Though membership is rather amorphous, I’m glad my people are getting the recognition so long denied. According to some, if you don’t attend Yale and suck up to old money with your feelings of inferiority, you qualify.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/10/10/being-a-bumpkin/#more-103515
Ya know, you have to be from a certain time and place to really get the meaning of ‘white trash” or even deeper, “po’ white trash”. It has to be said with a certain tone. Half way sneer, half way pity. Unfortunately, its become short hand for the fly over country and Trump voters. That is incorrect. There are respectable poor black folks. There are respectable poor white folks. They all go to church, pay their bills and take in their grandkids. Then there are ‘white trash’ They don’t bother to better themselves (according to other’s standards). They don’t present themselves well. They don’t work at being who they aren’t and don’t do masks. All the things respectable white and black folks strive for. Sometimes drink or pills are involved, but not a defining feature-just added spice.
In current culture, Appalachia seems to be their breeding ground; though certain western areas have sprung up as well. And there is a real attitude online about anyone who didn’t attend college and work in an office park or sit in coffee shops in hipster clothing or ….whatever… . Whole swaths of the continent has been written off because they, WTs, (hey, did I just invent a meme?) might not share their delicate sensibilities in politics, social questions, or tastes in technology.
Underlying the faked misunderstanding of “why Trump?” is the condescending attitude and the unspoken “white trash, what do you expect.” scorn. You would not believe some of the commentary I get when posting in other places about the issues HRC had in Appalachia and the fly over country in general. If they applied the same responses to inner city poor or folks along the SW border, posts would have been flagged, posters banned, and holy hell raised. But since, “they are poor dumb hillbillies who don’t know better, we can say whatever we want.” After all they will never have to interact with one; just suffer the political results when WTs get pissed at the rest of the country.
Leading up to and especially after the election, there has been an undercurrent of exploration of this group, like anthropologists discovering a lost tribe, in the general media. Smarmy semi-academic articles, book reviews, and
“Gee whiz, will you look at that!” type of thing. But then again, its been happening for 100+ yrs. In the 1880s, the NY Times sent a man into deepest, darkest WV to interview the Hatfield Clan. Took him 3 days on horse back from Charleston just to titillate the readers back home. (Now takes an hour in a car). So it has a long history.
The next thing is a White Trash Caucus in Congress and an organization for recognition of this subgroup in the media. Maybe a sympathetic feature in NYTimes Sunday Mag followed by a media tour on Public Radio? Personally, I demand a break out panel at the next DNC conference.
Anyway, I’m energized and ready to struggle for our place in the Democratic Political Sunshine. Maybe picket an upscale mall in Connecticut to draw attention to our plight? They will love the WalMart fleece ware and spit cups as we block Neiman Marcus. So brothers and sisters, climb into your Ford Ranger with the mismatched colored fenders and join in the fight.
Ridge
Sneering at WTs seems to be a way for people to absolve themselves from actually looking at the issues that affect WTs’ lives. This is especially apparent when people dismiss any concern for WTs by labeling them as racists.
It is so easy to forget that plenty of racists have degrees from fine institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. (Or maybe it is an assumption that attending one of those schools will somehow “fix” any racism you come on board with.)
As if no Dems have any of those faults…
Having experienced some of the “Old South” I realized something.
Education, either Havard, Yale,.. or Duke, W&L, Old Miss, Auburn, etc… does not mean that racism will be read out of the student, but teaches one on how to conceal it better.
In southern towns, there was a rigid class structure of professionals, business/factory owners and the rest. (This is part of the reaction against early rock and roll). Its stratified, as to social and religious association, but there is no doubt that the upper reaches used the lower to keep blacks and whites under control and wages low.
You can’t have a white man and a black man, both standing in front of a loom for 10 hrs, getting together to fight for higher pay. The upper “class” would never be in a field with a hood on, but they know who is and gives them leeway to make sure they have the time to do so. The bank President, factory owner, doctor, lawyer….all college graduates… keep above those with burning crosses and Confederate flags on their pickup or in front of the trailer; but to them they are white trash and would never had been invited into the Big House, not to mention have their feet under the dinner table. They are useful to keep economic control of the community; just make sure they are focused on Race, not common economic requirements.
Seems to me, this sounds like the campaign of the last Democratic Candidate for President. Focus on your own special place on the huge human spectrum; not the common requirements for equal justice under law and economic fairness.
R
You describe larger towns and the cities in the Civil Rights era very well. But these were the towns and cities that bent first to desegregation in order to get plant relocations.
