White Trash - the last racist thing you can say and get away with

This came from an old friend from college via myspace. i figured i'd share seeing as i've been on the random quotes and bits of knowledge theme lately.... and naturally we all know that Ray will soon be a MD resident... and Dave and I share the common bond of coming from the lovely state. (though i was born in DC so i can rock the gansta roots - ha!). and, ry if you are reading this ... this should constitute a none BONEHEAD posting.

According to John Waters, white trash is “the last racist thing you can say and get away with.”.. read on. it's interesting i promise.

Whether they use the term white trash or not, most Americans are unaware of its long and ugly history. If you had to guess, you’d probably say that the term arose in the Deep South, sometime in the middle of last century, as a term that whites coined to demean other whites less fortunate than themselves. Yet most of what we presuppose about the term is wrong.

The term 'white trash' dates back not to the 1950s but to the 1820s. It arises not in Mississippi or Alabama, but in and around Baltimore, Maryland. And best guess is that it was invented not by whites, but by African Americans. As a term of abuse, white trash was used by blacks—both free and enslaved—to disparage local poor whites. Some of these poor whites would have been newly arrived Irish immigrants, others semiskilled workers drawn to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. in the postrevolutionary building boom, and others still may have been white servants, waged or indentured, working in the homes and estates of area elites. The term registered contempt and disgust, as it does today, and suggests sharp hostilities between social groups who were essentially competing for the same resources—the same jobs, the same opportunities, and even the same marriage partners....

Read the entire article here - it's actually a bit disturbing: That Ain't White - The long and ugly history of 'trash' talk By Matt Wray