this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
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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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[–] wolfinthewoods@hexbear.net 28 points 2 weeks ago (13 children)

White trash is more than that, it's typically referring to really crude, crass people that have a lack of common decency and have entitlement issues. Source: lived at many trailer parks and this kind of person is prevailent. There are many good people at trailer parks but there's a certain type that are really some of the most revolting people you can meet.

[–] ClimateStalin@hexbear.net 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Also lived in many trailer parks and I agree with you. Poor shaming is definitely a (large) part of the term white trash but it’s not the only factor.

There are “cultural” factors as well, things like smoking cigarettes indoors, beating your kids, not getting your dogs neutered, hoarding, and willingness to call people the N word

It’s not purely a class distinction and I know that because 90% of the time I’ve heard that term used it’s an intra-class conflict, this is the person with the trailer they keep nice and clean with a lovely garden out front calling their neighbor white trash for letting their (unneutered) dog trample their flowers. Thats a real world example.

It’s not just living in a trailer, plenty of nice normal poor people live in trailers. It’s smoking cigarettes (or meth) inside that trailer and flying a confederate flag out front. And likely having a giant pickup truck that costs more than the trailer.

[–] SchillMenaker@hexbear.net 6 points 2 weeks 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.

[–] HexaSnoot@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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.

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