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Defining Underclass Up
Reviewing Norah Vincent's cross-dressing memoir, Self-Made Man, in yesterday's New York Times, Vanity Fair writer David Kamp praises her for "as tender and unpatronizing a portrait of America's 'white trash' underclass as I've ever read." He is talking about the bowling team that Vincent's male alter ego, Ned, joined during her year impersonating a man. Her teammates were "a plumber, an appliance repairman and a construction worker." Since when are gainfully employed men who support families "white trash" or part of the "underclass"? In 2004, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, average annual wages for plumbers, appliance repairmen, and carpenters were about $44,000, $41,000, and $37,000, respectively. Using "white trash" as a synonym for "blue collar" (even with scare quotes) seems neither tender nor unpatronizing.
R C Dean|1.23.06 @ 11:03AM|#
Its all about perspective.
To a Vanity Fair writer, there is no meaningful distinction between
white trash and blue collar - both classes consist of oafish
bumpkins who are unlikely to know what fork to use or who to vote
for.
|1.23.06 @ 11:05AM|#
Since when are gainfully employed men who support families
"white trash"
I suspect this attitude can be easily summed up.
flyover country=white trash
I watched the 20/20 segment on this and I can see how this would be
very enlightening for anyone who is a complete moron. "Men don't
share their feelings", "Sex is about physical urges rather than in
the brain" and "the teasing and insults are meant as good natured
joking and is an aspect of male bonding". WOW!! This thing got air
time? Couldn't they run something with a little more substance?
Like an infomercial?
|1.23.06 @ 11:06AM|#
When I was down South, "white trash" usually referred to those
guys who either couldn't hold a job, or were gainfully employed but
beat their wives or kids, or had long arrest records, or couldn't
go to a picnic without getting roraing drunk and making an ass of
themselves.
It had to do with behavior, not money.
Ed|1.23.06 @ 11:06AM|#
Jeez, that chart makes me white trash too.
Sorry, but I can't hang out with y'all any more.
Chris|1.23.06 @ 11:08AM|#
http://instapundit.com/archives/028148.php
I tend to agree with Glenn Reynolds' take on this.
|1.23.06 @ 11:08AM|#
It had to do with behavior, not money.
I've long said that "white trash" is a state of mind.
Example: Paris Hilton
|1.23.06 @ 11:15AM|#
Paris Hilton is far beyond white trash, Temujin; Paris Hilton is white landfill.
MP|1.23.06 @ 11:17AM|#
WOW!! This thing got air time? Couldn't they run something
with a little more substance? Like an infomercial?
I saw the segment to. The point of it was that what is obvious to
men about men is frequently not obvious to women.
|1.23.06 @ 11:20AM|#
From what little I know about this, I'd say that it is a miracle that this girl didn't end getting punched in the face while she was in drag.
Captain Holly|1.23.06 @ 11:20AM|#
Paris Hilton is far beyond white trash, Temujin; Paris
Hilton is white landfill
That's because so many guys have dumped in her...
(Sorry, just couldn't resist).
|1.23.06 @ 11:20AM|#
With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, here are some signs of white
trashyness:
Having been arrested for starting a fight at a family
gathering.
Having gone to church drunk.
Owning no books that aren't by Rush Limbaugh, or about
aliens.
Wearing a mesh-back hat. Bonus points are awarded if said hat has a
beer-company logo or a slogan along the lines of "If it has tires
or tits, it's trouble."
Owning no shirts that are not stained.
Going to Wal-Mart in curlers.
|1.23.06 @ 11:34AM|#
"flyover country=white trash"
Uh, the coasts have plumbers, appliance repairmen and construction
workers. It would be really inconvienent if we did not. Brittany
Spears is another example of well to do white trash.
|1.23.06 @ 11:36AM|#
I suspect the term "white trash" was meant to be ironic, as Kamp follows with a mostly complimentary description of the bowling team. Still, describing these guys with the word "underclass" is off-the-charts cluelessness.
|1.23.06 @ 11:37AM|#
In all seriousness, a lot of people these days define "underclass" as "anyone whose job entails physical labor." Asinine, I know.
|1.23.06 @ 11:38AM|#
Mo-The point is that some coastal people seem to believe that everyone who lives between the gilded cities of the coasts is a slack-jawed bumpkin. That attitude, while stupid, is no more idiotic than the NYT reviewer's presumption that people with blue-collar jobs are white trash. Also, the sort of people who holds the latter view is also likely to hold the first.
