Cracker Insult Origin
Hi folks, first post. I hope this is the correct place to ask this! Sonic 2006 download free. So MTV has a new series of Social Justice focused lectures hosted by Franchesca Ramsey called Decoded. The latest one was about the origins of words used to insult white people like 'cracker', 'redneck' Etc. and her claim is that these words originate from upper class white communities disparaging their poorer white counterparts.
My question is this. Ramsey claims that the word 'cracker' originated from the British slang for 'cracked head', as in 'that bloke is crackers' and was used to insult the poor and working class. And that this trickled down into American slang to be used by blacks against whites but it not in any way a reference to the race of the people it's used against.
As a person who grew up in black communities and went to a school with a half blank population, I have heard it instead as a direct commentary on the whiteness of people's skin, such as 'you're as white as a saltine cracker'.
I have also heard conflicting claims that it references the whip that slavemasters used to carry in antebellum says.
So, what do ya'll think? Is 'cracker' a British classist insult as Ramsey claims that is in no way racially coded? Where did it come from?
Cracker Origin Slang
Cracker Insult Origin
A name given to the original cowboy's who were actually from Florida, it is derived from the sound of the whip they use while rounding up cattle. To them the nickname is a compliment not an insult. The Cracker slur actually began as a class insult. So in short, though the term has become racialized, she doesn’t see it as racist because it’s a classist insult. Though racism and classism often go hand-and-hand, they’re different because you can change your class, but you can’t change your race. But not many people know where the words originated. These terms stretch back into early America and were developed largely as a way for rich white people to insult poor white people. What does cracker mean? A white person A slang term that describes a white person; utilized as an insult; some say it is the equivalent of the 'n-word' that describes black people, except for, you know, the fact that black people were actually enslaved and treated as property in America; derives from slaveowners 'cracking' the whip to drive their slaves; same as cracka and similar to honkey. When 'Uncle Tom' Became an Insult. Today nobody wants to be called an Uncle Tom, but 150 years ago, it was a compliment. In Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Uncle Tom is a martyr, not a sell-out. His devotion to his fellow slaves is so unshakable that he sacrifices a chance for freedom and, ultimately. A derogatory term for a Caucasian person. There are three main theories for the origin of the word: 1. The word originated from the practice of white males wishing to hire African-American prostitutes in the 1920's, and going to the appropriate part of town while honking their car horns to attract the whores.