# Fine. I admit it. I'm white trash. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 28, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221 "2010-11-28T23:33:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/41 "2010-11-30T00:12:50Z")
Here is my white-trash solution to hunger. Please, no moral judgments here, flame me in The Pit if you want. Put on your Sunday best. or at least clean business-casual attire. Go to a Hampton Inn, Drury’s, or the hotel of your choice that offers a breakfast buffet. Walk in like a guest (you are) and get at least a good breakfast for your day. Situations like this might even lead to conversation with other business folks and could extend your networking contacts. Just fit in with the scene and you’ll be fine. I thought I would have never have to do this myself, but then on a road-trip from hell I had to think of something better than flying a sign at the nearest Interstate exchange. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/42 "2010-11-30T02:59:26Z")
> [@moorland reiver](#): > > **I have been so broke that $5.00 was a fortune.** > > I have washed clothes in a bath tub and hung them out to dry until it was too cold (Alaska winter) and then I hung a line throughout the house to dry our clothes and bedding. There were times while living in the Bush that I would have to tell my kids that yes, we had to eat salmon/halibut/king crab again because the hamburger at the cannery store was too expensive. > > When I lived in Washington state there used to be a guy who would go to the grocery stores and get the “too overripe produce to donate to the food banks” produce and drive it to the neighborhoods where he knew people living on the edge of poverty were. You would be amazed and what you can salvage from that. We would also glean the fields after the crops were harvested. It was cold, wet, hard work, but you could pick a lot of produce that the machines missed, especially root crops. I have eaten a lot of ramen, and understand the empty cupboard situation well, right down to the unlabeled can of mystery food. I also have some mood disorders, and understand the cycling as well. Scrubbing walls and floors, cleaning out cabinets and cupboards and light fixtures was my way of coping as well. > > Hang tough, times will get better! My life has been lived on the edge forever, (I am 50) but changes this year have resulted in being in a better financial state, and I don’t have to be afraid any longer. I wish the best for you, take care. > > _I don’t translate being broke to being white trash. Do you have cars on blocks in your yard? There are better indications of white trash than going through some hard times_ I was there. In fact, I remember rolling pennies and cashing them in at the bank just to buy toilet paper. Armour Star brand canned meats were a staple for me. I got better. Seriously, I agree with **moorland reiver** –things will get better. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/43 "2010-11-30T03:02:26Z")
White trash doesn’t care, doesn’t try. You’re just going through hard times. And being frugal. You know, I think _everyone_ should go through a hard time at least once. I _think_ most people don’t appreciate what you have until you do go through those times, and you don’t learn to make hard choices, and learn what you need, not what you want. I remember being so broke, it was either find another 48 cents to make bus fare or walk. (I was a starving student!) I never, ever pass up a penny on the ground, never mind a nickel or a dime. It’s like asking the fates to make sure you’ll go through a time when you _need_ every single cent. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/44 "2010-11-30T03:56:42Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Nah. I’ve washed clothes in the tub before. That just makes you broke. > > Do people really “clean” clothes by smoking under them? How would that possibly improve the cleanliness of the clothes? Unfortunately, yes. I have had a few white trash clients. Belowing smoke into the clothes doesn’t really improve their cleanliness, but improves the odor sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/45 "2010-11-30T07:17:58Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > You guys have me wondering - what’s the difference between poor and white trash? White trash are usually…economically-challenged, but not all poor people are white trash. Behaviour. The lady standing out on the front porch balancing a kid on one hip, a ciggy dangling from her mouth, a bottle of Jack Daniels in the other hand and screeching “YOU kids come getchur DINNERS right now, err I’m gonna beat holy hell outcha behinds”! White Trash. Three or four women whose hair has more mass than a small toddler, wearing more makeup than Tammy Faye, and all fighting over a man who looks as if he hasn’t had a decent meal (or a visit to the dentist) in several years and who are displaying this classy history on a fine entertainment program called “Jerry Springer”. White Trash. Or, same crew of women, same pathetic man (times 3) anxiously awaiting the (10th and final round) of paternity results on another charming daytime program called “Maury”. White Trash. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/46 "2010-11-30T07:22:47Z")
I think you’re onto something there, **CanvasShoes** , but what makes some lower income people behave like that? ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/47 "2010-11-30T07:38:52Z")
