Re: [Marxism] Poor, white and pissed

["Carlos A. Rivera" <cerejota@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is interesting...

My family history is quite complicated, me being half USonian and half
Puerto Rican, and then my grandma being from the NE and my grandpa from
Virginia.

I have hear my northern cousins use the term white trash

What you say makes me believe that maybe they were being polite, like not
using nigger in front of me. On the other hand, "white trash" has become a
buzzword, now nationally available, especially to our contemporaries.

I do agree "white trash" comes from having to differentiate form the
implicitly black "trash" and said as much in my previous post.

In a digression, but something that informs and maybe, in light of your
comments, forms my opinion on the northern origin of the phrase, I have and
hypotheses about northern and southern racism.

Northern racism was informed more by aristocratic detachment, than by
economic need and competition, that is as part of the northern phenomena of
the alienation of production of the ruling class.

Southern racism on the other hand is born precisely from the direct contact
with the land that even rich Southerners. While a northern industrialist
might nver even set foot inside his factory, much less deign to speak to one
of his employees, the Southern plantation owners usually lived in their
plantations, and knew by name dozens if not hundreds of his slaves and then
workers. The Southern ruling class, rhetoric asides, has been always keenly
aware of the capabilities of african americans to surpass them. In that
sense, Southern racists clearly see their racism as a means of survival, a
form of disloyal competition to a group fully capable of taking over. It is
a racism of fear, a reactionary racism. It is similar to the racism you see
in other similar economies, like in Latin America. "Nigger" is used as a
derogatory term not to express dislike at the "inferiority" of non-whites,
but as a whip to keep them inferior.

On the other hand, Northern racism, as an extension of aristocratic
alienation, tends more to the european tradition of racism, what one might
call "rational" racism, a racism that sees a "natural" inferiority of
non-whites. Even alledged non-racist whites in the north engage in this type
of paternalism. They don't call blacks "niggers", because that would be
rubbing their supposed "inferiority" it in their face, as if they were
little dumb animals in need of careful care, "lest we offend their frail
sensibilities". They rather deny them loans at banks or vote them down in
leftist organization and call it "color blindness".

I must admit I prefer the Southern type. At least they don't beat around the
bush. Plus ketchup meatloaf with tater tots beats clam chowder and apple pie
hands down, and unlike a northen racist, who will uncomfortably sit with you
to eat, a southern racist will share the meal with you with a grin, as long
as you don't get "uppity"...

(KKK and other radical racists excluded of course)

Any comments?

sks

----- Original Message -----
From: "Debordagoria" <phantasmagorias@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition"
<marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 8:38 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Poor, white and pissed


> --- "Carlos A. Rivera" <cerejota@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > In
> > any case, "White trash" is most decidely of Northern
> > origin and use.
> > Southern whites prefer "hick" or even "cracker"
> > itself.
>
> I don't know about "origins," but I grew up hearing
> the term "White Trash" from my very Southern
> relatives, and it has little if any relation to
> "cracker" or "hick." I've had to train myself not to
> repeat it, as it is of course a racist term, refering
> to whites who are only slightly better than the
> genuine trash - blacks.
> Michael D.
>
>
>
>
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