Today, the term “white trash” is used colloquially to identify white people who do not conform to the established ideas about what it means to be “white,” usually indicating they are poor, uneducated, unemployed, or backwards. This term emerged as a racial slur for white indentured servants — poor whites from England and other European countries that came to the United States in search of citizenship in exchange for labor. In a recent segment on NPR’s podcast Code Switch, sociologist Matt Wray discusses why “white trash” remains a powerful insult against poor whites and people of color alike.
Wray argues that although the term is meant to disparage poor whites, it simultaneously demeans other races by maintaining that there is something about being white that is superior to other racial groups. This is why the modifier “trash” is used. Code Switch news assistant Leah Donnella sums up Wray’s argument well:
“. . . ‘white’ is the only racial group that needs a modifier for it to become a slur. There’s no ‘black trash’ or ‘Hispanic trash’ or ‘Native American trash,’ presumably, because for most of American history, those people were assumed by those in power to be poor, uneducated and criminal.”
Wray also suggests that the term is used to reinforce the long-standing idea that poor whites are more racist than middle class or white elites. This allows affluent whites to escape criticism as racists, while stereotyping poor whites as representative of “real” racism. Accordingly, Wray states:
“Whites who use the term are saying, ‘Look, I’m not racist. The person down the road is racist. The one who drops the N-word, or has the Confederate flag flapping off the back of their truck. That’s real racism.’ “
In short, Wray’s research shows how the term “white trash” reinforces ideas of white superiority, today and throughout history. Since it first emerged in the colonial era, the term symbolized how important the intersection of race and class was — and still is — for personal belonging and worth in the United States.
Comments 39
Matq — June 6, 2019
So everything is white supremacy now? Everything white people do or say is supremacy? Are we automatically racist just being born white?
Afroliterati — June 29, 2019
“Racism is a white problem. It was constructed and created by white people and the ultimate responsibility lies with white people."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/16/white-fragility-racism-interview-robin-diangelo
mirrizin — July 29, 2019
You're born into racism. You'd be a better person if you learned to deal with that constructively..
Heidi — August 20, 2019
This explanation was done by someone who obviously is not a Southern. It is a Southern colloquial term meaning that someone chooses to have a low standard. It could be used in a situation where someone is sleeping or having an affair with someone other than their husband and making it obvious in a public way. It simply means that their behavior is unacceptable and or questionable. Being poor does not make you white trash. How you live and act can...
Steve S Voeks — August 26, 2019
For better or worse I come from White Trash. White Trash folks are not racist. We have lived enough poverty, are subjected to violence, and ignorance to know first hand that we are not better than anyone else, especially because of the color of their skin. White Trash is a definitive term used to describe a mostly uncelebrated
class of people, poor white Americans. Rednecks get confused with White Trash. White Trash folks are not rednecks. Rednecks drive four wheel drive trucks, own boats, have guns, and all sort of other toys you will never afford as White Trash.
Jme — November 5, 2019
It's super cool how so many of these commenters did not read or failed to understand the article but decided to comment anyway.
foreverhandsomeblackladdiebrady66 — November 28, 2019
Basically,we black folk assume ANY white person racist unless they show themselves otherwise.That's the way it is,you (and your slave-holding ancestors who held my great-grandparents in captivity) made your bed,lie in it. (I'd love to lie in it or any bed with a buxom blonde between 24 and 44-I'm a 66-year-old black Canadian lad with cover boy good looks and a 160 IQ with LOTS of good white buds !!!!!)
Tcomm — December 10, 2019
It's always interesting to read what city folk think, especially when they have to construct a fantastic scaffold to support a structure they tack on to the side of society.
Their definition of "white trash" is incredibly shallow and nowhere near caustic enough to apply as broadly as it does.
That they claim "white" is an adjective to "trash" means they aren't reading things correctly to begin with.
"White trash" is one word, despite the space.
Julia — December 19, 2019
For context: Wray is white.
bob — May 14, 2020
This article is the textbook definition of mental gymnastics. Well done.
AnonymousWorkingClassGuy — May 15, 2020
All of the people responding to this negatively are hilarious.
It's spot on. I come from an area that is labeled white trash by clueless privileged white people, and it's for those exact reasons. Almost all of these people come from very white, very middle to upper class suburbs. Funny enough it's people from those backgrounds who try so hard to emulate the supposed trash they so despise in order to be less white bread and boring and who do trashy things like go out of their way to get addicted to drugs.
No it's not a Southern thing. No there isn't some huge difference between rednecks and white trash. People who are socioeconomically disadvantaged identify with either term depending on their region or background.
Oh and Brady, not one of my ancestors owned slaves or participated in that disgusting process. Educate yourself because you sound every bit as ignorant as the clueless and racist white elites who are descended from people who actually owned your ancestors. My ancestors worked their tails off to get out of the hood.
Having said that, the term trash isn't the problem. It is supposed to describe those who have no interest in contributing to society or are otherwise detrimental. Criminals, vagrants, and those who are nuisance neighbor types. The problem is this term can't be accurately or fairly applied in a society with so much inequality and so little opportunity. The people who use this term as an insult most often are delusional about the socioeconomic realities of this country.
For the record, I have never in my life used white trash except in response to a privileged white person labeling others trashy. I've used it to point out just how trashy and unaware of it many privileged white people really are. I have however used terms like trashy and trash to describe people who engage in trashy or nuisance behavior that brings down neighborhoods. Those people come from every race and background but there is no such thing as any race or ethnic group being trashy. The people who believe the myth that black or Hispanic or other POC people are somehow trashy by nature are the ones using the term white trash most often while simultaneously telling everybody in earshot how totally not racist they are.
Salute to the author of this piece and the one quoted for calling out something that poisons our society yet goes on completely unchecked year after year.
Notgonnasay — June 13, 2020
Leave it to liberals to take a word that’s meant to disparage white people and somehow make it out to be racist against black people instead.
No notsomuch — July 23, 2020
Yeah no.
Amgonnasay — December 14, 2020
Leave it to republicans to take a word that’s meant to disparage white people and somehow make it out to be racist against black people instead.
Imwhitetrash — January 19, 2021
White trash is not a Southern thing. I am from the Northeast. I was called white trash as a kid. Also my ancestors never owned slaves, they were slaves themselves but the media now is saying they were not slaves they were “indentured servants”. I grew up in an inner-city. When your poor you don’t have a choice where live. Yet somehow its white trash people that are the racists? The media will never show you white inner-city families. They show you duck dynasty and trailer parks.
The Dude — February 12, 2021
This article is saying that if you’re white and you can’t do any better than people of color, you are trash. And that indirectly is saying white people are superior to people of color and should be able to do better than people of color. That makes it a racist term. Also, sh*t rolls downhill. If wealthy white people sh*t on poor white people, poor white people will sh*t on people of color.
The Dude — February 12, 2021
As a result, when wealthy white people sh*t on poor white people they are contributing to the problem of racism.
White Trash — April 2, 2021
This is one of the dumbest articles I have read in a long time. Good to see I wasn't the only person who literally could not understand anything in this article. And I have over 160 IQ so thats not the issue. Watch now a libtard is gonna say citing IQ is racist...
MJ — April 16, 2021
“ Slavery was an institution that benefited rich plantation owners to the catastrophic disadvantage of small farmers and free laborers both white and black; it made the rich richer and the poor poorer. The Confederate Army, which granted service exemptions to slaveholders and other elite Southern whites, consisted largely of subsistence farmers and other workers expected to fight to preserve the very economic system that had kept them down. Many deserted. One Alabama recruit said, “They think all you are fit for is to stop bullets for them, your betters, who call you poor white trash.” Many of those so-called betters ranked poor white trash as equivalent to, if not lower than, slaves. After the war, two-thirds of the farmers who worked the South’s land under the bone-breaking, dead-end system of sharecropping were poor whites.”