IANAP or P (psychiatrist or psychologist :D), but I think it has a lot to do with attitude as some other dopers have said. Unfortunately, also as some other dopers brought up, welfare has some blame in this. It’s a vicious cycle, maybe (sadly) people just give up, or they don’t really believe they can do better, so rather than break the cycle, they just perpetuate it out of some sort of misguided “fine, if everyone thinks I’m so bad, I’ll just BE bad then!” mentality. I swear I’m not a liberal, but sometimes it makes me want to take to the road like Johnny Appleseed, only instead of planting apple seeds, I’d be trying to plant reality in people’s heads. (if that makes sense :)). I’ve been there. I spent about 5 months as near to homeless as a person can get without actually being without a roof. We lived in a small “hunting cabin” a friend let us stay in after a house deal fell through. At the time, where we lived, and with our budget, the housing market was that tight that we couldn’t find ANYTHING. (this was nearly 20 years ago). This “hunting cabin” was really a 10 foot 1950s era camp trailer with a plywood leanto attached, well semi-attached :). It had no running water, no “facilities” and no electricity. I was working as a secretary and had to commute an hour each way to work. So there was a lot of running around to laundromats and such. We’d sneak into the local high school during after school community events to take showers. We had to heat with wood, and yet I had to somehow keep my office clothes neat and woodsmoke free. As you can imagine, there was no way to keep food cold and fresh, so the quality of meals wasn’t that great either. Yeah, a lot of mac n cheese and stuff like that. And so on and so forth. At the time I had little in the way of experience or skills, and I’m not all that bright, so if I can do it, pull myself out of that sort of black hole, anyone can. It was miserable in ways I don’t care to bore everyone with, so I’m always perplexed at why people would willingly stay in such situations when they CAN be gotten out of. It’s not easy, and it can take a lot of work, but it can be done and it’s far more pleasant than welfare and that lifestyle. I guess it’s like the old frog and the pot of boiling water parable… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/48 "2010-11-30T07:55:29Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > So I find myself doing that which I’ve never thought of doing before. I’m washing my clothes in the bathtub. I assume others have done this? Please tell me I’m frugal and resourceful. I haven’t; one of my Nigerian kitchenmates from last year (on-campus living, individual rooms but shared bathrooms and kitchens) would, and he would leave the clothes strewn all over the bathtub room and the heaters to dry. He wasn’t as bad as the other Nigerian who liked to channel The Little Mermaid at 3am, though (my room was sandwiched between the bathtub room and the one of the first Nigerian). I’ve done minilaundry in the sink of hotel rooms. I once had to spend a month in the same hotel in Mexico, and it was one of those where you have to leave the card in when you leave. After a couple of weeks I went to ask for my cardkey and one of the receptionists on duty mentioned, all casual-like, that they had laundry service. “Ah, yes. One pair of panties, 11USD. You know, I could buy a set of three brand-new, all-cotton briefs at the nearest supermarket for something like 3 pesos, but I’m not really in need of 20 new pairs of briefs, it would be so wasteful.” They chuckled and admitted that well, ok, yeah, it’s ridiculously expensive, but hey, the gringos usually pay it. So long as your wet clothing isn’t stopping someone else from using the bathroom at decent hours, knock yourself out, I say. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/49 "2010-11-30T16:15:18Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I think you’re onto something there, **CanvasShoes** , but what makes some lower income people behave like that? The thing is, it’s not ONLY lower income who are white trash, although the majority are. My husband is a redneck/white trash, and he makes six figures. Out of a family of 8 kids, he’s one of two who graduated high school…the rest dropped out. A couple of them went to night school, or got GEDs, but this was some years after they’d dropped out. Mostly, what makes someone white trash is culture and attitude. They’re anti-intellectual and damned proud of it. My husband’s mother and stepfather actively discouraged their kids from trying to take classes in high school that were anything more than the very basics, and had them take part time jobs after school. For instance, I took two years of algebra and one of geometry in high school, and would have taken a year of calculus if I’d gone for the full four years (I graduated in three and a third years). My husband and his sibs, though, took only the basic math courses that were required. Same with science and the other requirements, my husband and his sibs took only the basics. The reason that my husband is making six figures today is because he enlisted in the Air Force, and stayed in for a dozen years. During that time, he took several technical courses which enabled him to get a job in a semi-civilian capacity. He’s still a Federal employee, but he is quite skilled at what he does. He still enjoys huntin’ and fishin’ and watching sports on TV, and he rarely reads for pleasure. White trash won’t read for pleasure, for the most part, except for men’s adventure novels or romances. They’re far more likely to have the TV blaring, even if nobody is watching it. When I visit any of my inlaws, the TV is on. Even if they leave the house, the TV is left on. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/50 "2010-11-30T16:43:50Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > Behaviour. > > The lady standing out on the front porch balancing a kid on one hip, a ciggy dangling from her mouth, a bottle of Jack Daniels in the other hand and screeching “YOU kids come getchur DINNERS right now, err I’m gonna beat holy hell outcha behinds”! > > White Trash. > > Three or four women whose hair has more mass than a small toddler, wearing more makeup than Tammy Faye, and all fighting over a man who looks as if he hasn’t had a decent meal (or a visit to the dentist) in several years and who are displaying this classy history on a fine entertainment program called “Jerry Springer”. > > White Trash. > > Or, same crew of women, same pathetic man (times 3) anxiously awaiting the (10th and final round) of paternity results on another charming daytime program called “Maury”. > > White Trash. Why do we never hear about black trash? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/51 "2010-11-30T16:48:45Z")
