Define "CRACKER"

[itsrobert]

I find the word "cracker" offensive, but for some reason it's tolerated here. Maybe the meaning of "cracker" is different than I'm thinking it is.

So can some people educate me on why calling a white person (or anyone) a "cracker" is acceptable?
I'm not interested in opinions that it's less offensive than other words. If it's offensive, it's offensive.

[Texasgal]

1. I'll do my best

Generally a cracker is a very thin paste of bread, baked with salt on top.

How'd I do?

[alittlelark]

4. That offends me!

I like my crackers UNSALTED!

[Texasgal]

12. What?

What kinda person eats Crackers without salted tops? :P

[alittlelark]

20. Those of us that like REALLY salty cheese!

[ThomCat]

60. My favorite type of cracker

is Deli Rye Triscuits. :9

But you did good. :toast:

[bridgit]

83. or sometimes no salt...

:)

[slackmaster]

84. BLASPHEMY!

:argh:

[bridgit]

86. oh i know, it's an abomination...

:argh:

[Captain Hilts]

2. It doesn't have the history of 'nigger'. It just doesn't. It doesn't mean it's okay.

But it's not the epithet that 'nigger' or even 'bitch' are.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. You're absolutely right with "nigger".

I highly disagree with "bitch" though.

[Captain Hilts]

46. Being called a 'bitch' by a stranger, especially a man using it about a woman. Is like 'nigger'. n

[soothsayer]

63. Agreed, but the C word is worse

[EnviroBat]

68. Cuban???

[Captain Hilts]

78. Easy for a man to make a joke about this topic. nt

[Atman]

87. crapola

Maybe you were the poster last week who was telling me that "dick" and "peckerhead" are perfectly acceptable terms because they weren't gender specific, but that "bitch" was horribly offensive because it was about women, even though the dicktionary (oops, sorry) says otherwise.

.

[Captain Hilts]

92. How could 'dick' and 'peckerhead' not be gender specific? They are.

And I don't use those terms.

[Atman]

123. So I guess it wasn't you I was arguing with

I honestly don't recall, but the fact remains. Search that "bitch" thread. The poster that was giving me a hard time attempted to make the case that "dick" and "peckerhead" are just terms everybody uses, but that "bitch" was about women and therefore always sexual. SHE said she just didn't think dick or peckerhead gender specific and as insulting as "bitch." I pointed out that that was because she was a female. The street runs both ways, but not for some, I guess. Sorry, Mookie, if it wasn't you. We didn't see eye to eye much on the bitch thread, either, which is why I thought it was you at first.

[Captain Hilts]

145. I appreciate your comments.

No, it was not I that said that.

What a thread that was!

Whew! Off to watch ice hockey to forget about politics for a bit...

[youthere]

98. Cheddar?

[TheWraith]

130. I'm with Vash here, strongly disagree.

"Bitch" is a common low-level epithet on the level of the masculine "asshole," and does not yield even close to the insult of a racial epithet.

[Captain Hilts]

146. "Asshole" is masculine? I don't agree on that, but do that it's not as bad as 'nigger'. nt

[yurbud]

82. No insults to white people are truly offensive except blacks calling us racist or saying we have

small dicks.


I started a thread like this that got locked, and listed all the synonyms.

I actually like some of the disparaging terms other countries and ethnic groups use for white MORE than I like the terms white or caucasian (I was not born in caca).

anglo, gringo, gaubacho, haoli, gaijin all sound kind of cool.

cracker at worst lets me know someone is trying to insult.

If someone actually says the word "honky" out loud, they have embarrassed themselves more than the person they are tring to insult. It's like calling someone a bozo, or wearing a fluorescent green leisure suit.

Maybe some minority owned PR firms could get together and come up with a racial epithet for whites that really stung.


Right now, none do.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. It's impossible to offend a white person by disparaging their race.

Because each and every one of us deserves such treatment. :sarcasm:

[harlinchi]

30. No y'all don't!

Many of y'all, no most, are well-intended folk. Whether from the south, the west, the northeast, the midwest, I've seen good folks of all types.

Oh! I just noticed your sarcasm doodad! As Emily Latella might say, "Never mind!"

