White People! Are you offended being called a "Cracka"?

[Carnagath]

I'm not American, so I'm unfamiliar with the word. I am Greek however, and it's pretty safe to generalize and say that we are a loud, rude and quite aggressive bunch. So, I've grown quite immune to words over the years. What does offend me are things like sleaziness, stupidity and pretentiousness, even more so when the three of those are combined, which I've unfortunately seen plenty of recently.

 

[Smolderin]

I love it when I am called a Cracker, it gives me a chance to say, "Fine, but If I'm a Cracker, I better be Ritz...I don't like any of that Saltine shit". You know...you would think that this is a terrible joke, but I have used it in the past against several of your stereotypical black gangsters and they found it to be pretty damn funny. At first I really didn't care about the phrase...now...I look forward to being called it. What can I say...I like making people smile.

 

[kickyourass]

I'm really hard to personally offend, so calling me a 'cracka' which is a stupid thing to call someone in the first place, has even less effect on me then it would one the other white people who think it's stupid.

 

[CJ1145]

I wouldn't be offended, no, but it's kind of a stupid-sounding name and I'd wonder why someone would bother to say it. Doesn't make sense if it's used as an insult either, because there are far more effective ones out there.

 

[DarthSka]

I'm not offended by it and was called it a bit in high school. Though that was among my friends and I and we were quite a diverse group: White (included me), Black, Asian, Latin (also included me), and even a bit of Native American. We'd call each other slurs here and there, but no one would care since it was in jest. Though even if someone said it to me with actual racism behind it, I wouldn't care. Really, the last time I was subjected to racial slurs directed at me, it was a short white guy calling me a ****** and I was more confused than offended since I look white as hell. But note, cracker (cracka) is a racial slur, at least here in the US.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

No, I don't get offended if someone insults me for being white, because I don't give a flying spaghetti monster. I'm not white, I'm Irish, there's a difference
Seriously though, it's nothing to be proud of the way I see it, just a skin colour. I have never met someone who thought being white or black meant a thing either way. If someone tried to insult me for being white, I would laugh in their face. May as well insult me for having brown hair, average height or freckles, it means so little to me.

 

[Horon]

Well, I use the N word from time to time, so I don't really care.

 

[Polarity27]

Been watching a lot of the George Zimmerman case. Last night I was flaberghasted when Erin Burnette of CNN referred to the word as a racial slur.

I'm sorry, but there is not a world where Cracka or Cracker could offend any white person. Right? I mean I'm pretty sure any of hear the word our minds do not jump to our skin colour but to delicious Saltine crackers. It's like calling someone Spaghetti.

Even honky... If I get called a honky the only thing my mind jumps is the old Jefferson's TV show.

Is there any white slur that has any bite at all? I mean I suppose "You impearalist swine whos anncestors kidnapped and enslaved my ancestors for years and then tried to pull that segration bullshit" but that'd be to hard to say in conversation.

Technically speaking, yes "Cracker" (see also "Whitey", "Honkey", and "Peckerwood") is a racial slur. As a Black man, I never use it except in the case of confronting a racist white person.

That said, I think the reason these words don't have the same bite as the N-word is because of just that. They don't have the same impact. Simply put, those who have gone around calling someone "Cracker" and meaning it have done a lot less damage than, well, vice versa.

MTE, it's toothless. It has about as much bite behind it as calling someone a "poopyhead". It has no history of being accompanied by violent oppression, so it's offensive in kind of a dress-up, make-believe kind of way, seen as offensive by people who want to try the concept of "that's racist and I'm offended!" on and take it for a walk around the block. I find such people incredibly silly.

 

[FiveSpeedf150]

Honkey and Cracker are used as racial slurs against whites, yes. They don't offend me so much as they give me a quick snapshot of the quality of human being I'm interacting with.

 

[SOCIALCONSTRUCT]

It seems very American to me.

I agree, I probably won't get the reference immediately, if at all. I have heard of it before, though - supposedly it's coming from "cracking a whip", hence, "cracker". Seems a regional thing, as we don't share the same historical context as the USA.

That isn't where the name cracker came from, it has nothing to do with cracking a whip. Cracker means a braggart (as in "not all it's cracked up to be"). From Shakespeare's King John: "What cracker is this . . . that deafes our ears / With this abundance of superfluous breath?" Specifically in the south "cracker" referred to the "poor white trash" that existed beneath rather than apart of the plantation system.

