The SO says the term ‘White trash’ is racist because it implies that anyone who isn’t White is, by default, ‘trash’. That is, non-Caucasians are ‘trash’ and the Caucasians who are ‘trash’ need the adjective. (She prefers ‘TPT’, ‘Trailer Park Trash’.)
I’d never considered it that way, and didn’t agree. But I can see her point, and now I’m not so sure. What do you think?
It hadn’t occurred to me until a very long thread in ATMB about whether it constituted hate speech. I see the point and since I’m not attached to the word at all and I value people’s feelings above vocabulary, I don’t use it, if I ever really did before.
Yeah, I always got that impression from the term. Especially ‘these are white people, but they’re just as useless as blacks.’ 
It would be racist if it were used by non-Whites to disparagingly refer to lower class,lower income Whites as being this. It would simply be a derogatory and an offensive term if used by Whites to describe their assessment of other Whites.
Not being White, I personally find the term offensive for two reasons:
[ol]
[li]Non-whites who would use (today almost always older minorities) would be first to complain if they heard Whites use a racial or ethnic slur even if it wasn’t directed at them.[/li][li]Whites who use it, in my experience, are often free with their use of other derogatory or racist terms. If they are allowed to use in the term in a work or personal setting (not their homes) eventually they’ll get around to using a term which will be offensive to minorities. They just can’t seem to help themselves.[/li][/ol]
OP:
Yes. Always assume that and you can’t go wrong. Cf. “Black Face” thread.
Definitely racist the way I usually hear it. It’s usually calling white people “trash” for living in a way that would be considered normal (by the speaker) for brown people.
I absolutely never thought of it that way. (But then, race was a non-issue in my upbringing.)
I can’t really think of anyone I know who uses the term.
Nor do I. It comes up on TV shows, and she mentions her feelings about it.
When I read the title of this thread, I was thinking of course it is not racist, I have only heard white people use the term. But after reading the responses, I can now see why the OP would think it is a racist term. It is always good to see someone elses perspective to get insight into a subject matter. 
Absolutely. I’d always thought the term was directed toward a certain socio-economic class, and never thought race figured into it at all until the SO mentioned it. Indeed, I never thought about the term at all. I applied some Boolean logic and came to the conclusion that she is right.
It is an old southern term that implies that Whites have the right to better themselves economically, and it is their own fault if they fail to do so. Blacks are immune to such criticism, because their circumstances are imposed on them and they have no legal or social right to better themselves to the level that is expected of whites.
Even today, the 1% thinks of the rest of us as traxh, and that it our own fault if we have not become billionaires like they did.
You nailed it.
Yeah,** jtur88 **nailed it. White people who, in spite of all the advantages, allowed themselves to live like blacks were ‘trash.’ So it is very racist.
I never thought of it as racist because I have only heard white people use it to describe other white people. I always thought of it as a disparaging socio-economic term, synonymous with "trailer “trash” but no necessarily living in a trailer.
It’s definitely racist. “White trash” clearly means “trash(y people) who are white.” Yet there aren’t other racial variations (black trash, Indian trash, etc.)*. This pretty clearly says that the “standard” trash is non-whites. As others mentioned above, it also implies that the white trash people have basically degraded themselves so they’re more like “trash” than “whites”.
Didn’t we just discuss this a little over a month ago: White Trash - Racist? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board and again about 5 months ago: Thoughts on the term "White Trash" - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board
You did. I missed them.
I was about to post the same thing. Deja vu.
OP…I work with a number of people from rural areas and the American South and the term has been used in their presence (obviously not by me) on more than a few occasions. The most egregious use was by a document control person (read:secretary) that we had on a project in New Jersey a few years back.
This woman would freely use this term when it should have been obvious to her that with the exception of myself and another person, the majority of people in the office were White Southerners who didn’t come from privileged backgrounds. It is certain that at some point in their lives either they or one of their relatives would have referred to using that term.
Older African Americans (especially those from the South) occasionally use the sobriquet when referring to prejudiced lower class Whites. However, it’s not as common as when I was younger; and many are able to find other terms to disparage people without resorting to that particular one.
A term meant to disparage poor white folks is now racist against minorities?
Use your brain power to not jump through illogical hoops and find everything racist, please.
Both Wikipedia and Online Etymology cite the origins as being something that black slaves said of poor white people.
So I’m not seeing how it’s racist against minorities.