white trash

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Mon Feb 24 10:51:45 PST 2003


Doug:
>
> Funny how it's ok to be bigoted against "white trash." Reminds me of
> Zizek's riff on how it's ok to be prejudiced against Eastern
> Europeans - yeah, they're white, but, not really, you know? Esp the
> dark and mysterious Balkans...
>
>

Perhaps "white trash" was not the best choice of words. But what alternative term would you use to describe the group of self-righteous, arrogant whites, predominantly males, who feel that they are entitled to the life style and consumption level they have, holding disparaging views of any other ethinic group (including other "whites" such as Europeans or Jews) and women, ethnocentric (or "patriotic"), deferential toward authority figures, ignorant, displaying philistine attitueds toward culture and learning, favorably responding to the most debased calls and causes, and deriving thinly veiled pleasure form suffering inflicted on others? We are talking about half or so of the US population here - so it would be helpful to agree on the proper term.

Wojtek



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