We all ready have a “c” word. Leave well enough.
Like these.
Like almost any other word, Cracker can be used as a pejorative. It has a variety of more and less common uses and meanings as well as a complex history. But it isn’t necessarily pejorative, and certainly isn’t always racist.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, cattle in Florida were predominantly open range. The workers who gathered those cows up labored under working conditions rather different from those in other locations. A primary obstacle was the presence of dense thickets of small palm trees (palmettos) with saw toothed leaf petioles. It was impossible to ride a horse into such cover to “bulldog” the cows out. Instead, they were forced from cover using dogs, and a long whip that could be ‘cracked’ with a sharp report. The word came to be applied to many aspects of this lifestyle. To this day there are “Cracker cows” (a registered legacy breed, small in size and acclimated to high temperatures), “Cracker horses” (similarly smaller horses with exceptional endurance, often with Arabian blood) as well as humans proud to call themselves Crackers. I’ve known quite a few of all three kinds. In regard to the racist aspect, I’ve known Crackers with skin pigmentation ranging from purest white through dark ebony.
I know that it’s just anecdotal, but in much of rural Florida (at least) it would be quite strange to call someone a Cracker and mean anything other than a compliment. It is commonly self-selected by people who wish to emphasize their long family history as rural pioneers. It would not be a reference to lower economic station or lack of intelligence. However, clearly that doesn’t necessarily apply everywhere else. So with this word, the devil will be in the details of context and intent.
Broomstick, is that you?
Ouch. 
“Florida Cracker” is a term of pride for some rural (white) Floridians. These are the people BrainGlutton was referring to, though he could have done a better job of making that clear. Though the etymology is the same, it’s not the same word - and certainly not the same sense of the word - as the pejorative for white people.
A “spouse” that has hard-to-swallow encounters with people treating them like shit in public. I mean, if the broken femur fits.
Is anyone truly offended if they’re called cracker or honky? I’m sorry, but I’m about as lily white as they come, and if anyone ever seriously intended that as an insult toward me, I’d either wonder if (a) they only spoke jive, (b) they were a 8 year old 60 year old, or © if I was being Catfished in some way. Because otherwise, I just couldn’t take that sort of silliness as taunting. There’d have to be better invective, right?
I grew up in Ohio and always thought it referred to poor or rural Southern white folks. When I moved to the South, I related to a black friend that my grandfather had asked if I were going to become a Florida cracker. Her face went very serious and she asked me if I knew where that term came from. I confessed my ignorance and was informed that the cracker was the slave master who stood out in the fields cracking the whip on the backs of the slaves. Suddenly, I felt sick and wanted no part of being called a cracker.
And, even if not everyone agrees with that story as the genesis of the term, there are still many, many people in the South who DO so IMO, it’s a racist term and you shouldn’t want to be called that. To me “cracker” implies “Oh you must be a racist POS then.”
I’m confused by your story. Racist against whom? If I said, “I am the Simon Legree of this office” did I just use a racist term?
I agree. It’s only about as offensive as “Jap” but by and large we have banned that word here too. White trash is also a offensive racial term.
I dunno, I guess I’m very uncomfortable being compared to a dude who barbarically beat the shit out of people. YMMV I suppose.
Sure, but that same argument can be used with “Nigger” since some dudes use it among themselves in a jocular and friendly non-racist way. Thus then *“But it isn’t necessarily pejorative, and certainly isn’t always racist.” *
But we dont allow racial pejoratives here, except in context, and thus dont allow “nigger” to be used in such a way, even tho “it isn’t necessarily pejorative, and certainly isn’t always racist.”
Yep.
And here’s the point, the point why allowing “Cracker” is wrong- we dont allow any racial pejoratives, unless they are against white people. Has the SDMB ever banned any racial pejorative against white people? Think about it.
Agree with this, except for the parenthetical “(white)”. As I said a couple of posts ago, I’ve known several men who claimed the name Cracker while having skin color and other features that wouldn’t be called “white” anywhere in the USA. They were though multi-generational rural Floridians and proud of that heritage. All were of advanced age when I met them, but told stories of working cows on horseback in their youth.
I get not wanting the comparison, but you said it was racist. I’m trying to figure out what’s racist about calling yourself, or being called, someone who beat slaves.
Yeah, no. Personal anecdotes aside, the terms seemed completely made up to me and carry about as much impact as a bowl of Rice Crispies in a munitions factory. < shrug > Maybe if they had some real historical weight born out of oppression or something, I’d take it seriously. But since I’ve known very few of my peoples in my life to have been under the constraints of tyranny, I’m gonna continue to not be offended at it, and instead, kind of point and giggle if anyone ever tries to level that at me in a game of racism.
What’s hard to swallow? The pedway also doubles as a makeshift homeless shelter in bad weather. He was called “white-boy” in an aggressive manner by one of the denizens.
Last Fall, I was harassed by a Streetwise vendor, who wouldn’t take no thank you for answer, outside of Union Station.
It happens.
Sure, because we only base how pejorative is based upon the “real historical weight”.:dubious:
If that word hasnt been oppressing Americans for a hundred years- it dont count!:rolleyes:
Did you report it to a mod?