[goclark]

5. I'm African American and I find that term offensive

I wish that we could minimize our use of terms to White,African American etc.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

18. I prefer European American

to White...

sP

[Captain Hilts]

80. 'White's counterpart is 'black'. If you go the 'African-Am' route then, Anglo, Nordic...

Ashkenazy etc. have to be alternatives.

'White' and 'African-American' are not the same kind of terms. 'Ladies' goes with 'gentlemen' as 'women' goes with 'men'. So, 'white' goes with 'black'. It's purely visually - not culturally - descriptive.

I find 'white' and 'black' much easier and less controversial in that they don't make cultural judgments.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

96. well, I actually prefer 'black' and 'white'

but for some people that is just how they take their coffee. Too bad we see color/race at all, but it is in our nature.

sP

[Captain Hilts]

100. I've noticed on Pardon the Interruption, Michael Wilbon refers to himself as 'black'

but usually others as either 'black' or more frequently 'African-American.'

When I taught college, I'd ask the students to tell me which term they preferred. There was never a consensus, which left me able to use whichever came into my head at the time.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

102. i LOVE PTI...what a great show

and in your above post you hit the nail on the head.

"ask the students to tell me which term they preferred. There was never a consensus..."

This does NOT leave you free to pick the term you wish...because invariably you will find someone to whom the term is offensive. Trying to hit a moving target is a pain.

sP

[Captain Hilts]

106. If you want an honest, frank conversation about race issues, you'll find it on PTI.

It's odd how some of the best writing/conversation about race, etc. is being done by sportswriters.

[goclark]

81. ,I've never seen it used regularly

at DU or in other forums but thanks for the information.

[elocs]

85. I've always wondered about that.

I just compared my hand to my white sock and they are not even close to being the same color.

[MADem]

45. Well, the only way to do that is to eliminate the races, I suspect

It will be difficult to put people down on the basis of physical differences if we were all the same, if all of us were "One from column A, one from column B, and one from column C" and so forth.

Everyone had better get to reproducing....and mixing it up as they go along!!!! Future generations may thank us!

Of course, you DO know what will happen if one day, we're all outwardly similar...we'll just find some other stupid, pointless, unimportant difference to make fun of. It'll get down to ear lobes and shoe size, if those are the only variations. It's human nature to note differences, to, in essence, discriminate, unfortunately.

On the one hand, we go to the moon, we create vaccines, we cure diseases...and on the other, we're genetically hard-wired to be snarky and insufferable assholes to anyone who demonstrates the slightest variance from our very own, personal, comforting and well-loved paradigm.

Such a dichotomy, the human race!

[deutsey]

6. I've heard it originated as a reference to the white overseer who

cracked the whip over the heads of slaves working in the fields.

I don't know how true that is.

I also heard it refers to the pasty skin color of whites. Dunno the veracity of that one either.

[pepperbear]

7. here's what wiki says.

Historically the word suggested poor, white rural Americans with little formal education. Historians point out the term originally referred to the strong Scots-Irish of the backcountry (as opposed to the English of the seacoast). Thus a sociologist reported in 1926, "As the plantations expanded these freed men (formerly bond servants) were pushed further and further back upon the more and more sterile soil. They became 'pinelanders,' 'corn-crackers,' or 'crackers.'" Frederick Law Olmsted, a prominent landscape architect from the northern United States, visited the South as a journalist in the 1850s and noted that some crackers "owned a good many negroes, and were by no means so poor as their appearance indicated."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_%28pejorative%29

[Clinton Crusader]

17. So, it is AKA 'red neck'? n/t

[Captain Hilts]

47. Wiki reflects the opinion of the last crank who edits the entry. nt

[Cleita]

91. I got a similar explanation of a rural white people of pioneer

stock or locals as they are also known. I was surprised to find out it's a racial slur.

[Lowell]

8. In Florida

a cracker refers to the days when Florida cowboys used to drive their cattle by cracking a whip. The woods were too thick to go firing a pistol like they did our west. Here a cracker is someone from a family that dates back to those days. Of course then there is the derogatory use of the word by those who don't understand where it actually came from. Kind of like red neck. A red neck was actually a poor white farmer who's neck was red from pulling a plow from the harness normally used by beasts of burden. Now everyone thinks a redneck is some cracker waving a confederate flag on their pickup truck.

