"POOR WHITE TRASH" (sic)

another Guest Blog,ENJOY...

WHY ARE POOR WHITES -- "TRASH?"
by Barri Boone

Now that we are in an extreme economic downturn, many are looking
at the issue: who are the "have nots" and why? During the fifties, the
myth was that everyone could just "move on up!" This was true for masses
of people. My father's family went from being farmers before the
crash, to moonshiners during the depression, to bar owners post
depression. In my childhood, we went from apartments to a single
family home, and from a working class neighborhood to a middle class
neighborhood.

By the sixties, some of us saw the holes in the myth. That racism
prevented many from getting jobs, living wage work, and out of the
poor dilapidated ghettos. The civil rights movement was massive and
grassroots. The women's lib movement was revived. The gay rights
movement was triggered by Stonewall. The grape boycott brought
attention to the exploitation of immigrants from Mexico.

Through the years we saw how US foreign policy affected the Vietnamese,
poor women in Thailand, casino workers in Cuba; murdered organizers
of the poor all over Central America, helped overthrow
elected governments in Iran and Chile, put Nelson Mandela on its
"terrorist" list, and on and on.

But one group has not quite made it to the list of those that we notice
have less, and try to help them find their "bootstraps." That group
is the poor whites, or better known as "poor white trash." Even in
the 21st century when the PC folks notice many things, they still
don't seem to notice that Jay Leno and others continuously bombard us
with the notion that "poor white trash" deserve what they have or
have NOT, and are fair game for endless jokes! Why does this happen,
and why do most folks accept this "classism?"

Part of the myth is that all whites have opportunities to "get
ahead." That if they don't, it's their fault! If some POC's can make it to
the northeast elite universities, then why can't all of us?

How often do we hear stories in the media about white miners with
black lung in West Virginia, or disabled white loggers in California, losing
losing their health plans due to the greedy mine owners and logging
companies? Or kids who grew up in Eminem's trailer park being
turned down from any college grants? Or white workers who became disabled at
work due to toxic conditions purposely ignored by the boss, who lose their
Workers Comp cases and spend their "golden" years in an SRO, full of
drugs and prostitution?

Last week there was an article about 10,000 workers in Louisville,
Kentucky applying for 90 jobs at General Electric. What media will
follow the stories of the 9,910? There is a myth about class that
we need to get over. Truth is, class has effects on all races,
genders, sexual orientations, and (dis)abilities -- even whites!
We're all in this greedy capitalist-heading-toward-barbarism system --
together!


AMEN TO DAT
mega