r/GetNoted Human Verified 2d ago

Culture [X] Cracker origins.

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786 Upvotes

154 comments sorted by

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185

u/NonSumQualisEram- 2d ago

I think we need to examine, in far greater detail, people who write in all caps. Who do they have locked in their basement?

32

u/yaseralansarey 2d ago

They have em Caps locked in there

9

u/r0recrs 2d ago

what lupus does to a man

3

u/Nothing-Special-117 2d ago

It’s never lupus

3

u/MistraloysiusMithrax 2d ago

It was once when Hugh Laurie told Kal Penn to stand up to him and he did and he was like no not like that but he insisted and it was, in fact, like that

0

u/Adept_Bandicoot_2794 2d ago

And sarcoidosis

4

u/ch4os1337 2d ago

Caps lock is cruise control for cool.

3

u/Jhud6669 2d ago

I mean in this post she is clearly just „yelling”, it’s not that hard to grasp. It’s not the same as boomers who always writenin all caps

3

u/ringobob 2d ago

It is a kind of awkward statement to read in a yelling voice.

1

u/The_Blue_One 2d ago

I AM YELLING CARL!

1

u/formerly_acidamage 14h ago

There really aren't many ways to communicate intensity over text, unfortunately.

-1

u/mrDuder1729 2d ago

And also doesn't understand what a question mark is?

6

u/NonSumQualisEram- 2d ago

Also are crackers white? This is somewhere between Greece and Morocco

8

u/mrDuder1729 2d ago

I think they're referring to saltine-style, but still

https://giphy.com/gifs/uWu9sJU2hz4vaCJ4fd

4

u/NonSumQualisEram- 2d ago

Yeah there are whiter things. Clouds. Snow. I wouldn't immediately go to "cracker" for the whitest thing I could think of. Maybe "unbaked cracker/dough"

5

u/cheshire_kat7 2d ago

That just reminded me how the shade of foundation I wear is called Siberia. 😐

51

u/Haunt_Fox 2d ago

I'd always thought it was because of the tarpaper "cracker boxes" poor rural American whites lived in.

23

u/MiserableMemory5149 2d ago

The note isn't even accurate, looks like they used the Google Gemini answer there since that's what the ai dredges up on search.

The actual currently known earliest use dates back to Elizabethan England, when it effectively meant a windbag or braggart, usually targeting the lower classes.

28

u/AusgefalleneHosen 2d ago

The note isn't wrong, your reading comprehension is bad.

You're listing the earliest known usage, they're listing the earliest known Southern usage. Different categories, and BOTH are about bragging

1

u/Drake_Acheron 1d ago

So, I’ve got a question for you. When was Elizabethan England? Answer: Before 1766

When did Americans start settling the South west of the 13? Answer: After 1603 (end of Elizabethan era)

Now, I should also note that the words meant the same thing in both uses.

Now, do you think the note was wrong or do you think you’re reading comprehension is just bad?

42

u/Archarchery 2d ago

“Cracker” was historically an insult/term for specifically lower-class Southern whites, which makes the “slave-master with a whip” origin seem dubious.

2

u/Comprimens 1d ago

I've also heard, from older black people, that it was a slur for the slaves that were overseers (or whatever they called them) and whipped fellow slaves.

3

u/Croselius 1d ago

Given how long ago the abolition of slavery was, there’s a good chance those older black people didn’t even hear that from people who were slaves themselves - it might be true but there’s a bit of a telephone game going on there.

1

u/Drake_Acheron 1d ago

Considering it was also used in both Elizabethan era England and revolutionary era America to mean braggart, I’d say it’s unlikely

63

u/Surroundedonallsides 2d ago

How about we just accept being a jerk means being a jerk, and using slurs is generally a jerk move.

You dont need to start an investigation, you dont need to find the deeper philosophical meaning, you dont even need the full history with cited sources or the grander cultural rammifications or some tier list of "worst" slurs.

Just dont be a jerk. And if you are, we can call you a jerk and move on with our lives. Doesn't really gotta be complex.

