"Better Than White Trash": Work Ethic, Latinidad and Whiteness in Rural Arkansas

Authors

Miranda Cady Hallett, Otterbein UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Publication Title

Latino Studies

Keywords

Salvadorans, Immigration, Boundary Work, Labor, Agency, Whiteness

Abstract

Diverse sites in the US South are being transformed by "new Latino immigration." Rather than being a homogeneous process, experiences of migrant settlement are shaped by the racialized social worlds of particular historical social communities -- and may in turn transform local racial formations (Winders, 2005). In one small town in rural Arkansas, Latina and Latino migrants perform boundary work (Lamont, 2000; Hartigan, 2010), constructing their identities as "good" workers and neighbors. Although migrants assert belonging and dignity by framing themselves as "better than White trash," nonetheless this belonging is predicated on the reproduction of racial and class hierarchy as well as conformity to the structural demands of neoliberal capitalism.

First Page

81

Last Page

106

Volume

10

Issue

1-2

Comments

Published article title: "'Better Than White Trash': Race, Class, and Moral Capital in the New Latino South."

Part of a special edition entitled: Latinas and Latinos in the US South: Immigration, Integration, and Identity (edited by Suzanne Oboler)

Repository Citation

Hallett, Miranda Cady, ""Better Than White Trash": Work Ethic, Latinidad and Whiteness in Rural Arkansas" (2012). Sociology Faculty Scholarship. 2.
https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/socio_fac/2

Original Citation

Hallett, Miranda Cady. "'Better Than White Trash': Work Ethic, Latinidad and Whiteness in Rural Arkansas." Latino Studies 10:1-2 (Spring/Summer 2012): 81-106.

DOI

10.1057/1st.2012.14

Version

Post-Print

Peer Reviewed

1