[nashville_brook]

42. my grandmother embraced her Florida "cracker" roots...

because she was dark-skinned and of indeterminate descent. she always said we were "nothing but a bunch of crackers," -- meaning, "don't ask about this stuff."

[Lowell]

56. I never thought being called a cracker was bad

until I went in the army and heard it used in a derogatory way for the first time. I, like your grandmother, always accepted being Florida Cracker.

[TheBaldyMan]

10. a computer programmer,

this term has negative and positive connotations depending on the context in which it is used.

[Virginia Dare]

11. Here is a very interesting link on the subject...

http://athena.english.vt.edu/~appalach/essaysA/cracker.htm

[demnan]

13. Cracker - Hillbilly - Redneck

They're all terms that shouldn't be used. I've been guilty in the past. This year I read "Born Fighting" by Jim Webb. He considers these words derogatory. I've retired them from my vocabulary in respect for my new Senator and the people he came from.

[Homer Wells]

155. The term "Hillbilly"

refers to an early American Scots-Irish slang word. A 'billy'was a friend, and in the Appalachian region a hillbilly was a friend of others living in the Appalachian Mountains.

[porphyrian]

14. Offensive to who?

Who gets to say what word is or isn't offensive? You? Me? Are you speaking solely in the context of DU, which has it's own rules?

In the pejorative, "cracker" refers to the slave master, or whip "cracker," and likely originated in the SE (as "Georgia cracker," though I've heard "Florida cracker" as well).

[LanternWaste]

39. I would guess...

"Who gets to say what word is or isn't offensive?"

I would guess that (all other things being equal) it's the actual target of the applied label who would be the person to determine if a particular word is, or is not offensive.

[porphyrian]

44. Then you agree that what constitutes an offensive word is relative? - n/t

[LanternWaste]

97. Sure. Which puts the burden of civility on us...

Absolutely. Which puts the burden of civility on us to hold our tongues if we're unsure of present company.

[porphyrian]

114. I'm not entirely buying the "burden of civility" bit.

First, that implies that using potentially-offensive language is somehow barbaric or otherwise uncivil, which isn't necessarily the case at all. Secondly, it gives control of the conversation to people who may or may not join it rather than to those who are already speaking, and I don't agree with that, either. All parties in a conversation are equally responsible for the communication, whether that is in saying things so that they are understood or in understanding things that are said.

[LanternWaste]

134. Offensive language IS uncivil

Offensive language IS uncivil. And I certainly don't think all parties are responsible for the communication, they are responsible only for what they themselves say and, to a point, how it is taken

It's not about controlling a conversation I don't know what that means, anyway), it's simply about being a person who goes out of your way to be respectful, tolerant and kind to others.

If you're the kinda guy that likes to shock people or make them uncomfortable, then more power to ya; however I firmly believe that it is a social duty of all people to be aware not only of what we say, but also how it is understood by others.

Much like drinking in some respects. I'll have some friends over to watch a football game and we all drink a few beers. I have another friend who is a recovering alcoholic and I make a point to not have any alcohol in the apartment when he comes over. I feel the burden is on me to make him as comfortable as possible.

It depends on who the guest, or in the case of conversation-- who we're talking to.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

141. Not exactly - "relative" is the wrong word.

An offensive word is one that will cause offence. That's an objective measure.

But whether a word is offensive or not is not always inherent to it - "fool" or "villain" will always be offensive, but "nigger" used not to be, and "bastard" I *think* much less so, although I'm not sure about that, while "housewife" (i.e. "hussY") and "capon" used to be; now both of those have changed.

[Karenina]

153. It is quite telling that NO ONE here has replied to your assertion

"fool" or "villain" will always be offensive, but "nigger" used not to be...

I ask TO WHOM.

[yellowcanine]

15. Roughly the same meaning as "redneck". Some prefer "Appalachian Americans"

"Redneck" seems to be more preferred by the folks that "cracker" is usually directed at. Some even take some pride in it in a perverse kind of way.

