Poor, White and Pissed - A Guide to the White Trash Planet

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Bageant0218.htm

A Must Read article from Joe Bageant.

(snip)

Don’t laugh, you’re next!
 
Middle class liberals, or affluent conservatives for that matter, are hard put to understand poor white working class culture. With our guns, God and coarse noisy aesthetic, (let’s face it, NASCAR and Shania Twain?) we look like a lower species, a beery subset of some sort. The truth is that poor white working culture is not a subset of any other American class. It does not operate below the middle and upper classes, but parallel to them. Just as there are few ways out of it, there are few ways in. Its inhabitants are born here. The educated left cannot easily get inside. When it comes to access, liberal social academics are camels passing through the needle’s eye, though I’ve never met one who would admit it, or even knew that observing is not necessarily understanding. Consequently we find many books/studies focusing on ethnic minorities, but few credible ones about our defiant native homegrown poor. To my mind, it is impossible to be tenured and have street cred, but then I am just a prejudiced redneck prick from Winchester, Virginia, otherwise referred to as “Dickville”.
 
Yet this place from which and about which I write could be any of thousands of communities across the U.S. It is a parallel world created by an American system where caste and self-identity are determined by what one consumes, or cannot afford to consume, education and of course, the class into which one is born. Like most things American, it was about money from the get-go. .........

and had only the outhouse and the potty to shit in when I was little, and having walked a Retail Clerks picket line in a cold rain, I say there is a way out.

(OK, full confession -- my family had land, if not cash, and even if we couldn't always find a nickel for a 6-ounce coke, there was always a buck for a book. That does make a difference. And the picket line was AFT solidarity, though I was not tenured at that time.)

But "the liberation of the working class must be the work of the working class." If they won't vote their interests and join a union, what the hell can anybody else do for them?

... and always seen good things in what he writes, and then, extreme disconnects.

He emphasizes education in this article, and then disses the stereotypical products of that education. A disconnect.

Joe can't explain why the people in most need of education and solidarity are the most likely to resist both of those things and then vote against their interests, and for politicians who will continue to write laws which effectively enslave them. I can't explain that, either. A disconnect.

I was accused this past evening, implicitly, that I was one of those educated elite--suggesting that I was an aerospace engineer or a lawyer living in a McMansion, dissing the poor for their lack of education, making pronouncements from on high. A disconnect.

Funny that supposition, just because I write clearly, and without too many errors. Despite the fact that I have a couple of degrees, I've spent nearly a third of my life unemployed, and in some of the poorest regions of the country. For a considerable portion of my life, I've worked for minimum wage, or a bit more or a bit less. I've watched my neighbors do stupid things time and time again, and I've done a few, out of desperation, myself.

I live in one of the poorest sections of a smallish city in which the average wage is $6.70/hr, in which the largest portion of the workers are not unionized, have little future and yet, voted overwhelmingly for George Bush and other Republicans in the last general election. I can't adequately explain why. Another disconnect.

Every attempt at organizing here and making the connections Joe Bageant says are necessary (and I've been in a few of those attempts locally) fall on deaf ears. Another disconnect.

Joe thinks this is about the liberal elite's inability to connect with the poor. A disconnect.

It's about the media and the lies people are told by them, day in and day out. No amount of empathy or understanding from the "liberal elite" can offset that.

"Everybody with any "get up and go' has gotten up and gone."

People who want out may have to leave home and go somewhere else. If we support G*W*B's move to eliminate farm subsidies, maybe some of them will do it.

I did. Haven't been back to the Pineywoods in a while. Sorry if I am not sympathetic for people without enough get up and go to get up and leave.

The thread was about an especially stupid action by the Arkansas legislature. You responded that it was the result of "mobile home living."

That's what I called you on--your identification of reactionary politics with the working class, as though they have a monopoly on it. I pointed out that quite a few of the knuckledragging rightwingers I know are pretty well off (aerospace workers in McMansions) and that voters under $50,000 are the only income demographic that gave Kerry a majority, with Bush winning all the others. (Bush also carried the majority of voters with bachelor's degrees, while Kerry was the choice of those with a high school education or less and those with advanced degrees.)

In other words, as much as some like to scapegoat the trailer park crowd for Bushism, the truth is that much of his support comes comes from the educated middle class.

I objected to the clear sense of your own statements, not the fact that you are literate.

