poor white, noun phrase and & adjectival phrase

Forms:
Also poor-white.
Origin:
U.S. EnglishShow more Originally U.S. English (early 19th century).
A. noun phrase Especially historical: a member of the most indigent section of the (Afrikaans-speaking) white population; see quotation 1922. Often in pl., used collectively. See also bywoner sense 1, igxagxa sense 1.
1896 R. Wallace Farming Indust. of Cape Col. 406The so called ‘poor whites’ are chiefly the descendants of French protestant refugees, and..of early Dutch settlers. The initial cause at work in reducing them to poverty, was the excessive subdivision of the land among the members of a family.
1908 J.H. Drummond Diary. 28 Aug.The boy is a poor white and..is very thin and his jacket sleeves are halfway down his arms.
1912 H.H. Juta Reminisc. 148I firmly believe that the evil and pernicious system of ‘by-woonerschap’ is more responsible for the manufacture of the poor white than anything else.
1913 V.R. Markham S. Afr. Scene 301The poor white in South Africa, as in America, is the peculiar product of a bi-coloured state, where manual labour is despised and vested entirely in the hands of the weaker black race.
1922 S.G. Millin Adam’s Rest 42In South Africa the term ‘poor white’ has a particular significance — a significance depending not entirely either on poverty or on whiteness...A poor white belongs to a type characterised by dubious antecedents, dubious whiteness, dubious respectability, dubious earning capacity.
1925 P. Smith Little Karoo (1936) 162As the child of the poor-whites and as the mother of poor-whites she drifted for seventy years from farm to farm in the shiftless, thriftless labour of her class.
1932 Star 2 May 13Poor Whites invade Durban — Lorry loads arriving weekly...A big influx of poor whites into Durban very soon is predicted.
1939 R.F.A. Hoernlé S. Afr. Native Policy 92Whilst literally millions of pounds have been spent on preventing Whites..from becoming ‘Poor Whites’, and on preventing those who already are ‘Poor Whites’ from becoming poorer still.., little attention has been given, and very little public money spent, on ameliorating the condition of poor non-Europeans.
1947 F.C. Slater Sel. Poems 28Defeated, dispirited poor-whites.
1948 H.V. Morton In Search of S. Afr. 127A native hut would be a palace compared with some of these awful shacks, which are the homes of ‘Poor Whites’. This term, though not as contemptuous as the American ‘White trash’, is the South African equivalent, and denotes those people of European origin who have descended in the social and economic scale.
1949 A. Keppel-Jones S. Afr.: Short Hist. 177Among these ‘Poor Whites’, for whom there seemed no place in South African society, hatred of the black race became more bitter than in other sections of the people.
1941 C.W. De Kiewiet Hist. of S. Afr. 182The poor whites are the South African equivalent of the ‘crackers’ and ‘mean whites’ of the former slave states of America.
1955 W. Illsley Wagon on Fire 174They dismiss African workers and substitute poor-whites at four times their wages.
1974 Rand Daily Mail 28 Jan. 11Poor Whites — Afrikaners divorced from their rural background and living in squalor under the alien conditions of urban life.
1977 F.G. Butler Karoo Morning 120Poor-whites were a common enough sight in the Karoo in the early ’thirties. It is estimated that there were 300 000 of them at the time.
1986 Cape Times 3 Jan. 5Shot in Johannesburg, the film showed whites..queuing for food handouts. The commentator said: ‘Poor whites are once again a political issue in South Africa.’...Poor whites provided a fertile ground for the right-wing parties.
1987 R. McGregor in Leadership Vol.6 No.3, 118The poor whites were absorbed into the civil service which became their haven — the equivalent of a welfare state. Not only was every Afrikaner assured of a job, but of an inviolate job with benefits and perquisites which raised his standard of living in a very short period of time.
1988 A. Klaaste in Sunday Star 22 May 11The Afrikaners made many mistakes. The critical mistake was, while they built a strong Volk from the poor whites of the 1940s-50s, they forgot the rest of us.
1991 [see rockspider].
B. adjectival phrase Of or pertaining to poor whites.
1909 R.H. Brand Union of S. Afr. 28The growth of a poor white class which is too ignorant for any skilled trade and yet refuses to do ‘Kaffir work’ is an ominous sign.
1909 H.E.S. Fremantle New Nation 221The poor white is the European who is permanently incapable of maintaining for himself and his family a standard of living which can be regarded as decent for white people.
1920 F.C. Cornell Glamour of Prospecting 56He was a most naive sort of old chap, typical of the degenerate ‘poor white’ trek Boer of these barren desolate and almost uninhabitable wastes.
1920 R.H. Lindsey-Renton Diary (1979) 22We left Kirkwood at about nine o’clock, taking with us a young boy of the ‘poor white’ type to act as guide.
1926 S.G. Millin S. Afr. from Within 226‘The poor white’ problem is one of pressing urgency.
c1936 S. & E. Afr. Yr Bk & Guide 225In the old Colony numbers have sunk to the ‘poor white’ level from losses incurred through drought and from the gradual deterioration of lands.
1978 Sunday Times 10 Aug. 15The deplorable ‘poor white’ period of the post-depression Thirties.
1979 J. Drummond Patriots 77He’d been poor, the son of a poor-white farmer.
1988 J. Sharp in Boonzaier & Sharp S. Afr. Keywords 85Nationalist insistence that the ‘poor white’ problem (the movement of impoverished Afrikaans-speakers from rural to urban areas) was caused solely by British depredations in the countryside during the war (implying that there were no earlier divisions amongst the volk itself).
a member of the most indigent section of the (Afrikaans-speaking) white population; see quotation 1922. Often in pl., used collectively.
Of or pertaining to poor whites.
Derivatives:
Hence poor whitedom  noun phrase (rare), poor whiteism  noun phrase, the phenomenon of extreme poverty among white people.
1916 Rand Daily Mail 1 Nov. 4Facts and figures which were of service to every student of poor whiteism in this land.
1934 N. Devitt Mem. of Magistrate 202One of the effects of poor white-ism is the resulting competition between this class and coloured people.
1936 C. Birkby Thirstland Treks 253For a period these deserving people were to be thrown back into the pit of poor-whitedom.
1943 I. Frack S. Afr. Doctor 106The teaching of children solely through the medium of Afrikaans, with perfunctory attention to English..; the drumming into their heads of a narrow and rigid form of nationalism, is a contributory cause of poor whiteism.
1943 L. Sowden Union of S. Afr. 136Poor whiteism is one of the sores of the South African economic system and, broadly speaking, is the result of the white man’s reliance on the black man’s labour.
1952 B. Davidson Report on Sn Afr. 79The sons and daughters of the platteland.., saved by the growth of industry from ‘poor-white-ism’, have flocked into the towns.
1968 K. McMagh Dinner of Herbs 65Her mother set great store by observing the proprieties, for she had seen families degenerate into poor-whiteism from having to live in houses with mud floors and unglazed windows.
1991 A. Van Wyk Birth of New Afrikaner 41Poor-whiteism was misery: poor-blackism was even worse.
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18961991