Smaller towns often refused plant relocations so as to not disrupt existing patterns. And the few professional class folks there were among those who donned hoods in opposing civil rights workers.
The education does not read the racism out of the student even in New York City; the PEOTUS is case in point. What it does is teach one how to be polite while one preserves the institutions of racism.
Well, yes. I’ve some experience in what I call the “Lint Belt” You and I could run the list of the textile towns along the Va/NC border, then south to SC and north Ga.
Those industries were there before civil rights struggle and new industry came in. But the established cliques didn’t begin to break up until the trade deals of Clinton and SW Asia imports. Then the mills closed and the aging city fathers lost their power base or died. Then space was created for a newer generation, newer industry with newer sensibilities. But even now, a lot have just shifted base from the towns and cities of the old industries to out in the “county”.
Just as Curt observed below, many have left because of “lower taxes” (not true), better schools or Christian private schools- “so they can pray” but every knows its because their kids won’t associate with “those folks”.
Funny story-
My wife and I live in one of the Lint Belt towns. Registered Democrats and white. Professional and live in a aging but nice neighborhood. I started getting national publications like “Black Entrepreneur” and similar. Why? Because the only reason a Democrat would live in that zip code in the city limits is because I must be black and have a business.
So voter rolls are available for all sorts of uses, as I discussed in another post. National promotions or local influence pushing.
R
Being from the Southern white professional class, bordering on upper class, I can back this up. In public, the white elite refrain from racist comments. And they’d never send their kids to a white-flight school. But somehow their kids still end up in schools with almost no blacks, and in private the n*** jokes come out – even from the ones you wouldn’t expect it from.
My father tells the following story.
My Dad moved from Seattle to Huntsville Alabama in the 60’s to work on the space program.
It was an enclave of PhD rocket scientists surrounded by George Wallace’s Alabama. There were southerners on the project – educated – and the politest people you would ever meet.
So they are having dinner, and someone made a reference to the local school and a guest said: “well we just have to keep the N’s out. They will destroy everything of worth”.
The comment came from a Ga. Tech PhD.
The topic moved on – but my dad never got over it.
Intelligence and education do not carry with them immunity to racism.
In each election season, you find yourself making a choice: continue receiving government help, which you know will not make your children’s life better, or forego those basic services in hopes that your town–one forgotten by the country– has the chance to create jobs that may provide you, and your children, the chance to carve out a life.
The choice each election season is the same, but the circumstances in which you live are getting worse because where you live isn’t part of the growth of the country.
So which do you choose: government help that you know will be there but that doesn’t provide a future, or the chance to maybe build something new (and knowing that if you fail, you will be worse off than you are)?
You must choose one or the other. If you decide not to choose, then you’re told you have no right to complain. And– by the way– no matter which you pick, people will chide you for being too stupid to know the right answer?
So Far Appalachia: The Myth of the Rural, White Working Class + Voting Against Their Self Interest
Have you seen this, Ridge? “While this book is about Appalachia, it’s a story of class warfare.”
Thanks for the link-
“Blacks and African-Americans have been nearly wiped away from the history of the region, and so too were women from all backgrounds.”
Maybe in Clay County, KY. but blacks had and have a large presence in and around Charleston, WV and the coal fields. From writs of Manumission listed in the old Deed books from the estate of George Washington, to blacks coming into WV after the Civil War to work and escape the more virulent racism, to the UMWA being the first integrated Union.
AS for strong Appalachian women, he is living in a fantasy world if he thinks they no longer exist in fact or memory. Maybe his own family had shy, retiring types. My family and the ones I deal with daily are more likely to shoot their husbands or anyone else as to take any crap. And a lot are packing heat. Maybe Ky is different. The rest of his article has points. The internal colonization is a thing I have discussed as regard to land ownership and taxation.
I think he is generalizing his little corner of the mountains to the whole region. Transportation is a factor. Its just so expensive to build modern roads. A mile a year +. The culture of Appalachia was frozen from 1770s, up till 1900 when the railroads really began to make inroads for coal and timber. Still have remnants of older style of English. Then Eastern and Southern Europe migration for mining + blacks from Deep South. That has made WV and areas of VA and maybe Eastern KY as a real interesting mix.
Now Cable TV, Internet and cell service is bringing a wider American Cultural homogenization and breaking down the “otherness”. But it is also showing what the region is missing that the rest of the country has. I think you are seeing the same thing in the rural MidWest. They also were isolated but now have communications with the outside.
