I’m not aware of any racial connotations but…
The vanilla cream sandwich cookie you got a long time ago in those real Oreo cookie packs were called ‘Swiss’. Two sleeves of Oreos, one sleeve of Swiss.
CMC fnord!
I’m rather surprised no one objected to Mallard calling Clarence Thomas an Oreo. Or maybe I’m not.
Close. Looked it up and found out generically they’re called sandwich creme cookies. Same idea as you mentioned, generic “Oreos”, vanilla/vanilla, sometimes vanlla/lemon sandwich creme cookies in one bag. I think the term I’m looking for is White Oreo. White outside and inside. Definitely meant as an insult.
Or according to many black people, “Mudblood”…
Well you freaked out when I said “quadroon”.
Damnit Archer!
The Historical Dictionary of American Slang has its first citations from 1969.
the meaning I first heard was in the mid-80s when my foster parent’s son was married to a caucasian woman and we were in a grocery store with their twin daughters and someone made a snotty comment about “look what the worlds coming to …arent they the cutest pair of Oreos you’ve ever seen?”
aunt gathered us up looking totally red wanting to commit murder and said “we’re done here” and i didn’t get to pick out a toy like everyone else and was upset … we couldn’t figure out why she was so mad until we went back to their house and their dad explained that was a mean thing to say …later I got a big 3 scoop ice cream which i liked better than the dollar toy aisle at the store while everyone else got singles …
“And now it’s time for…Is it Racist?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqLjzBC06p0
Dangit, I can’t find the first one. I absolutely love that Asian lady!
Edit: Found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAU263vaIiM
Yeah, much older than the '90s. I saw two cops (one white, one black) get very offended after a guy (black) yelled it at them for several minutes while they were working security for a McDonald’s on Commerce in downtown Dallas in the mid '80s.
It was a very instructive incident. I was unaware that the term was offensive (yeah, I figured it out quickly). The guy hurling the epithet apparently knew it was, and as soon as one of the cops put his hand to his nightstick (I honestly don’t remember which one), he took off, with quite a lead. He and I were both unaware that the doors on the East side of the Greyhound bus station were locked on that Friday night. It seemed we both thought for sure he was going escape them as soon as he got into that crowded place. Sadly, we were both wrong.
I don’t really advise of hurling racial epithets at cops, not even then as a young punk rocker. But I really wish those doors had been unlocked.
I had a white neighbor whos daughter had a half white/half black baby, and he always called it an oreo.
As far as I can tell, anything is a slur if you just start making people feel bad for using it.
Well, anything is a slur if people are using it to be contemptuous and demeaning. That’s how originally inoffensive words like “coon”, “spade”, and “oreo” got to be racial slurs in the first place: because people were using them as race-specific derogatory insults.
I see nothing wrong with “making people feel bad” for using race-specific derogatory insults. If their little feelings are so sensitive that they can’t be called out on their use of race-specific derogatory insults without getting upset about being made to “feel bad”, then maybe they should stop using race-specific derogatory insults.
I think you mean that anything can be a slur if you starting using it to make people feel bad.
I’m surprised that, rather than object to that, you’d express your surprise that nobody objected to that. Be the change you want to see, and all.
Anyway, yeah, that was pretty gross of Mallard. Words like “oreo” are a way of policing blackness, and our society is already fucked up enough around racial inequalities without this sort of nonsense to reinforce stereotypes and undermine folks’ own identities and desires.
If I had a mixed race grandchild and he/she is getting a nickname it certainly isn’t going to be anything to do with race.
I and my friends used to collectively be called Oreo on the school bus because I was the white kid sitting between 2 black kids. That had nothing to do with the modern usage of the word though and wasn’t used as in insult.
I reported the post actually. My surprise includes zero reaction to my report.
Gotcha. Yeah, much as I loathe Thomas, racist epithets aren’t the way to express that loathing.