Reply #60: Epithets don't have the same sting when you're on top. [View All]

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People who are supported by their society and their peers in their ethnic worth don't have the same kind of vulnerability to epithets and slurs that people have who are trying to stand up for themselves against a more-or-less hostile society. When the slaves made fun of massa (to use an extreme example), it was merely taking a tiny bit of their own back, the very least one could allow them. When massa makes fun of the slaves, it's cruel and demeans them both.

This is why "white trash" is the epithet that stings. It's not racist but classist, and it's an insult by those on top against those on the bottom.