R
In 1992 and 1996, Bill Clinton promised to bring hope and change to the people of West Virginia, and he won by big margins. However, the hope and change didn’t come for these people. When Bill Clinton visited the state in 1992 he was cheered like a rock star; but in 2016, Clinton was loudly booed there when he campaigned for Hillary. Now Bill Clinton blames Fox News for West Virginia not supporting his wife. Pathetic!
The economy in WV boomed under Bill. He spoke like them, looked like them, and understood their concerns.
Hillary? Not so much; especially when you tell the national media you are going to put their husbands out of work and take the food off the dinner table. Yes, there were other proposed programs but to even suggest such a thing…no wonder working white women who would have benefited from proposals (and let’s be clear, they were ALL proposals) she was putting forth rejected her.
She didn’t try for those votes seriously. As now been revealed, the HQ in Brooklyn had written those votes in WV (and a lot of other places) off. It wasn’t Fox necessarily as Sanders did well in Appalachia. The problem was that HRC was a lousy candidate.
Bill can’t offer that as an explanation, but you can be damn sure he would NEVER had said such a thing, nor the “Deplorables” comment, nor the gun thing, etc…. He was much that better than her.
R
He was much that
bettersmarter than her.More diplomatic, aware of realities.
Se all seem to forget about this, but had he not been given real intellectual ability and other talents, Bill Clinton himself could well have been labeled “white trash.”
Wikipedia (Emphases mine):
So far, this sounds like the plot of a country and western complaint song.
He lucked out.
IQ is irreplaceable.
Unfortunately, so are other genetics.
All his life he has been torn between the two bloodlines…to the point where he may have almost forgotten about the lower half.
He blames West Virginia?
He is blaming his other, bar-whoring, coke-snorting, intern-seducing self.
So it goes.
AG
Of course he was white trash. Until his mother figured out how to earn income and raise him. Until he found out that excelling at school in Hot Springs could bring him attention and dignity. And he went to those schools when Arkansas, like most Southern states, was on the make for relocating industry and pushing for talented students (whites only) to have opportunities.
How Clinton caught the attention of J. William Fulbright is a story that is not very clear, but that mentorship as a intern while he studied at Georgetown University is the key piece of the puzzle. There is speculation that it happened through some of the denizens of Hot Springs’s illegal gambling resurgence during the administration of Orval Faubus. That mentorship might also be the source of some of Clinton’s bad habits, which in less tolerant times brought him grief. The Arkasas Democratic culture was home not only of Faubus and Fulbright but also Wilbur Mills, later caught in a fountain with stripper Fanne Foxx.
It is very interesting to see how moralistic New Yorkers can be about Southern politicians. It is also interesting to see how much of David Bossie’s narrative you have absorbed.
Clinton’s story is the American Dream (which he played on heavily in campaigning as the man from Hope). Who helped him and why is kinda hidden. So is whatever experience he had with Hot Springs’s dark side and the underbelly of Arkansas Democratic politics before the Dixiecrats turned Republican.
He delivered for West Virginia in office. Obama was blocked by West Virginia politicians from delivering for West Virginia. He was also blocked by his own economic advisers and content with small-bore actions.
What the situation is about coal is that the coal companies are working the last seams through mountaintop removal; peak coal has come and gone for West Virginia. And the coal companies were abusive of their own workers; only right before the election cycle did Don Blankenship get convicted.
Hillary Clinton was out of her depth in brass-knuckle politics.
“What the situation is about coal is that the coal companies are working the last seams through mountaintop removal; peak coal has come and gone for West Virginia. And the coal companies were abusive of their own workers; only right before the election cycle did Don Blankenship get convicted.”
“Peak” coal may or may not be gone, but I might question this. The whole “war on coal” was a war on wages and benefits. Employment rose under the first few yrs of Obama, then dropped with the natural gas glut. The Peabody/Patriot bankruptcy ruling showed the way for companies to shed pension and health care obligations. The effect is to make it cheaper to mine.
Natural gas has risen above coal again, wages are low enough that metallurgical coal is in demand (though the worldwide steel glut has not abated). New mines are opening and working mines have expanded in Southern WV.
But they are facing an issue. Their strategy had driven away experienced miners who could pass drug tests, to states like NC and Tenn. Those who remained are in demand and already wages are raising and benefits like paying for healthcare are being offered.
Spoke to a miner today who said he and some friends were going to put in applications at a new mine that will pay $32/hr over the $25 they are getting now. We will probably see a return of the some of the miners when the demand increases as the “streets of gold” in NC and other places turn into brass.
MTR died a few yrs ago, but surface mining and underground mining is accelerating. Trump may say he is going to gut the EPA, but for the first time in generations, the streams are clear and wildlife is present in record numbers. So much so that small businesses who rely on those clear streams are going to fight for them.
