"Uncivilized" black people

[Ginger Tea]

Although music is an audiable experience, marketing Lil Wayne clean shaven with a respectable hair cut and an armarni suit as if he worked on wall street just wouldn't work as well in his favour.

[tropicsgoddess]

Can someone explain this to me?

I am not american and have no experience with this.

Muscle cars are basically cars that have a lot of horsepower.

[bara]

I was referring to the run-down, held together with duct tape and bullshit trailer with the white trash family and their rusty old muscle car on cinderblocks, daddy in his belly shirt cursing out the N word people, while playing with his mullet and drinking Nattie Ice.

No no.. I assure you my neighbors do live in a house its just small. But hey, next time you drive by stop at my place and we can have coffee. Ill be the one cutting my grass while stopping every few feet to pick up the garbage that appears on my lawn.

[SkullKing]

Muscle cars are basically cars that have a lot of horsepower.

I know what a muscle car is.

what I do not understand is the stereotype of muscle cars on cinder blocks.

Is this really true?

why does it happen?


and so on.

Thanks for taking the time, though.

[Andara Bledin]

The whole "on cinderblocks" thing has to do with people being so poor that when their cars break down, they end up becoming industrial pop art planters in their front yards as opposed to getting fixed and returning to the roads.

This Google image search (provided it comes out the same for you) will show several examples of the phenomenon. Part of the reason for the blocks is that for many cars, the tires are the most easily removed and more valuable parts on a car, and so the owners will remove them to either prevent them from being stolen, or sell them off themselves because they need the money.

Generally, the "muscle car up on blocks" is a staple of the poor white trash stereotype, along with living in a mobile home (or trailer), and having a mullet.

^-.-^

[SkullKing]

Thank you.

To me that image search mostly shows cars that are elevated for repairs.



I imagine that the fact they are relatively poor people with cars that are anything but economic only adds to the stereotype.

[Andara Bledin]

To me that image search mostly shows cars that are elevated for repairs.

Most of those cars will likely never be repaired. THIS is the sort of thing people are referring to.

^-.-^

[protege]

what I do not understand is the stereotype of muscle cars on cinder blocks.

Is this really true?

why does it happen?

Some of it...is because rednecks are idiots. Even though their vehicle is only fit for scrap, they'll hang onto it, "because it's a Camaro (or Mustang/Firebird/whatever) and I can get me some money for it." Never mind that the vehicle in question was wrapped around a tree and will never see the road without some serious time and money being spent on it. No, it'll sit in their front yard until the owner passes on and trailer's new owner no longer wants the vehicle sitting around.

Another reason is, that some people work on old vehicles, and have a couple of "parts cars" sitting around. These are sometimes kept on blocks, simply to keep the metal body parts from suffering the massive corrosion they'd get from sitting on the ground. For example, I know a guy who restores MGBs. He has a couple of 'minters' which live in the garage. But, when he needs something, it's sometimes cheaper to buy a scrap car (for example, one with a blown engine), and strip it for parts. He'll strip it down to the last nut and bolt, transfer the good parts to another 'project' and then send the remains to the scrapyard.

[KabeRinnaul]

With these folks, no amount of calling them "white trash" will get them upset, nor will it persuade them to upgrade their lifestyle. They're proud of living in filth, or participating in various other redneck activities, that they'll never change. It's an endless cycle--the offspring will perpetuate it, simply because they're too stupid to know any better.

A large part of it is the stereotype these sort of people generally have about the "upper class" (read: anyone lower-middle or higher). They see the "upper" as a bunch of overpaid, lazy snobs who sneer down at them constantly. I posted a story on CS long ago about dealing with a woman like this. She spent the entire transaction whining that nobody in the "rich" neighborhood treated her with any respect, that we had no manners, and were all "uppity rich people". It's a combination of an "us vs them" mentality, and rationalizing away things they can't afford into things they don't want (part of why they vilify higher education).

Thank you.

To me that image search mostly shows cars that are elevated for repairs.

I imagine that the fact they are relatively poor people with cars that are anything but economic only adds to the stereotype.

Part of the issue is that while they are technically up for repairs, those repairs are never going to be finished because the redneck in question "hasn't gotten around to it". The real connection to the redneck image is that they're clinging to something worthless, will never turn it into anything of value, and don't care how bad it makes them look.

[blas87]

I will get bashed for this, but I really don't care because I'm not of a popular opinion on here most of the time anyway.

Then again, I also come from a very redneckish podunk part of Wisconsin as it is, and have never really actually seen a very truly "rich" person, like millionaires and billionaires (save for Mr. Menard himself, but he's a jerkass).

