Friday, April 20, 2007

The Original White Trash?

In a country with 1.2 billion people, over 30 official languages, and countless ethnic groups, one does expect to encounter a variety of traits that can be correlated globally.

One that struck me today while I was on the treadmill at the gym observing overweight housewives trying to recapture some glimpse of a girlish figure was the number of similarities between the average Indian and American White Trash.

White trash has been a stereotype of the average American for decades (let's not forget that over 60% of the US can be classified as rural). Inspiring bands and movies, but is it a unique American trait?

Let me list some noted similarities:
  1. A penchant for synthetic fibers
  2. Way too many moustaches (there are even regional variances to how you grow your moush)
  3. Mullet haircuts
  4. An inclination towards public nose picking, spitting, peeing, belching
  5. Racist tendencies
  6. A liking of boiled peanuts
  7. A predisposition for pot-bellies
This are just but a few, I'm sure that if did a thorough ethnographic study we would unearth many more.

I'm not sure what this means, but I think it does merit further analysis, especially if you stop to consider how much older the South Asian civilization is, and the Indian-American predisposition to own motels and 7/11's.

4 comments:

beatpunk said...

Very keen observations.

CKC123 said...

ok, so you just described my people.

Florizel said...

Who doesn't love Boiled Peanuts?

Anonymous said...

Those are my people.