'Cracker' conveys history of bigotry that still resonates

The Philadelphia Tribune ^ | July 2, 2013 | Tom Foreman

[2ndDivisionVet]

With a single phrase, Rachel Jeantel, that friend of Trayvon Martin's, may have lit a fuse in the trial of his accused killer.

Asked by the defense what Martin told her on the phone that night when he first spotted George Zimmerman, she testified a "creepy-ass cracker" was following him. There is nothing illegal about that. Jeantel said she didn't even know it was a racial slur, and numerous commentators have noted that some in Florida use the term in a non-derogatory, colloquial sense.

But for plenty of rural, white southerners, "cracker" is a demeaning, bigoted term, and its appearance does nothing to help the prosecutors.

The origin of cracker is murky. Some sources suggest it came from overseers who commanded slaves. Others say it derives from a Scottish word for boasting. At The Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, Bill Ferris says it emerged in the 1700s as a descriptive term for drovers who used small whips to move their livestock through the pine barrens along the Gulf of Mexico. "They were basically poor people. White people. A class of people who were landless."

Initially, cracker was not a pejorative term, but Ferris says it has become one, the equivalent of redneck. Its meaning and intensity as an insult depends on who is saying it and who is listening. For example, a white who might not object to being called a cracker by another white might consider Martin's use of the phrase offensive and evidence of ill intent.

In the circumstances described in court, Ferris notes, it was more likely a quick way for Martin to say he was in danger. "If it is used by Blacks (among themselves), it is usually with one meaning: Watch out.....

[okie01]

My grandmother, born in about 1880 told me that ladies didn't get suntanned. I remember thinking how strange that was but now I understand what she meant. :)

As my grandmother put it: Horses sweat, gentlemen perspire, ladies glow.

[Aunt Polgara]

Do you recall that Rachel said something about Zimmerman being a “pervert”?

It would appear that Rachel did not interpret the comment as a “crazy-ass cracker,” but as a “crazy ass-cracker,” a whole different kind of pejorative.

[Ditter]

Are you my long lost cuz? I think we had the same grandmother! And we have almost the exact same sign up date August ‘98! :)