Poor White

Poor White is a sociocultural classification used to describe economically disadvantaged Whites in the English-speaking world, especially White Americans with low incomes.

In the United States, Poor White (or Poor Whites of the South for clarity) is the historical classification for an American sociocultural group,Flynt, J. Wayne. ''Dixie's Forgotten People: The South's Poor Whites.'' Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2004. Print. of generally Western and/or Northern European descent, with many being in the Southern United States and Appalachia. They first were classified as a social casteDollard, John. ''Caste and Class in a Southern Town''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957. Print. in the Antebellum South, consisting of white, agrarian, economically disadvantaged laborers or squatters, who usually owned neither land nor slaves.Weber, Max. "Ethnic Groups." '' Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology''. Berkeley: University of California, 1968. 391. Print.

In the British Commonwealth, the term was historically used to describe lower-class whites, notably in the context of the "poor white problem" in South Africa. The term has also been occasionally used in a British context since the second half of the 20th century to distinguish poor white Britons from lower-class Black and Asians in Britain.

United States

Identity

Throughout American history the Poor Whites have regularly been referred to by various terms; the majority of which are often considered disparaging. They have been known as "rednecks" (especially in modern context), "hillbillies" in Appalachia, " crackers" in Texas, Georgia and Florida, and "poor white trash". In the past, the use of the term "Poor White" by the white Southern elite was to distance themselves from elements of society they viewed as "undesirable", "lesser" or "antisocial." It denoted a separation, reflective of a social hierarchy, with "poor" used to demonstrate a low position, while "white" was used to subjugate rather than to classify. Author Wayne Flynt in his book, ''Dixie's Forgotten People: The South's Poor Whites'' (2004), argues that "one difficulty in defining poor whites stems from the diverse ways in which the phrase has been used. It has been applied to economic and social classes as well as to cultural and ethical values." While other regions of the United States have ''white people who are poor,'' this does not have the same meaning as ''the Poor White'' in the South. In context, ''the Poor White'' refers to a distinct sociocultural group, with members who belong to families with a history of multi-generational poverty and cultural divergence.

History

Much of the character and condition of Poor Whites is rooted in the institution of slavery. Rather than provide wealth as it had for the Southern elite, in stark contrast, slavery considerably hindered progress of whites who did not own slaves by exerting a crowding-out effect, eliminating free labor in the region. This effect, compounded by the area's widespread lack of public education and its general practice of endogamy, prevented low-income and low-wealth free laborers from moving to the middle class.

Many fictional depictions in literature used poor whites as foils in reflecting the positive traits of the protagonist against their perceived "savage" traits.Hubbs, Jolene. "William Faulkner's Rural Modernism." ''Mississippi Quarterly'' 61.3 (2008): 461-75. ''Academic Search Complete.'' Web. 29 Sept. 2012.Hurst, Allison L. "Beyond the Pale: Poor Whites as Uncontrolled Social Contagion in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Dred." ''Mississippi Quarterly'' 63.3/4 (2010): 635-53. ''Academic Search Complete''. Web. 10 July 2012. In her novel ''Dred,'' Harriet Beecher Stowe illustrates a commonly held stereotype that marriage to them results in generic degradation and barbarism of the better class.

During the American Civil War, the Poor White comprised a majority of the combatants in the Confederate Army; afterwards, many labored in the rural South as sharecroppers. During the nadir of American race relations at the turn of the 20th century, intense violence, defense of honor and white supremacy flourishedForret, Jeff. "Slave-Poor White Violence in the Antebellum Carolinas." ''North Carolina Historical Review'' 81.2 (2004): 139-67. ''Academic Search Complete.'' Web. 10 Dec. 2012. in a region suffering from a lack of public education and competition for resources. Southern politicians of the day built on conflict between Poor Whites and African Americans in a form of political opportunism.The Seattle Republican. "Afro-American Observations." ''The Seattle Republican'' 29 May 1903: 7. Print. As John T. Campbell summarizes in ''The Broad Ax'' in 1906:

Further evidence of the hostility of the ruling class towards the Poor White is found in the enactment by several southern states of a poll tax, which required an annual payment of $1.00 (), to vote, in some cases, or at least payment before voting. The poll tax excluded not only African Americans, but also the many Poor Whites, from voting, as they lived in a barter economy and were cash poor.

In the early 20th century, the image of the Poor White was a prominent stereotype in American media. Sherwood Anderson's novel ''Poor White'' (1920) explored how a poor white youth from Missouri tried to adjust to a middle-class world by moving to the Midwest. The American eugenics movement encouraged the legalization of forced sterilizations. In practice, individuals who came from Poor White backgrounds were often targeted,Wray, Matt, and Annalee Newitz. ''White Trash: Race and Class in America.'' New York: Routledge, 1997. particularly institutionalized individuals and fertile women.

The drafting and recruitment of physically fit individuals in the First World War revealed the first practical comparisons between the Appalachian region, the South, and the rest of the country. The Poor Whites were unequal in terms of income, education, and medical treatment than other White Americans; only African Americans in the Southern states fared worse.Boney, F. N. "Poor Whites." ''New Georgia Encyclopedia.'' University of Georgia, 06 Feb. 2004. Web. 13 May 2014.
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New Deal rural life programs such as the Resettlement Administration, the Farm Security Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority helped create new jobs for the rural poor during the Great Depression, especially in the South. In the late 1960s under the President Lyndon B. Johnson administration, the Appalachian Regional Commission was founded to deal with persistent poverty in the region. The Second World War led to new economic opportunities; millions of poor farmers moved to industrial centers for high paying jobs. As the century progressed, economic and social conditions for the Poor White continued to improve. However while many social prejudices have since been lifted, popularized stereotypes surrounding the Poor White continued.

