Trailer Trash (was Re: [thechat] Eminem

[Erika Meyer]

I heartily disagree that "trailer trash" is equivalent to the term
"white trash."

To me the term "white trash" makes no sense at all.  I come from a
place where nearly everyone is white.  I think "white trash" is a
southern term for people who "in spite of" being white, are "trashy."
This doesn't reflect my reality in any way shape or form.  It seems
racist and I don't get it.

Trailer trash...

Remember the scene in Pink Flamingos where they torch the trailer?

Anyway...

Remember the trailer park in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"? (I *love*
that movie!)

My ex calls these folks "okies" -- by that he means unsophisticated
white people who live a poor rural existence... not necessarily from
Oklahoma... but to him "okies" are white and thus distinguished from
Indigenous rural people (aka "skin-juns").

Trailer trash is not color-specific.  Not even necessarily
trailer-specific.  But there's a cultural thing too it... I see cans
of cheap beer... perhaps crocheted clothing that involves beer
cans... I see cigarettes and TV... unkept or trashed yard... a
burn-barrel in which any unwanted item that will ignite is burned...
franks and beans on the stove... hamburger helper... kids running
around barefoot, etc....

Eminem may not really be "trailer trash"  --- he's urban, isn't he?
But he is a poor/working class kid that clawed his way up.

It's The American Dream: Rock-Star Edition.

E
--