[higgmeister]

Richards is not, nor ever will be a Cracker.

Cracker is a term that identifies a region of the South, along the coast, from the Carolinas through Georgia to Florida.

When I grew up, being a Georgia Cracker was a good thing.

The term comes from the fact that all we had to live on was hardtack bread, otherwise known as a cracker.

In recent times Yankees have tried to turn the term into a negative racial stereotype.

[torchthemummy]

While I will defer to your analysis of the history of the term "cracker" the fact still remains that this term has become an allowed pejoritive in the black community. I seriously doubt that the black guy that said it has any idea what the origins of the word are. He simply knows it to be the low-level equivalent of the n-word to be used to refer to a white person and used it as such.

[Michael.SF.]

In recent times Yankees have tried to turn the term into a negative racial stereotype

The word is not used in the way you describe it, when it is used by blacks directed at whites in general.

[beezdotcom]

In recent times Yankees have tried to turn the term into a negative racial stereotype.

Not necessarily. The term has had multiple parallel origins, not all of them recent, and not all as positive as the "Georgia Cracker" etymology.

[joylyn]

You give one version of the origin of the term "cracker." Another is that it originated with early Georgians who moved down into Florida where they raised longhorn cattle, which were herded with Cuban syle bullwhips, called craqueros. Supposedly, one could hear the crack of these whips from a long distance away.

These transplanted Georgians -- some of them my ancestors -- were a notably rough and eccentric lot.

[Albion Wilde]

The term [cracker] comes from the fact that all we had to live on was hardtack bread, otherwise known as a cracker.

It's actually from a Scottish word, craic, originally used by the white Scotch-Irish population to mean "talk" or "yak." Here is a quote from the web site Scottish Hillbillies and Rednecks:

"..."craic" (Crack) is a term still used in Scotland and Ireland to describe "talking", chat or conversation in a social sense ("Let’s go down to the pub and have a craic"; "what's the craic"). The term, first used to describe a southerner of Ulster-Scottish background, later became a nickname for any white southerner, especially those who were uneducated."

Here's another resource: Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways in the Old South

[AnalogReigns]

I'd always heard that "cracker" is an old southern term from working class redneck. It seems the men who drove mule teams pulling wagons (the original TRUCK DRIVERS) were known as "Crackers" for the whip they had to use.

I never heard it was associated with the coastal areas...just in the South generally.

[ChiefJayStrongbow]

It was actually based on the sound of the whips they used when herding cattle ... We learned that historical tidbit down in Orlando at 'Gator Land.

[streetpreacher]

In recent times Yankees have tried to turn the term into a negative racial stereotype.

You mean blacks have turned the term into a negative racial stereotype.

[SoftballMominVA]

Where I grew up in GA, "Cracker" was a bad thing--it meant you were poor as dirt.

I grew up in Clayton County in the 60's and 70's, just for a time/place reference.

[Steamburg]

Kind of like what Senator Big Byrd said about the subject. Except he has life time immunity.

[Vaduz]

Your right the word nigger means to cobble something it's strange that A story even makes the news people are to hollywood anymore.