Date:  Thu, 25 Aug 1994 00:38:32 EDT

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: What is a Racist Term?



I don't know if anyone mentioned this in a posting I missed, but I've always

thought of "poor white trash" in the same way as "white slavery", both clearly

encoding the beliefs that "poor trash" and slaves OUGHT to be other than white.

 Whether these terms are racist might come down to whether the user is

alluding to the epistemic or deontic sense of the modal--whether it's just

LIKELY that a random instance of poor trashiness or slavery involves

non-whites or whether it's actually APPROPRIATE or RIGHT.



  --Larry Horn