White Trash: Underclass That Runs Contrary to the American Dream 4219-SH0015
Over 11% of white population in the US lives below the poverty level. Poor whites make up though for over 50% of the entire US population living below the poverty level, more than all other racial groups combined.
On the cover of Nancy Isenberg’s White Trash. The 400-year Untold History of Class in America, we read that “The white poor in America have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlements to today’s hillbillies. They have been labelled Clay-Eaters and Waste People, an underclass that runs contrary to the American Dream that hard work begets success. Yet, these marginalized whites have always been near the center of major debates over the character of the American identity, as crucial to the rise of the Republican Party in the early XIX century as they have been to the presidency of Donald Trump in 2017”.
According to sociologist Matt Wray, the phrase white trash “conjures images of poor, ignorant, racist whites: trailer parks and wife beaters, too many kids and not enough government cheese. It’s hard to care about such people. It’s even harder to take them seriously.”
At this course we will analyze:
- how the notion of white trash (and class more generally) is woven into American society’s fabric
- how the existence of deep class divisions is (not/under) represented in American discourse
- what is the cultural significance and what are the consequences of poor white stereotypes but also how dominant whites exploited and expanded these stereotypes to bolster and defend their own claims to represent others
- what were the ideas about poor whites that circulated through various campaigns (e.g. worm eradication and eugenic reforms)
- how the issues of class, race, gender, sexuality, religion, politics, and geography complicate a critical understanding of white trash
- what it means to be poor and white in the context of white privilege and when middle-class status is “normal” (a collision of racial privilege and class inferiority - paradox of privilege)
We will collect and analyze data and research results about white poor in America. We will look for patterns in:
education, housing (urban vs. rural, home ownership, trailer parks), jobs, economic situation (income, wealth, poverty, food stamps), family patterns, health (illnesses, life expectancy, mortality), crime, values, attitudes and political views.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
Upon completing the course, students will have:
Knowledge about:
- US class divisions
- the role and importance of poor whites in the US history
- the cultural importance of the stereotypes about poor whites
- the campaigns “solving the problem” of poor whites in the US
- the patterns of: education, housing, family structure, labor market situation, economic situation, health, crime, values, attitudes and political views of poor white people.
Skills:
- conducting an analysis of class relations in the US
- developing and presenting presentations on a selected topic (presentation via the Zoom platform)
- search and analysis of statistical data on a selected social group
- working in a group and discussing the texts read
Competences that will allow them to:
- understand the complexity of the white poor phenomenon in the US
- understand the complexity of class relations in the US
- conduct the critical analysis of selected cultural texts (literature, television, film)
Assessment criteria
GRADING
The final grade will be based on:
* active class participation 20%
* presentation and class discussion on a chosen topic related to white poor 40%
* individualized research project that locates and examines representations of
white poor in a self-chosen piece of literature, television, or film 40%
Bibliography
Books (selected fragments):
1. Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Harvard University Press
2. Cramer, Kathrine (2016) The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker, University of Chicago Press
3. Frank, Thomas (2005) What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, Macmillan
4. Hochschild, Arlie (2018) Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, The New Press
5. Isenberg, Nancy (2016) White Trash. The 400-year Untold History of Class in America, New York: Penguin Random House
6. Moss, Kirby (2003) The Color of Class: Poor Whites and the Paradox of Privilege, University of Pennsylvania Press
7. Vance, J.D. (2017) Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, William Collins
8. Wray, Matt (2006) Not Quite White: White Trash and the Boundaries of Whiteness, Duke University Press Books
PLUS
*a set of recommended academic and press articles from which the students will choose the topics for class discussions
*statistical databases
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: