The derogatory term "white trash" as explained by wikipedia

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^^^The why quote the entire wiki link?
Why not just pull an extract?

"as explained by Wikipedia" seems self-explanatory to me. The caveats you and Twightlight quickly cobbled together came afterward

I shortened the quote to make it easier to read:

An educated view of the term "white trash" in Modern America
“When you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there’s always a chance that the dancing bear will win,” says Isenberg of the political climate surrounding Sarah Palin. And we recognize how right she is today. Yet the voters that put Trump in the White House have been a permanent part of our American fabric, argues Isenberg.

The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement to today’s hillbillies. They were alternately known as “waste people,” “offals,” “rubbish,” “lazy lubbers,” and “crackers.” By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called “clay eaters” and “sandhillers,” known for prematurely aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds.

Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about America’s supposedly class-free society––where liberty and hard work were meant to ensure real social mobility. Poor whites were central to the rise of the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century, and the Civil War itself was fought over class issues nearly as much as it was fought over slavery. Reconstruction pitted poor white trash against newly freed slaves, which factored in the rise of eugenics–-a widely popular movement embraced by Theodore Roosevelt that targeted poor whites for sterilization. These poor were at the heart of New Deal reforms and LBJ’s Great Society; they haunt us in reality TV shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty. Marginalized as a class, white trash have always been at or near the center of major political debates over the character of the American identity."

https://history.wisc.edu/publications/w ... n-america/

^ It’s not too bad as far as book blurbs go. Overall, the book appears to have solid reviews. I have some problems with the blurb itself, but I would assume that her book provides a better overview than the description might lead one to believe. Reality shows often uphold stereotypes of “white trash” and promote prejudice while doing so, but they are largely scripted and not an accurate reflection of reality. Poor whites often do vote Republican (although I certainly didn’t). There are complex reasons for it. Religion plays a big role which isn’t surprising given the fact that poor people tend to have higher levels of religiosity, especially of the evangelical Christian variety in the US. I’m an atheist. We are all individuals. I suspect that a lot of the problem with prejudice towards the poorest among us, as with prejudice towards just about any marginalized group, is related to generalizations/stereotyping.

At any rate, I think most would be less inclined to use derogatory language towards poor folks if they were more aware of the challenges they we face. When people are condescending, engage in stereotyping or othering, or come to erroneous conclusions about me due to my poverty or gender, I typically assume that it’s related to ignorance which helps mitigate the sting. Unfortunately, it’s hard to help people who already have a low opinion of you based solely on your socioeconomic status (or whatever). When individuals are being condescending, I try to demonstrate my intelligence by working big words into the conversation like “dromedary.” Sadly, this hasn’t led to much success…yet.

In the 1970s, in West Baltimore, there was a sharp boundary between the black West Baltimore "ghetto" and poor white Southwest Baltimore. It occurred to me that, although both sides of that boundary were poor, the black side had a certain "grimness" to it that the white side lacked. Thinking about it today, there were a number of reasons, but a major one was that the riots in 1968 had burnt out all the businesses that operated on the black side. There were no proper grocery stores on the black side,for example. Unlike the blacks, the poor whites had no motivation to riot. Their principal commercial artery, West Pratt Street, was still lively even if businesses there catered mostly to people at the bottom of the economic ladder e.g. pawn shops and thrift stores. Also I believe that, during the riots, the Police prioritized preventing rioters from crossing into the white area. So, although disadvantaged, the poor whites still had the protection of the Police which the blacks lacked.

^ The thread is about the term “white trash,” not the Baltimore riots. It’s hard to talk about the issue of discrimination against the impoverished because people often turn it into a discussion about racism. Racism is an important topic, but other forms of oppression are worth talking about too.

If you’re in housing or a trailer park, you aren’t always taken as seriously as those who are deemed middle class or higher. It’s as though people assume a conflict is mutual or something. It’s hard to describe. People who haven’t experienced it may not be aware of the disparity.

It's ok, and yes like it's been pointed the issues that come with white poverty in the US often get swept under the rug and ignored because people would rather bring up the issues of racism.

Not that racism is not a very important issue in our American society, but it tends to overshadow the problems of classism. Like I've said we're treated as non-existant in our disadvantages.

I think this was why my mom became a social worker, because she herself gets what its like to grow up this way.

Police calls for domestic disputes are very dangerous to the police that have to answer those calls.
I live in a well off town where those calls get answered And a couple of officers have lost their lives as a result.