"Precision is important when discussion the relationship between race and language. Cracker is a word used by African-Americans to describe white people who are racist and bigoted towards them. While the exact origins of the word cracker (or its other version “cracka”) have not been determined, it was most likely based on the sound that an overseer’s whip would make as it tore and scarred the flesh of black human chattel. Whatever its etymology, the word “cracker” is in no way equivalent to the word “ni**er”. To point: Black folks yelling cracker did not systematically deny whites their civil rights, burn them alive, enslave and rape them by the millions, mutilate their bodies, or leave them hanging from tree during spectacular lynchings. Likewise, African-Americans never enforced a several centuries long regime of racial terrorism against white people, dehumanizing them through the use of language intended to legitimate their oppression and exploitation. As comedian Louis CK so deftly observes, “is there even a word in the English language that a black person can use to hurt a white man’s feelings?” No. The feigned offense and hysterical response by the Right-wing media to the use of the word “cracker” by African-Americans, as seen several weeks ago during the Trayvon Martin murder trial, and now in the aftermath of Rangel’s interview with The Daily Beast is simply one more example of the White Right crying the victomology blues in order to gin up support for their sick fiction and delusion that white people are now oppressed by racial minorities in the United States during the Age of Obama." chaunceydevega/2013/08/charlie-rangel-is-right-evidence-is.html
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 13:19:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015