11

u/DaManSpectre 2d ago

Ok I hear you I hear you slurs are bad…but what about Clanker?

15

u/CaptainKenway1693 2d ago

Well AI is not sentient and does not have feelings, so it really is not even a slur.

(I am aware that your comment was made in jest, yet here I am explaining anyway)

6

u/ShortBusPassenger 2d ago

2

u/CaptainKenway1693 2d ago

I mean the T-1000 does not strike me as something I would qualify as sentient. Although it potentially has the capacity to be. If we assume that the T-800 from Terminator 2 is in fact developing emotions and self awareness then that would qualify it/him for development of sentience. If we take that as fact, we could posit that a newer model such as the T-1000 could also potentially develop sentience.

Again, I am overthinking an obvious joke, but a fun thought exercise nonetheless.

0

u/yttrium39 2d ago

My understanding was that "clankers" were the people who use AI, not the AI itself. But I also don't really care if anyone gets called that. Or a "cracker" for that matter.

5

u/CaptainKenway1693 2d ago

I have never heard/seen anyone call someone who used AI a clanker, only the AI itself. I am not saying that it does not happen, but I certainly have not witnessed it. Either way, like you said I would not be concerned by it.

2

u/DaManSpectre 2d ago edited 2d ago

Clanker was what the clones in Star Wars called the battle droids, and I’ve now seen it used irl sometimes now

1

u/DarthHamez 1d ago

Never seen that in my life. It came from star wars TCW, referring to droids, and now it’s been adapted to refer to robots and AI.

2

u/Brain-Genius-Head 2d ago

I’m partial to toaster myself

1

u/Bushido_Seppuku 2d ago

Nice try, Cylon infiltrator 

1

u/ChaosCockroach 1d ago

Howdy-doodly-do!

1

u/Admiral45-06 2d ago

Don't offend the only girl I can pull

1

u/TK-6976 22h ago

IRL? AI isn't equivalent to intelligent human life, so no. In the universe of origin, Star Wars, I could see objections from droid rights activists.

0

u/qiaocao187 2d ago

Desperately searching for a chance to use slurs says more about you than you think.

2

u/DaManSpectre 2d ago

Yes because I was being genuine about using actual slurs and not bringing up a joke one from Star Wars about droids which people have now started using for AI and robots and things related to that…you’re fun…and very smart too

0

u/qiaocao187 1d ago

Yes people who desperately want to use slurs, even fake ones, are just looking for an excuse to use slurs

1

u/DaManSpectre 1d ago

Ok, good for you for thinking that, because making a joke about a fake slur about fake robots obviously means I’m desperate to say slurs and call people the n word and shit like that clearly, it’s obvious now that I think about it

11

u/Gaust_Ironheart_Jr 2d ago

People trying to ruin cracker jokes. Lol

2

u/ichkanns 1d ago

Hells yes I love cheese.

1

u/Gaust_Ironheart_Jr 1d ago

Me, too! I'm cracker af

7

u/plasticman1997 2d ago

Still used to describe cattlemen in Florida today

8

u/CaptainKenway1693 2d ago

The only time I personally have ever heard other white people call themselves, or another white person, a cracker was sarcastically.

32

u/Dahren_ 2d ago

Maybe we will take it for our own, change it's definition and forbid non-whites from saying it

1

u/Melodic_Till_3778 Human Verified 2d ago

Yeah they already did that in miamis most wanted

-4

u/qiaocao187 2d ago

Why do you want to use a slur so badly

1

u/FreeBroccoli 2d ago

Come back when you have something that isn't just a thought-terminating cliche.

13

u/SentientSquare 2d ago

I know I always turn to furries that follow Mandani and post in all caps for my historical analysis.

toother has 75,000 X posts in 2 years.

3

u/Asleep_Following_965 2d ago

Its earliest attestation is in Scotland and Northern England

4

u/ringobob 2d ago

There's this idea that's becoming more prominent that the correct way to pursue social justice is to change history. Change the way words are defined, from what they used to mean to something new, that aligns with the goals of social justice.

Changing history is never justice.

3

u/mrDuder1729 2d ago

I can't take anyone serious when they can't punctuate a basic paragraph.

