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