MP|1.23.06 @ 11:44AM|#
I suspect the term "white trash" was meant to be ironic, as
Kamp follows with a mostly complimentary description of the bowling
team. Still, describing these guys with the word "underclass" is
off-the-charts cluelessness.
I'm sure that Kamp and the rest of his self-important friends in
NYC believe that anyone of a lower income who does not go to Kamp's
favorite martini bar is "white trash".
And people wonder why they get tagged as elitists...
Dan T.|1.23.06 @ 11:48AM|#
As Paul Fussell has pointed out, the biggest class dividing line
in America is whether or not you have a college degree (or, whether
or not your job generally requires one).
Plumbers, repairmen, etc. generally don�t need a college degree for
their job, so they are going to be lumped into the �underclass�
whether or not their actual income merits that distinction.
It is telling that Jacob, in the original post, felt compelled to
cite official-sounding income statistics. It�s as if he knew that
most of us would not believe him if he simply said �people in these
occupations make more money than the average worker�.
Dan T.|1.23.06 @ 11:50AM|#
MP says:
I'm sure that Kamp and the rest of his self-important friends
in NYC believe that anyone of a lower income who does not go to
Kamp's favorite martini bar is "white trash".
And people wonder why they get tagged as
elitists...
But aren�t you guilty of the same sort of stereotyping that you
criticize Kamp for?
|1.23.06 @ 11:50AM|#
it�s as if he knew that most of us would not believe him if
he simply said �people in these occupations make more money than
the average worker�
Only those of us who don't know any of those folks. If anything,
Jacob's figures sond a bit low.
|1.23.06 @ 11:52AM|#
I don't have a problem when my fellow residents of flyover
country use the terms "white trash" or "redneck"- heck, I'd say
spending the first 23 years of my life in South Dakota gives me a
free pass on those terms for the rest of my natural existence. On
the other hand, when someone from New York does it... that's
another story. It's not unlike the difference between a black or a
white person using the august racial slur n-----. It depends who
it's coming from.
But come on, skilled laborers making $41K a year are "underclass"?
I make $19K a year as an editor for a business research firm, and
somehow I doubt the snooty journalist in question would call me
"underclass" based on my job title...
|1.23.06 @ 11:53AM|#
"The point is that some coastal people seem to believe that
everyone who lives between the gilded cities of the coasts is a
slack-jawed bumpkin."
yeah, they're lazy fucks. our whole nation is flyover country, har
har!
back to the original point: there are certain stereotypical
behaviors which, though they may be understood by men or women, are
not "understood" in a way that allows them to make emotional sense
of it. the "i'm full - let's split that dessert" thing, for
example, or why my wife has so many fucking shoes.
|1.23.06 @ 11:55AM|#
How do you know if you not White Trash? If you have more than one friend named Ray Ray, you are not white trash.
|1.23.06 @ 11:56AM|#
In New York City, "white trash" is anyone who makes an honest living outside of New York City.
|1.23.06 @ 11:57AM|#
Don Mynack-By the same token, if you have more than one friend named Bubba, you could be Whiskey Tango.
|1.23.06 @ 12:00PM|#
But aren�t you guilty of the same sort of stereotyping that
you criticize Kamp for?.
Maybe, but after reading the full article, I think MP hit it pretty
close to the mark.
|1.23.06 @ 12:11PM|#
I suspect that this is all over the location of a quote mark.
Kamp rightly remembered to put "white trash" in quasi-scare-quotes,
but he should have put the closing quotation mark to the right of
"underclass".
Then it would have read correctly, in that Kamp was referring to
the way people "typically", and incorrectly, refer to them.