Many of those plants were closed or had large staff cuts. On of the large reductions came after a labor dispute. The plants that closed or reduced cited the global economy and being more competitive by mvoing part of their operation to Mexico. Interestingly, a few new plants have located in the area and pay less than half of what the closed plants paid. Thirty years ago, the working class had middle class income or could survive alright on one parent's income. Now in the same town, the average working class person is barely making it. What have we been doing for the working class lately. Are they just machinery?

White trash suffer from what psychiatrists call "no insight."

They will never agree with anyone from outside their zone of consumer culture ignorance because their desperate pride includes the right to be dreadfully wrong about everything and telling people more educated than themselves to "fuck off!" That's what makes them feel good.

When I heard the golf club crowd in the judges chambers bragging about how their going to the big NASCAR race this weekend I almost puked. Who doesn't fit in? They were all repukes.

The only thing that gets a rednecks attention besides the next six pack, is a good swipe upside the head with a two by four. And when the self awareness dawns, it's too late, because he's bankrupt, homeless and in jail.

Mutual respect. Know what that means.

I don't expect respect from people who are getting screwed daily by the system.

It does have to be earned. If I don't, it isn't my personal loss, it's theirs. Because real values often go unrecognized. One can try to save them from themselves because our political survival does depend on it but the distrust of knowledge and those who have it is so pervasive, they are their own worst enemies. Those stereotypical reactions save one the trouble of the thought process. Symbols substitute for thought and give one a sense of belonging. This is how they are successfully manipulated on a daily basis.

Thus in the real world one must become a manipulator of symbols like the evangelists and the charlatans.

These are the shadows on the cave wall. They cannot see the sky. It is a universal dilemna. It's been around a while and isn't particular to joe sixpack.

It's funny.

(I will leave it to someone else to deal with the small amount of Dean bashing.)

It uses exaggeration and overstatement -- but Mark Twain would recognize the style.

And it makes some good points. -- Although I wouldn't necessarily interpret it too literally.

But in defense of "white trash" ("Are you talking to me?"), let me say that some of these people will surprise you. They just need things put to them in terms that they can relate to. And while the forms that this might take can seem "corny" (or non-PC -- or whatever) to some on our side, it's mostly no big deal. (But don't mess with their guns.) Generally, white working class folks just want dignity, respect, opportunity, a little security and other (what we might call) basic human rights -- well that, and piles of stuff... But many of us have to work on that.

With Michael Savage talking about putting all liberals in a concentration camp, Porter Goss longing to let the CIA detain American citizens, and "John the Death Squad Man" Negroponte as the newest White House War Criminal, I don't see why any liberal would want to mess with their guns!

The proper question to ask an NRA member these day is, "What kind of assault rifle do you think I can get for three hundred bucks, and how many rounds of ammo does it take to stop two hundred Savage Zombies from putting me in a camp?"

...we must arm ourselves. Guns are the answer to every conflict, every slight, every fear. Surely an armed populace will be a match for any armed military superpower like the U.S. And since as a nation we're regressing back to a more ignorant, violent time, we might just as well seal our fate by arming us all and setting us loose on each other. Isn't that what Jesus would do?

At least the neighbor's dog won't be pooping on my lawn much longer.

<sigh>

And keep in mind that, in the unlikely event that liberals ever took up guns against the government, they wouldn't just be up against government forces. 90% of the NRA's membership would also be aiming their firearms at liberals, as well. Depend on it......

Studs Turkel's Mother Earth.

...despite being a 'white, liberal elite' (albeit a poor one at the moment), I try very hard not to talk down to anyone.

At my lab, I always have a kind word or five for the cleaners, even when busy or frustrated. Our lab got together with several others and got the entire cleaning staff Christmas gifts. And some of us stood in solidarity with them when they went on strike some years ago for better pay and health benefits.

They're rural Ohioans, 'White trash' all, but I never see them that way.

It's also why no matter what the background, I'm always willing to talk science with folks. I visited some very close friends in rural Tennessee recently. Their neighbors are not 'white trash' -- they are horse trainers -- but pretty simple, decently, kindly folks nonetheless. Rock-ribbed Republicans, sadly.

But I got to talking with them, told them some of the basics of what I did and in terms they could grasp without 10 years of college. I also told them I had a great deal of admiration for anyone that was skilled with their hands, be it for molecular engineering or carpentry, because down deep, it was very much the same. It really opened their eyes. Maybe they'll think twice next time some anti-intellectual tells them how evil science and scientists are.

A little bit at a time.

-- ArchTeryx

My family's story is the classic Immigrant Story, and I guess that's very different from the story Bageant describes here.

