White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

[whitehall]

America 400 years ago? The flag that flew from slave ships for about 200 years was the Union Jack and the fledgling United States kicked out the class based English monarchy about 250 years ago. Amazingly the Brits still support a degenerate monarchy and refer to their elected politicians as freaking "Lords". Wanna talk about class, hillbilly Kentucky moonshiners have more class than Prince Chuck.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

So the book moves on to the founding of Jamestown which sounds like a real shithole. Most of the settlers were criminals and indentured with a few religious weirdos in the mix. The set up looks very similar to Australia in terms of what was trying to be achieved. They emptied the London whore houses to provide breeding stock for the new land. Its a fascinating read.

 

[harmonica]

as usual, you don't know the first thing about America..we laugh that you think you do

 

[Quasar44]

Acting on a tip from someone on here I bought this a little while back and so far it is a fascinating read. It seems to be arguing that class is a major factor in the American experience and traces its roots back to your ancestors who were shipped over from the UK in a bid to clear the London slums.
Of course some folk will always get on but some folk always seem to struggle. Why is that ? Sloth, stupidity,opportunity ? Is it something systemic ? In the UK I would point to the latter as our backward hereditary system limits opportunities for many. What is the reason in the US ?
Thanks for the tip whoever it was that mentioned the book. its a hefty read but I hope it will help me to understand the trump phenomena better. Has anybody else read the book ?

View attachment 399124

The Irish and the UK seem to have the most white trash in America
The German Americans are the best whites

 

[Quasar44]

Most white trash
1. Irish
2. English

Least
1. German
2. Jewish

 

[whitehall]

Elitists in the U.K most likely referred to the Irish as "trash" when they literally starved them into submission after the potato famine of the 1840's. The poor Irish who managed to get to the U.S. were quickly scooped up by the Yankees when they got off the boats and used as cannon fodder in the Civil War.

 

[the other mike]

White trash is a stupid term in itself.
Using it in any context is presuming that most non-whites are trash - it goes without saying. It's very racist.

 

[Quasar44]

Irish are as white trash as it gets
They’re the gods of white trash

Russians are the most vile , obnoxious and rude folks on the planet

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Elitists in the U.K most likely referred to the Irish as "trash" when they literally starved them into submission after the potato famine of the 1840's. The poor Irish who managed to get to the U.S. were quickly scooped up by the Yankees when they got off the boats and used as cannon fodder in the Civil War.

The "elitists" in the UK were more concerned about the underclasses in the UK than Ireland.They had very real issues with the poor, of which there were many.
The much vaunted empire worked for some but not for many.
If you had money to invest in slaves or other goods it was a great time. If you didnt have that then it brought you little benefit.
There seem to have been competing visions for the new world at this point. The english aristocratic vision of a penal colony acting as a safety valve for the UK underclass and the Quaker vision of a theocratic state based on Quaker theology. Both visions were based on class although one was closer to what we would call acceptable today.

As a discussion point it is interesting that the US today has one of the largest prison populations in the World. The prison population is a commodity. Is that a million miles away from the Virginia penal colony ?

 

[whitehall]

Elitists in the U.K most likely referred to the Irish as "trash" when they literally starved them into submission after the potato famine of the 1840's. The poor Irish who managed to get to the U.S. were quickly scooped up by the Yankees when they got off the boats and used as cannon fodder in the Civil War.

The "elitists" in the UK were more concerned about the underclasses in the UK than Ireland.They had very real issues with the poor, of which there were many.
The much vaunted empire worked for some but not for many.
If you had money to invest in slaves or other goods it was a great time. If you didnt have that then it brought you little benefit.
There seem to have been competing visions for the new world at this point. The english aristocratic vision of a penal colony acting as a safety valve for the UK underclass and the Quaker vision of a theocratic state based on Quaker theology. Both visions were based on class although one was closer to what we would call acceptable today.

As a discussion point it is interesting that the US today has one of the largest prison populations in the World. The prison population is a commodity. Is that a million miles away from the Virginia penal colony ?

The last I saw the population of the U.K. was around 66.6 million (interesting number) while the U.S. is around 328 million so it's a moot point that the U.K. prison population is around .08 while the U.S. is around .7.

 

[whitehall]

I admit I didn't read the book but the title is offensive. White Trash, like "redneck" is an easy term for (mostly white elitists) to throw out at hard working folks who never did them any harm. It was common especially during the Great Depression when the industrial (employed) North was still biased against the defeated South. Elitist professors like Isenberg would be horrified over the use of the "N" word but apparently "white trash" is seen as some sort of convoluted payback for mostly Southern white folks for the horrors of slavery.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

I admit I didn't read the book but the title is offensive. White Trash, like "redneck" is an easy term for (mostly white elitists) to throw out at hard working folks who never did them any harm. It was common especially during the Great Depression when the industrial (employed) North was still biased against the defeated South. Elitist professors like Isenberg would be horrified over the use of the "N" word but apparently "white trash" is seen as some sort of convoluted payback for mostly Southern white folks for the horrors of slavery.

Yes I can see that.
I think that in the context of what I have read so far it is referring to the class of folk who were shipped out of Englands prison system rather than any definable working class population we might see today. Class definition in the US seems to be different to the UK. I never hear the term "working class" and I suspect that the term "middle class covers that.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

I was not aware that John Locke was a slaver who instituted a class based system of government.