That's being generous, of course.
|1.23.06 @ 12:15PM|#
Proust says (and I think he says it more than once) that while
people know all the tiny gradations of class and rank of those
close to their own rank, people some distance above and below are
largely indistinguishable, the same way it is easy to tell who is
closer to you, the person a yard away or the person two yards away,
but hard to tell if the person 1000 yards away is closer or further
than the person 1200 yards away. To the peasant, a duke and an earl
are part of the same mass of exalted people above him, and to the
duke the shop keeper and the clerk he employs seem to have about
the same status.
Class and status mean more than money, as Postmodern Sleaze points
out (the editor is obviously middle-class, and the plumber
obviously working class, even though the plumber makes double the
editor in his example), but, that being said, it is idiotic to
consider plumbers and carpenters, (people I guess Proust would call
"tradesmen" and "mechanics") to be members of the "underclass."
"Underclass," in my understanding, means people who are almost
unemployable, and have limited prospects of becoming employable,
due to lack of skills and/or opportunities. People with valuable
skills that are in demand don't belong in the "underclass," even if
they don't read the NYTimes or Wall Street Journal and like
Nascar.
Dan T.|1.23.06 @ 12:21PM|#
I went back and read Kamp�s entire review, in order to put
Sullum�s excerpt into context.
My conclusion: you guys are really making a mountain out of a
molehill. Yes, of course the bourgeois is going to consider a bunch
of bowling-league plumbers to be members of a lower social class.
That�s because they are members of a lower social class. Call them
the proletariat if you don�t like �white trash��who cares?
|1.23.06 @ 12:24PM|#
Call them the proletariat if you don�t like �white
trash��who cares?
The same people who would be offended by a poor person insisting
that all rich people are "vampires getting fat off the blood of the
working classes," perhaps?
R C Dean|1.23.06 @ 12:26PM|#
I suspect those guys would rather hang out with someone who considers them white trash than some Marxist egghead who refers to them as members of the proletariat.
Dan T.|1.23.06 @ 12:27PM|#
One more point, in regards to the plumber making more than the editor theme: it is probably true that a plumber in his 20�s will earn more than a recent college grad in an entry level corporate job. But a plumber�s income is likely to remain pretty constant throughout his life while the white-collar worker can expect to earn more as he gains more experience and moves on to different jobs. I earned less than the average for a plumber when I started out, now I earn more.
Dan T.|1.23.06 @ 12:36PM|#
Actually, class in America is pretty easy to define:
Middle Class: you
Upper class: people with more money than you
Lower class: people with less money than you
Then just insert the derogatory term of your choice to the latter
two categories�
|1.23.06 @ 12:46PM|#
Well, there's some satisfaction to be found in realizing that if Kamp's apartment ever burns, it will be a working class "white trash" person who pulls him out and keeps him alive on the way to the hospital. Should that ever happen, I expect he'd switch to terms hinting at noble savagery.
|1.23.06 @ 12:46PM|#
Dan,
You don't think it's strange to refer in print to everyone in a
lower social class as trash? Especially when writing a review for
the paper of record?
|1.23.06 @ 1:05PM|#
RC:
>unlikely to know what fork to use or who to vote for.
you got it. of course, your latter point is what it really comes
down to. that and the assumption that blue collar men all beat
their wives
|1.23.06 @ 1:10PM|#
>If anything, Jacob's figures sond a bit low.
factor in geography and it certainly does. in california plumbers
make about $90/hour and work as much they please. maybe in arkansas
they make 44K annually.
|1.23.06 @ 1:14PM|#
Number Six: the figures are low because they refer to the entire
country, including what plumbers make in out-of-the-way places. On
the coasts, they will make considerably more, just like everyone
else.
That having been said, has the term "white trash" jumped the shark?
Once used to refer to the marginally employed who performed
unskilled labor on a tenuous basis, now it's being applied broadly
to anyone who has to wash his hands after work. Yet, as Sullum
pointed out, skilled labor in this country is well-paid and
increasingly requires post-high school education or long
apprenticeships. Been inside an auto repair center lately? You
don't put all that expensive electronic gear in the hands of an
unreliable drunk.
