What is "poor white"

n. an offensive term for White people who are impoverished [syn: white trash, poor white trash]

Poor White is an American novel by Sherwood Anderson, published in 1920.

In the United States, Poor White (or Poor Whites of the South for clarity) is the historical classification for an American sociocultural group, of European descent, with origins in the Southern United States and in Appalachia. They first emerged as a social caste in the Antebellum South, consisting of white, agrarian, economically disadvantaged laborers or squatters usually possessing neither land nor slaves. In certain contemporary contexts the term is still used to pertain to their descendants; regardless of present economic status. While similar to other White Americans in ancestry, the Poor White differ notably in regard to their history and culture.