[lbo-talk] White trash

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Kelley:
> 
> The other night, I was waiting for the kids at the mall, parked
outside
> with the window rolled down. I saw a father and two teens boys walk by
my
> car. As they did, the father shook his head and said, "That's why they
call
> 'em n-words." I couldn't figure out what he was talking about at
first, but
> then I saw the pimped out black car, volume cranked, driving by. I'm
> guessing that, if he's like others on the topic, he wouldn't say that
the
> behavior is about skin color, biology, genetics or anything else they
> "can't help." Rather, he'd say it was a form of behavior associated
with
> "those people" and he might even point out that there are white people
who
> behave similarly. The "ism" here isn't attached to skin color or even
the
> notion that there are races who just behave differently, no matter
what.
> It's attached to what these folks think is a form of social pathology
that
> has to do with poor upbringing, values, etc.

For a change, I have to agree with you (a scary thought, indeed).  The
tendency to label a socially unacceptable behavior with an
"essentialist" label linking it to a nation, ethnicity, class or kindred
seemingly "objective" group is pretty universal.  I saw that in Poland
where different behaviors were sometimes labeled by "ethnic" labels -
for example, crude and boorish behavior was "Russian."  Interestingly,
this label seldom affected the face to face interaction with people of
the said nationality - most people would describe Russians with whom
they actually interacted as "warm" and "cordial."  An Irish co-worker of
mine constantly reminds me how negative stereotypes received the 'Irish'
nationality (cf. paddy-wagon) in this country - yet Irishmen are
generally considered friendly and fun-loving people.

I think that the explanation of this phenomenon is the behavioral model
of transaction cost minimization (i.e. cost and effort avoidance rather
than benefit maximization) - people use the hackneyed stereotypes
because they are easily available and do not require much thought or
explanation, and o not pay much attention to their actual meaning,
etymology, or connotations.  This is why it is possible to say "n-word
behavior," "drunk like an Irishman" "shrewd like a Jew" or "dumb like a
Polack" without being a bigot or a racist.

PS.  The car radio blasting is not exclusively a "n-word thing" - I see
the "white trash" doing that a lot too.  I see it mainly as the case of
typical "US boorishness and arrogance" - since one does not see much of
that behavior outside the US (e.g. in Europe or in Africa).

Wojtek