Trailer trash
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Trailer trash is a derogatory
trailer or a mobile home.[1][2] It is particularly used to denigrate white people living in such circumstances.[3]
History
In the mid-20th century, poor whites who could not afford to buy suburban-style
zoning laws – gathered in trailer parks, and the people who lived in them became known as "trailer trash" with the term dating to at least 1952.[4] Despite many of them having jobs, albeit sometimes itinerant ones, the character flaws that had been perceived in poor white trash in the past were transferred to trailer trash, and trailer camps or parks were seen as being inhabited by retired people, migrant workers, and, generally, the poor. By 1968, a survey found that only 13% of those who owned and lived in mobile homes had white collar jobs.[5]
Trailers got their start in the 1930s, and their use proliferated during the housing shortage of
illegitimacy and crime rates, and of allowing prostitution to thrive in their "Hillbilly Havens", and letting their children go undisciplined, causing high juvenile delinquency rates. The trailers themselves – sometimes purchased second- or third-hand – were often unsightly, unsanitary, and dilapidated, causing communities to zone them away from the more desirable neighborhoods, which meant away from schools, stores, and other necessary facilities, often literally on the other sides of the railroad tracks.[5]
See also
- Hillbilly
- Pea-picker
- Redneck
- White trash
References
- ISBN 0071461078.
the poorest of people who live in run-down house trailers in bad neighborhoods. (Used with singular or plural force. Rude and derogatory.) : She's just trailer trash. Probably doesn't even own shoes.
- ^ Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers.
poor people living in trailer parks in the US
- ^ "Trailer trash". Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon. Archived from the original on 2010-08-04.
a poor, lower-class white person, esp. one living in a mobile home with trash in the vicinity
- ^ Harold H. Martin, “Don't Call Them Trailer Trash,” The Saturday Evening Post, August 2, 1952, Vol. 225, No. 5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-14-312967-7
Further reading
- Black, R. (2004). Trailer Trash Cookin'. Hearts 'N Tummies Cookbook Company. ISBN 978-1-57166-320-7.
External links
The dictionary definition of trailer trash at Wiktionary