Safia SafG — April 17, 2021
Funny in the UK only black people use this term, they are posh rich black kids from summertown and they walk around shouting at girls like me calling me pikey, telling me to kill myself because I'm ugly poor and pale WHITE I have an afro and if I even dare to go outside with my natural curls I get tenfold the abuse hate and bullying, this may be a good representation of the US, I dont know I don't live there and have never and will never go as it's a ces pit. If you spent a day in the shoes of a working class gypsy youd realise you're fucking lucky. Instead of complaining about something that happened I am complaining about the continuous stream of abuse the white working class rwcieve in the UK. Other white people here HATE the working class, it's not like America the worst thing you can be in the UK is a pale white pikey working class FEMALE with curly hair. I can't go out without straightening it or black women call me names and kiss their teeth at me sometimes when I go to tesco this old woman slams her trolley into my tiny legs over and over again calling me a stupid blonde whore. I have experienced tenfold the abuse most have as I've been homeless and for someone age 21 I have NOT had the opportunities in life others here have had. As a result I am bitter, but you know, I'm not racist yet, and all I will say is most people complaining of racism in this day and age are themselves racist bigotted and most importantly SHELTERED. And no I have never experienced any form of racism from anyone except white people and mostly black people. The asisan communtiy in the UK and the indidan community are kind positive, spreading compassion and love, and so people respond with positivity. When I walk around a shop assuming the security will follow me (they always do I am working class) it is bound to happen. Try being told to kill yourswlf everyday because your culturally appropriating people because your hair is naturally curly but you're white. Racist black people here ONLY target poor white people they NEVER say the things they say to me to genuinely racist posh horrible straight haired blonde girls with a daddy whos a professor. They pick and choose and who do they choose? The undeserving the weak the poor and the blantantly already broken. Racism is a disease and it feasts on it's very own victims.
F.U — May 21, 2021
I hope blacks in America realized they are the most pathetic pseudo oppressed people after they saw Gaza.
Johnny Appleseed — June 14, 2021
No, this is more woke BS from people who just proclaim things but don’t know what they are talking about. I live in a very rural area where there are distinct groups; rednecks, white trash and country folk. All live in approximately the same income bracket. White trash refers to people who have certain values, or lack of, take no pride in ownership of their property and have multiple children with multiple people and blame all the natural consequences of their choices on other people.
yank — June 16, 2021
I have to agree with Safia above. Here, in the UK, actually 'white trash' is being thrown around by black people & it doesn't seem to be linked to wealth or behaviour. This whole black lives matter is not working very well in UK schools or anywhere else in my opinion. My daughter goes to a private school & the black kids are calling the white kids 'white trash' ALL the time. This is just being ignored by teachers but a mixed race boy was suspended for telling a black fellow student to stop being a monkey. Yes, although that may sound racist, it really isn't. This boy actually tells everyone to stop being monkeys- 'cheeky monkeys'!!! I often say it to my kids...am I being racist to monkeys now? I also say, silly sausage, daft begger, plonker & all sorts of nonsense!! It seems to be the black kids whom are racist to the white kids in schools, they know they have the upper hand & quite honestly are getting away with the black card all the time. 'Is it cos I'm black!!',claiming people are being racist when they aren't. My daughter was bullied & called racist for days by black & white kids alike because she said someone had black hair!! Kids can't even say black at school in any context now without being called a racist (good job they don't use black boards anymore!) I believe there was a goodt deal of racism in the 60s & 70's but until recently I haven't witnessed any for years. I believed we had moved on. Black lives matter is boring & racist. All lives matter Not just blacks, quite honestly it has created more racism than ever. Black people somehow feel they have more right to be angry at any non black person without cause & this is racist too & this fuels racism towards them in return. I do know older members of the white community whom use racist language because they don't know better (96yrs old), they actually aren't racist just don't know the right terminology. The fact that so much emphasis has been put on black lives matter is increasing resentment. The black kids at school calling the white kids names whilst the white kids are hearing daily on the TV about black lives matter is making them angry & resentful too. This is a movement that is generating the next generation of racists.