[Celebration]

24. Redneck

True rednecks love being called redneck, I agree. If the intent is to offend the people, call them crackers. Redneck is only an offensive term to the people saying it.

[a la izquierda]

33. yep yep.

in oklahoma, people PRIDE themselves on being rednecks. it's sort of embarrassing to share the same air as them, but whatcha going to do.

[RB TexLa]

25. Redneck is a reference to orange scarfs Scots in Ireland and then in America wore to show their

support for King William. This is also where hillbilly comes from because they were "Billyboys" who settled in the hills (Appalachian).

[Catherine Vincent]

50. I heard Clinton call himself a red neck.

I was shocked. I love Clinton.

[RB TexLa]

53. The use of the term has changed over time but Clinton has enough

Irish in him to know better.

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

16. I associate it with "white trash".

Or "trailer park trash". It's not a nice term and of course it's meant to be derogatory.

It can also mean a wonderful treat to be consumed with masses amount of good cheese :)

[Nikki Stone1]

19. Something that goes with tomato soup

:)

[Goblinmonger]

115. Cracker = Grilled Cheese

Learn something new every day.

[noamnety]

21. It's not a word I'd use. However.

There is a huge difference between an oppressed group using an insult, and a group that oppresses using an insult.

Cracker doesn't have the same impact as n***** - even though it's designed to disparage an entire racial group - because a black person classing someone as white, in general, is not implying they are of a lower social order. The point of the word n***** (when being used by a nonblack person) is to clearly identify the target as being in that lower group.

Without the slang, in other words, there's a big difference between referring to someone in anger as black, and referring to someone in anger as white. One group holds power, the other does not.

It's the same reason, as I pointed out in another thread, that women are called dicks at less than 5% of the rate that men are called a c***, if google is any indicator. Referring to men as feminine is FAR more insulting than referring to women as masculine, because women are "less than" men.

Same with n***** and cracker, one implies less than fully human, the other doesn't.

[Catherine Vincent]

55. Good explanation!

[Bunny]

71. That's the best explanation for it.

Well done.

[Igel]

99. The difference between oppressor and oppressed is

a purely pragmatic one. If you give power to an oppressed person who hates or feels the need to insult others based on some inherent trait, he's the oppressor. Remove the hate or need to insult, and she's usually not as oppressive.

There's a principled distinction between having or not having the power to oppress and spouting hate and contempt. One doesn't justify the other: having power (or not having power) doesn't make denigrating another person morally acceptable.

Both 'n*****' and 'cracker' imply the other is not fully human or, at the least, deserves contempt instead of tolerance (or even respect) because of the concentration of melanin in his/her skin. A person's use of 'n*****' to belittle a person on account of his race, to my mind, means s/he shouldn't hold authority over members of that race (or any other, really); a person's use of 'cracker', IMO, means the same thing.

I've seen hateful white males treat their women and minority employees poorly; they tended to refer to their abused employees in contemptuous ways when speaking in confidence and off the record. Then again, I've seen blacks and women treat 'crackers' and 'frat boys' just as poorly: Take a person who hates, give him/her power, and you get the same reprehensible conduct ... regardless of their genitalia, teeth shape, hair properties, skin color....

[Spider Jerusalem]

138. That's nothing more than sophistry.

"Cracker" is usually used as an insult aimed at poor Southern whites, who if you haven't noticed tend to generally be regarded as being of not just a lower social order but probably a lower order of being (certainly around here, anyway), and historically they're not really a group that's had much in the way of power or anything else (unless the simple fact of being white somehow mystically makes them powerful despite their social and economic marginalisation).

[QC]

139. Poor people aren't oppressed?

Interesting.

[Captain Hilts]

147. Terrific explanation. nt

[EdwardM]

22. I'm white and I'm not offended by it.

I don't find any words offensive. It is hate in itself that should be offensive.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

41. I can agree with that. Unfortunately, hate usually isn't separated from the word.

[Monkeyman]

23. Here's your sign

[sniffa]

26. why is it offensive?

is it a symboL of keeping your peopLe down?

and aside from here on DU, it's acceptabLe everywhere. honky's a good one too. i'm partiaL to peckerwood myseLf.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. In the song 'Louisiana 1927'

Randy Newman's original lyrics:

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has done
To this poor cracker's land."

