# "white trash" **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 18, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527 "2007-06-18T23:53:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/21 "2007-06-19T15:09:58Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Don’t forget [the H word](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=414278), lest you slip up. [/QUOTE] Hand stabber? I keed … As with many such labels, once it is known to offend a substantial number of members, then it should _voluntarily_ be avoided. To continue to use AND argue about it is decidedly low class, imho. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/22 "2007-06-19T16:15:03Z")
To make the distinction between “redneck” and “white trash” even simpler, a person may well be proud of being a redneck, and indeed many are. But nobody would proudly proclaim themselves to be white trash. Even if both were applied to the same set of people, one of them is insulting, while the other is not. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/23 "2007-06-19T16:45:53Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] a person may well be proud of being a redneck, [/QUOTE] I am curious if that is true in the South, the term I usually hear being “Red Necked Son of a Bitch.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/24 "2007-06-19T17:59:40Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] According to _Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Addition_ [/QUOTE] They no longer publish **e** ditions? Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/25 "2007-06-19T18:01:10Z")
[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq] I think the funniest and saddest part of this thread is that everyone except **Dex** appears to have entirely missed the point of the OP (which isn’t about “white trash” at all, of course). \ [/QUOTE] No, it’s just that in the other thread, we were told by a Moderator that if we wanted to continue to debate the meaning of white trash, we should do it in this thred, and were provided a link here. I didn’t address the stuff in the OP because it wasn’t anything I could answer. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/26 "2007-06-19T18:19:34Z")
[QUOTE=DrDeth] Right now, in my experience, black dudes use “nigger” far more often than white dudes do. So “nigger” is no longer a racial slur? :dubious: [/QUOTE] Does “whitetrash” evoke the same power as “nigger”? Does it have a history of oppression and denied rights? IMHO, to compare the terms is insensitive to blacks. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/27 "2007-06-19T18:20:00Z")
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig] Jap gets a warning, and for “white trash”, the people who _complain_ about it get warned? [/QUOTE] I sped through both this and the OP “white trash” threads looking for an actual warning from a mod for asking about “whtie trash” and failed to see one. It may well be that I’ve skimmed too fast or something. Can anyone point out the specific paragraph to which this is referring? Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/28 "2007-06-19T18:23:09Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] Culturally deprived? Most sociologists would correct you and remind you that at least the stereotype you have been describing is rich in culture. [/QUOTE] Is there any group anywhere that’s _not_ rich in culture? ESKIMOES are rich in culture. There’s a very particular culture associated with prisoners- it’s actually quite rich. > [@](#): > > That’s why it makes a good source for storytelling. And not all of it is a point of ridicule. Sometimes a nation is inspired by such stories as _The Grapes of Wrath_. So you are calling the Joads “whitetrash”? > [@](#): > > Your past experiences don’t make you an authority on the morals and daily life of all poor whites. No one is. I wasn’t aware I had claimed they did. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/29 "2007-06-19T18:26:20Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] I am curious if that is true in the South, the term I usually hear being “Red Necked Son of a Bitch.” 🙂 [/QUOTE] Redneck is a bit similar to _queer_ in that it was once offensive (literally, as most know but for the benefit of any who might not, it meant someone whose neck was burnt red from the sun- i.e. white people who labored as distinguished from those whose skin was fair from living indoors and not doing hard work) but it’s been reclaimed. I have known several people who identified as redneck and it’s a word you see on dating boards all the time in self reference, but you rarely see “whitetrash”. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/30 "2007-06-19T18:31:45Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] There’s never been a movement to move “white trash” to internment camps, they’re not an oppressed ethnic group, there’s never been a move to exterminate them (unless you count tornadoes) [/QUOTE] Oh, thank you, thank you, you made me laugh and laugh. And the rest of your post was well said and I thank you for that as well. Full disclosure: I am a Southerner, I’ve had years and years of experience with most every stripe of Southern culture including the white trash kind and I can tell you that white trash culture is alive and well and flourishing in spite of all the ugly things people might say about it. Heck, you don’t even have to live in the South to see it, it’s growing everywhere, like kudzu. Everyone here is well intentioned and no one wants to offend and that is good. At the same time I think it is possible to be too correct for common sense and the conventions of our society and this is one of those situations. “White trash” is not hate speech. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/31 "2007-06-19T18:33:59Z")
