[Jacknudy]

how could that NOT be “mistaken” for a racist comment?

[Smokin' Joe]

Simple enough: More often than not I heard it applied to white people. Using what is almost always assumed to be a racial perjorative against people who are obviously not members of that race would be like calling Jessee Jackson "Cracker".

The expression was used in my youth to describe anyone who had come into a sum of money and lavishly and foolishly spent it on things which were of little value to their protracted survival, regardless of other factors.

It was superseded by the less controversial expression "nouveaux riche", but that, semantically, more aptly described a class of newly monied social climbers who confused the (often questionable and overstated) trappings of wealth with class.