Terms like "White Trash" are vulgar. They do nothing but divide us.

[JanMichael]

Trash? What does one DO with trash?

Is it something to respect, love and care about?

Or is it something to toss out the back of a moving vehicle? Or compact into tiny little cubes? Or burn? Or pile up into trash mountains on the outskirts of town?

Same with "Skirts", "Ho", "Spic", and that classic invective that true vulgarians call Blacks.

They aren't funny and they serve no purpose other than to divide and nuetralize People.

And who may I ask benefit from all of this division of the aggregate population?

[Stop_the_War]

1. stop whining....

I am getting sick of these "I'm white i'm being reverse discriminated blah blah" threads...You aren't being discriminated against when you're a freakin' majority in all branches of government.

[Blue_State_Elitist]

2. Me too

They all sound like the Republicans, acting like victims despite the fact that they have all the power.

[JanMichael]

6. OMFG! This is fucking ridiculous!

People need to understand how we all get screwed by this.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[T Town Jake]

11. Your manners could sure use some work.

(n/t)

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[philosophie_en_rose]

15. You're being completely silly.

Jan Michael isn't saying that calling someone "white trash" is the same as the effects of enslaving an entire population of the country for hundreds of years. However, it is a derogatory term that insults people based on race.

And to get technical, specifying "white" trash sort of indicates that usual trash is not white. It's a backhanded insult, at best.

[JanMichael]

36. Thank you.

People seem to be having a hard time making distinctions between concepts.

I never said that the divisive and degrading language aimed at poor white folks was worse, equal, or comparable to the experiance of Black folks in this country.

I simply said that these terms divide people and then asked the question: Who does that benefit?

Like that was so difficult? Who does it benefit when the Working Class is divided Ethnically? Um, that's pretty obvious.

Thank you for understanding.

[JanMichael]

4. WTF?

I'm in complete agreement that this country suffers from Institutional Racism.

I'm talking about divisive language.

Ok?

[latteromden]

10. You're complaining about divisive language, and calling things

"fucking retarded"? Practice what you preach if you want people to listen to you.

[JanMichael]

13. I lost it. It's changed.

Ok?

[latteromden]

18. Thank ya.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Stop_the_War]

5. EXACTLY!

[QC]

17. The majority of voters under $50k voted for Kerry.

Every other income demographic went for Bush.

So we need to put down that Big Gulp of corporate media Kool-Aid and stop blaming poor people for putting Bush in office. It was bourgeois white people--the same demographic that dominates DU--who did that.

You might also want to consider that it's divisive shit like "white trash" and "Jesusland" that allows the GOP to present us as "elitists" and themselves as friends of the "little guy." Yes, it's a ridiculous lie, but the main reason they are able to get away with it is that so many people who are allegedly on our side give them the ammunition.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

21. Yes, thank you for putting it so well.

[QC]

26. Thanks! n/t

[SheepBootHero]

23. We can create better insults than that

Of course there's no reason to be nice to those that didn't vote for us this time. We will never need any white trailer trash worshipers of Jesus or anyone else that didn't vote for our big tent and compassion platform in 2000 or 2004.

We have more than enough correct acting and thinking voters on our team to beat them there trashy people that are in control for the moment. In fact we may want to crank up the anger and hatred against these voters so they know we are here and coming to take over real soon now.

[GiovanniC]

30. You Overwhelm Me With Your Super-Subtle Ways

Moose. Cheese. Sister.

[Hell in a Handbasket]

8. yeah, i've gotta tell you- as a white man, i feel downright oppressed.

um, NOT. :eyes:

[JanMichael]

16. Not the point. DU is depressing tonight.

Knee jerk reactions rule.

[AlCzervik]

20. yes it's depressing in gd, it seems to be a pattern

lets see last night Keith Olbermann wasn't doing enough about Gukert/Gannon and tonight Jon Stewart isn't on our side anymore. i give up.

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. White trash has nothing to do with moving vehicles.

Their vehicles are all up on blocks in the front yard.

[KittyWampus]

14. I Agree With You But Some People Come Here To Specifically Call

fellow human beings trash.