The argument that "everyone who doesn't have a college degree is
white trash" is an invitation to a class war. And no matter what
you might think, "white trash" is an insult. Just because the white
underclass has reclaimed the slur doesn't draw the sting. Just
because Martin Lawrence says the "N" word doesn't mean you can.
|1.23.06 @ 1:33PM|#
well, mitch is right about "underclass." it really refers to the
group of hardcore unemployables who are posited to be without the
most basic socialization or "soft skills" that make a person able
to hold down a job, like showing up on time, being presentably
dressed, deference to hierarchy, and simply being polite to others.
these are the people who are regarded as incorrigable and doomed to
a lifetime of welfare and petty crime to get by, and in usage has
more of an association with african americans than whites.
"proletariat" has similar connotations to "underclass," though i
think marx saw this group as the pool of "surplus labor" that could
be drawn from when necessary in a capitalist system to keep the
laboring class in line. so the proletariat would likely not be
regarded as unemployable.
|1.23.06 @ 1:40PM|#
Where are all the people telling us that "flyover country" and "white trash" are inventions of Fox News? :)
|1.23.06 @ 1:48PM|#
also, an important defining criterion of the underclass is that its members have a "present orientation," rather than "future orientation." william julius wilson lays it down very well in the declining significance of race.
|1.23.06 @ 2:05PM|#
Call them the proletariat if you don't like "white
trash"…who cares?
Because this provides yet another excuse for Reasonites to dump on
the "coastal elite".
BTW, NYC is full of white trash just like everywhere else. They
just don't work at The Times or Vanity Fair. They might work at The
Post, though...
|1.23.06 @ 2:08PM|#
"Just because Martin Lawrence says the "N" word doesn't mean you
can"
"It's not unlike the difference between a black or a white person
using the august racial slur n-----."
Can we just say the word as it is already? Jeez. Maybe you guys
don't have a dictionary. Let me help you: N-I-G-G-E-R.
Saying (or writing) the actual word does not necessarily mean that
you condone its usage as an epithet. I realize that it's a loaded
word, and people way too often take it out of context (like so many
other terms), but most people that post here are intelligent enough
not to have a knee jerk reaction to the word. By using euphemisms,
you make yourself seem like a PC-ass pussy, IMO. Of course, maybe
that's an apt label.
|1.23.06 @ 2:12PM|#
"Of course, maybe that's an apt label."
Wow, I'm being mean today... Time for a smoke!
|1.23.06 @ 2:13PM|#
Money and education ain't got nothing to do with it.
"Upper-class" people are people who take the trouble to use
"upper-case" letters in their posts. "Lower-class" people are those
who are too lazy to use the "shift" key. (This is where the epithet
"shiftless" comes from.)
:)
|1.23.06 @ 2:14PM|#
I think who write and read the NYT are just very out of touch
with the reality of most Americans lives. First, I really think
they buy into the leftist myth that most Americans are suckers who
are living just above the poverty line. I guarentee you that the
guy who wrote that aricle and most of friends have no idea that
people like plumper, construction workers and appliance salesman
make very nice livings in this country.
A good example of this is the way the media portrays golf. I always
find it funny when the press smears golf as a rich man�s country
club sport. Those sorts of claims are made by reporters who have
obviously never spent much time around average people in the last
thirty years and still have some All in the Family view of middle
class people out bowling or something. Go find any decent sized
sampling of middle class men and you will find lots of golfers.
Since high school, I have been everything from a metal fabricator,
to a waiter, to a food factory worker to a military officer to a
civilian lawyer and in every job at every economic level the most
common sport was golf. Golf is anything but a country club sport in
21st Century America.
It is a small thing, but it says a lot about how people like NYT
reporters view the rest of America. In their view, average
Americans couldn't possibly have the money to play a sport like
golf. Meanwhile, the guy that is fixing your car or your sink he
out getting his new $500 big bertha driver as we speak. You would
think reporters would get out more.
|1.23.06 @ 2:15PM|#
Andy, I vociferously object to your perjorative use of the word 'pussy' in your 2:08 pm post. From now on, you should use the term 'anal-eruption'.
Dan T.|1.23.06 @ 2:35PM|#
Dan,
You don't think it's strange to refer in print to everyone in a
lower social class as trash? Especially when writing a review for
the paper of record?