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig] There has never been any move to do any of the above to Italian-Americans, either, and yet I’m guessing that if I opened a thread and described dark suits and gold chains as “dago fashion” in the thread title, I’d get slapped down pretty quickly. [/QUOTE] Internment and extermination no, but they were looked down on and considered a hated underclass- moreso than the Irish really, because by the time Italians began immigrating en masse the Irish had been here for a generation PLUS the Irish could speak English. > [@](#): > > [The Southern Italians who settled in New York were referred to as the lowest class ever to inhabit that city.](http://www.georgetown.edu/users/cmt36/celeste/stereotype.htm) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/32 "2007-06-19T19:28:00Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Does “whitetrash” evoke the same power as “nigger”? Does it have a history of oppression and denied rights? IMHO, to compare the terms is insensitive to blacks. [/QUOTE] Out of context question. My post was in reply to your own words “Originally Posted by Sampiro Neither do I consider it a racial slur as white people use it more often than black people do.” You did not include modifiers such as “a history of oppression and denied rights”, you stated that your experince that “white people use it more often than black people do” made “white trash” no longer a racial slur. I have little doubt that “nigger” is now used more by blacks than whites. Thus according to your own logic, “nigger” is no longer a racial slur. Your logic, not mine. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/33 "2007-06-19T19:31:12Z")
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig] Jap gets a warning, and for “white trash”, the people who _complain_ about it get warned? Un-fucking-believable. The user agreement forbids “purposefully inflammatory remarks”. The OP in question asked about certain elements of fashion and dress. These could easily, and more accurately, have been described as “truck stop”, “gas station”, “blue collar”, “working class”, or “rural”. Instead, the poster chose the most gratuitous and inflammatory wording possible–“white trash”. And the people who _complained_ about it got warned. Again, un-fucking-believable. [/QUOTE] WHERE, if I may be so bold as to ask, did someone get warned for complaining about “white trash?” ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/34 "2007-06-19T19:37:41Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] I personally find the confusion of that dreadfully unfunny Gallager with the one-and-only comedy god George Carlin to be the most offensive thing in this thread. [/QUOTE] Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/35 "2007-06-19T21:16:48Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] But nobody would proudly proclaim themselves to be white trash. [/QUOTE] I take it that this explains the small amount of buyers for my CafePress “White Trash and Proud of It” T-shirt? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/36 "2007-06-19T21:55:21Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] I take it that this explains the small amount of buyers for my CafePress “White Trash and Proud of It” T-shirt? [/QUOTE] That would more likely be attributible to their lack of a credit card and or stationary address. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/37 "2007-06-19T22:54:18Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] lack of a credit card and or stationary address. [/QUOTE] Ya’ll know that when you pass on, Jesus is gonna turn around and be wearin’ a wolf T-shirt, don’cha? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/38 "2007-06-19T22:57:38Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Ya’ll know that when you pass on, Jesus is gonna turn around and be wearin’ a wolf T-shirt, don’cha? 🙂 [/QUOTE] Well, he’s got a mullet, was born to a 13 year old mother, has no visible means of support, spends all his time hanging out with a bunch of buds, and has an arrest record and no permanent address- very likely. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/39 "2007-06-19T23:01:32Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] has no visible means of support, [/QUOTE] He was a Nice Jewish Boy, and a carpenter. Paul screwed all this stuff up… ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527/40 "2007-06-19T23:17:01Z")
[QUOTE=TubaDiva] “White trash” is not hate speech. [/QUOTE] Are you white trash, Tuba? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-trash/408527.md?page=3)