And Aaron Neville sang:

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has done
To this poor farmer's land."

[RB TexLa]

31. Newman used the actual quote from Coolidge

It went over real well in Louisiana :sarcasm:

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. Interesting -

I didn't know that. Thanks.

[Ellis Wyatt]

28. not offended

Probably because I've never been opressed because of my race, not a single word could ever upset me about my race. Someone calls me a cracker, even filled with hate, and is in the sentence "we should kill all crackers", I'd still just dismiss them and not be upset about it.

They're idiots, just like white people who say "nigger" with the same venom, but it's not going to bother me in the least because I just don't care.

[Atman]

29. I was called a cracker while standing in a grocery line once

I don't even recall exactly why. A black couple in front of me was having some sort of hassle with the clerk, over a check or something. I was next in line and in was building up behind me fast as the people bitched and raised a fuss with the clerk. I must have sighed or something, and the woman turned to me and screamed "what the hell you lookin' at CRACKA?!" I literally broke out laughing. "Cracker? Are you serious? Am I supposed to be offended or something, or are you saying I look like a Triscuit?"

In retrospect, I probably should have kept my mouth shut, thinking about what COULD have resulted, but her SO calmed her down and they left the store, her yelling the whole way out the door, to everyone and no one, that we were all just a bunch of "crackers" and she ain't never coming back, blah blah blah.

It kind of reminds of the BITCH thread. I found it funny. The woman, though, thought she was laying a good smack down on me, which in her mind, I'm sure she did. But far from being offended at a WORD, I just found the whole thing amusing.

[DemoDemoCratCrat]

37. I like your attitude!

The utterance of an epithet almost always says more about the person saying it than it says about the target of the epithet.

[TK421]

88. I kind of like the term blue-eyed devil...ever hear that one?

Cracks me up every time! :spray:

[Atman]

90. I've got blue eyes and blonde hair

I've been called all sorts of evil things just cuz of that. It makes me laugh. I don't remember filling out the questionnaire before I was born asking me what I wanted to look like.

Neither did anyone else. Which is why this racial crap is so damned insulting to ALL of us. You are who you are. Trying to blame someone for ANYTHING just because of their DNA is totally nuts.

.

[TK421]

111. Agreed !

:beer:

[cwydro]

127. THAT is a funny story

..."look like a triscuit..".

I like your attitude.:rofl:

[Wiley50]

151. Triskadecaphobia= fear of Friday13th

Triscuitdickaphobia= fear I'm Fuckin' Crackers

[tularetom]

32. "Hillbillies prefer to be called 'sons of the soil' but it aint gonna happen"

Dr. Hibbert "The Simpsons"

[dipsydoodle]

38. Hillbilly

is a derogatory term but it don't seem to stop people using it.

[lukasahero]

34. It has to do with power or, more precisely, lack of

I'm white and I really can't get worked up over the word. The offensiveness is in the balance of power - white people using the N word know damn well the history of the word and the power those who use it have/had over those they used it against.

Using the word cracker is like David throwing stones at Goliath. It doesn't carry the weight, the history or the power.

[dipsydoodle]

36. Not used in context in the UK as fas as I'm aware

nor elsewhere outside of the USA. Most common use here would be as in Nancy Pelosi is a cracker - meaning gorgeous.

[RaleighNCDUer]

49. Now THERE's and interesting context.

As someone (Wilde?) once said, British and Americans are two people separated by a common language.

[dipsydoodle]

142. When we were younger

and went dancing near Xmas a common expression to suit the festive season was "I've just pulled a cracker" Yes - two peoples separated by a commom language. I must say I find it quite farcical that there such a thing as an American edition of the Complete Oxford English Dictionary. :)

[gollygee]

40. I think it's an old fashioned version of "trailer trash"

my understanding is that it comes from the name of a style of house that was often lived in by poor white people at one point.

