Date: Sun, 28 Aug 1994 22:56:12 -0500

From: Dennis Baron baron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU

Subject: Re: Racist terms--white trash



I haven't been following the discussion closely but I thought someone

mentioned _white trash_ last week. At our potluck for new TAs Friday

night someone from Arkansas said something like "white trash and proud

to be." So I asked him about the term being used self-referentially in

a positive sense and he said he (age 41) and his Arkansas friends did

so routinely, though they all came from families he classified as lower

middle class who would be horrified if they knew their children used

that term of themselves, and had done so for 20 yrs or more. And he

admitted there was some irony in the term as well.





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