DUmmy crackers ponder the word "cracker"

[BannedFromDU]

ripcord (3,609 posts)

Is the term cracker considered a racial epithet?
Two guys at work at work got into a full on fight at work, neither of them was in the right, they just don't like each other and have been pushing buttons for weeks. During the fight one of the guys who is a POC kept yelling about what he was going to do to that cracker asshole, afterwards they were both written up the one doing the yelling got fired for using racial epithets. I had never considered that term to be racially offensive but it does fit the definition of a racial epithet, what are people's opinions?

This topic washes up over there about once a year, and of course the lily-white 65-year-olds at DU have appointed themselves Judge, Jury, and Crackercutioner...

Quakerfriend (4,717 posts)
3. Yes, most definitely-

Blonde, fair skinned elderly woman I worked with told me
POC sometimes called her the “white cracker”.

Seems reasonable to start with...

Star Member no_hypocrisy (41,655 posts)
8. Cracker is akin to "white trash".

More socio-economic than racial.

Then DUmmies are crackers.

dembotoz (15,521 posts)
12. not a term of endearment that's for sure

equal to the n word?
i dunno but similar

Meh. They obviously approve of it, because they type the word out with abandon when they would never dream of typing any other epithet. Like, remember "macaca?" About 15 years ago, George Allen used the term and DU lost their shit over it, saying he was a racist, and should be put UNDER the jail, and so on. Problem is, DUmmies used the word "macaca" without even bothering to say "m-word" or anything like it. So they weren't TRULY offended by it, and therefore from their point of view it was not racist. But George Allen was a racist, because he said "macaca." See how that works?

[Drafe Hoblin]

I guess I forgot or never knew what the term means.  Nobody ever used it.  It's like beaner.  Izzat good or bad?!

[BannedFromDU]

I guess I forgot or never knew what the term means.  Nobody ever used it.  It's like beaner.  Izzat good or bad?!

     I judge the word by how annoying it is to use. Some people have self-esteem and you can use words around them, others not so much.

[DefiantSix]

ripcord (3,609 posts)

Is the term cracker considered a racial epithet?

That's OUR term DUmbass. Only WE can use that word.

From y'alls soup coolers, only the phrase SALTINE AMERICANS is acceptable...

[landofconfusion80]

That's OUR term DUmbass. Only WE can use that word.

From y'alls soup coolers, only the phrase SALTINE AMERICANS is acceptable...

I, for one, embrace my cracker heritage.  I've been putting on the Ritz for years

[zeitgeist]

Well all right, lets go to the tape ...'er in this case a most trusted DUmmy source:

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/07/01/197644761/word-watch-on-crackers

Well golly gee, seems like we have to go with the call.  NPR has spoken.

[RuralNc]

BlueTsunami2018 (2,801 posts)

32. Not in my opinion.

Originally, in Shakespearean times, a cracker was a braggart or exaggerator. In the 19th century it was used as a term to describe cowboys down south who drove their cattle using whips with cracker tips.

Even if it was used by slaves to describe abusive masters, it still doesn’t come from a position of power. The power of the epithet comes from the relative power of the people using it. Calling me a cracker has no power at all, it’s like calling me a tin can or a lawnmower. It’s meaningless.

Others may feel differently but to me, there really aren’t any racial epithets against white people in general. If you want to break down ethnicities within whiteness, that’s a different story. But even those come from a time before the ethnicities being slurred were “whited in”.

I would bet the Farm that this Mutt thinks only White folk are racist. I guarantee it.

MichMan (8,306 posts)

35. So POC are free to say anything they like against whites who just silently must take it ?

How is it possible for example that a Black boss doesn't have any power over their white employees? Should they be permitted to call them crackers daily with no consequences ? That's ridiculous.

This Mutt makes a valid point. A rare sight, indeed.

BlueTsunami2018 (2,801 posts)

41. Saying "anything you want" is not the same as using a meaningless term.

I wouldn’t feel demeaned or offended. Now, I don’t know anyone who would behave like that but if they did, I’d probably find it amusing. There’s nothing to “take”. It doesn’t mean anything. As I said, to me it’s no different than calling me a carrot.

In the big picture, we live in a white supremacist society. Even if my foreman was Black, I still have more privilege in this country. If we had an equal or even massively unequal, in their favor, economic status, no one is going to question me riding around a gated community. He’s going to have the cops called on him.

That’s what I mean by a position of power.

Then again, I don’t really give a shit what anyone says, I don’t get offended very easily. Call me anything, just don’t call me late for dinner.

If it has no meaning, then why is it said? If the word "Cracker" means nothing, just something to be taken as amusement, then that goes for the big N word as well.

And, your stupid allegory of a Black man being arrested for being in a gated community is nothing but a weak strawman.

[CollectivismMustDie]

I would bet the Farm that this Mutt thinks only White folk are racist. I guarantee it.

This Mutt makes a valid point. A rare sight, indeed.

If it has no meaning, then why is it said? If the word "Cracker" means nothing, just something to be taken as amusement, then that goes for the big N word as well.

And, your stupid allegory of a Black man being arrested for being in a gated community is nothing but a weak strawman.

The rationalizations they come up with are so nonsensical that I don't think there's a word that adequately describes it.