Not within the context of this review, where Kamp is actually
saying that the members of the bowling team do not resemble many of
the stereotypes associated with that label. The whole reason he
puts �white trash� in quotes is to contrast the stereotype with
reality.
|1.23.06 @ 2:38PM|#
people like plumper, construction workers
I like MY construction men lean, thanks.
|1.23.06 @ 2:41PM|#
Golf is anything but a country club sport in 21st Century
America.
I suppose not, now that every goddamn public park in America has
been taken over by golf courses. (I hate golf - boring, boring,
boring.)
|1.23.06 @ 2:46PM|#
John makes an interesting point about golf. I always thought it
was weird to see Fred Flintstone playing golf when I was younger;
"isn't it just rich people who play golf?" I thought. But then I
started seeing a woman from Iowa (I grew up in New Jersey, and have
lived in New York for years.) She comes from a large working class
family, and has many brothers, some of them successful executives,
others successful at more working-class jobs, like the ones we have
been discussing (mechanics, etc.) It turns out that they all
regularly play golf.
This may be sort of a regional thing; land is expensive in the New
York area, so it may be expensive to play golf, while land is
plentiful in the MidWest, and so golfing is more affordable. John,
have you seen what you describe ("...in every job at every economic
level the most common sport was golf") in different parts of the
country?
MP|1.23.06 @ 3:07PM|#
land is expensive in the New York area, so it may be
expensive to play golf
A round of golf is pretty
reasonable for residents of Westchester (just north of
NYC).
|1.23.06 @ 3:13PM|#
andy:
I just wanted to make sure I didn't start an unnecessary flame war;
I could care less about being PC, it was merely my midwestern sense
of discretion coming to the fore... while the Reason crowd seems
"reasonable" enough, you never know who will go nuts when you start
throwing racial epithets around.
|1.23.06 @ 3:27PM|#
Elitist definitions:
Guys that do manual labor with a Brooklyn, Jersey, Chicago or
Boston accent = Working Class
Guys that do manual labor with a Southern accent = White Trash
|1.23.06 @ 4:06PM|#
And no matter what you might think, "white trash" is an
insult.
I long ago stopped using the term "white trash" because its true
insult is to blacks.
What could "white trash" possibly mean except "trash that requires
the modifier 'white'"?
|1.23.06 @ 5:05PM|#
What could "white trash" possibly mean except "trash that
requires the modifier 'white'"?
A white person who happens to be trashy. "White trash" insults
blacks only to the extent that "blonde bimbo" insults redheads.
|1.23.06 @ 5:05PM|#
"i'm full - let's split that dessert" thing, for example, or why
my wife has so many fucking shoes."
This is the mirror of the gene that makes men want more, bigger,
louder speakers.
|1.23.06 @ 5:12PM|#
MikeP -- That's long been my reaction to the term as well. Along with insulting the target, there's a presumption in the term that folks of all other colors are, of course, trash.
|1.23.06 @ 5:16PM|#
You could just as easily say that "white trash" is specifically
insulting to white people, since there's no equally acceptable way
to say "black trash" or "Hispanic trash."
Which is why, when I speak ill of certain people in my
neighborhood, I just use good old-fashioned obscenity.
|1.23.06 @ 5:21PM|#
v -- no offense! To you, or dhex, etc. Short posts in lower-case
are not hard to read.
But there used to be a guy who frequently posted very long,
potentially very interesting analytical posts here ... however,
because they were all in lower case, they were incredibly tedious
to read. It was hard for me to not take this as complete bloviating
disregard for the reader, even if not consciously so -- and I would
occasionally tweak him for it. I guess I just continued to do so,
even though he's no longer around to read this. (He got too busy
after his baby was born.)
(I tried to post this earlier, but the Reason squirrel
hiccupped.)
|1.23.06 @ 5:32PM|#
You could just as easily say that "white trash" is
specifically insulting to white people, since there's no equally
acceptable way to say "black trash" or "Hispanic trash."
I draw exactly the opposite conclusion from the same facts. "White
trash" explicitly communicates that whites in general are not
trash. That there is no equivalent for other races leads me to the
same conclusion as B.P.
|1.23.06 @ 5:34PM|#
"White trash" explicitly communicates that whites in general
are not trash. That there is no equivalent for other races leads me
to the same conclusion as B.P.
