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When you refer to someone as White Trash what are you really saying?
Does it mean they live in a trailer? Does it mean their level of education is beneath yours? Does it mean they don't have any manners? Does it mean they are someone you would throw away? Is it a racial comment that you would never say to anyone at anytime?
Or is it self reflective? Or is it bound up anger leaking through a crack in the armor. If you use this term is it really more about you than them?





How 'white trash' is offensive
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The term "white trash" is offensive in two major ways. First it is offensive to the person who is called "white trash" and then it is offensive to people of color because they know it was coined by those who think all people of color are trash and a distinction had to be made for white people.

I have personally had this epithet used on me. In my neighborhood, as a child, we lived in the most meager home in our area. Actually, it was little more than a slum, but it was a bump up compared to the house from which we had moved. We were very poor but relatively clean. By relatively, I mean that once my siblings and I were outside for awhile on a summer day, we got pretty dirty. And, we were rambunctious and played with verve, making lots of noise.

One day, a lady from the better part of our neighborhood screamed at my mother to get her "white trash" back up on the hill where they belonged. We had been playing in a vacant lot next to her house. My mother called for us all to get back to the house that actually did sit a ways up the hill.

Since my mother responded to the lady by calling us home, I guess I then considered the epithet to be accurate. Otherwise, why would mom have called us home? I can tell you this affected me during a long period of my youth as I so often thought people were looking down on me.

Fortunately for me, I would later overcome this complex and realize that I am as good as anyone else on this earth. People who know me know that I am supremely self-confident. I can get in front of groups of people from 20-30 to hundreds and give an address or class. I think gaining knowledge may be the main thing that gets people over that hurdle of feeling down on themselves.

Later, I told this story to a black friend of mine and noticed that he got sort of a funny looks when I said "white trash." We had to discuss this. I came to realize how demeaning a term it was to him as well as me, maybe more demeaning. For people to have to coin a term that places poor whites just a rung above their black brothers and sisters is a social crime. This is what we both got from the conversation.

Still, I often hear the appellation used on TV and in life. I don't like it and never did. I have liked it less and less through the years. The difference now is that I am no longer a little boy playing on a summer day, I am a man who can put a person in his/her place for using such an unacceptable term


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Some people are just sorry.
The amount of money they have is generally irrelevant.
I would not waste my precious life force worrying about what others think.
Some people are just sorry.

I hate to admit it but I have used that term before.
I have applied it to folks whom just suck off of society with no effort or thought to stand on their own two feet.
Sadly some of them are relatives.

Thank you sans for responding. Most people are afraid of responding to a controversial topic. I should have known you had the strength of character to stand alone with your opinions.

The problem is the uderlying racist attachment. We just went through this.

Racisism is not tolerated. .

So ... we need a term that applies to those social maggots whom feast on the weakness of society in general with no though or effort to being contributory to their community or even themselves, that has no racial connotation.


Hummm ... I vote for PROGRESSIVES


Let the sh*t storm begin!

Are all serious subjects that offend some not
tolerated.
This must be Vanilla Band Mix.

NOT THE SUBJECT BUT THE ACTION.

Lets face it, people are always going to and basically always have had terms that they will/do use to demean others. Is it right? Obviously not. Unfortunately, its just a part of life, like it or not. Do I agree with it? Not at all. Am I guilty of doing it at some point? Sadly...Yes.

Out of curiousity...How come its alright that we use words like; white trash, redneck, cracker, honky, etc...Yet, if we were to use certain words to describe Jews, gays, African-Americans and so forth, our posts would be deleted very quickly, we would be warned, if not banned from this site? What do you think?

Also, why do most people feel/think that they need to or have to be politically correct nowadays? I mean, even if a comedian uses whats looked upon as a term thats not politically correct they sometimes take heat for it...Why? Just wondering?

I'm not caucasian.
I've never been anywhere near the Caucasus mountains.

Disparaging remarks are disparaging remarks.

But to answer the question, 'we' get away with it because we are 'white'.
The unwritten rule seems to bee "Its cool if you are talking about your own race".

You can't say nigger, or sand nigger. You can't say white trash. You can't say retarded. You can't say almost anything now these days. But you can still think it. So when are the thought police going to get a handle on that?

How about Himey, wap, spic, honky, chink? Those gone too? But you do a rap using them it's OK. Because it sells. And if you're black you can call each other nigger. Or if you're white you can call each other white trash. I think the people who really have the problem are the PC folks.

You can't legislate morality, and you can't strike descriptive words from the language just because some idiot gets offended. (Oh sh*t, I've just offended idiots everywhere!)
Why? Because they will be replaced by other terms someone some where will find offensive and also try to ban.

On the other hand, you can call me anything you want. I don't have little pink squishy feelings that are easily offended. I still have some balls dudes. I have learned to ignore idiots that think name calling is cool. And I think the pus$y's that are offended when they hear something they consider derogatory need to grow up and realize that the ones who really have the problem is the one calling names. And banning words isn't going to change attitude one in their little brains.

But not in this whiny cry baby I'm gunna tell my mommy society.

Yeh. Break out the big guns and fire away. But you know what? People used to call each other all kinds of names when I was a kid. And guess what. We all made it in spite of name calling. And we ignored the idiots doing the name calling or considered them the ones with the problem. Or we just walked over and shut their mouthes for them.

