and perhaps it wasn’t. However, at this point, why bother?
either folks will continue w/that behavior or not. if they don’t, there’s no problem. If they do continue, you’ll have ample, fresh opportunity to flog the horse.
Alas, I am not letting this die, not because of what BBJ wrote but because of a comment I saw upon revisiting this thread.
Even if the term does not describe an ethnic group, some folks can be offended by it.
I used the term once, in my younger and less thoughtful days, describing my own family. My african-american colleague jumped down my throat about it, for she felt that putting the term “white” inbetween poor and trash implied that the average poor trashy person was understood to be non-white. Which is insulting to her heritage. I’d never thought of it that way, and I’m not sure I agree with her, but her point was that SHE found the term highly objectionable, even when it didn’t refer to herself or her family.
I post this to say that you, as an individual, can’t assess a term and declare it unoffensive or free of bigoted overtones for all.
And FTR, for those who weren’t following along, my objections with the term were not because I found it racist. I just thought it, well, mean. Classist, maybe. I dunno. I sure as flying fuck didn’t “rip” anyone “apart.”
Lord we’ve wandered far afield, haven’t we?
tomndebb, you rotten bastard, once again I see that what you posted made my post unnecessary. I skimmed like a madwoman because so much of this thread was making me sad, but I missed your comments the first go-around and just now saw them, having already posted some dumn anecdote about “White trash” being a potential racial insult.
Will you never get tired of making the rest of us look overemotional, uninformed, and trigger-happy?
Cranky-in my years of lurking, I don’t think I ever seen you rip anyone apart for the pure mean spirited pleasure of it.
Disagree volubly, yes.
Rip and slash, no.
That said, I’m not comfortable with any term that uses race/class to define a group of people negatively en masse either.
I thought your co-worker’s perspective really interesting.