Is there any white slur that has any bite at all? I mean I suppose "You impearalist swine whos anncestors kidnapped and enslaved my ancestors for years and then tried to pull that segration bullshit" but that'd be to hard to say in conversation.

Ah yes, the white villain version of history. Slavery, warfare, and genocide are ubiquitous through history, including amongst groups that are now thought of as oppressed. Triangle trade slavery was obviously horrible, but it (a) there was nothing really unique or special about it and (b) had a significant African component (i.e. Africans purchased from indigenous African slave traders). Just to pull one example, there Barbary pirates sold over a million Europeans into slavery.

 

[Echopunk]

That is our word, so it better not be used by anyone else!

/Sarcasm

I always try to treat people the way they treat me. If someone wants lob slurs at me, they've already lost whatever argument they thought they were having.

 

[DoPo]

It seems very American to me.

I agree, I probably won't get the reference immediately, if at all. I have heard of it before, though - supposedly it's coming from "cracking a whip", hence, "cracker". Seems a regional thing, as we don't share the same historical context as the USA.

That isn't where the name cracker came from, it has nothing to do with cracking a whip. Cracker means a braggart (as in "not all it's cracked up to be"). From Shakespeare's King John: "What cracker is this . . . that deafes our ears / With this abundance of superfluous breath?" Specifically in the south "cracker" referred to the "poor white trash" that existed beneath rather than apart of the plantation system.

Perhaps that's where it was first used but I know language and words do change over time. Right now, for example, this very word can also refer to criminals, and the heritage of a racial slur and Shakespeare doesn't change anything.

However, I don't really know if the whip was or wasn't a key defining feature - that's what I've heard and several other people in the thread echoed the same connotation. You're the first to quote Shakespeare, in fact.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

That isn't where the name cracker came from, it has nothing to do with cracking a whip. Cracker means a braggart (as in "not all it's cracked up to be"). From Shakespeare's King John: "What cracker is this . . . that deafes our ears / With this abundance of superfluous breath?" Specifically in the south "cracker" referred to the "poor white trash" that existed beneath rather than apart of the plantation system.

I'm not talking about the origin of the word, I'm talking about how it is used. It's not common parlance even among the politically incorrect youth in the UK. The only time you'll really hear that word in the UK is on an American tv show.

 

[wulfy42]

A racial slur is a racial slur because of how it's used. Most of them in and of themselves are not horrid names, but it's the context that they are used in that make them so.

As a kid I went to a few all black schools (where I was the only white child or one of a very few), and the reception was not exactly great (Both by the students and teachers). If you are a minority of any type and everyone is calling you any name in a derogatory way...it's not fun.

 

[TallanKhan]

If someone actually referred to me as such I would be offended that the person in question had chosen to define me by the colour of my skin above anything else.

This is not to say I have any strong feelings about the word itself, even when used in this context. I firmly believe that the intention and attitude of the person speaking is what is fundamentally offensive about any offensive communication and I do not hold the belief that any word is fundamentally offensive in itself.

Now with regard to whether something is a slur or not really depends on the intent of the person using the word(s) in question and the reaction of the person being talked to/about. For something to be a slur there has to be a nagative or derogatory element to the useage and if neither party interprets the word(s) in such a way then there is no slur.

 

[Ashadowpie]

im white and i honestly dont care what other people call me race. cracka kinda sounds funny to me.

just think of it this way. white people are the most evil and racist sonsofbitches ever. we've ruined possibly billions of non white humans lives, and families. Wrecked multiple countries so badly they are ravaged by racialism and starvation and what? you're going to complain that someone called you a cracker? we deserve so, SO much more than simple name calling.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

I don't mind someone calling me a "cracka".
I would mind being treated differently for being a "cracka".

But let it never be said I don't appreciate a good-natured racist joke.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

Someone who would use my race as weaponry in an argument of any sort is someone who's words have no weight or meaning to my ears, so no.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

As a citizen of the state of Florida I am a Cracker.

Speaking as a 5th/6th generation native[footnote]I never can remember which[/footnote], that's not something you get just from settling down here. Not unless you did it in the 19th century, anyway

Also, dang it, I was so excited to be the first one to mention that, then I got to the ninth page and found out someone else had finally done it

For those not in the know, in Florida "cracker" means something very different, in that it refers to the early settlers of the state and their descendants, and instead of calling back to slavery, it calls back to cattle drives, since leather was the main industry down here way back when.