[sakic]

Yep. Sounds like white trash to me.

For a few years I've found the term "white trash" troubling. It seems racist to me because there is no equivalent black term.

Let me make it clear that just saying the term does not indicate racism. It's said without thought as to how it could be interpreted. I'm not accusing you or anyone else who uses the term as racist. I used to use the term too until it occurred to me to be an odd sort of phrase.

[rdb3]

The term "white trash" may be bigoted, but I don't know about racist unless it comes from a non-white person.

Either way, I don't use it.

[sinkspur]

I used to use the term too until it occurred to me to be an odd sort of phrase.

I think it's an entirely appropriate term to use with a couple who leave a 2 week old alone to go outside to smoke cigarettes.

If that's what happened. I think something worse than what is described in this story happened, with the blame being put on the dog.

I use "white trash" in lieu of an obscenity.

[Jorge]

For a few years I've found the term "white trash" troubling. It seems racist to me because there is no equivalent black term.

Funny, my impression has always been that "white trash" is less racist toward whites than the racists terms normally used to to describe blacks.

Whites seem to use the term "white trash" to describe a lower class, almost a separate breed of whites, that they can look down on.

For this reason it doesn't seem to me that "white trash" is a smear against all whites, and so is not a purely racists term.