Ghetto Fabulous

I am watching American Justice (if you haven't figured it out, I watch a lot of tv--Tivo is a wonderful thing.)
So I'm watching American Justice about the Central park Jogger case from the late 80's. First: did you know that all the people that were orginally convicted were set free because someone else confessed? So much for that whole "wilding" theory...

Anyway, I'm watching it and there's some white woman talking about crime in NY in the 80's. There was a lot more than there is now, and she says, "There was a concern that the ghetto crime would spill over into the white neighborhoods." What? Let's think about this critically, people: What is she saying with this statement?

White people don't live in ghettos
White people don't live in neighborhoods with crime
ghetto=non-white----> non white people do not live in low crime neighborhoods

Now she seems to have enough savvy not to say, "There's was a concern that black/Latino crime would spread into white neighborhoods." No no no, that would be racist. But she can substitute the eupehmism, "ghetto" and we think nothing of it.
I'd also like to point out that this woman works for the Columbia graduate School of Journalism, responsible for shaping the young minds of the future media. Whoo hoo!

White trash news flash

I was watching blue collar comedy and came up with the idea for this post. I've always wanted to ask white people, when you hear, "white trash" what comes into your head? Is it the same thing as a "redneck"? Is this a term that you feel comfortable using to describe other people?

I kind of feel like it's a racial slur and not something that I go around saying. That being said, what is up with these people? They're white, so they don't have racsim to blame for their problems, but why don't they have their acts together? "Redneck" to me implies someone from the South, whereas "white trash" spans regions. Am I alone in this distinction?

Also, how much of our conceptualizations of these terms require that the person be poor? Can a white person with money be "white trash"? What about people of other ethnicities? Do their derogatory terms conjure up images of not having any money?

Discuss-- and then send comments to me.