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• poor white
  poor white

  noun

  a member of a class of white people, especially of the southern U.S., having low social status and little or no money, property, or education.
• poor White
  poor White

  noun

poor white

American  

noun

Usually Disparaging and Offensive.

1. a member of a class of white people, especially of the southern U.S., having low social status and little or no money, property, or education.

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poor White British  

noun

1. offensive

   1. a poverty-stricken and underprivileged White person, esp in the southern US and South Africa

   2. ( as modifier )

      poor White trash

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Etymology

Origin of poor white

An Americanism dating back to 1810–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

poor white poor White

In American society, it has been a constant rule that the policy makers and other elites who are hurting working-class and poor white people are hurting working-class and poor Black people too.

From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2026

Unlike peers such as the Shirelles and the Crystals, the Shangri-Las weren’t Black: They were poor white teens from New York City, occasionally singing with pronounced Queens accents and always performing with a stylish swagger.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2024

“John is for the people, and it doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor, white, Black.”

From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2022

He wrote the bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy,” which touches on the abandonment of poor white people — even though he has a law degree from Yale and worked as a venture capitalist.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 28, 2022

Not only did C.P. represent many of Durham’s poor white residents but his son Timmy attended Hillside High School, the school with the greatest racial problems in the city.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

Be3 f4! opens new lines of attack, and the poor White king is flushed out into the open after 27.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 15, 2022

Doing the heavy lifting, however, were crew members — usually enslaved people, freedmen or poor White people — extraordinary watermen who poled their flotillas to market in Richmond.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2022

Historically, the same sterilization programs that the Nation of Islam members evoke also purposefully targeted poor White people.

From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2021

Pity the poor White House stenographer who sought approval for the historic transcript that eventually spelled the word as “oringes”.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 4, 2019

We four of all others were most allied by friendship and intimacy with poor White and by the incidents of that night with the tragedy of his death.

From A Master Hand The Story of a Crime by Dallas, Richard