I'm not offended by terms used to describe white people because there is a huge power differential in this country. To say something hurtful about someone who is held back because of racism in this country is different than to say something hurtful about those of us who are privileged simply because we are white.

[treestar]

43. Oh, come on, it's not that bad

White people complaining of such things is unsympathetic. Racism just doesn't have a punch when it is aimed as the privileged rather than the oppressed.

A cracker is a dried out baked bread.

[Catherine Vincent]

48. I don't use that term.

I don't think it's that offensive but I realize some find it offensive, so I have no desire to use it. I do like to eat crackers...slightly salted. :)

[harlinchi]

51. If white folks think it's offensive then it is!

Those to whom the term may apply get to define whether or not it's offensive! When they start calling crackers folks who descend from literate slaves, Miq'Mac great-grandfathers and Irish great-grandmothers, I'll weigh in with a definitive opinion!

Until then, like with abortion, I'll defer to those who are directly affected!

[itsrobert]

61. Thanks

That's an honest answer. Thanks for not labeling me a "flame ploster".

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

64. I'm a white person. I don't find it offensive.

And I think those who do are sots.

[harlinchi]

76. I don't think I would if I were white!

I get a kick out of Foxworthy's various 'redneck' stuff. I get the jokes even though I was raised in Philly, am Black and have never been in a trailer park! Funny stuff is funny stuff! Much of his 'redneck' stuff could as easily be applied to poor Blacks (for example: "if your working TV is on your non-working TV, you might just be a redneck". That being the case, I know many well-tanned, nappy headed rednecks!)

As a nation, we've got to get past the insulting names!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

79. Ah, "redneck."

Some people think "redneck" is a slur against poor whites. It's not. In fact, that suggestion is something of a slur against poor whites. "Redneck" is an attitude. It's largest audience is among poor whites, sure. In sort of the same way that "the Blues" was started by poor blacks, and now has transcended racial and class boundaries. Unfortunately, "redneck" is not a delightful form of music.

[Goblinmonger]

116. If sots = rednecked cracker-ass hillbillies

then I agree.

Come on people. They are WORDS. They only have the power that we give them.

[Captain Hilts]

113. Well said. nt

[boolean]

52. Are you kidding?

Offended by cracker. I don't believe you. This is flamebait.

[itsrobert]

59. You can believe what you choose

thanks

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

54. You find it offensive?

Are you one of those persons that finds just about anything offensive?

[kiki]

57. A dry biscuit, often eaten with cheese. n/t

[William769]

58. People born in Florida are known as "Florida crackers"

They don't have a problem with that. I guess it would depend on how you use the term.

[Captain Hilts]

62. I never knew its history. nt

[stepnw1f]

65. I'm White, and Find It a Proper Description

for most Republicans.

[SoCalDem]

66. Cracker? as in the cracking of a whip on bare skin? or

Cracker as the jovial, fun-loving country bumpkin?

Cracker as in the lovely "Town House Cracker" by Nabisco? (or is it Keebler)

Cracker as in the lowly, but ever-so-salty, Saltine?


depends on the usage, I guess...

[zreosumgame]

67. two simple rules people need to learn to live in a civilization

A) Try not to be too offensive

B) MOST IMPORTANT RULE!!!! : Do not be so easily offended

learn those two and you will be happier

O8)

[tenshi816]

109. You left out a third important rule:

C) Be excellent to each other (from Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan)

[EnviroBat]

69. Let's just all call each other "Dude"...

That seems to be the least offensive. I'll let you all get back to walking on eggshells now...

[WinkyDink]

70. It's a cultural term for people who are voluntary members, at least as adults, of a

certain "yokel" type community.

NOTHING---not "honky", "Mick", "Dago", "Wop", "Papist" (I'm all these, BTW), etc.---compares to the SLAVERY term of the "N" word.

SLAVERY is why the last is totally OFF-LIMITS.

[alfredo]

117. I was told that Honky came from Hunky which is a

name for Hungarians.

WOP supposedly comes from the term "Without Papers" meaning an illegal alien.

[SoCalDem]

131. When we lived in NM, our development was called "Honky Heights"

by the "locals".

