it's too late to try to think through this

Okay, found it!

That Ain't White by Matt Ray (American Sexuality Magazine), link found here in an entry by sinsense whilst lj hopping. It covers the etymology and histroy of the term "white trash" which, I'll be honest, I had no idea was actually pre-Civil War (for some reason, I was convinced it was Reconstruction, but I have no idea where I got that idea. Out of My Ass Encyclopedia probably).

The article covers the origins of the word and an interesting link with eugenics and the legalization of sterilization back in the twenties as well as current usage and misusage. The classism connotations I'm intimately familiar with, but the racial, as discussed in sinsense's lj, make an interesting addition.

Comments

[argosy.livejournal.com]

I got the idea it was Reconstruction because the first time I heard the term was in Gone With The Wind. You too, maybe?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I forgot my formative reading experiences. Bingo, had to be. I read that one in junior high and a lot of the romance novels I read as a kid set in that period also utilized it. That's probably why I assumed it came from then.

It's kind of surreal to realize it's older than that and referred to a completely different population as well.

[emyrys.livejournal.com]

I was taught that it came around after the Civil War, too, with all of the Carpetbaggers moving in to the South & those "po' white trash" types gettin' all uppity, thinking they were better than the genteel, well-bred suthners.

*I was raised in a border state, and feelings may still have been running a mite high about the Civil War during my upbringing. Heh*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

<--Texas. Ah yes, the carpetbaggers. That was like a section in the history book about that.

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

Wow. And I just used the word "trashy" in a comment to refer to poorly spelled, id-driven fiction. And while I wasn't thinking specifically of "white trash", I can't deny the connotation isn't there.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*nod* For me, since I've heard it used so often, I definitely know it's there, even if it's not conscious. And the example of Paris Hilton et al reminded me how much I *think* it as well.