R
Where in NC were there streets of gold for miners? I know the legislature changed the mineral rights laws abruptly, but did it open up any mining jobs? The fracking turned out to be a dry hole.
Not working in the mines, but working in roofing with their cousin, HVAC with a buddy, etc… all the service and construction industry of the growing state.
Problem is, cost of living is higher, no relatives to watch the kids, housing is more expensive and affordable is 20 miles out of town. Commute is on the other side of Raleigh and you share the drive with 20, 000 of your close friends…. all issues they haven’t had to deal with. If they hear back home that jobs are available, I think we will see a return.
R
So could I have been labeled “white trash,” at least until about the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century on both sides of my family.
Fishermen/farmers in hardscrabble 19th century Long Island on one side:
(That’s the spitting image of my grandmother on the right…maybe one (probably somewhat inbred) generation previous to hers.)
1st generation Irish climbers on the other:
I too was bowled over by Coltrane, Getz and the rest.
I chose to fight to equal them.
So that goes as well.
I have never read “David Bossie’s narrative,” Tarheel.
I lived instead.
I made my…largely genetically and culturally proscribed…choices. So did Mr. Clinton.
I do not “blame” him…I just pity him as an unlucky cousin.
Bet on it.
AG
P.S. I met him…briefly…at a reception for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. We lined up to shake hands,letc. When it was my turn, I leaned over and said to him (sotto voce)”You woulda been better off playing tenor.” The flash of his eyes told me that he knew I was right.
You didn’t have to read David Bossie’s narrative. The media fed it to you drip by drip during the 1990s. Interesting guy who specializes in character assassination.
For me the intriguing part of Bill Clinton’s biography is something that Paul Theroux hinted at in Deep South in his travelogue of Hot Springs about how the character of Hot Springs must have affected Clinton’s view of what success looked like. That and just how he made the contacts that got him to Georgetown and Sen. Fulbright’s office are fascinating. Yes, there is the 1963 Boys State experience in DC right before JFK’s assassination, but who taught Clinton how to work those contacts? Only part of it is natural gift.
I didn’t have to read Bossie’s narrative, TarHeel, because I made up my own mind.
To tell you the truth, I was too goddamned busy being a working musician and a father to pay much attention to “the media” through the pre-Clinton (and post-Lewinsky) years. M
y own political awakening…reawakening, really…came with Dean’s character assassination “AAAAaaargh!!!” moment followed by Kerry’s capitulation to the Bush II vote-fraud win.
Then I began to work back…to the Clinton rise, to the Perot character assassination, etc.
David Bossie?
Just another right-wing hustler. Nothing more and nothing less.
ASG
“So could I have been labeled “white trash”
Could have? Hell, wear the badge proudly! Think of all the musicians who were perceived as nothing but WT.
The Bristol Sessions, Memphis in the 50’s, Muscle Shoals, Memphis in the 60’s, Woody Guthrie, Nashville, the punks out of Detroit in the 60’s, the punks out of NYC in the 70’s. And the Calif punk scene. Springsteen is all about WTs of Jersey and the Midwest.
Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music is nothing but a celebration of White Trashiness
Long, long list. So step up and join the Pantheon.
R
And “Black Trash,” as well!!!
“Latino Trash…”
The list is endless.
The only real “trash?”
The trashers!!!
Bet on it.
Deep.
We swung ’em to death!!!
Bet on it.
AG
I remember watching News Hour back in ’92 (God, what a geek) and a member of a panel said about Bill, “He’s from Arkansas and he wants to be President?” or something like that.
Even with all his obvious accomplishments, he was still seen as White Trash. I won’t delve into psychology but he certain overcame the limitations of his upbringing.
He is of a stereotype well known in literature and movies; the lovable southern scoundrel. Twain, Faulkner, etc… If you get a chance, look at a movie called “The Flim-Flam Man” with Geo. C Scott. or “The Reevers” with Steve McQueen. That is Bill of an earlier generation.
R
The narrative fitted for him has been the lovable southern scoundrel. As time went on, he started to inhabit that narrative and play off of it. Southern stereotyping is a national habit.
In reality, sociologically and politically, he was among the cohort of Southern Democratic governors that included Jimmy Carter, Robert McNair, John West, Richard Riley, Bob Graham, Reuben Askew, Terry Sanford, Jim Hunt, and Anne Richards. They all went about politics in similar ways. It worked until it didn’t. It finally didn’t work at the moment of the Gingrich revolution.
