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What is a cracker anyway?

What is a cracker anyway?

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Given this whole Kramer name calling thing, apparently some people in audience started calling him a "cracker".

I know it's a racial slur towards white guys but where did "cracker" come from?

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Originally posted by uzless
Given this whole Kramer name calling thing, apparently some people in audience started calling him a "cracker".

I know it's a racial slur towards white guys but where did "cracker" come from?
One interpretation has it the slave owners in the US south carried whips and the cracking sound of it when they whipped the slaves got associated with the white bosses and so they started calling them 'Crackers", one who cracked the whips.

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Originally posted by sonhouse
One interpretation has it the slave owners in the US south carried whips and the cracking sound of it when they whipped the slaves got associated with the white bosses and so they started calling them 'Crackers", one who cracked the whips.
Yup.

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Originally posted by sonhouse
One interpretation has it the slave owners in the US south carried whips and the cracking sound of it when they whipped the slaves got associated with the white bosses and so they started calling them 'Crackers", one who cracked the whips.
i interpret calling someone a cracker as calling them a racist

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Originally posted by slickhare
i interpret calling someone a cracker as calling them a racist
Funny that, i interpret someone calling someone a cracker as THEM being racist.

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Originally posted by sonhouse
One interpretation has it the slave owners in the US south carried whips and the cracking sound of it when they whipped the slaves got associated with the white bosses and so they started calling them 'Crackers", one who cracked the whips.
makes sense...tkz

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Originally posted by slickhare
i interpret calling someone a cracker as calling them a racist
Yes, you are being accused of 'holding the man down' if you are called a cracker. Sonhouse is right as to where the term came from.

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Originally posted by huckleberryhound
Funny that, i interpret someone calling someone a cracker as THEM being racist.
Depends on WHY you are being called a cracker... did you see the kramer cut at Yahoo? Sickening.

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Originally posted by Phlabibit
Yes, you are being accused of 'holding the man down' if you are called a cracker. Sonhouse is right as to where the term came from.

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Actually, sonhouse is not correct. If the term had any relationship to a whip cracking, it supposedly refers to 'cracker whips' used by herdsmen to drive cattle. The term was probably a reference to the Scots-Irish immigrants boastful language and reflects an English meaning of the word which appears in Shakespeare's writing. 'Cracker' has devolved into a synonym for redneck or hillbilly and is used now almost exclusively as a pejorative term.

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When in doubt, read the fake encyclopedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_%28pejorative%29

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Originally posted by jebrydzagin
Actually, sonhouse is not correct. If the term had any relationship to a whip cracking, it supposedly refers to 'cracker whips' used by herdsmen to drive cattle. The term was probably a reference to the Scots-Irish immigrants boastful language and reflects an English meaning of the word which appears in Shakespeare's writing. 'Cracker' has devolved in ...[text shortened]... a synonym for redneck or hillbilly and is used now almost exclusively as a pejorative term.
I'm not sure how true this is at wikipedia... any black person I've asked gave me the answer Sonhouse stated. Perhaps the term lost it's meaning? Ask a black person, I'm sure you won't get that answer.

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Originally posted by PBE6
When in doubt, read the fake encyclopedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_%28pejorative%29
I don't buy it.

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Originally posted by Phlabibit
I don't buy it.

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With Wikipedia, you never really know. At least it's free.

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Originally posted by Phlabibit
Depends on WHY you are being called a cracker... did you see the kramer cut at Yahoo? Sickening.

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No, did they show the entire incident, or just kramers rant ?


I can't think of any reason someone would call me a cracker and it not being a racist slur....even though my name is Jacob Cheeseand

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Originally posted by jebrydzagin
Actually, sonhouse is not correct. If the term had any relationship to a whip cracking, it supposedly refers to 'cracker whips' used by herdsmen to drive cattle. The term was probably a reference to the Scots-Irish immigrants boastful language and reflects an English meaning of the word which appears in Shakespeare's writing. 'Cracker' has devolved in ...[text shortened]... a synonym for redneck or hillbilly and is used now almost exclusively as a pejorative term.
Which is why I qualified my statement with the phrase "one interpretation has it" which should have left a discerning reader with the possibility of other idioms.