# 'White trash' (term): Racist? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2014, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680 "2014-04-22T13:50:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680/21 "2014-04-23T13:17:51Z")
It’s a phrase used in my family although since the last SDMB scurfuffle, I’ve attempted to delete it from my vocabulary, because yes, people’s feelings are more important to me than an easy-to-the-tongue phrase when there are so many other words I could use instead. Part of communication is understanding the connotation your word choice has for the receiver, and choosing a word that means what they think it means. But no, no one in my family EVER meant “white people living like black people.” Mostly because black people just weren’t on our radar at all. The only black people I “knew” as a kid were The Huxtables, who I would have been ecstatic to have lived like! They meant, “people living at a lower standard of living than _other people_, and proud of it,” with a side of, “there’s literal trash in their yard, why don’t they pick it up?!” ETA: I don’t think they even noticed the “White” as a race signifier - I didn’t, until the SDMB scurfuffle. It was a cautionary phrase; being just barely in the middle class and without significant financial safety nets, my mom was terrified that I’d end up “White Trash” if I hung out with “the wrong people” (none of them Black) and made “poor choices” (alcohol, smoking, drugs, teen pregnancy.) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680/22 "2014-04-23T14:55:52Z")
“White trash” is racist against minorities!? That’s about the most tortured piece of (non) logic I’ve ever heard. That’s like saying it’s racist against white people to call a black person a “black piece of crap” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680/23 "2014-04-23T16:32:51Z")
I guess? Insults aren’t supposed to be PC. I hope the OP’s wife doesn’t call people dicks, bitches, or pussies. That’s sexist. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680/24 "2014-04-23T18:22:49Z")
So what is the non-racist way to insult this group? ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680/25 "2014-04-23T18:45:39Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > “White trash” is racist against minorities!? That’s about the most tortured piece of (non) logic I’ve ever heard. > > That’s like saying it’s racist against white people to call a black person a “black piece of crap” or something like that. No…that’s simply just racist. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680/26 "2014-04-23T18:59:25Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > 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. Dude, I’m not a racist, but white culture suffers from a malaise. Jim Crow is over, but white folks can’t get over it. The loss of white supremacy rankles, and even though white folks try to hide it in dogwhistle language, the racism oozes through. This is a white people problem. White leaders need to stop making excuses for white people’s behavior; they need to call out white people when they engage in behavior like this (especially their politicians–have you listened to white politicians? Some of the most disgusting vile crap you could hear, it’s amazing it’s allowed on the airwaves). So, yeah, this term is part of that white cultural malaise I was talking about. Stop making excuses for white people, and buckle down to the hard work of fixing the culture. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680/27 "2014-04-23T19:03:33Z")
We call our upstairs neighbors trash. Cause that’s what they are. Never put white in front of it. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680/28 "2014-04-23T19:19:12Z")
To me, every racial slur is a synonym for ‘trash’, so there’s little point in unpacking the racial connotations of ‘white trash’. You’ve already demonstrated you’re willing to dehumanize someone to the lowest level, so already I know what I need to know about you. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680/29 "2014-04-23T20:29:52Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > 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. In that case, it’s not so much the phrase itself that’s racist, as the context from which it came. > [@](#): > > 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. I think you’re guessing, or perhaps your sample of the 1% is atypical. The top 1% is not all Leona Helmses. Those who parade around on the media and pretend to talk for them might be, though. IMHO, equating any group of human beings with garbage demeans the speaker more than the subject, so it’s probably a good idea to avoid the term. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash-term-racist/686680.md?page=1)