Reply #23: My response is the same as Zalinda's.

[RaleighNCDUer]

"How white of you" is totally different, contextually, from "white trash", so much so that I re-read your post three times to see if I was missing a connection you were making.

I thought that "how white of you" (and its variants) had pretty much disappeared from the vernacular since at least the 60s. Generally speaking, it's a loaded term, equivalent to 'generous', but directed at people of color - as if, of course, that would never be expected of them. I think I've heard it once, in person, and it was used sarcastically, but it is not uncommon in movies from the 30s and 40s.

White trash, OTOH, is still common vernacular and if anything it denotes a social status for poor whites that is a cut below 'redneck'.