A boy from New Orleans shows up a week and a half after Hurricane Katrina. Being one of only a handful of white kids at our school, he is a little edgy and approaches another white student cautiously.
“I’ve never been at a school with so many Hispanics,” he whispers.
“It’s Latino. Only the government uses Hispanic.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, and if I were you, I would tell everyone that you’re half-Mexican.
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I love this post and wanted it on my blog! Using the term white trash is as racist and classist as you can get. When I hear people use the term...and I regularly do...I ask, "what do you mean?" and when the response is, "oh, you know..." I push them: "No, I don't know what that means. Tell me what it means..."
When we force people to be explicit about the code words and phrases they use to position themselves as better than others - to create hierarchies of value and worth - we force them to face the racist and classist inside them. And when we ask simple questions that get at the meanings of those code words and phrases, we mark ourselves as people who disagree with their view...and that is important work since they wouldn't have said it in front of us if they didn't think we had the same perspective as them to begin with.
Out with classism and the systemic dehumanizing of people with language! A person cannot be trash...what could be more harmful than calling someone this?
--Stephanie