Culture

Traditional

Historically, especially in Appalachia, Poor Whites lived somewhat removed from mainstream Southern society. At the turn of the 20th century, Abbott H. Ernest subdivided the Poor White group into the Appalachian "mountain whites" and those who live in the flatlands farther east and west. Affluent whites (known in the South as the Bourbon class) had little interaction with the poor, oftentimes limited to no more than, "whom he would wonder see staring at him from the sides of the highway." The physical and geographic isolation enabled poor whites in Appalachia to develop their own culture.

As was typical in general rural society for generations, the Poor White continued to make many of their necessities by hand. They sewed their own garments and constructed houses in the fashion of log cabins or dogtrots. Traditional clothing was simple: for men, jeans and a collarless, cuffless unbleached-muslin shirt; and for women, a straight skirt with a bonnet of the same material. The Poor White survived by small-scale subsistence agriculture, hunter-gathering, charity,Lockley, Tim. "Survival Strategies of Poor White Women in Savannah, 1800-1860," ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 32.3 (2001): 415-35. ''Academic Search Complete.'' Web. 29 Sept. 2012. fishing, bartering with slavesForrett, Jeff. "Slaves, Poor Whites, and the Underground Economy of the Rural Carolinas." ''Journal of Southern History'' 70.4 (2004): 783-824. ''Academic Search Complete''. Web. 10 July 2012. and seeking what employment they could find. Some moved to take jobs in cotton mills and factories, which were originally reserved for whites. Many slaveowners refused to use slaves for skilled labor because doing so would both increase owners' dependence on specific slaves and increase the likelihood that those slaves would run away in pursuit of self-employment elsewhere.

Contemporary

A broad characterization of the culture, of the descendants of the Poor Whites, includes such elements as strong kinship ties, non-hierarchical religious affiliations, emphasis on manual labor, connection to rural living and nature, and inclination toward self-reliance. In addition, individuals from backgrounds historically rooted among the Poor Whites still carry much of the culture and often continue many of the practices of their forefathers. Hunting and fishing, while practiced by their ancestors as a method of survival, is now seen as a means of recreation. Variations on folk music, particularly Country, still have strong resonance among their descendants. Traditional country music still uses the banjo, dulcimer and fiddle.

South Africa

South Africa's Apartheid system created a massive racial wealth gap and widespread poverty among Black South Africans. This inequality continues to this day, with White South Africans still controlling the majority of the country's wealth. Post-Apartheid ANC governments have instituted affirmative action policies to provide greater opportunities for Blacks, but this has had the side-effect of forcing some working-class whites out of employment, creating a small, impoverished and often homeless white underclass.

See also

*Country (identity)
*Culture of the Southern United States
*Hillbilly
*Plain Folk of the Old South
* Poor Whites in South Africa
*Redleg
*Social and economic stratification in Appalachia
*White trash
*Yokel
*Redneck
*Cracker (term)
*Peckerwood

References

Further reading

* Bolton, Charles C. ''Poor Whites of the Antebellum South: Tenants and Laborers in Central North Carolina and Northeast Mississippi'' (Duke University Press, 1993).
* Boney, F. N. ''Southerners All'' (2nd ed. 1990), pp 33–38.
* Canning, Charlotte, et al. "White trash fetish: representations of poor white southern women and constructions of class, gender, race and region, 1920-1941." (PhD Diss. U Texas, 2005)
online
with bibliography pp 225–36
* Carr, Duane. ''A question of class: The redneck stereotype in southern fiction'' (1996).
* Cook, Sylvia Jenkins. ''From Tobacco Road to Route 66: The Southern Poor White in Fiction'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1976)
* Flynt, J. Wayne. ''Dixie's Forgotten People: The South's Poor Whites'' (Indiana UP, 2004).
* Forret, Jeff. ''Race Relations at the Margins: Slaves and Poor Whites in the Antebellum Southern Countryside'' (LSU Press, 2006).
* Glossner, Jeffrey. Poor Whites in the Antebellum U.S. South (Topical Guide), H-Slavery, July 201
online

* Harkins, Anthony. ''Hillbilly: A cultural history of an American icon'' (Oxford University Press, 2003).
* Huber, Patrick. "A Short History of Redneck: The Fashioning of a Southern White Masculine Identity," ''Southern Cultures'' 1#2 (1995
online
* Kirby, Jack Temple. ''Media-Made Dixie: The South in the American Imagination'' (Louisiana State University Press, 1978)
* McIlwaine, Shields. ''The Southern Poor-White: From Lubberland to Tobacco Road'' (1939
online
* Reed, John Shelton. ''Southern Folks, Plain & Fancy: Native White Social Types'' (U of Georgia Press, 1986), pp 34–47

External links

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Culture of the Southern United States
European-American culture in Appalachia
Poverty in the United States
Rural culture in the United States
Stereotypes of the working class
Race and society
Social classes
Working class in the United States
White Americans
Antebellum South