It was a spec neighborhood built just as the cost of "commuting-to-Albuquerque gas" shot up, so it was dirt cheap to live there.. We rented a 3K sq ft house for $350 a month WITH country club membership included.

The little town (Belen) had about 8K total population and 95% of it was Native American or Hispanic, so to them, the shiny new houses across the Rio Grande, up on the mesa were part of Honky Heights..

[alfredo]

133. Ha. We defined people by location. If you were from Lake Dreamland

you were looked down upon by everyone, even those of us from Shively. If you were from Shively you were toughs and thugs. Lake Dreamland men, when they wore ties, they didn't tuck the tie into the knot, they just let it hang from the top of the knot like a cravat.

[Goblinmonger]

118. Riiiiiiight

Cause the poor southern white in the hills can just pack on up to Harvard and change their life. Voluntary? People that are poor are poor voluntarily. Where have I heard that before?

How about Kike? or "gyping" someone? They have histories of being slaves.

[EnviroBat]

72. Here, try this...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

73. how often exactly have you seen that word used?

who is using it? is it minority groups or white people calling themselves cracker.

i have been on du since 04 and have since it once in a joke made by a white man describing himself

[originalpckelly]

74. Ritz Cracker: Rich white guy...

implies staying at the Ritz Carlton.

[Deja Q]

75. A honky mo-fo caucasoid or a dried piece of grain with salt on it that tastes good.

[Dr Fate]

77. Calling a middle class white a cracker is like calling a rich person a snob.

In both cases, the person being called the name should laugh it off- the rich guy is still rich and can still afford healthcare, etc- and the white guy is still white and can always get a job over the guy calling him cracker.

This is what a lot of people dont get- calling people in power names is not the same as calling people not in power names.

[FredScuttle]

89. Yes, I remember that controversial song by Patti Smith....

"Rock n' Roll Cracker"

and John Lennon's song, "Woman is the Cracker of the World"

[Dr Fate]

93. The sheriff is a cracker (BONG!!!!!) Naw dagnabbit!! I said the sheriff is a CRACK- (BONG!!!)

Oh my!!!

[FredScuttle]

104. LOL, Dr.

Who can forget the Sly and Family Stone classic:

Don't call me Cracker, Whitey
Don't call me Whitey, Cracker...

[philosophie_en_rose]

94. A cracker is a type of unleavened bread, usually sprinkled with salt.

[leftofthedial]

95. because white people, especially males, deserve to be abused

apparently

that's the best I could discover in asking this question the other day

If you question whether it's okay to call a white person "cracker" (or "cracker ass" as the heckler in the Kramer incident did), you are either a Rush Limbaugh fan, a friend of Limbaugh's or perhaps even Limbaugh himself.

[Kelly Rupert]

101. So is your point

that it's obviously okay to call white people "crackers," or that it's obviously not okay?

[OxQQme]

105. Here's my spin on 'Cracker'

Didn't they have a hit song..."I Hate My Generation" ?
http://www.crackersoul.com/

[leftofthedial]

120. Personally, I think "cracker" is a racist epithet

and should be met with the same kind of outrage as "nigger" or "kike"

but because I'm a white male, apparently my outrage is false and that makes me Limbaugh-esqe

[Kelly Rupert]

144. Oh, I see. I agree with you fully.

[Igel]

103. I personally find the word 'anglo' to be wrong.

When people refer to me that way, I tell them not to, and explain why. I'm almost entirely Celtic by heritage. The Angles were not kind to the Celts.

But how offended I am depends on how the word is intended. "White" can have a pretty bad sneer to it, and it's the sneer that's offensive.

[Captain Hilts]

107. I'm half English/half Irish. So, the term fits me fairly well. But it's weird hearing...

my Ashkenazy and Jewish roomate called an 'Anglo'.

The term's only half accurate for me and not at all for her.

That's why 'white' just works better. It's an observation, not a judgment.

[dailykoff]

108. "31%"

And slipping.

[Jamastiene]

110. A cracker is something I like to put in my chilli.

Also, it's good for tuna/chicken/other salad. They are quite yummy, actually.

