Poor White
Poor White is a sociocultural classification used to describe economically disadvantaged Whites in the English-speaking world, especially White Americans with low incomes.
Portrayals of Poor Whites in U.S. state of Georgia, as illustrated by E. W. Kemble, circa 1891 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Southern United States | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| White Southerners, Mountain white, White Americans |
In the United States, Poor White is the historical classification for an American sociocultural group, of generally Western and/or Northern European descent, with many being in the Southern United States and Appalachia regions. They were first classified as a social caste in the Antebellum South, consisting of white, agrarian, economically disadvantaged laborers or squatters, who usually owned neither land nor slaves.
In the British Commonwealth, the term was historically used to describe lower-class whites, notably in the context of the "poor white problem" in South Africa. The term has also been occasionally used in a British context since the second half of the 20th century to distinguish poor white Britons from lower-class Black and Asians in Britain.