shaking my head — December 14, 2021
lol...you people are idiots...& this article definitely exposed how much of idiots you weird incel losers are lmao
E Smith — January 11, 2022
A WELL-DOCUMENTED FACT: the term “white trash” was coined by black people in America in the early 19th century. It was ubiquitous among the black population, but it primarily derived from two readily identifiable groups of black people: black slaves and educated black people. Why and how? Because poor, uneducated and unskilled white people, who most often also lacked any class, self-respect, or worse, no excuse for their plights in life, would often turn to insulting the only people they felt they could insult: black people. Obviously, their low social status, often accompanied by a large number of children they couldn’t afford (who were always with them because they didn't bother to make then attend school) and attitudes and clothing attire reflecting this self-loathing position, made them feel even worse about themselves. Since they had no position to complain to educated, middle and class white people, they regularly focused their ire on black people, bc in their idiotic, uneducated, simpleton minds, they actually thought they were better than black people. But black people, knowing the difference between an educated white person with class, sophistication and a secure, self assuredness, referred to those types of white people as “poor white trash”. Why sid they use “Poor” when describing white trash? Because not all poor white people were “trash”. Having money doesn’t magically and suddenly change someone into an educated person with manners, class, and self-respect. Just like being raised poor or losing all your money doesn’t strip a person of all those values.
I’m white, and I think it sad whoever wrote this feels the need to lie and/or try to mislead people by vilifying “all white people” with this false story. I hate to burst the proverbial bubble of your “educational piece” (a/k/a an Op-Ed: “Of or being a newspaper page, usually opposite the editorial page, that features signed articles expressing personal viewpoints). However, what you have written, at best, is nothing more than your opinion (albeit an uneducated one), or at worst, nothing more than your intentional misrepresentation of the facts, in hopes of misleading people into believing, yet even more, false claims about how evil white people are and how they’re the root of all the major problems, obstacles, and failures in the lives of black people.
Millions of illegal (and legal) immigrants don’t flock to America because it holds people back based on the color of their skin. The way things were 100-200 years ago aren’t the way things are today. Black people do not have a historical monopoly on misery, hust like white people don’t have a monopoly on being evil. People are people, and I can assure you, people of all kinds have been slaves, and in many places in the world today, barbaric atrocities still occur every day. If you’re a black american woman and you moved to Africa today, you have a very hugher chance of being raped than the average African women, of which 1 in 3 are raped, just bc you’re a woman, and especially bc you’re an outsider. If you’re a black American male and move there, you would likely be hunted down and killed by a member of any number of the warring tribes whether or not you are an outsider.
FACT: No matter where you live in the world, if you sit around and blame other people for your lack of success, or lack of whatever you want, and/or you sit around and wait for someone to give you something, or you demand you are owed something by society, for ANY reason, you will never achieve anything, and anything you are given will never be appreciated by you because you didn’t work hard for it. You will not be able to appreciate it and it will never be enough. Anyone waiting for someone to give them something has no self-respect.
One of my favorite quotes and my Final FACT: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Andrew — February 14, 2022
Some racist folks leaving comments here, fancy.
train — March 13, 2022
To me the term white trash was used for all so called whites. Back in the 1600's they had no class the black europeans felt, they all was trash. No racism, there never was. We are two different speices. the reconstruction of the constitution 1869 was done because so called whites wasn't added in the first place. Who give slaves rights.
Luis — September 11, 2022
This whole story boards in the ridiculous. I'm not even white and I can see the manipulation. Please. When did it happen that being white was an immediate indicator of being racist? We can say the exact same things about blacks and browns and where's the difference? Please. There are white people in every nation of the world as there are brown and dark skinned people too... Grow up America.
Michael Hunt — October 13, 2022
''White Trash. Black Garbage.. Media Manipulation will make a fool out of us all".........
Maya Angelou
Bob Weltzien MD PhD — October 17, 2022
I reserve the term for whites who continue to support Trump and the big lie. An alternate term for them was coined by my Romanian American friend; Garbage People.
Laura Milagros — November 7, 2022
11/7/22 Of all the comments posted here, only "The Dude" comprehends what the writer was attempting to point out. (Posted Feb 2021) While the writer tried to make a point in many paragraphs, The Dude did so quite succinctly & in only one. Props to The Dude! To hammer home both his point & the writer's: White ppl can't be trash bc they arent EVER supposed to be trash. White ppl must be superior at all times. If they fall short of White Standards - they are trash.
