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Article Excerpt
Byline: Clive Davis, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Racial slurs, thank goodness, are no longer acceptable in polite company. Gone are the days when terms like "nig-nog" or "Paki" were casually tossed around in British sitcoms. (American readers may find it hard to believe that a blackface minstrel show ruled the BBC's prime-time schedules until well into the 1970s. Strange, but all too true.)
There is one phrase, though, that is still permissible, almost fashionable even, and that happens to be an American import: "white trash." Columnists in broadsheet newspapers use it to refer to the people who live in unfashionable suburbs east of London and sing karaoke on their home stereos. Commentators casually use the phrase in articles about pasty-faced young men who wear designer sweaters, fancy jeans and white socks.
In effect, "white trash" has become a crude synonym for "working class," a reminder that class remains a potent force in daily life.
Soccer, once the preserve of the workers, has become a bourgeois obsession; affluent TV viewers eavesdrop on the blue-collar characters in the perennially popular soap opera "East Enders." Yet for the most part, the mores and rituals...
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