Sure, not a nice term at all, but if you were to substitute the word white for any other race/color such as “black trash”, “yellow trash”, etc. it would sound wayy more offensive and I would imagine be led with some public backlash! Yet I see the term “white trash” thrown around in some casual conversations, tv shows, and pop culture with not much afterthought.
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It’s considered offensive to a class of people, and how we talk about poverty changes all the time. Black poor people are “ghetto” or “nappy”, Hispanic poor people are “Mexicans” and “maids”, Native poor people are “drunks” or “living on government handouts”.
On that context, even poverty is racialized in the US, and some would say white trash is a form of classicism, but not a form of racism. You can read into the overlap of race and class quite deeply, as well as the overlap of poverty and gender and poverty and sexuality. Generally, the socially disenfranchised are also economically disenfranchised.
To sum up, maybe it is offensive, but more as toxic white supremacy (where all white people are expected to be rich and successful) than as a true form of racism, if it is more than plain classism.
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