My grandparents came through Ellis Island with an attitude that basically said "Hell, yes, we're going places in this country!" That was their reason for coming here in the first place. Improving our station in life was the stated goal.

My siblings and I are the first in our family to go to college (heck, my brilliant brother is a Harvard Man, a fact I'm always willing to brag about! :) ) So it took a couple of generations of blue-collar work to get to the goal. But while my parents and grandparents were NEVER ashamed of the work they did (butchers, truck drivers, etc), they also constantly vowed that we kids were "not going to do THIS for the rest of your lives." We were to crack the books, get into good schools, become lawyers, doctors, business professionals etc. And that's where we are today.

Somehow, they managed to instill this desire for upward mobility in a way that made us not scorn our roots, but respect them. I'm proud of my family's story, proud of our values, proud that we have been part of the American Dream, which I think of as a continuous striving for dignity and opportunity. That's the American Ideal I carry around with me, while remaining painfully aware that too often ideals go unrealized, or are betrayed outright.

Maybe that's why, although my family has Made It in some senses of the phrase, we're all still die-hard Democrats. I don't really understand how the people Bageant is writing about can be so hostile to the Democratic party, so hostile to people who've benefited from the American Dream. Do they really think all Democrats came over on the Mayflower, and have been living lives of privilege ever since? I'm constantly told that I need to learn their story better -- I wish they'd make some effort to learn mine. Maybe I wouldn't seem so "elite" in their eyes, after all.

sense. Basically, it's a matter of people finally giving up after being kicked in the ass again and again. The system is rigged against poor people in so many ways that even those who strive seldom get out, which is in itself a lesson to others.

I also managed to be the first in my family to go to college, but that was in large measure because I had a supportive family, something many people lack. It also helped that I lived in a place that had pretty good public schools, which means that the community played a role. I would never argue that what success I have had in life was totally my own doing.

But who rigged it? The party of the New Deal and the Great Society? Or the party of trickle-down economics and tax cuts for the super-rich?

:shrug:

Although many of these people are poor in wealth, they are richer in community. Their families and people who they grew up with are their strongest assets. In many cases, they help each other out in hardship. They help each other get the better jobs. In better times, these people did not need help from the government because there was always someone to help out. You can leave. You can go away to college, but you are leaving your support system. It isn't like you have an upper middle class support system like many of your college classmates do when graduation comes around.

... the importance of family and community. But I don't see how that pertains to the divide between rural reds and urban blues. Family and community are highly prized as immigrant values, too.

But another value, education, is practically exalted. It's seen as the key to a better life. In my experience, at least, it wasn't a matter of choosing one or the other. The two were intertwined, with one generation's work seen as an investment in the next generation's education -- and all of it in service of improving the fortunes of the family as a whole.

I dunno. As I say, the Immigrant Story and the Rural Poor Story are different in a lot of ways. But I think there are probably deep similarities, too. I wish the rural poor would take a closer look, before writing off Democrats -- who are on their side, far more so than the repukes -- as nothing more than "liberal elites."

the capitalist ruling class in this country has successfully used the "divide and rule" strategy against the Amercian working class for generations. (See Alexander Berkman's autobiography, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist on that, if my memory serves). In that mix, the poor whites Bageant talks about are what Henry Clay Frick called the "buckwheats." Their immigrant ancestors probably came to this country at least two hundred years ago -- as mine did. So a better parallel is not to the children of immigrants who came to this country in the twentieth century, but to the children of those peasants to stayed behind, clinging to the village they were born in, continuing to fight in the feuds they were born in, staying as long as they could in the trade they were born in, and leaving it only when it no longer exists, taking any job that's not in the city or among strange people. They are ready tools of the divide and rule strategy.

Is the term "lumpenproletariate" out of place?

...but my background is solidly blue-collar trailer park high school drop-out left. LOL! Hell, I've even lived in "Dickville." This is a great article.

liberals have a hard time connecting with poor whites. why? My guess is that poor whites are tired of being scapegoats. Whether fair or not, poor whites see liberals as granting tolerance towards some (i.e. gays, blacks) but not to others. As long as liberals speak of "white trash" as if its not a perjorative, freely and without embarassment, then we don't "get it". Too often people are busy censoring people for surface qualities that can be corrected through education, when it would have been better to concentrate on essentials such as stopping the neo-con rich's drive for world imperialism, using the world's poor as steppingtones.

