Are you guilty of racism against chavs?

[BLEEPyouYOUbleepingBLEEP]

I was listening to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 earlier, and they were talking about how feelings are running high in some white, working class areas where people feel they're being ignored by the government (which some might say is a blessing!)

Jeremy asked, in a totally serious tone 'Should the term chav not be used because it could be considered racist?'

Unfortunately, I was laughing so hard I missed the answer he was given.

So perhaps you could give me the answer, could chavs be considered a race in themselves?

(If you're still not sure what a chav is, just put it into google images...veeery enlightening)

That is interesting sarf as the cockney who told me about children being called chavs had a romany background.

ok bleep, sorry.....wasn't obvious to me that's what you meant....assumed you were a white guardian reader....

you know, ..only immigrants will do the crap jobs...bla bla bla

this is actually a very important subject....

why the BNP are doing so well.

Np Daftpunk, it's hard to know how thread info is going to be read.

I have never associated chavs with the working class, nor with poverty. And I'm old enough (and Scottish enough) to remember their forerunners the Aberdeen 'Casuals', so named because of their penchant for expensive golfing jumpers (the type with the diamond patterns on the front) which they wore to attend football matches and then kick the crap out of the other team's supporters. I believe most were found to be in 'good' jobs and old enough to know better. Then the younger versions, the chavs, came along with their taste in similarly expensive designer label clothing and anti-social behaviour. It's the behaviour that is the distinguishing feature, more than the clothing. And chavs can be any class - isn't the behaviour of the Bullingdon Club members distinctly chavvy?

Indeed they are by definition not working - either unemployed or living off mummy and daddy.

WhereYouLeftIt - very valid point!

Morosky yes some cockneys used to call their DC's Chavs and I think it is a gypsy term.
I'm white working class and live on a council estate does that make me a chav? A chav to me is someone who is on benefits (out of choice) and has no intention of ever working for a living, most probably has an ASBO, stands on street corners drinking, doesn't give a shit about what their are up to and are badly educated themselves. AS for being racist no way I think they are scummy low lifes.

what their kids are up to

"Racism against chavs" = classism, surely?

Chavs' = a social grouping, not a class. There are no economic or social norms for them so they are not a class.

social grouping-ism?
oh what the hell - lets just call it nastiness!

chavism?

Now here is a question - do you think if Chav is allowed that "chavs" have their own social/class/race grouping? If we establish that Jodie Marsh/Jordan are "chav" and so are those that sugardumpling is talking about, what do you think they call each other?

undervalued 'Chavs' = a social grouping, not a class. There are no economic or social norms for them so they are not a class.'

Making an observation like that, I hope you're not a sociologist, -gists aren't tolerated on here

I don't really care what -ism you want to call it I ust don't think it is nice behaviour to demonise people or call them scum. I think you can tell a lot about a society by the way it treats those on te fringes or the most difficult to like.

I wouldn't say working class, I'd say underclass.

Ok lets get things straight here I am white working class and always will be with my penchant for swearing and my accent. Chavs is a word that is branded around by many it is merely a word to put down the working classes - it may well have started out as burberry wearing income support receivers but now I get my middle class lawyer friends telling me that Charlotte Church is a chav done good. The word chav is plain and simple wrong whoever uses it its a form of abuse end of

Am I hell Bllep. I teach English so am a different type of git.

Bleep Ahem from what I can remeber from my socioloy O'level, chavs would be classes as a sub-culture.

pmsl at "chav" being racist.
does that mean when ds is called a dirty goth, he can say that is racist?

Oh shit, bloody nails affecting typing- sorry!!

I just thought chav was another word for vulgar. But a particularly working class vulgarity as opposed to toff which is upper class vulgarity. Does the middle class not have a vulgar side I wonder? Hmm.

some of the posters here are very clever so cant possibly be chav - well as a white working class person - I find the word chav offensive always have and always will - sloane ranger dos not quite have the same ring to it - I know some posters find the whole subject comical but suspect they are of the middle classes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't get this thread!
I hate this term. It's rude, patronising and nasty. Not funny and not a joke.
What's funny about calling people names, Bleep..? My least favourite 'group/ type' of people are those deeply insecure, self conscious lot who have to look down on other people to make themselves feel better. Sad and a little bit disturbing I think. Scary to think some of us Mums still act like bullies in a playground, huh?

There are a lot of threads on MN that go something like this

AIBU to think that the burberry check/hoop earring/sportswear wearing or just 'chav' Mother shouldn't have been smacking her 3 year old on the bus and swearing wildly?

I don't read many of those threads about goth mums, or posh mums. I suspect that is because there is a prejudice against chavs, so mentioning some indicator of chavishness strengthens the poster's claim. If the mum was a goth, everyone would just say that was irrelevant to the person's moral conduct.

So it seems there is prejudice against chavs.

taokiddy - I find the term funny because I don't equate it with being white/working class/of low income/violent or anything like that, I equate it with being young and hanging out in a social group with all it's associated norms.

Speaking from a 38 year old perspective, I can't think of anything more healthy than laughing at what teenagers think they look like, I laugh at what I used to wear/think and think it was cool, I was a right state