It’s also become a narrative that has been exploited for profit by those who likely grew up looking down on what was referred to in their region as white trash.
I think your comment of having to grow up in a particular time and place carries a lot of weight. There are now third, fourth, and fifth generation sububanites whose family might not be able to find the homeplace anymore or even know where it was. Or third and fourth-generation immigrants whose genealogy is now so multi-ethnic they can only identify as “American”.
In my experience, a lot of the xenophobia of “outsiders”, “flatland furriners”, or “tourists” was as much locally-generated shame and locally-generated class relationships as being looked down upon by outsiders.
Of course, the “decadent South” and “inbred hillbilly” stories have been as much a staple of the popular media of any day (even the 1850s magazines) as the “evil citie” and “dangerous immigrant” stories have been. Cheap sang froid up to an including James Dickey’s Deliverance, as Nancy Isenberg’s White Trash:the 400-Year Untold History of Class in America points out.
Why shouldn’t white trash get the same scrutiny that African American Studies programs and Womens Studies programs have provided those identities. High-brow, middle-brow, low-brow used to express very clearly the expected facial expression of social classes to information were types of cultural assemblages. “Popular” became attached to middle-brow.
And why can’t people see the cultural diversity of white trash? And the fact that what is most being devalued is grassroots creation of cultural forms that are not yet commodified as Nashville, Duck Dynasty, and entrepreneurial preachers do.
And I suppose, someone will start pushing for an ethical dogfighting league or ethical cockfighting league. With corporate boxes and special orders of barbecue and local artisan beers.
Some of us are so close the the ambiguities and ambivalences in this issue of how to de-bigot white people that we think that transformation of the current cultural tropes will be sufficient.
White Trash Caucus in Congress? I wish some backwoods Democrat (do we still have those?) would. I wonder how they can strip off the stereotypes. And defang the sneer. And show that the culture of poverty is the culture of poverty and that it is a matter of dealing with poverty and not a genetic or cultural predisposition. And disfunctional families are not limited by class or race or ethnicity.
How about the new Rural Caucus? Only 2 members, so far.
http://ruralcaucus-adriansmith.house.gov/
We are talking about an identity that transcends being rural. It is a particular class interest that is asserting itself as the default American interest, which it is not. In a multicultural, multiracial society, there no longer is a default interest.
Acting as if there is a default American interest empowers the 0.01%.
How to label this caucus is tricky to express what it is. Farmer-labor used to do it eighty years ago. That no longer works. Republicans dealt with this through racial dogwhistles like “conservative” or “traditional values”. That proved a rewarding distraction without ever having to deliver the goods on the actual interest.
“…is asserting itself as the default American interest…”
Hmm, Ridge’s parody is that they want to “become” an interest, too.
They’re being co-opted by the swells. Why wouldn’t they want to become an interest? The problem is that white identity is all they can name themselves as right now. Especially since the history works to prevent a multicultural 99% movement.
If they become an interest and there is no default interest, the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus could potential cut deals and ally with them on a case by case basis over against moneyed interests.
It is the genius of the 0.01% that they incorporated them as the popular force of the Republican Party for 48 years without them getting the benefits of that alliance. And Trump is just a more showmanlike co-option of the same character.
“Parody”?
Well, maybe.
What triggered the post was that review in the publication, comments to posts at Daily Kos, and the general media atmosphere from the last election.
Some how, some way the Democratic Party (as expressed in national media, spokes people and most vocal members on influential web sites and media channels) has come the conclusion that there is only so much money, political juice, time, attention and effort that can be spared to improve the lives of Americans. And its politically expedient to divide up Americans into various sub groups based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc…. That if you appeal to the right number of subgroups in the right way, you will get a winning coalition; all be it, a razor thin coalition. That strategy pits one group against the other for their share of the limited pie.
But while that might work, a more productive strategy would be to appeal to the broader legal and economic interests of ALL Americans no matter gender, race, sexual preference. Its there and people hunger for unity against adversity; not division and categorization. But some other’s posts pointing that out, or if I discussed the failures of HRC in regards to Appalachia as a whole (before the election) resulted in being called racist, misogynist, Republican Troll and I don’t know what else. The arrogance and stupidity exhibited was stunning. Hell, I wouldn’t talk to a dog like that. What it came down to was us “dissenters” were advocating for poor white trash who don’t know what’s good for them in HRC and they should move to the city and get a job in computers.
So maybe the way for us WTs to get some acknowledgment of all America’s problems in non-metro areas is to form an advocacy group, so be it.
R
Great link Ridge – thanks!