Its a racial slur nowadays because word meanings and usages change and evolve over time. But it turns out crackers roots go back even further than the 17th century. The true origin of the word spic, the racist insult aimed at hispanics as hate incidents are on the rise and antiimmigrant rhetoric intensifies, the word spic has come into focus. Get the latest racial slurs news, articles, videos and photos on the new york post. A term in southeastern united states english to describe poor white trash, derived from the scottish meaning of the verb to crack, which, in this sense. Where did racial slurs derive from, and how did they. Coal cracker is from 1853 of persons, 1857 of machinery that breaks up mined coal.
But not many people know where the words originated. Where did the term come from though, and is it actually as offensive as. Meaning instrument for crushing or cracking is from 1630s. In a political campaign, its not unheard of for a candidate to launch a slur at her opponent, though doing so is usually frowned upon. It has been suggested that white slave foremen in the antebellum south were called crackers owing to their practice of cracking the. What is the meaning of the word honky, as used by fred. Cracker, sometimes white cracker, is a racial slur used against white people, used especially against poor rural whites in the southern united states. Comedian bill maher apologized saturday for using a racial slur during an interview the night before with republican sen. Were whites lynched and beaten and treated as property and stripped of their rights while blacks called them cracker. Cracker means something entirely different in florida.
It is a farmers who raised only cracked products, such as wheat and corn. If it were, it would be wrong to label people from mississippi as southerners. We traced the origin of honky back to an early 20thcentury slur used by blacks and whites, bohunk or hunky, referring to whites of eastern european descent. As it turns out, in the area in which rachel jeantel was raised, the word cracker isnt a racial slur at all, but rather, a proud nod to the regions history, and ones own ancestry. The word barbarian was invented by the romans to slur nonromans. You know i personally dont care if they call me a cracker.
At the merciful close of key prosecution witness rachel jeantels testimony in the trial of george zimmerman for the murder of trayvon martin. Is cracker a real live racial slur, just as despicable as all the other racial slurs. Liberals want to change the name of cracker barrel to caucasian barrel because otherwise its racist. So lets take a look at the history of the cracker slur to examine its history and potentially problematic use. Cracker barrel 1861 barrel full of sodacrackers for sale was such a common feature of old country stores that the phrase came to be used by 1905 as an adjective, emblematic of downhome ways and. Cnn had a remarkable discussion panel this weekend, thanks to the presence of george zimmerman and paula deen in the news, in which. As with many other racialized terms, there were efforts to reclaim the word after it had become a slur. These stories are not about the nword and cracker the atlantic. Lets examine miz crackers drag name and whether its a.
Cracker was a derogatory term applied to these poor farmers from before the american revolution. No word used against white people has a history or power that comes close in any way to the n word. For example, theres this crunchy bread that people eat thats called by the same word. Though if they busted out my favorite white slur it would be on and that is that. Euphemizing cracker as the cword indexes cracker as a racist slur, and by extension discursively constructs the phenomenon of reverse racism. Does the history of the word cracker invoke historical racial abuses and shameful government policies. The term cracker cracka is used as an ethnic or racial slur for americans of european descent, but more specifically for americans of northwestern european descent, according to the. A cracker is not a slave owner or overseer cracking a whip. All the way back to the age of shakespeare, at least. The meaning of the word has changed a lot over the last four.
Redskin definition, a contemptuous term used to refer to a north american indian. This usage of monday began to be recorded on urban dictionary in 2006, and it first made an appearance in the online racial slur database two years before that. Cracker isnt a racial slur for white people, honey. Code switch where does the slur cracker come from, anyway. Cracker conveys history of bigotry that still resonates cnn. The word cracker is commonly understood as a racist slur for whites. Of course i understand that some insults have benign origins. A white judge in louisiana has admitted using racial slurs in text messages, prompting calls for her immediate. It is sometimes used in a neutral context in reference to a native of florida or georgia see florida cracker and georgia cracker. But her name and its racial implications gagged some of her fellow competitors with monet x change saying, miz cracker loves that name because it causes a stir. The true origin of the word spic, the racist insult. Although originally a classist term, meaning the same as poor white trash, it has evolved through usage to be a derogatory term for someone considered a w.