# Usage of the phrase "white trash" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 6, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231 "2005-07-06T02:14:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pasunejen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@pasunejen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pasunejen)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/21 "2005-07-06T19:09:09Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Please note: “White trash” and its alternate form “trailer trash” are terms of abuse no matter how you look at it. If you wouldn’t use a word like "nigger, " “spic,” “kike,” or “faggot” in the same context, don’t use terms like “white trash” or “trailer trash.” It marks you as ill-mannered and bigoted. To clarify, “white trash” and “trailer trash” are not terms that I use. My post above is hypothetical (but still very firm). ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/22 "2005-07-06T19:09:22Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > Also, the people who are saying #3 is any flavor of “trash”… why? Is it just the fact that she works as a janitor and lives in a trailer? We’ve discussed the word plenty, in both current threads and older threads. I’m not interested in a semantics debate (at least here :D) and just want to do a _poll_ on how people use the word. > [@](#): > > Also, I am wondering why there wasn’t a black counterpart to that part of the OP. If you’d like to participate in the poll, feel free to rate such a person in an addendum… ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/23 "2005-07-06T19:10:51Z")
> [@pasunejen](#): > > To clarify, “white trash” and “trailer trash” are not terms that I use. My post above is hypothetical (but still very firm). Yes, I should have been more clear about what I ment by “appropriate” I ment “appropriately used to describe according to my understanding of the word” and not “appropriate” as in “I think this is a good word to use to label such people.” ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/24 "2005-07-06T19:22:00Z")
1. 10 2. 0 3. 0 4. 0 5. 10 6. 0 7. 0 ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/25 "2005-07-06T19:31:57Z")
0 for all. When A calls B “white trash”, it tells me a lot more about A than it does B. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/26 "2005-07-06T22:14:57Z")
You kinda have to be white to qualify, I think. After that, you have to know something about the person other than his/her living conditions. I’m not so liberal as to not use the term, particularly if Jerry Springer is on. But I’ve know a number of people living in nasty conditions (and unmarried with several kids by different fathers, too) whom I really liked. Ken Lay, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/27 "2005-07-06T23:37:32Z")
My two cents (after reading “White Trash Cookbook” and watching King of the Hill) 1. 10 2. 8 All the rest, 0. ---
**Author:** ![Ooner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c67d28/32.png) [@Ooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ooner)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/28 "2005-07-06T23:55:27Z")
1. 10 2. 0 3. 0 4. 0 5. 10 6. 0 7. 0 #6 might be debatable. “Trashy” for sure but the phrase “white trash” has an assumed qualifier of “poor” stuck on the front in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/29 "2005-07-07T05:33:07Z")
I don’t call anyone white trash. I don’t call anyone nigger. Trash is the rubbish that’s not recyclable. That, and my ankles. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/30 "2005-07-07T08:28:02Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > No human being is trash, a point my mother–who grew up without running water–would make while she was reaming me out for using this ignorant term. Smart lady. If being poor and unfortunate earns you a derogatory name, OK, but I won’t be using it. It’s funny how every group in society apart from those who are running it (rich white established wealth) has an epithet attached to it. ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/31 "2005-07-07T11:36:52Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > I don’t call anyone white trash. I don’t call anyone nigger. Trash is the rubbish that’s not recyclable. That, and my ankles. So if someone told you that someone else is “white trash,” you’d have absolutely no clue what they ment? You wouldn’t know anymore about what they were trying to say about the target of the epithet then if they’d said they were “oozley mcphlubo”? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE. I don’t want a discussion of the term, including whether it’s ethical or moral to use. This is just a damn survey to try and figure out how people use the word and what people understand the word to mean. Even if you think the word is on-par with “nigger,” you presumably still have a clue what it means–just like you know “nigger” is a perjorative term for black person, even if you don’t personally use the word. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/32 "2005-07-13T17:30:02Z")
Personally, I don’t think any of the examples in the OP quite fit the current usage of “white trash”, although #1 is closest. I think it would be more accurate to say that the current usage of “white trash” is more akin to the usage of “hippie” 30 years ago. In other words, [Tommy Chong’s “Leo”](http://www.iskon.hr/2005/02/28/0297007.17.jpg) from “That '70s Show”. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231/33 "2005-07-13T18:28:07Z")
1. 8 2. 0 3. 0 4. 0 5. 10 6. ? 7. 0 Okay, okay, I know there’s not supposed to be any discussion, but I have a question! When you said “of great inheritted wealth,” when did she get the money? If she was born with a silver spoon (Paris Hilton scenario), then I give it a 1 or 2 on the scale. If she was already an adult when she inherited (Anna Nicole Smith scenario) , then I would go higher, maybe 7 or 8. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-the-phrase-white-trash/311231.md?page=1)