I have also heard people use that word as a racial slur against white people. I guess that considering most white people don't say anything, they don't find it offensive. I find any racial slur offensive though. Seems that it demeans whoever it is used against. It's sad when someone has to resort to name calling, really.

[lies and propaganda]

112. i prefer cracker ass ;)

I (white women)was raised in the bayou, crackers was what all hillbilly-ish, country folk were called. A word that we had to use occassionally to combat all the oldies who hated kids, all races, humans in general.

I dont look at it as racist at all, more like hilarious. We white people are so plain and laughable they couldnt even come up woth an offensive, powerful word to insult us. Im sure I will not have the consensus opinion.

[conscious evolution]

119. First time I heard the word

was in seventh grade.An african american kid called a friend a cracker.My friend,in return,called him a burnt cracker.Both of them cracked up over it and ended up being friends.

[Left Is Write]

121. They "cracked up"?

;)

[conscious evolution]

125. Unintentional pun

Should of said cracked up laughing.

[trekbiker]

122. no one seems to know exactly where it came from

lots of theories.

Slaveowners "cracking" whips
or, moonshiners cracking corn for corn whiskey (the song "Jimmy crack Corn")
or,the white soda crackers popular in the 1800's

the term is derogatory but has little impact, at least on me.

[Zhade]

124. You must REALLY hate Nabisco, then.

NT!

[Tiggeroshii]

126. I like them with cheese

animal crackers were good too when I was a kid. ummm... I'm hungry :P

[Jed Dilligan]

128. "Countrysides" is a great album,

it defines Cracker for me.

[Red Right and BLUE]

129. Yummy and crumbly.

Is especially good with cheese on top.

[WHAT]

132. I'm sick and tired of the BBC...

I'm sick and tired of a country where vernacular is associated with class instead of regionality or ethnicity.

Is this similar? I think so.

The focus is on class rather than issue or argument. Anymore, that is a ladder going "down", not "up". Entropy, maybe, at work. On this side, there are maybe three generations resaulting in a shellaced and poised infantry (that nobody pays attention to) misdirecting the traffic...bubbly and inept at observation but nonetheless poised and positioned.

the friendly icon might be misplaced in this regard. :)

Offense no longer triggers defense; it is irrelevant (except on tv).

[Brazenly Liberal]

135. I think cracker is a funny word

I don't feel offended by it even when I know the person means to offend me because it's such a funny word.

Richard Prior appeared in a classic SNL skit with Chevy Chase where they called each other racist names. Interestingly, the words Chevy used seemed shocking, but the names Prior called him just didn't have the same effect.

Cracker as a funny word aside, I'm not particularly offended by any of the names for white people even though I find the pejoratives for black people to be offensive and flat out unacceptable. White people complaining about "cracker" or "honky" or whatever just seem whiny to me. It's all about balance of power, I think. In the US, when a white person calls a black person any of the racist nicknames, it carries with it the weight of oppression. Since black people have never been in a position to oppress whites here, any name calling doesn't have such a visceral effect.

[Blue in Bama]

136. Cracker

is just one of the many varieties of rednecks....to lump most of my fellow red staters into one gruop does them an injustice. You have your crackers, your peckerwoods, your hillbillys, I could go on and on....

[Bluebear]

137. ''I'm not interested in opinions that it's less offensive than other words'

OK that ends that.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

140. When Used Racially, It Shouldn't Be Tolerated Since It Is In Fact A Racist Term.

[Karenina]

143. This thread is bullshit.

[itsrobert]

148. Why?

It seems there is a lot of opinions expressed. I thought was the point of a discussion forum.

[bliss_eternal]

154. Deleted...

No point...

[shadowknows69]

149. A great band that was an early 90's offshoot of

Camper Van Beethoven.

[baby_mouse]

150. I rather find it rather endearing to be compared to a tasty snack.

Pcture the scene:

"You nigger!"

"You... you.. CRUMBLY SNACK!"

Doesn't quite pack the punch, does it?

Sorry I can't really see the problem :eyes:

[MrSlayer]

152. It doesn't offend me in the least.

Because it has no meaning to me. To me a cracker is what you put in your soup. There are no racial epithets for white people. White people attack each other's ethnic background.

[doc03]

156. Zell Miller