idea for an anniversary joke about myself. Anyway it seems to SOME PEOPLE you are racist if you MENTIONED what race someone is. So maybe that's why white trash is so evil?

I really want an answer from one of the denziens of defending the downtrodden if possible. Why is that one so much worse than just "trash"? I know it isn't nice to say, I get that. Its a pretty big insult around here. However why does it offend the tender ears and finely trained sensibilities of the PC bloodhound bunch? How is it so different?

And no, before you ask (you know who you are) I'm not trolling for am argument, I'm really curious about this phrase because I don't see the difference.

I tend to try and mention race only when it is somehow relevant. I'm not too familiar with the usage of white trash, but there's no real need to bring up someone's race when you're calling them something. If you think someone's trash, presumably they can change whatever it is that makes them trash, they can't change the colour of their skin. Saying white trash makes it sound like you're saying being white is a bad thing. Just trade in white trash for human garbage and it conveys the same message without any awkward race-stuff.

It's just easiest all round to not factor someone's race in when talking about them and it has no relevance.

And I'm someone who loathes PC.

Perhaps it would be offensive to people of "different colours".

Using the phrase "white trash" means that "trash" must be distinguished by skin colour.

I thought the recycle folks said we were supposed to sort the garbage

For real though, thanks for the answers both y'all. I've always heard it said as a phrase.

Same here. When you mention someone's race unnecessarily, it does tend to carry a racist undertone to it, even if it wasn't your intentions.

i don't think it's racist, but calling anyone trash isn't cool. much better to describe the specific behavior and why you don't like it.

I'm aware its an insult. My question is why it's a particularly un-PC insult when the insult "trash" nor "trashy" doesn't wind them up. Why is the word "white" the thing that upsets the bawling brigade?

You're welcome.

So I Googled it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_trash

...yeah. I think you want to avoid using that one like the plague.

I'm not so sure I believe wiki there. They didn't even get the term redneck right in that article. They also left out GWTW from the literature section. Wiki doesn't do that good a job with cultural stuff. Lots of times the article is written by somebody from a completely different culture. This one focused on poor and I know a lot of white trash that aren't poor. Brittany Spears for example. Shes white trash. Thanks for looking it up though.

In the PC ret*d view of the world and how media caters to ret*d views like this it means white people are bad and everyone one else is good! Yeah its racist against White people but in that view racism against White people is either ok or does not exist! White people need to go back to Europe right? SMDH the Irony of that is many Arabs Muslims are invading Europe so that means they need to go back to where they came from as well! SMDH again hypocrites and idiots! WHine all you want about the Alamo you guys arent getting anything back unless you fight for it that is all there is to it. America will always be America its powerful as hell.

It is an acceptible slur and stereotype up in here in New York. It means they are descibing the person as uneducated, has poor taste, is financialy poor, and is bigoted and comes from a rural area. It is in every way describing the person described as white trash as both other and lesser. But it is completely opposite of n****r in that there is no shaming for using it here.

I think white trash specifically refers to white people of the south. To me it means people who have opportunity but squander it due to laziness and ignorance.

The ability to insult seems a dying art.

While it is about behaviors, calling them out one at a time could take all day, and half of tomorrow.

I have been using "Hairless ground apes," as a general insult. It is non descrimatory and genderless. As such it does match their political and sexual choices.

I do have standards, they are low, but I do have them. The majority of all behaviors that fall below standard, which is the majority of all behavior, was done by Hairless Ground Apes.

Back when we had hope, several hundred years ago, Ben Franklin wrote about the English King thinking the colonies had a shortage of prostitutes, pickpockets, sodomites, idiots, as that was what he was sending. Franklin informed the King we had an ample supply and what we needed was farmers and craftsmen.

In response the King Granted Ogalthorp a colony for Debtors, Frauds, and all other economic crimes, in Georgia.

With a whole country open for settlement most of the rejects of Europe stayed within miles of the docks where they landed. Most of New York spread no farther than twenty miles from Ellis Island. They recreated the slums of London where they were from.

Many were not forced to leave or be hung, they came as Indentured Servants to those who would pay their passage. Almost all then ran away to the cities.

There were two classes, land owning tax paying voters, and white trash. Later white trash were given the vote.

They of course sold it, and that caused a Civil War. The Gangs of New York is a good history, and when the war started it was New York City that rioted, over the draft.

White Trash are northern city people, and a lot of them flooded south after the war. They were brought in for the vote. While everyone was poor after the war, most recovered in a generation. White Trash stayed true to their slum heritage.

It is cultural rather than economic, some white people are just trash. They have always resented it being mentioned.

Growing up, my parents told me there was trash of all color and economic status, but "white trash" was commonly used to refer to the people in my area who were poor, ill-educated, poor diet, smoked like a chimney (one woman would smoke a pack in an hour - we children nicknamed her potty mouth for that and the heavy usage of cuss words) and were just generally mean people. The term "white trash" was never used to describe nice people, at least not that I can remember.

We used "redneck" to mean something else. We always joked that we were rednecks, to an extent ("if you've ever gone squirrel hunting in your living room, you might be a redneck.") and some of my dad's family could be considered such to some degree. I grew up thinking rednecks were just lower class farmer types or people who lived in trailers and had lots of kids, but it didn't strike me as meaning they were bad people. But then I've always had a skewed way of looking at things compared to most of society :/ I don't think I would ever call someone a redneck, though. That's not a go to descriptor for me.

signifying that the trash is white insinuates that it's normal for nonwhites to be trash but not normal for whites to be trash.

where I live in the Midwest USA some people appear to like defining themselves as white trash.

I don't agree. I think the term 'white trash' merely refers to the fact that there are trash in all races, but you are narrowing down the term you are using to refer to a specific group of lowlifes.

Last edited by glebel on 27 Oct 2015, 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.