The Term “White Trash” is Racist — But Not for the Reason You Think

The common class slur actually reinforces the idea of superiority as the default position for white people

OK, I know, they’re bags of leaves, but you get the idea. Image: Evtushkova Olga, Shutterstock, standard license, purchased by author

You know the old saying about what happens when you assume, right?

If not, Google it.

It’s too cheesy to repeat in what I hope to be an otherwise deep set of reflections, but it’s true. And I was reminded of it after receiving an e-mail recently about something I’d said regarding Trump supporters.

Although the message was from someone who agreed with me politically, he then ventured into a familiar and all-too-predictable territory, which is no less disturbing for its frequency.

Namely, he said that there’s “no fixing white trash,” the likes of which stormed the Capitol and come to Trump rallies because they’re “too stupid to know what they don’t know.”

As he explained it, they’re “uneducated and backward,” incapable of being brought to the light of reason.

It was territory in which he presupposed I would be comfortable dwelling — thus, revealing the truth of the above-mentioned maxim about assuming things.