So I’m buddy-reading White Trash: The Untold
400-Year History of Class in America with
ForTheLoveOfRyan and DanMartinLikesYou.
Buddyread is a bit of a misnomer - it does
feel a little bit like a game of hide and
seek except no one’s actually looking for
me.
But, at least it’s comfy here and hey - I
brought a big book!
Now I’ve been meaning to read White Trash
ever since I finished J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly
Elegy but was a little intimated by the sheer
heft of this book but December is the perfect
month to tackle bigger reads and so I was
more than happy to dive right in - inbetween
bouts of Overwatch.
I mean solo queueing a DPS main is incredibly
hard.
So I’ve got the lingo down - I just can’t
really play Overwatch all that well.
I love how all these activities have their
own secret code words.
It’s just like poker.
There is a slang term for every opening hand.
I mean I’ll let you guess what Big Slick,
Motown, and Gay Waiter are.
Speaking of slang White Trash is just one
of the many terms that Nancy Isenberg uses
to describe the idle poor.
They’ve been, over the years known as riff-raff,
rubbish, crackers, squatters, rednecks, hillbillies,
clay eaters, bogtrotters, sandhillers, and
trailer trash.
I mean basically America was seen as a potential
dumping ground for the idle poor, the orphaned,
and general human waste.
It was seen as Australia before Australia
was even a thing.
I’m still working my way through the book
and enjoying it so far.
As a Canadian I have no idea what American
history looks like to Americans in the classroom.
I assume it’s Columbus, pilgrims, the Mayflower,
Plymouth rock, Thanksgiving and then Washington
cutting down the cherry tree.
But what I’m getting here is something else
entirely and I’m really enjoying it, especially
this chapter on Andrew Jackson.
He is defined as a rude, ill-tempered, backwoods,
cracker who basically did whatever the hell
he wanted without much consideration.
As far as he was concerned he was a law unto
himself.
In 1806 he got into a duel and killed
a lawyer named Charles Dickinson and then
proceeded to raise up a petulant fuss when
financial aid was actually offered to his
widow.
In 1813 he got into a duel with his former
aide Thomas Hart Benton and his brother Jesse
at the Nashville Hotel and later that year
was accused of killing 6 of his own men during
the Creek War.
And then in 1818 without presidential approval
and going against and ignoring international
law he invaded Florida under the guise of
arresting some Indians.
This would spark a full-scale war and all-out
occupation.
So yeah, not a lot of subtly or statesmenlike
abilities, but despite that he ran for president
in 1824.
Many noted his lack of education and complete
absence of polite breeding as compared to
his predecessors.
Jackson epitomized partisan politics as typified
by a boastful vocabulary and making up in
boisterous oaths what he otherwise lacked
in intelligent arguments.
Jackson was a Washington outsider and harboured
a healthy distrust of the establishment.
In fact much of his appeal lay in fact he
neither looked nor acted like a politician
and it was said many of his staunchest supporters
tended to defend Jackson against others with
threats that celebrated physical prowess over
mental agility.
Even Thomas Jefferson had this to say about
Andrew Jackson “One might as well make a
sailor a cock, a soldier a goose, as a President
of Andrew Jackson.”
Duly noted.
After reading about Jackson the follow up
chapter on America’s obsession with eugenics
in the early 1900’s is a hell of a thing.
Now White Trash was published and released
in June of this year so it missed out on the
chance to comment on the current election
but Nancy Isenberg talking about Sarah Palin
telling notes that “When you turn an election
into a three-ring circus there’s always
a chance that the dancing bear will win.”
Alright so I’m enjoying the holiday season
and trying to stave off the holiday cold.
I tend to run a little hot and need a little
stress in my life, so as soon as the holidays
arrive my body decides it’s the perfect
time to get sick.
So I’m trying to hold that off until the
new year.
In the meantime I hope you guys are enjoying
the holiday season and getting a ton of reading
done.
So have a great reading week and we’ll talk
to you soon! Bye.