I am of the opinion that poor people can be just as rude, ignorant, and downright fucking entitled as rich people. They may not have the money or uppity attitude that usually elevates that type of attitude, but the people I waited on all the time at my high school jobs, they always had this sort of...entitlement, like the world owed them because they were poor. That since they weren't wealthy, they could act however they pleased, common courtesy and manners be damned.

I'm sorry, but fuck that shit. Lack of money doesn't mean you need to lack manners and common courtesy. And no one owes you because you weren't dealt a "lucky" hand. Hell, most of the better off people around here got their start at the very bottom. And worked their way up. No one got anywhere sitting on their ass whining about "the man" bringing them down.

Most people would say that people from around here are good natured, warm and welcoming country folk. Well, sure, a lot are. I mean, unless you're wearing a Vikings jersey, we'll probably mostly be nice to you.

And then, a lot are just your stereotypical practically inbred idiots who in public, spit like camels, fart like buffalo, belch like sailors, litter, use the term "nigger" very loosely and loudly, drive obnoxiously loud pile of shit vehicles, etc etc etc.

Like I said, not a popular opinion, and I am certainly NOT standing up for the big fat cats of the world, because I'm broke as a joke myself. But I have manners and class, that's priceless. You won't see me spitting all over the place and farting loudly at the grocery store and digging in my asscrack while whining that my unemployment check was late again or that my "baby daddy" done went out with another girl, so I'ma sue him for some more money.

Oh, and just to add: I will soon be moving back home, to a place where there's a dead Fiero parked in the backyard and an upside down boat that serves as a home for all the local stray cats when it rains.

[kibbles]

I do not think that's an unpopular opinion at all Blas. I am all for helping someone in their time of need, but I have no time for people copping an attitude because they think that everyone owes them and should support them/give them money.

I do not think that opinion is unpopular at all.

[Amanita]

Me neither! I agree with it too. My dad used to work security at a bank, and said he saw enough trashy, entitled behavior from the so-called "poor", that he now has a real dislike of welfare in general. He knows it's a safety net and some people really need it. But he saw enough people abusing the system that it affected his opinion of the whole shooting match, big time.

[bara]

I do not think that's an unpopular opinion at all Blas. I am all for helping someone in their time of need, but I have no time for people copping an attitude because they think that everyone owes them and should support them/give them money.

I do not think that opinion is unpopular at all.

I agree completely.
Most of us have at some point or another been at rock bottom and then had some asshole throw us a shovel.

But I kept working and am now digging myself out of the hole. Its going to take time and Ill have to live without a lot of things that Id like to have. But no one owes me anything (except that gal at work who is going through some shit right now. some one had to help but she is paying me back)

[Silverharp]

I think the general consensus is that trash is trash, no matter color or social standing.
You have talking heads going on about “Liberal elite media” and bashing science and higher education as a way of connecting with the “common man”. This in turns gives these uncommon commoners a sense of self entitlement that in their own heads means that THEY are the movers and shakers, the “real” builders of the world (whatever the hell that means).
It’s one of the reasons I like Mike Rowe from “Dirty Jobs”. Son of a pig farmer, doesn’t try to glorify the jobs that he highlights on his show, but they need to be done.

[fireheart17]

I think the general consensus is that trash is trash, no matter color or social standing.
You have talking heads going on about “Liberal elite media” and bashing science and higher education as a way of connecting with the “common man”. This in turns gives these uncommon commoners a sense of self entitlement that in their own heads means that THEY are the movers and shakers, the “real” builders of the world (whatever the hell that means).
It’s one of the reasons I like Mike Rowe from “Dirty Jobs”. Son of a pig farmer, doesn’t try to glorify the jobs that he highlights on his show, but they need to be done.

I see this SO often in the media. Every time I see an article about a scientific discovery or a study the uni has done, the comments are usually along the lines of:

"Why are we funding all of this shit?"
"Higher education has no standing in society anyway <cue rant about how we should be getting rid of unis anyway since all the money is apparently in trades>
"Why don't you use that funding to save our <health system, education system, WHATEVER system>"
"BURN THE EVIL HEATHENS!"
"I need to adjust my tinfoil hat because if I read this article, they'll stop trying to make me use anthrosopic medicine" (or some shit like that)
"But I do <insert action here> and I'm fine" (usually when saying something like "eating red meat puts you at greater risk of nipple cancer")
"Stop funding <program that doesn't apply to them> and put the money back into the economy"

The real "builders" of the world are more or less the real "thinkers" of the world. I'd like to see them actually TRY to solve the problems that our current governments have created. Singlehandedly. If they supposedly know what the "common man" wants, they are in for a HUGE surprise.

blas, I agree with you: trash is trash, regardless of which way you put it. Generally being polite goes a LONG way.