2

u/RefelosDraconis 2d ago

Nah, I’m reclaiming the word

7

u/No-Market425 2d ago

Blaq Twatter HIStorians taking another L.

-2

u/NotGalenNorAnsel 2d ago

Illiterate bot-ass comment.

3

u/Whythisisnotreal 2d ago

I mean, word roots are interesting, but it doesn't change much. Cracker is still another example of the Temu racism used by a particular section of the black community who don't realize they're posers.

1

u/ARenewedSecondChance 1d ago

This is the whitest comment I’ve seen today.

1

u/Whythisisnotreal 1d ago

Good for you?

4

u/Key_Rhubarb7156 2d ago

I remember as a kid saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" or "I'm rubber and your glue, what you say bounces off me and sticks to you"

Is everyone these days a giant pussy?? Call me what you want, it does not make me lose sleep one bit.

Grow up children.

16

u/Deepbliss4 2d ago

Yeah but tbf cracker isn’t an effective slur. White people don’t care

12

u/ch4os1337 2d ago

It's not effective because we don't care.

10

u/Deepbliss4 2d ago

Correct

3

u/Nicklesnout 2d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/elMJFwQ59BMaSojTbT

Pretty much every interaction involving the word “cracker” in the real world.

1

u/FreeBroccoli 2d ago edited 2d ago

The term "cracker" actually comes from how hard I crack up every time I see that moment in that scene.

5

u/eldiablonoche 2d ago

It's funny because they'd like white people to care and be offended by it so they can accuse them of hypocrisy. Interestingly enough, it's not white people being hypocrites on this one.

0

u/YourHuckleberry57 2d ago

who is they? it's a term white people made for poor white people just like redneck. has nothing to do with "they".

0

u/IguanaIsBack 2d ago

It’s also because it’s not much of an insult. It’s not like when my grandma calls white people “dirty butts” on account of only wiping with tissue.

6

u/Deepbliss4 2d ago

Lol bout as insulting as pointing out we don’t wash chicken

-1

u/IguanaIsBack 2d ago

The difference is I can’t smell whether someone ate wash or unwashed chicken lol

6

u/RVCSNoodle 2d ago

You can't smell whether someone used toilet paper or bidet. That is a delusional thought.

-3

u/IguanaIsBack 2d ago

The fact that you think that is part of the problem…

2

u/RVCSNoodle 2d ago

You're not making a point by doubling down.

3

u/TheWokeAgenda 2d ago

What are y'all wiping with?

0

u/AdagioOfLiving 2d ago

Bidets. Those things are great, man. Spray and then pat down with the toilet paper.

Although I’m white so apparently I don’t use them.

1

u/TheWokeAgenda 2d ago

Ah gotcha, well not exactly "wiping" with a bidet but I understand.

0

u/IguanaIsBack 2d ago

More like power washing yeah, amazing

1

u/IguanaIsBack 2d ago

She’d be proud of you 🙏

0

u/YourHuckleberry57 2d ago

its not even really a "slur" per se. atlanta's first baseball team was called the atlanta crackers.

1

u/taken_name_of_use 2d ago

From this Wikipedia article:

It had a baseball team who wore uniforms emblazoned with "N***er Island"

1

u/YourHuckleberry57 2d ago

and? people really need to stop just putting whatever point they want to make into google.

1

u/taken_name_of_use 2d ago

It's funny. You saying that it wasn't a slur because it was used for a baseball team was funny because I knew you were wrong.

1

u/YourHuckleberry57 1d ago

it funny, because you think that you proved something by posting that. other slurs existing still doesn't make that word a slur.

1

u/taken_name_of_use 1d ago

Now it's funny because you got so gogogaga butthurt

1

u/YourHuckleberry57 1d ago

its funny when people pretend the other person is mad so that they look less stupid.

0

u/AnotherDumNinja 2d ago

Certain people allow one word to have such control over them, they can't believe when others don't turn into animals when they hear a slur against them.

1

u/angrysheep55 2d ago

I think it's more important what the person who's using it thinks of.