'Bimbo' is used toward females, and there is no male equivalent,
but I wouldn't say there's anything misogynistic about it.
|1.23.06 @ 5:37PM|#
'Bimbo' is used toward females, and there is no male
equivalent, but I wouldn't say there's anything misogynistic about
it.
Babe, you just can't follow our complicated and logical male
reasoning.
:)
|1.23.06 @ 5:45PM|#
Mitch,
Come to think of it, I have always lived, for the most part, in the
midwest or south where land is cheap. I have never thought of it
that way, but you make a good point. In the east or west coasts
where land is expensive, golf is probably more expensive and more
of an elite sport. I will stand by my statement though that the
average American has more money to burn on pursuits like golf than
most NYT reporters give them credit for having.
|1.23.06 @ 5:52PM|#
Number Six: sorry, I did give the impression that the second
paragraph of the post was directed at you. It wasn't.
Mitch: my mother used to warn me not to use the term "white trash,"
saying it implied a white person who was as low as a black man.
Hence the recent popularity of the term "trailer trash," which
conveys the same meaning without specifying race. I think it its
original formulation it meant landless whites in the antebellum
South who worked as laborers or tenant farmers.
|1.23.06 @ 6:00PM|#
I actually consider "trailer trash" more offensive than "white trash;" white trash does not insult all white people but trailer trash insults all trailer dwellers.
|1.23.06 @ 6:08PM|#
stevo, no problem. your comment was taken in the spirit in which
is was made, smiley emoticon and all :-)
>'Bimbo' is used toward females, and there is no male
equivalent, but I wouldn't say there's anything misogynistic about
it.
what about 'himbo?' (my question is only half-serious)
MikeP and BP:
i agree. i think james' comment is a further illustration:
>my mother used to warn me not to use the term "white trash,"
saying it implied a white person who was as low as a black man.
Hence the recent popularity of the term "trailer trash," which
conveys the same meaning without specifying race. I think it its
original formulation it meant landless whites in the antebellum
South who worked as laborers or tenant farmers.
|1.23.06 @ 6:31PM|#
NYT reporters should do some research into the terminology they use. Then they would know that terms like "underclass" actually mean something very specific, which by definition excludes the gainfully employed. That would help make up for any deficiencies they have in terms of actual knowledge about what people from other geographic regions and social strata are actually like.
|1.23.06 @ 7:01PM|#
I will stand by my statement though that the average
American has more money to burn on pursuits like golf than most NYT
reporters give them credit for having.
You're right about golf. Bass fishing may not be considered an
elitist sport, but it takes substantial disposable income to
participate in. Same goes for hunting, bow hunting, four wheeling,
jet skiing and numerous other "white trash" pursuits. Living the
good ol' boy lifestyle isn't cheap these days. A fully loaded F-150
King Ranch Edition can set you back as much as a new Beamer. These
guys have money and power. They certainly had enough of both to get
Dubya into the White House twice. My message to both coasts is -
keep "misunderestimating" them at your own risk.
|1.23.06 @ 7:16PM|#
"But come on, skilled laborers making $41K a year are
"underclass"? I make $19K a year as an editor for a business
research firm, and somehow I doubt the snooty journalist in
question would call me "underclass" based on my job title..."
How the hell do you live on $19K per year?
|1.23.06 @ 7:38PM|#
There is another aspect to working with your hands, that gets little mention. It is satisfying on a very visceral level, and surprisingly on an intellectual level as well. If you doubt the intellectual part try building a garage-sized (or larger) structure. Besides all that, you get some exercise and all of the raunchy, male jokes are a lot of fun.
|1.23.06 @ 7:41PM|#
Final comment on this, unless I change my mind later:
What makes a bookish woman from the intellectual elite (Nora)
competent to credibly comment on blue collar men? Having grown up
in a ghetto, more or less, I can tell you from experience that
there are lots of very smart people amongst plumbers, electricians,
etc.
|1.23.06 @ 7:48PM|#
OK, I changed my mind. I don't like the terms, "white trash" and "trailer trash", for the same reason that I don't use the N word, or most racial epithets. I just feel uncomfortable saying things that are demeaning to a great many people. Don't misunderstand, I can cuss like a sailor (no offence to sailors :-]) when the circumstance requires it.
|1.23.06 @ 8:40PM|#
I spent the last 15 years in the southeast. 'White trash' and
'trailer trash' are pretty danged near the same thing. Gainfully
employed or not, the fact of the matter is if you walk around in a
pair of daisy duke cutoffs and a halter top made from a wife beater
you are viewed as trash. If you are a girl, I guess this might be
hot in a trashy sort of way. If you live in a trailer instead of a
shotgun house then you are 'trailer trash'. These almost
exclusively apply to white people BTW.
