I read an interesting article on the origin of the term “white trash,” which eloquently points out once again how deep classism runs in our society, and how, like racism, continues to be alive and well, but, unlike racism, rarely gets even so much as a mention in public discourse. Looking down on those who are suffering, and blaming them for their own victimization, acts like a relief valve: it means we don’t have to do anything to change the system, because it’s not identified as the cause of the hardship and degradation of untold millions. And of course it keeps the most oppressed classes in society apart, since their members don’t want to be identified with or mistaken for one another.

“The term white trash dates back not to the 1950s but to the 1820s… 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…. 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.

“While white trash is likely to have originated in African American slang, it was middle-class and elite whites who found the term most compelling and useful and they who, ultimately, made it part of popular American speech….

“Southern secessionists and proslavery apologists countered that it wasn’t the lack of access to good farm land, nor the lack of compulsory education, nor the lack of religious influence that made poor white trash so worthy of the contempt heaped upon them…. That is, the cause of poor white depravity was not attributable to any economic or social system—it was to be found in their inherited traits….

“The long and disturbing history behind the term white trash reverberates with meaning today…. Those who use the term today would do well to consider its history.”