So I'm not going to tell you what I think about Obastard, or what I call him under my breath or what I sometimes call his his Nazi cohorts. And I won't tell you what goes through my mind when I have to deal with some folks. But I'm still gunna think it if and whenever I want to. And when I do, I sure as hell ain't going to feel bad about it. So until the thought police arrest me, f*&k 'em all. I am free to think what I choose, or use any word I want to use. Or I can choose not think some words or hang some "names" as I see fit. But you know what? That is still up to me to decide. And just because some pansy wants to run and hire a lawyer if I offend him, he can go screw himself as far as I'm concerned.

OK. No problem deciding where I stand on this subject, right?:)

Lets face it, people are always going to and basically always have had terms that they will/do use to demean others. Is it right? Obviously not. Unfortunately, its just a part of life, like it or not. Do I agree with it? Not at all. Am I guilty of doing it at some point? Sadly...Yes.

Out of curiousity...How come its alright that we use words like; white trash, redneck, cracker, honky, etc...Yet, if we were to use certain words to describe Jews, gays, African-Americans and so forth, our posts would be deleted very quickly, we would be warned, if not banned from this site? What do you think?

Also, why do most people feel/think that they need to or have to be politically correct nowadays? I mean, even if a comedian uses whats looked upon as a term thats not politically correct they sometimes take heat for it...Why? Just wondering?

Good question...it's never alright to call anyone a derogatory name.But, it exists and it is just as important to learn to handle this situation. it is an odd situation.

I am not a fan of political correctness either. Political correctness ruined the song that is sung by the crows on "Dumbo". I dunno I hafta really ponder that one. Believe me, I'll be back.

I mainly came here to tell Bundydude that I was in Ravenna back in January for my Aunt's funeral.

Lay off the bourbon, Slack. It robs us of your usual cheeryness.

My phone accidentally clicked on one of your youtube links.
...Dam you, you're too good.

No matter what is thought.
This discussion is what I wanted to see. Discussion provokes thought,
thought provokes awareness and awareness will make you
think sometimes before you open your mouth. I;m glad you all
put your thoughts down here because there are some here that
feel they are above this kind of talk. They call it discord.
I will try to be more music related. Had to bring this up
though.

White Trash OUT!

Some of my best friends are black people.

Back home it was some black people I knew who made fun of themselves, I was shocked at first at what they were saying about themselves but later realized it was just that, fun. No different to how I laugh at myself really.

I'm glad that here common sense prevails. Good looking people can have horrid personalities, those less fortunate be angels. The color of your skin is no different.

Yours World Boy

Klugmo it is strange you should say: “If you use this term is it really more about you than them?” This article tells us a lot about Dr Bob. I’m sorry, I don’t recognize Dr. Bob’s authority on what is an “unacceptable term”. He has found an insult he considers offensive? Isn’t that kind of the whole point of insulting someone? How about we just make all insults illegal?

Which should I fear more? The possibility someone may refer to myself as “white trash”, or a person who appoints themselves as the spokesperson for the better good, to prevent any such possible incidents from ever happening? It seems like a lot of preparation, for a pretty remote possibility if you ask me. It’s just not an issue, at the top of my list of worries. Trying to rationalize how an intentionally crass insult, is callous in its insensitivity towards another race, is just crazy nonsense. If my race were excluded, from a less than complimentary term, would I then actually have a reason to be upset?

Would Dr. Bob’s friend appreciate efforts to have them included into some more universal, kinder, more gentle, hurtful insult? Perhaps we could change the term from “White Trash” to “individual of less than adequate social refinement”? As a huge bonus it can be used universally, to insult anyone of any race. So now I can be insulting, inconsiderate, dismissive and at the same time, entirely respectfully conscious of racial etiquette. Because if I’m insulting someone, that’s always my top priority. It’s a white “us”, versus white “them” comparison. As Dr. Bob concluded, regardless of what the woman had in mind, if much at all, the point was to attempt to assert some sort of superiority over all others. Twist and interpret the term anyway feasible, the message is plain and simple “I’m better than you”. He skirts his actual real personal problem, down a quick detour of the race avenue and it was an easy distraction.

Dr Bob has some serious security issues of his own, if he has to boast of his intellect, confidence and physique, to ward off assumptions about himself. The truth is that it’s all entirely unnecessary, if he actually believed it to be completely unfounded. How much effort should be spent, to defend against the possible accusation of having six legs? If he gave the insult the same amount of credence, then the answer would be none.

Sorry, but like cry me a river, if we should all be as lucky, to have such minor transgressions to worry us for life. I have been called far worse and on a scale of wrongs, place it somewhere between having slightly tinted blue white socks in my underwear drawer, to perhaps my last hang nail. So I wont be grabbing a torch to join the witch hunt, to stamp out wrong thinkers worldwide.

In fact I believe the absolute contrary. Political-correctness, is the biggest single threat to our society today.

I don’t think that an insult of “white trash” could effect me in any possible context. You could call me purple and it would mean just about as much. In Dr. Bob’s case, it has influenced his entire life and wow, that’s just ridiculous.