“You cracka!”
This was shouted across the room during my students’ card game club. I was persuaded to take on the club by a kid who lacked motivation in my class. I’d spoken to his mother the day before, and she told me they didn’t have internet, a rarity in 2025. I noticed he sometimes wore the same clothes for multiple days, and he didn’t always smell the best.
Of course, I told him I would sponsor the club. I hoped it would be a way to motivate him, potentially teach him about hygiene, and help him out if there was a clothing situation.
Nevertheless, I was questioning my sanity when he hurled the racial epithet across an all-white room in which many of the students matched his appearance and aroma.
“Don’t say that,” I warned.
“I can say it. I’m white, and I’m poor.”
This wasn’t outright defiance but an explanation. I told him he still couldn’t say it in school, but I did find the poor modifier interesting.
There are so many slurs specifically designated to poor or working-class white people, while their rich brethren tend to avoid them: cracker, redneck, hillbilly, white trash, and so on.
Look at that unprofessional hair! They say the n-word too much! Have you heard the garbage music they listen to? They don’t know how to talk. They only eat junk. Their families are dysfunctional. They have too many kids. They do too many drugs or drink too much.
Who am I talking about? I could be talking about the stereotypes attached to poor white people, especially in the South. I could also be talking about the stereotypes attached to Black people.
Now, I’m never going to pretend being a poor white man is the same as being Black, but we have more in common than the people in power want us to realize.
As a Black man, I spend a lot of time thinking about the Black experience, but if you look at my work, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about so many different groups.
I care about people.
However, the group I’ve spent the least amount of time empathizing with is white men. This isn’t unique. There are two common responses to people who attempt to discuss their issues as white men: animosity or apathy. It is either “You are a white man and likely the enemy,” or “You are a white man, so you’ll be good. Figure it out.”
Racism is impenetrable because so many poor white people are desperate to believe the lie. If they aren’t genetically superior, then social class will be the determining factor. If racism doesn’t exist, they just become waste people again.
Who are the Waste People?
In my research on this topic, one name keeps popping up. Nancy Isenberg, a history professor, wrote the book White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.
Although I haven’t read it yet, I find her argument about America being a society based on social class an important one. She describes it as exposing a myth, although I don’t personally know many people who are still buying into the lie.
Isenberg explains that America was about social class from the very beginning. The New World became the place to dump Europe’s “waste people.” These were poor people, convicts, and people swimming in debt who were considered lazy and useless. It was these people and indentured servants who made up the bulk of the settlers who were meant to clear out the wilderness in the New World.
Isenberg’s specific focus on white social mobility is interesting. As a Black man, I’ve always known I have to work twice as hard for half as much.
What about poor white people? Are they still buying into the lie? Do they understand they have to work harder than someone born into wealth? I notice many of them view rich people as special, even though most of the people in the wealthy social class were born into more money than the average person will ever see.
The myth has persisted for so long for a reason. The Bacon Rebellion in 1676 was special because Black and white working-class people fought for the abolition of slavery alongside each other.
How do you fix that problem? You turn the Black rebels into slaves, and give the white people a marginally better lifestyle. “Look, Bradley, you have a big responsibility. You get to watch Tyrone and make sure he doesn’t escape!”
The desire to avoid the bottom of the social hierarchy is very high school. I’ve watched students sacrifice friendships just to be closer to the “popular” kid. Bradley threw Tyrone under the bus as soon as the cool kid gave Bradley the mildest acknowledgment.
Bradleys have been stabbing Tyrones in the back ever since. This is why it is so easy to react with animosity or apathy, but if we are ever going to move forward, the real discussions need to occur.
Poor people will often dismiss race when discussing social class, something Isenberg is guilty of as well, if the reviews are to be believed. Black people, likewise, can dismiss the difficulties of being poor and white.
It isn’t hard to find how society outside of the rural South views poor white people. We just need to turn on the television.
The Horror of Hillbillies
As a horror fan, my train of thought always works its way into the genre. It is the most honest genre, and if we look at how poor white people are usually depicted, especially in the classics, we see society’s truest thoughts.
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre from 1974 is an absolute horror classic, and it also depicts one of the most horrifying scenarios to Middle America. There is no terror like being stuck with a poor Southern family. The family is presented as poor and dirty. There are hints of incestuous activity and a gluttonous greed. Poor people love to eat their chips and fried food…or their human flesh.
The monsters change, but the horror of the hillbilly remains consistent. Sometimes the incest is at the forefront, like in The Hills Have Eyes. Sometimes the greed is presented through sexual desire, like in Deliverance.
Unlike many older horror tropes, this isn’t one that has been reappraised in present times. Even recent versions of Texas Chainsaw Massacre or long-running franchises like Wrong Turn are still treading the same ground without really asking new questions.
Sadly, this mirrors the real world. At least there are some people out there asking the difficult questions about Black people…granted, it is all for show and currently only resulting in backward movement, but who is asking the questions about poor white people?
Well, sadly, many of them believe the orange man is asking those questions.
Politics of Being Poor and White
Both major political parties in America are bad for the average person and horrible for people on the lower end of the economic scale. However, there is a clear lesser of two evils if you care about people.
However, that party has done a very good job of making poor white people, especially in rural areas, feel left behind.
Now, I can’t imagine a world where I would put so many people in harm's way to believe an obvious orange liar just because I felt a political party forgot about me.
Being forgotten is only the tip of the Black experience; when they are paying attention to us, it is an empty gesture or a threat.
Still, I try to find empathy. I don’t expect everyone to get there or even try. I’ve heard some generic white men say things like don’t be a snowflake and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but I won’t repeat the same rhetoric despite the temptation.
It is easy to still hate poor white people in a way that it isn’t okay to hate Black people. If someone says in a passive way that they hate Black people, they will lose their status as a “good’ person. If they make the same passive comment about “white trash,” most people won’t even blink.
This doesn’t mean that the poor white struggle is more difficult, but the struggle is there.
I write this to tell poor white people that I see your humanity. I see it more than your rich brethren ever will. I hope you can look back at me and see the same thing.
We aren’t our ancestors, but I also see the trail of Tyrones laid at your feet. I still extend a weary hand because it is the quickest, most efficient way to change.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to focus on the kids. My student still has a long way to go, but the card club did give him new motivation. He knew I cared about him, and he knew I cared about his grade. I finalized grades this morning, and I’m happy to report he passed my class, something that was not a certainty until the very last day.
He thanked me multiple times, but I told him it wasn’t me. It was him.
He disagreed. He said it was teamwork. Hmm…I think he is on to something.