Its about education. And we all need educating.

words like "white trash" and "redneck" on a liberal board, with hardly anyone batting an eye, is proof that what Bageant is saying here is right.

As the son of a coal miner, I can sympathise with the anger of people in dead end hopeless situations, living one illness from disaster, and daily feeling the contempt of their "betters".

He is right on about Dean and the Democratic party.

My folks beat the odds and got out. My dad earned two degrees on the G.I. bill. And they never looked down on anyone that I can recall. One of my pop's best pals at his school was the janitor. Their friendship was deep and it was sincere, lasting over 25 years. He wasn't a "liberal pet" or lawn jockey. Just a human my dad could relate to because they came from the same type of town. This is a great article and reminds me to keep my eyes on what matters: the humanity of the humans we say we care about in the Democratic party. Do we? I'm reminded today that I'm from White Trash and proud of it. They were brave, took a chance and gave me a better life. And they never wasted time judging others for making a different choice than they did. They knew they were still from the same clan. "There but for the grace of god..." Know what I mean? I'm going to work hard at remembering this.

As a Briton I find a lot of this article painfully familiar. Here in the UK you only have to speak one or two sentences before those you meet start allocating you to your place in the social hierarchy. Of course, the poor white working class like most of the ethnic minorities are dumped at the very bottom. The ruling elites are very adept at playing these groups off against each other to maintain their control of society. They are often aided in this process by some of the middle class members of the radical left who find it easier to confront racism and homophobia than to face down their own latent class prejudices. Partly, this is the result of fear. Many white middle class liberals are products of families that were members of the working classes only one or two generations ago. Some harbour a secret terror that they might fall back into that group. They therefore try to put as much intellectual distance as possible between themselves and their origins. It is often much easier for them to empathise with poor blacks with whose experience they share relatively little than the poor working class whites who are rather too close to home. Of course, what most of the poor whites, ethnic minorities and even the middle classes fail to see is that the system screws them all to a greater or lesser extent.

Your comments and observations here are spot on. The majority of Americans who identify themselves as 'middle class' are deluded, to say the least if they really think they're so different from guys named Hooter, Pooter and Scooter who hang out at Burt's Tavern and break pool sticks over each other's heads on Saturday night. Most of them fall into an income bracket which puts them squarely in the working class, but their consumer choices (paid for on credit) allow them to mimic the ruling class - a divide and conquer technique the elites have perfected to their benefit . Starbucks vs Sanka, Mother Jones vs George Jones. Mark Twain vs Shania Twain.... At the end of the day, we're all screwed, until we realize these ultimately meaningless consumer choices are not representative of competing values, but merely distractions meant to keep class divisions and hatreds intact.

I get the feeling that the 'Anything But Bush' crowd hates the chimp-in-chief for being a traitor to their class - someone who has revealed the true face of American power and exposed it as the corrupt and fraudulent force it really is. "A cowboy" Imperialist as opposed to the more 'acceptable' kind. The 'ABB'ers would have approved the use of force against Iraq if it had been presented by a one time Senator from a 'Blue State' with a 'UN resolution' (however questionable) as opposed to a simple 'Yee-ha' from a retard frat-boy from Texas and overwhelming international condemnation. Either way, the ruling elites still maintain their privileges and status. And the ABB movement is not about stripping anyone of those, it's simply about keeping appearances.

If people (like the ones on these boards) actually took Joe's advice and embraced their beer guzzling, bible whupping, peanut crunching brethren and united WITH them to eliminate their mutual class enemies, then Bush and Co. would REALLY have something to worry about.

I grew up in a working class home in a red state. I worked in a factory. I had to get out so I went to school at night and eventually got a degree.

I know what working class families are going through. I respect them for their work ethic, and their desire to do what's right.

I would still be working in a factory, or possibly be unemployed but for the following: the G.I. bill, good health, parents who taught me a good work ethic, and the good fortune to have enough intelligence to handle college coursework and not be scared of a complex world. These were bestowed upon me, they were not things I earned.

I have never had any more or less respect for those who weren't/aren't as fortunate as I. I am not deluded, I know I'm just a working-class stiff who, through good fortune, have a higher salary than those still working in a factory or fixing my car or serving meals in a restaurant.

I oppose Bush because he and his cronies are mostly people who have had far more good fortune than most of us could ever imagine, but instead of being humble and wanting to help those less fortunate, they believe they are better than us because of that good fortune. I hate the chimp-in-chief, not for being a traitor to my class but because he's an ass.