If you have expendable income to afford things like a new bass boat
or a new truck to go Muddin' in then you are a 'good ol' boy'. If
you would rather spend your money on beer and bondo for your old
truck, you become a Redneck.
Kwix (now a yankee)
Amy Alkon|1.23.06 @ 11:06PM|#
"As Paul Fussell has pointed out, the biggest class dividing
line in America is whether or not you have a college degree (or,
whether or not your job generally requires one)."
This was more inevitably true in the past, I think, and more so in
Europe than here.
Wendy McElroy is my personal favorite example of somebody who
didn't go to college, but is generally much more insightful (and
entrepreneurial) than many who did. She's also an independent
thinker. The notion that college necessarily teaches people to
think is a mistaken one, of course.
I almost quit college after my third year at the University of
Michigan, but ending up graduating (from NYU) because I got a
scholarship there and wanted to be in New York. I'm a syndicated
newspaper columnist who got into the biz after giving free advice
on a street corner, then self-syndicating my column to newspapers.
None of what I do for a living relates to what I studied in school.
In fact, I now consider it a boon that I didn't study psychology in
college, because I wasn't forced to worship the gods of the
profession. Instead, I'm self-educated -- by reading books,
journals, and going to conferences. Regarding writing journalism,
do you really want to waste thousands of dollars and several years
going to graduate journalism school, when a good editor can kick
your ass for about a week until you start producing a good lede?
It's a much better idea to go study history, politics, literature,
economics, philosophy and the like so you'll be more than a
stenographer. Doing that takes only a library card, and maybe
regular perusals of the paper to note when interesting speakers are
coming to town.
|1.24.06 @ 10:51AM|#
"I can tell you from experience that there are lots of very
smart people amongst plumbers, electricians, etc."
No doubt.. Stupid electricians don't live too long :)
Actually, having grown up in a small midwestern town, the "Rich"
families in our town were the Dentist, the Lawyer, the Plumber, and
the Electrician.. These were the families with the nice cars,
bigger homes, and boat houses on the Mississippi..
|1.24.06 @ 1:40PM|#
>Gainfully employed or not, the fact of the matter is if you
walk around in a pair of daisy duke cutoffs and a halter top made
from a wife beater you are viewed as trash.
Well, "white trash" is a colloquialism and I never commented on its
meaning. "Underclass" is a term with specific and documented
origins and usage, and journalists who toss it around with no
apparent understanding of what it usually means are showing their
ignorance. Same for "proletariat," which another poster suggested
for those of us unhappy with the use of "underclass" in Kamp's
review.
|1.24.06 @ 4:46PM|#
i think i shall never see
a post as beautiful as a tree
--a shiftless poet and i know it
|1.24.06 @ 5:07PM|#
One of the first rules of golf my brothers lived by while playing the game in high school and college - steal a golfcart from the recharging area so you don't have to walk. Sometimes, of course, you must leave it behind when the charge runs out. Also be ready to put your leg out to hold it upright as you take it along the dam for the pond. Were cut off jeans to complete the affect.
|1.24.06 @ 8:34PM|#
As for skilled tradesmen having static income over their
careers, that may or may not be the case. Someone can move through
the ranks - apprentice, journeyman, then master - as a carpenter,
frex. If he's then topped out, he might become a building
contractor. I, too, grew up in a town where some of my wealthier
classmates were the sons or daughters of guys who started out in
the building trades, and wound up running their own shops. Some
examples would be: home heating and air conditioning, fuel oil
delivery, plumbing contracting, home builders, well drillers, and
electrical contracting.
Kevin
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