Only ppl of color are acceptably "trash" & that is to be expected & is the "norm". Only PoC can be low class/no class, have a low IQ, be barely literate, have no manners or social graces, keep dirty houses & have no sense of decor, have dumpster stuff & shelled out cars all over their ill-kept property, have no hygiene or teeth, dress is tacky clothes, are possibly inbred, etc, etc.~~~ I was a Civil Rights activist in the 60s & 70s. All of this neo, fluid & covert racism has spread like cancer makes me so very, very tired. I now believe there is little to no hope for Americans of Caucasian ancestry - especially WASPs - to ever be truly transparent, to be non-racist, to be non-judgemental & to not discriminate against those supposedly different from them. .
JMac — December 24, 2022
Thank you Laura and the Dude. Man, the guy writes a great article explaining how the term “White Trash” reinforces racism and the commoners are to caught up in their emotions to understand a simple concept. Smh! Just so……ugh!
WhiteCrow49 — February 11, 2023
Presently this term is being used excessively on TikTok. For a while, I have enjoyed Carville's insights on Ari Melber, but I'm angry at him now. Someone said this means something different in the South. Uh, no. Mom grew up in Texas. Her family was called this. She was a good, decent, loving, liberal Democrat. Please read an article by Lucas Lynch in the Clippings section of The Society Pages, 9/12/2018.
Deborah Goldstein — February 26, 2023
Can those who are theorizing that the slur “white trash” somehow perpetuates racism against Black people, can they see that it’s hurtful and insulting to poor white people? Can they have an ounce of empathy for anyone else? Have a heart.
Me — March 1, 2023
Interesting article but shallow and too narrowly focused to answer the commentators needs— mine included. The black/white discussion circles around and reveals all of our sensitivities. My grandparents immigrated here from Europe in the early 1900’s, poor and looking to work hard. They were white but not slave holders. My parents did amazingly well benefiting from the GI bill and free college in NYC. Being white they avoided the lack of opportunities and bigotry. My siblings did even better than my hard working parents (mother and father worked, at a time when women did not normally work). While Laura Milagros was an activist in the 60’s and 70’s, however, I was being sexually abused by a family member and cast as an outsider by the others, mother included abused and neglected my needs. I have never been called white trash openly by anyone but my mother, but I have felt the sickening judgment of others. I was:am a single mom, now 60 years old and feeling the ageism of this society as well. But I am upset by the comments that assume racism of all whites. You never walked in my shoes, as I never walked in yours. Perhaps if I were black given my past I would be worse off— I don’t know. I am grateful to be alive but being labeled white trash still hurts.
Guys, the racial divide is eroding our power. And even well intentioned media keep it going. The economic divide is real— let’s get over our hatred of self and other, and lend each other a hand up.
Orlok — April 30, 2023
There are corresponding slurs against the lower sections of other races. For instance, "ghetto blacks". Since whites are richer than blacks or Hispanics, it is appropriate to point out poor whites as somewhat of a distinct outlier. It is not necessarily because the speaker thinks whites are biologically superior (e.g., they think intelligence is genetic). It could for politically correct reasons such as systemic racism. Poor whites are also genuinely more racist, it's an empirical fact. Look at any poll, there is a large disparity in terms of "racist" preferences like disliking BLM, thinking there is no systemic racism, liking the confederate flag, voting Donald Trump, etc.
Dylon — July 10, 2023
Absolute idiocy. So now calling a White person a racial slur is racist, not to Whites, BUT TO BLACK PEOPLE?!?! There are many angry things I would say here if weren’t for my self control!
John — September 17, 2023
Yes. This article is: every crass word ever invented and all the ones to come. I guess if a black man shoots me for being white, it’s my fault because of my hidden racism and I just got what I deserved?!?!
Rethabile Masilo — November 2, 2023
Please just stop saying White Supremacy! What the hell is that? If you want something that makes dumb white people feel superior, it is that appellation. They're not superior, so stop saying they are.
Instead, use "White Supremacism", for that's what it is.
Supremacism is the belief that a particular type or group of people should lead or have control over other types or groups because they are better than them
Supremacy is the position of being the best, or the leading one, or being the highest authority.
So please stop.