August 27, 2004

That word has always meant hillbilly to me. And I don't me in a bad way. I mean someone literally from hill country. I didn't realize it was a negative word until just a few years ago. guess I was pretty naive.

Don't forget about our Georgia Peaches, pretty women everywhere and friendly also. The south is known for our pretty women.

..I am a Tennessee Hillbilly... only an "honorary Jawja Cracker"... and, I am proud to be both...

No, actually, the term "Cracker" ISN'T a racial slur that means ignorant Southern redneck. It still means the same thing as it always did, which is middle to lower-middle class "one horse farm" type Southern white folks. Mainly from Georgia and Florida, I might add. But the people who would use "Cracker" as a racial slur WANT everybody to buy the load of crap that would make it so. Which don't make it so at all. I still don't follow their line of reasoning that makes Cracker a bad word. What's wrong with hard-workin' middle class people? I think they were just flailing about for something that would carry to white people the bone-deep sting of the "N" word, and lamely landed on Cracker without any thought or judgement as to the etiology of the term. It's no slur, and If anyone were to ever call me cracker to my face I'd say yeah, and I'm proud of it. If you're looking to insult me, you didn't. Get an intellect and a new gibe.

If they'd bother to think about it, they'd realize that "white trash" is a much, much worse thing to say. There never was any hope for slovenly, lazy white trash people, and there still isn't. But the people who use Cracker as an insult don't think much about anything at all. Either that or white trash is too obviously racist, and they're afraid of that because it's what they really are.

I'm sorry, Acidman, but I'm very disappointed that you apparently have bought into their crap. I know you said that's not what it means to you, but you also said it's a racial slur. I beg to differ. As I noted above, just because THEY say it's a slur don't make it a slur...but if we who are Cracker buy into their shit, by even thinking secretly that it carries the connotation they want to give it, soon it will be.

BTW, the story I've heard my whole life had to do with cattle drovers from Florida and Georgia and the whips they used to keep their cattle bunched and moving to market.

Cracker, redneck, and hillbilly are all north British terms, from where the people of Appalachia originated. "Cracker" meant a jokester, as in "crack a joke." In the context used today, I'd never heard of it until I was in my 30s, naive Yankee that I was.

Hmmmm... interesting take on "cracker". The story I was always told (From folks who lived just south of Georgia in the Florida panhandle) was that cracker referred to oyster crackers. No, not the little white things you drop on a bowl of soup, but people that shucked oysters.

The story goes that some white people were just so poor & white-trashy that they dredged oysters for a living, and mostly lived off part of the harvest. The affluent whites would have a crew of slaves who did the backbreaking work, and had the oysters shipped up north packed in seaweed. They had enough money to eat "real food" and not crack open oysters for most meals.

I've heard the whip story too... usually as the source of the term 'brushpopper' in regards to vaqueros who'd use a whip to get cattle moving out of thick brush.

My understanding is a Cracker is a Georgian who migrated to Florida in the 1800's. They were horse and catlle drivers, and always used particularly loud whips. That's why they are alternately referred to as Georgia Crackers and Florida Crackers.

Uh-huh...

It's a soda cracker, and it can't be glorified. No matter the argument, no matter the background tale, one thing holds true: these derogatory terms - any of them, pick one - are no longer (if ever) intended to describe a hard-working individual with manners and class.

So, although I'll smile and roll with the punches when my good buddy Geoffrey links me as a "cracker," you won't catch me using the term to describe myself...

(I had it coming from Geoffrey anyway; I had just called him a "Yankee asshole" : D )

Agree and somewhat disagree-I was born American, but my Dad was all POLISH as well as his ancestry. Pollock jokes were big as I grew up, but I always had a TAG line-I'd ask my abuser to tell me what "*** meant in english (from my last name to Grandma), and when they said "I don't know", I'd ask how it FEELS to be DUMBER than a pollock...after about , 12 years in the Air Force, I was in a Social Actions class (read Poor Oppressed Blacks Indoctrination) and referred to myself as a Pollock-Big "NO, No"!! I was told I had used a Racial FLAG word-and I replied, you can't hurt me or any other Pollock by calling us 1-It's what we call ourselves, like my Moms' family calls themselves Micks, 'cuz they're Irish, AND PROUD OF IT-Only Blacks take OFFENSE at the 'N' word, even tho'they call themselves THAT-'cuz they have no pride in themselves, Apparently...I was ignored for the rest of the class and was given a (barely) passing score-they feared the waves FLUNKING me would cause...I'm now a Texan, and unashamed of Cowboy, Red-neck, or Cracker tags either-I'll just agree and GLORY in the names thrown at me...PS, I never got to Vietnam, tho a Volunteer and served from '65 to ''87, aand KERRYS' Slanders Affected us as much as those who went-EVEYONE in Uniform was Smeared and Feared 'cuz of JOHN F'N KERRY...

I've been researching the "Cracker" appellation for a while. In 1895 artist/writer Frederick Remington came to Florida, visited our interior cattle country, and pronounced the indigenous cattle "hunter" (rustler?) a Cracker Cowboy. And the cracking whip legend was born. Other researchers have tagged "Cracker" to the Spanish circa 1709, who characterized Crackers as destitute, American Bedouins who had wandered into Florida. From Territorial days to 1895 "Cracker" referred to the lowest class of white people...vagabonds who lived from hand-to-mouth...begging, stealing, hunting-fishing. Doing anything "a la Cracker" translated to primitive and rustic. One article I found indicates that "Cracker" was a worse insult to blacks than other terms. In fact, contemporary Black usage of "Cracker" is fairly close to the original meaning. 19th Century Floridians would not be flattered by their descendants calling them "Crackers."

What does it mean if a man calls a woman Cracker? Should this be taken as a compliment or an insult