How do people get constructed as “litterers” through objects of litter on the ground? Middle- and working-class white and black homeowners of the suburb under ethnographic study believe that litter is a significant problem in their community. Despite rarely seeing anyone actually litter, they develop folk theories that blame this problem on black, poor renters moving into the suburb. This article documents the structural features that sustain litter accumulation across different spaces. It then examines how longtime residents interpret these patterns and use their own behavior toward litter (picking it up) to claim a moral status for themselves as community insiders while constructing those they perceive as outsiders as disreputable litterers. The author considers the relationship between physical and social disorder as they construe it and the consequences of this process for theories of ecological contamination and the reinforcement of racial and class distinctions.
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