White trash. For many, the name evokes images of trailer parks, meth labs, beat-up Camaros on cinder blocks, and poor rural folks with too many kids and not enough government cheese. Itâs a put-down, the name given to those whites who donât make it, either because theyâre too lazy or too stupid. Or maybe itâs because somethingâs wrong with their inbred genes. Whatever the reason, itâs their own damn fault they live like that.
On the other hand, there are plenty of people now willing to wear âwhite trashâ as a badge of honor. Much as African American youth turned the despised word nigger into an expression of pride and solidarity (usually as the abbreviated nigga) or the way that LGBT activists have reclaimed queer, some white people now identify as âwhite trashâ to signal rebelliousness and cultural differenceâtheir refusal of a bland, mainstream white society that oppresses and stifles.
And there is a third popular use of the term: to denigrate and punish the rich and famous when they act badly. Despite her millions, Paris Hilton can be called out for a âtrashyâ lifestyle, and George Clooney can tell us, in his self-mocking kind of way, that beneath a dapper exterior, heâs really just white trash. And, as comedian and actor Tom Arnold said of his marriage to comedian, actress, and sometime political aspirant Roseanne Barr, âWeâre Americaâs worst nightmareâwhite trash with money!â
So, is âwhite trash,â as campy director John Waters once said, âthe last racist thing you can say and get away withâ? Or has it become a symbol of something like ethnic pride? Or is it just a comical phrase used to condemn, excuse, or celebrate bad behavior, like too much drinking, cussing, fighting, and general screwing around?
And then thereâs the bigger question: Why should we care, anyway? What makes white trash talk anything more than pop culture trivia? To answer these questions it helps to look to the past, to see when and how the term arose, and to think about the uses to which it has been put, by whom, and why. Surprisingly, the answers have a lot to do with our changing ideas about sex, class, and gender.