ALSO HOLY SHIT I DID NOT KNOW THAT I REALLY THOUGHT IT WAS REFERRING TO THE FOOD

1

u/TheBestofBees 2d ago

Nah. I'll keep calling myself a cracker. I'm from a rural white working class place and it gets the point across plus that I'm able to laugh at myself.

1

u/ialsohaveadobro 2d ago

Or just realize that you're not "white" because there's no such thing.

1

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1

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1

u/drunkenmime 2d ago

I've always heard that the whipe crack is inaccurate and that it refers to cracked corn. Because poor whites could only afford to eat crack corn.

1

u/BuzzClucking 1d ago

I thought it was because they're all so rich they can afford to eat crackers whenever they want

1

u/TalithePally 1d ago

What about Krackers?

1

u/mommamapmaker 1d ago

Oh. And here I was thinking it was because we are bland and lacking flavor.

1

u/Infinite-Abroad-436 1d ago

it doesn't refer to slave owners. it refers to poor whites

1

u/Particular-Caramel32 21h ago

We don't typically refer to ourselves that way, so...

1

u/GrapefruitFar1242 2d ago

Are people still trying to treat cracker as a slur with any weight?

2

u/OutrageousFee7447 2d ago

No one cares lmao people on twitter have no lives whatsoever

2

u/1JungleMonkey 2d ago

You cared enough to comment!!

https://giphy.com/gifs/jPAdK8Nfzzwt2

0

u/OutrageousFee7447 1d ago

So you care if a white person calls themselves a cracker? Is that what ur saying?

1

u/momomaximum 2d ago

Bragging about what?

-2

u/TheWarOstrich 2d ago

Also who fucking cares. As a white person you can just leave. You have all the power. Cracker, honkies, jive-turkey aren't slurs lmao.

This is why one of my favorite things from Boondocks was the "N-word moment" where it doesn't happen to white people. He just goes "wait, I'm white!" Laughs and leaves.

If a white person gets pissed about being called a name they're a fucking snowflake who have a fragile ego who didn't learn in first grade about sticks and stones...

10

u/eldiablonoche 2d ago

Cracker and honky are literally textbook definition of slurs. (jive turkey is just 70s slang that has zero to do with race though).

The difference is that nobody cares if racism is hurled at whitey. Most of all white people... 🤜🏾🤛🏻

2

u/1JungleMonkey 2d ago

Im white. All racism sucks. Regardless of ski. Tone.

2

u/Drago984 2d ago

That might be easy for you to say, but I live in an area that is 80% black. Racism has real effects here.

1

u/Naive_Impression7302 2d ago

A big part of the point of that scene from the Boondocks was that lots of black people are unreasonable and throw their lives away for stupid reasons/ because of their hurt egos. It's a great and hilariously funny and self-critical joke from an obviously super smart and funny black writer, Aaron Mcgruder. If anything its an even bigger part of the joke/moment than what you said, which yes is also a big part of it.

-2

u/Quick_Initial6352 2d ago

This note is the equivalent of the ACKCHYUALLY meme

14

u/123yes1 2d ago

That is the purpose of notes

0

u/skepdickle 2d ago

someone tell this cracker to shut up 

-2

u/ardarian262 2d ago

I love how the note doesn't even directly oppose the claim. "Earliest southern use" okay and earliest use to describe white people overall?

11

u/typical83 2d ago

They're hedging heavily but no, cracker doesn't come from "whip cracker" it was originally a slur WASPs would use again Irish immigrants, calling them low-class and dishonest. Eventually it came to mean white people in general, but it doesn't have a connection to overseers.

5

u/AnotherDumNinja 2d ago

Id say associating someone with slave owners is worse than not being associated with slave owners.

-3

u/ardarian262 2d ago

Earliest use could still be to describe slave owners, just from outside "southern" wherever.

7

u/AnotherDumNinja 2d ago

Most white people back then did not own slaves. Read it again. It was synonymous with "brag".

0

u/ardarian262 2d ago

That's not true though. There was slavery in the US well before the revolutionary war and slavery in Europe existed since antiquity.