And NO! I would not have approved the use of force in Iraq if it had been presented by a Blue State Senator instead of Bush. In fact plenty of Blue State Senators did support the invasion! Your suggestion that people like me would do something that stupid is the real reason I felt I had to respond to your post.

like what happened to many of our communities ... the intersection of Route 50 and 11 isn't what it used to be ... I-81 passes it by ...

that was a major blow to the local economy .... couple that with what all communities are currently faced with: the effects of the global economy and the antics of corporate america ... what results?

... that's what the people in Winchester have to 'work with' ...

Do they still celebrate the Apple Blossom Festival? It used to be big, i.e., a big name celebrity as parade Grand Marshall ...

... will the extending DC megalopolis make Winchester a thriving community again?

Winchester is, also, the backyard of the Byrd family ... not the Robert of W.Va. Byrd ... the Harry ... Sr. and Jr. Byrd ... home to the Byrd political machine which controlled life of Virginians down to the courthouse level (and, still might) ... they kept Virginians repressed, too ...


"...the daily insult working class people suffer from employers, government (national, state and local)" applies here, too ... its not unique to the 'Winchesters' of our country ... we do have common denominators ... we all are victims of corporate 'systems' ... heck, I don't relate to the Mercedes-portfolio lifestyle TV ads either. So, in many respects, I'm in their America, too ... just closer-in to the corporate feudal figurative 'castle' ...

The folks in Winchester could be considered a part of today's "Forgotten Man" (pardon the '30s gender reference)

What would FDR do?

Are there no more Tennessee Valley Authority-like projects?

We need a new New Deal, to include programs which will affect these folks' lives in a lasting and rewarding way ...

... if the writer's friend, Pootie, became disabled, for example, would he thank the Republicans for the safety net?

what have the Republicans done for Winchester? and, they're currently making conditions worse ... much worse ...

a suggestion I made to the Kerry campaign was to take the campaign to the Winchesters of America ... reconnect with this constituency ... be a reminder to them of Democratic programs ... the MSM/CM (corp. media) won't there go on their own, but will follow ... maybe another campaign .....

the commentary, at a minimum, got me thinking and doing some brainstorming ...

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But which would you prefer, several million gun toting Americans on your side...or on their side.

I think this article raises some good points. I think it's worth a try. Because the alternative isn't pretty, especially since too many liberals have been deluded into thinking that keeping a gun around is a backwards thing to do!

When the fascists coming marching down the street & breaking down doors, I have no intention of being without my 2nd amendment firearms. Sometimes I think that "anti-gun" must have been a idea planted in the left by a right-wing fascist poseur, because it makes no sense to want to purposely give up one of the rights that the founders thought so important they made it #2. Somehow liberals got it in their minds that "violence" equated with "guns". I grew up in the country, a house full of guns and neighbors with guns, and none of us ever had a big shoot-out or killed each other. Then I moved to the city where all the more liberal folks lived and sometimes it seemed like everyone was shooting everything. It was clear to me that guns were not the problem, it was the environment, living conditions etc., but to suburban and urban grown liberals, it had to be the GUNS.

non-redneck, non-"white trash", educated, white man of a privileged background (corporate lawyer father), that I was FOOLED into following the Bush regime into Iraq because of the MEDIA and, admittedly, my lack of curiosity. The media leads most people like sheep into this BS.
And yes, I am from the South, although Central Florida is starting to feel more like upstate New York.

You may know this, he appeared at a rally where Dixie Chicks CDs were crushed by trucks. They do a good job of fooling people, these corprorate media knaves.

Social economic divides are a reality in America. I work with Appalachian’s and my husband is an Appalachian. Most of the Appalachian families I know are good hard working decent people. However they deal with prejudice everyday and to make matters worse it’s not even recognized as prejudice. It’s not ok to use the “N” word but its sure ok to call someone a dumb hillbilly.

It’s amazing how the slightest “twang” and smallest cultural differences will deny good people opportunities enjoyed by the rest of us. I have known Appalachians that have worked to get rid of the twang, divorce themselves from family and their culture just to get ahead. It’s not easy to deny who you are to advance your place in society, and it’s not healthy.

It all boils down to the same thing, the closer you are to being the upper class image of perfection the better off you are. Just ask the black community; they’ve known for years that the lighter you are the easier it is to survive in America. The problem is that the working class isn’t “white” enough and it’s ok to hate them for it.

It's time to embrace the working class in order to save our own sorry asses.

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