I’ll tell you the reason…it’s because black people were assumed to be trash, all of them, unless they proved otherwise. Yes, it’s horrid. But that’s the way things were. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/52 "2010-11-30T17:26:24Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > Why do we never hear about black trash? Living in Middle Georgia again, I hear about them all the time in sly asides from people who inexplicably think I believe as they do. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/53 "2010-11-30T18:25:26Z")
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#): > > Here is my white-trash solution to hunger. > Please, no moral judgments here, flame me in The Pit if you want. > > Put on your Sunday best. or at least clean business-casual attire. > Go to a Hampton Inn, Drury’s, or the hotel of your choice that offers a breakfast buffet. > > Walk in like a guest (you are) and get at least a good breakfast for your day. > > Situations like this might even lead to conversation with other business folks and could extend your networking contacts. Just fit in with the scene and you’ll be fine. > > I thought I would have never have to do this myself, but then on a road-trip from hell I had to think of something better than flying a sign at the nearest Interstate exchange. YMMV. I had a friend who was a manager at a nicer hotel that had a fine Sunday Brunch. We attended the brunch once and he sat with us. When the bill came I jokingly told my friend the manager that all we had to do was write in a random room number and scribble a signature and walk out. He said that happens with suprising frequency. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/54 "2010-11-30T20:43:50Z")
I made a small washing contraption!! I rinsed out an empty litter tub (30#) w/ a wide mouth, and put a smidge of detergent in, 3-4 cups hot water and a couple handfuls of small items - socks, undies, sports bras, t-shirt and pajama bottoms. If it fit through the mouth I washed it; everything made 2 loads. I topped the clothes off w/ more water, just enough to reach the top of the material then tightened the lid and shook that jug ever-which-a-way for about 5 minutes a load. I made it a torso/core body workout. Then I rinsed everything in the tub w/ clean water and hung them outside. Lastly I used the jug water to flush the toilets b/c I’m all conserving and shit. The clothes smelled good so we’ll see when they’re dry how clean they really got. I’m going to give a tentative Woot for my efforts. (I have neither washer/dryer at my immediate or cost-free disposal at the moment.) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/55 "2010-12-01T01:49:31Z")
Thanks for the insight into white trash mentality, guys. Anti-intellectualism is an interesting beast - it sounds really defensive to me (“I can’t do it myself, so it isn’t worth anything to anyone”). I don’t quite understand not encouraging your kids to do the best they can with what they’ve got, but that’s part of the defensiveness, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/56 "2010-12-01T02:09:29Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t quite understand not encouraging your kids to do the best they can with what they’ve got, but that’s part of the defensiveness, I guess. Bill’s stepfather thought that the music programs were a complete waste of taxpayer money. Football and other school sports were a good use of that money, though. While Bill’s SF didn’t want his kids to starve, he didn’t want them to be nancy boys or princesses (his words) who were too good to work with their hands. Never mind that there just aren’t that many factory jobs left. I didn’t understand it either. My daughter is better educated and better trained than I am. She’s managed to teach herself Japanese from various books and tapes (she reads Kanji as well as Romanji, and she’s able to watch various anime movies in Japanese and understand them). She’s made more of herself than I have, or than Bill has. And I am extremely proud that she’s done so. Not only for her own sake, but because I think that her success reflects well on ME. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221/57 "2010-12-01T07:35:42Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > Why do we never hear about black trash? > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I’ll tell you the reason…it’s because black people were assumed to be trash, all of them, unless they proved otherwise. Yes, it’s horrid. But that’s the way things were. The first time I heard the expression “white trash”, it was from my Jamaican landlady, saying about her grand-daughter (the one who didn’t marry her live-in baby-daddy because that would have made her lose social benefits, and who didn’t work for pretty much the same reason) “if that gel war white, she be white trash!” She told it to her best friend, and then went to get more tea, and I asked the friend “did she just call her granddaughter trash?” and she explained “yes she did, and she called her the worst kind of trash. Because you see, if you’ve got it bad and you’re not trying to get better, that’s trash, but if you got it good and you’re letting it get worse - that’s what white trash does.” The mileage and usage of non-Jamaican, non-colored, born-after-WWII folk may vary, of course. But I think it’s an interesting take: if you’re white trash, you’re someone who’s got a head start on other people (in this case, coloreds) and you’re throwing that head start away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-i-admit-it-im-white-trash/562221.md?page=2)