[QC]

19. It does seem that way sometimes, doesn't it? n/t

[Extend a Hand]

22. when is it okay to vent?

It seems to me that there might be times and places where civilized discourse is called for

and other times and places where venting is acceptable

there doesn't seem to be much agreement in du about which is which

[JanMichael]

25. I'd say find better adjectives.

And if that fails use the easy nasty ones in private.

[DWolper]

24. You are right

You are right. Of course you are right. However, from the time I have spent here at DU, I see a wide spectrum of thought mainly running from far left to the very, very, very far left. Because of that, expect to hear that you should shut up because you sound like you are defending white people. White people are evil. They are "white trash" and worse. Since they are the majority, it's okay to call them anything you like. I suppose it's okay to call the blacks in Africa (that invective) since they are the majority there? Of course not. Yet, this kind of thinking is too widespread here as moderate Democratic thinking - or even old-fashioned liberal thinking is laughed at and mocked. Many posts in this thread are racist. No, not "reverse racism" as there is no such thing. There is racism, racism and then racism. Against blacks, against Jews, against white people. It knows no boundaries. Yet, the racism against whites by some posters are excused which is wrong - and racist!

[Stop_the_War]

28. blah blah blah n/t

[DWolper]

31. That's just what I was thinking

Blah, blah, blah. Knee-jerk leftism from those who think whites are trash - and brag about it! Your blah-blah response is a kind of neo-fascist response that says, "We don't want to hear anything other than the approved line." The "approved line" tonight is - it's okay to hate white people, call them trash, denigrate them for the color of their skin. Would MLK be proud of this? I think not. Blah, blah, blah. How dare I step out of line.

[JanMichael]

29. Oh I'm far far far far far far far Left compared to most DU'ers.

And "Whitey" has indeed created Institutonal Racism for "him and his women".

But I see Classism and Capitalism as the enemy, not poor white people, or women, or blacks, or gays, or whomever.

It's the Institutions and Systems that benefit from terms like "White Trash" "Wet Backs" "Bitches" etcetera.

[DWolper]

34. I agree

To a great extent, you are right again. Eric Hoffer's book about the masses (title escapes me?)would agree as well. Oppression by the masses is true in America and it's true in black Africa against white people. Hate, prejudice, it all knows no skin color when it spews from the racist mouth. Whether it be whites with racist views as a majority in America, or Robert Mugabe and much of black Africa's hate toward white people who are their neighbors. Again, it IS, as you say, institutional - and it is ugly. That Hoffer book is a must-read by the way. Nobody interested in politics and society should miss that one.

[JanMichael]

37. I'm not a fan of Hoffer.

And while there is (To a White person) a reverse "racism" in Africa the issue of Institutional Racism in the US is different. The US as the engine of World Capitalism is different from the Congo or South Africa too.

When a "relative" rich 2% owned 80% of the farmland, in a territory carved out to screw over the native population, then taken by the brute force of arms, and the rest of nation is in poverty, it's not the same as what has happened in the US.

Ultimately it always comes down to a Economic issue for me. I simply am repulsed by the concepts of Plutocracy and Monarchy. Since we already have one and are trending dangerously close to the other, I'm hoping the the Working Class can figure out soon who's leg is attached to the boot that's kicking their ass.

[Orangepeel]

27. it's also racist

not against whites, but against non-whites.

Why is it "white" trash rather than just trash? Is the default characteristic for trash something other than white so that trash that is white has to be designated as such? (keeping in mind that historically, it wasn't nonwhites referring to low income, less educated whites as "white trash")

I agree that calling anyone trash is vulgar and divisive. It's also offensive to everyone.

[TNMOM]

32. The first time I heard "white trash" was from a reporter in

a newsroom. He, by the way, was white.

Trash is a description of a type of behavior. There also are blacks, Latinos and Asians who are "trashy."

[DWolper]

35. Very true

However, it seems acceptable to some when "trash" is preceded by "white." Put "black" in front of trash and all hell breaks loose - and again - rightfully so. The color of ones skin should never be denigrated with ugly terminology. It is against the principles of liberal Americans.

[DU GrovelBot]

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