Tommy Christopher from the Department of You Can’t Make This Shit Up:
‘Cracker’ Means Something Entirely Different In Florida: A Source Of ‘Pride’
At the merciful close of key prosecution witness Rachel Jeantel‘s testimony in the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin, defense attorney Don West asked Ms. Jeantel to describe the “culture” that she said uses the word “cracker” to describe white people. “The area I was raised in?” Jeantel asked, to which West replied “Yes.”As it turns out, in the area in which Rachel Jeantel was raised, the word “cracker” isn’t a racial slur at all, but rather, a proud nod to the region’s history, and one’s own ancestry.
A whole mess of white people like to get worked up about the word “cracker,” some in the mistaken belief that this will somehow result in permission to use the n-word. Here’s a secret for you: you don’t need permission. This is America, go ahead and say it, and in the process, you’ll find out if “cracker” and the n-word are really the same thing.
Some of that worked-upedness has occurred over Rachel Jeantel’s revelation that Trayvon Martin referred to his eventual killer, George Zimmerman, as a “creepy-ass cracker,” which the Zimmerman defense has tried to capitalize on as a sign of racial animus on Mr. Martin’s part. Jeantel denied that there was anything racial about the comment, which many found strange. The term is, indeed, a somewhat derogatory term for white people. However, in Florida, the word “cracker” is anything but.
Many years ago, during a visit to Orlando’s Gatorland, one of the trainers regaled the group of tourists I was with by explaining the origins of the word “cracker” as a description of Floridians of pre-Civil War ancestry. He explained that Florida cowboys used whips to herd cattle, and to scare away gators, and were called “crackers” because of the sound of their incessant whip-cracking. He also explained that although the term is derogatory in much of the country, in Florida, it’s a source of pride.
I guess terms like “whitey”, “white boy”, “honky” and “ofay” are okay too.
Tommy is obviously not a cracker. He’s a pretzel.
The Crawdad Hole 
Crap. Forgot to check and just posted one myself. Mine has a poll though. You should gut yours and add it to mine, then slap your name on it. Or I’ll delete mine if you want.
Then maybe you should offer to attach your material to M’s, since this is kind of his site.
Did I do something to offend you personally? I offered to delete mine, FFS.
Or maybe you can MYOFuckingB.
angienc wins!
Angie always wins.
It’s the addition of “creepy ass” that makes it problematic. And since Zimmerman is actually half Latin/Hispanic is he only a half-cracker? But as the prog press likes to say…Zimmerman “identifies himself as Hispanic”….not that he really is Hispanic, he just chooses to” identify” himself as such. Disgusting.
LOL, I agree! “Creepy-ass” is pretty much a universal term. It kind of makes me laugh to think somebody would try to lie that poorly. Add “creepy-ass” to “cracker” and you just can’t do enough yoga to contort the bias out of that statement.
If the Neelys have used the term “cracker” to describe white people anytime in the last 25 years, I want them removed from Food Network immediately.
Only one African-American Senator is a Democrat. The other is a Republican and he didn’t vote for the bill. So much for Democratic Part diversity.
I assumed there were more – my bad.
I think Tim Scott is great btw – solid Tea Party.
“I guess terms like…. “ofay” are okay too…”
LOL! Now you’re dating yourself, myiq. That’s an old fashioned word. Really old! I haven’t heard it in years.
Completely on topic but completely irrelevant, I just saw some watermelon flavored oreos. WTH?
Sticks and stones may break my bones…
but words will NEVER hurt me.
So There!
Instead of creepy-ass cracker, it could be creepy ass-cracker, slang for homosexual, which fits the story of TM being chased by a pervert.
Excuse me now while I go wash out my fingers with soap for having typed such crudities.
Martha Stewart serves crudites – usually with a dip. Would that be better? lol
Oh, so much better! Downright civilized. 🙂
Hearing it spoken since I posted, it seems the accent is on “creep” and “crack”, so I think the meaning is “creepy cracker”.
Hey I’m a cracker, even though I’m really just a damn yankee from Pennsylvania who relocated to Tennessee for employment 18 years ago. Lets get cracking!
Welcome to TCH. The first drink is free.
I was called a cracker in 2008 by a you know what Democrat. I had no idea what they were talking about. I had already humbly accepted being called a hick and old rich white bitch. I’m just grateful I wasn’t called a white Hispanic (since I’m Welsh and French ancestry) nor an ass something or other. If a lot of people could not use pejoratives they would never open their mouths except to grunt.
I did watch a few minutes of the trial and “The” witness talking about this stuff. I was overcome by a desire to hit myself in the head over and over. So I stopped watching.
When you teach 13 year olds, you get called a lot of things, too. My objection is that if the slur is a slur in the eyes of the person being slurred, then the “rulz” say it’s a slur. So if white folks think it’s a racial slur against us, it shouldn’t matter what black people think they’re saying. It’s a racial slur. And I don’t want to be called a cracker. It’s offensive. If they won’t play by their own rulz, then they have no right to be offended by words they consider slurs against them but don’t bother me in the least.
“It’s different when we do it.”
I actually learned the complimentary meaning of “cracker” in the 4th grade when I read Lois Lenski’s Newberry award winning novel “Strawberry Girl.” Great book, kind of like Faulkner for the under-12 set.
And cracking is a positive term in the British language. I don’t know of a lot of situations where it is complimentary when it is preceded by “creepy” and “ass.”
THANK YOU SO MUCH for mentioning this book! It was a favorite of mine as a kid, and I have been racking my brain lately trying to remember the title so that I can buy a copy for my own kids.
I doubt that Jeantel or Trayvon ever read it.
It was still in print a few years ago when I bought it for my niece. I haven’t seen any other Lois Lenski books on the shelves, unfortunately.
Bottom line: I don’t think TM was being complimentary when he called GZ that; his intent was insult. Why would one use complimentary language to describe a stalker?
honk