>Now, allow me to say a word about the term "white trash." I think this is
>a spurious term that no leftist should use, except when you are trying to
>expose it as a false category that divides workers. I think that those
>cultural studies folks who sort of invented what may be called hip "white
>trash studies" (e.g. _White Trash: Race and Class in America_, eds. Matt
>Wray and Annalee Newitz) have done a disservice to the Left. The same must
>be said about the term "underclass." These two terms have only ideological
>functions, and they have no explanatory power.
I disagree. White trash is fully explanatory. It defines a historical period when the "underclass" of the population of colonial powers of western europe served as a first wave of occupation. They were viewed as trash, put in chains or indentured and "shipped". How does it serve the left to deny the valueable lessons that a history like that can provide?
Martin