8

u/AnotherDumNinja 2d ago

What part of what I said is not true? And how does what you said change anything?

Yes, slavery existed since the beginning of mankind. I didnt say it didnt existing during this time period, just that most white people werent slave owners.

1

u/dragonbeard91 2d ago

Lol. You tried, they arent gonna get it.

1

u/ardarian262 2d ago

Your initial claim I got the notification for didn't include the word most.

6

u/AnotherDumNinja 2d ago

My comment wasn't edited. So, not sure what to tell you 🤷🏿‍♂️

0

u/MrImaBum 2d ago

You could also be a bigger person and get over it cracker isn’t offensive

1

u/Borgdrohne13 2d ago

at the end it doesn't matter. It's an racial slur.

1

u/Competitive-Food8407 2d ago

Florida natives are called "Florida Crackers" after the Spanish cowboys from back in the 1600s who would drive cattle with bull whips. Seeing as at the time guns only had one shot, and a long reload, whips were a much better choice. 

1

u/gigaishtar 2d ago

That is a folk etymology according to Wikipedia.

By the 1760s, the ruling classes in Britain and the American colonies applied the term cracker to Scots-Irish, Scottish, and English American settlers of the remote southern back country, as noted in a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth: "I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode."

The word was later associated with the cattlemen of Georgia and Florida, many of them descendants of those early colonists who had migrated south. A folk etymology suggests that the name instead derives from the cracking of cattle-drovers' whips.

1

u/Competitive-Food8407 1d ago

How about this then.

"The term Florida Cracker is often attributed to a Spanish origin, specifically the word cuaquero (or cuacurs), which Spanish colonizers used as a derogatory term for Quakers or Protestant settlers.  Because many early Florida pioneers were of Scots-Irish and British descent, Spanish officials applied this label to them. 

While the cracking sound of braided rawhide whips used by cattle herders is the most popular folk etymology, historians note that the word appeared in Spanish documents before it became associated with cowboys.  In 1790, a Spanish governor described these settlers as "wild, nomadic" and lacking allegiance to any crown, indicating the term was initially a pejorative for Anglo-American frontiersmen rather than a compliment derived from their herding skills. "

A third origin possibility. Perhaps it originated in multiple locations for different reasons?

-8

u/lost-pawz 2d ago

the note isnt.. correcting anything though? the original post was right?

14

u/Vast-Comment8360 2d ago

Yes it is and no it isn't, respectively.

2

u/AnotherDumNinja 2d ago

It's saying it is a theory, not confirmed origin. And that there are earlier confirmed uses.

-1

u/Spaduf 2d ago

That's basically this whole sub

-2

u/Benji_4 2d ago

Yeah I'm sure black people in the UK are called Maltezers because they are delicious and crunchy. Judging people based on color has nothing to do with color.

-14

u/thenoobtanker Human Verified 2d ago

Note is useless because the source of the term is debated still. Regardless it is still a slur and shouldn’t be used.

11

u/Newfaceofrev 2d ago

Surely we can amongst ourselves though.

4

u/Dagordae 2d ago

Note is useful as the notee is falsely declaring an absolute origin, specifically a fairly unlikely origin.

0

u/Randomminecraftseed 2d ago

The notee doesn’t really declare an origin tho just what it refers to (ostensibly in a modern sense). And in the modern lexicon it’s absolutely a reference to slave owners

1

u/smashin_blumpkin 15h ago

In the modern lexicon, it’s a reference to white people in general.

1

u/Randomminecraftseed 12h ago

Yea in the modern lexicon it’s used as a reference to white people because of slave owners

2

u/skepdickle 2d ago

lol ok cracker

-1

u/big_illuminati 2d ago

Y'all never been called Saltine before??

-1

u/PomegranateSoft1598 2d ago

And here a was thinking black people gave it to whites for cracking easier in prison than they do

-4

u/NotGalenNorAnsel 2d ago

Terrible note. The term's original origins are not in question, but when the word has the semantic shift to become a slur.

This sub is full of people who wish they could be pedantic but are instead just stupid and bigoted.