this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
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34
Why do people call others "white trash?" I recently discovered this term. (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by HexaSnoot@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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For me, it's occasionally coming up when I listen to comedians. A year back I also heard a story about a white person who grew up poor, became financially stable with a good job, and then punched down and started calling other white people "white trash."

To me it's obvious this is poor-shaming. But I have a feeling it's far more complex than that. I'm not even white and I feel degraded whenever I come across those words. I barely know what it means, but it breaks my heart anyways to hear.

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[โ€“] SchillMenaker@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah it's kind of like the Chris Rock bit. There's white people and then there's white trash.

It's racist because of the implication that the standard state for white people is "not trash" but pretty much everything is racist so idk how much grief it's worth investing with.

[โ€“] HexaSnoot@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's racist because of the implication that the standard state for white people is "not trash"

As opposed to nonwhites? Someone told me it's implying that it's expected that people are poor, except for when they're white. It implies it's weird to be poor if you're white, but it's at least somewhat expected when you're a minority. So the term "white trash" is racist towards minority races... Must be why it hurts me deeply.