proud to be a "cracker?"

One lovely spring day I was sitting at my computer, content to do nothing as school had just ended. I decided that I would do some carefree facebook stalking, as nothing is more relaxing. However on this day I was shocked to find that someone had this bumper sticker on their facebook page:

For those of you unfamiliar with facebook and unfamiliar with the new “bumper sticker” application, its kind of the newest way to accessorize your page- to really let your personality shine through. You can add these stickers your self or send and receive them from your friends.


ANYWAY, I was SO appalled at this particular bumper sticker and tried to think why anyone would want to have this on their facebook as an “accessory.” Is this a way of embracing whiteness or an effort to move to some sort of positive white identity?? Or is it possible that the majority of white Americans have no clue as to what being a “cracker” means? To be honest, only recently did I learn the origins of the word "cracker."

After staring at this picture of a saltine cracker for over a half an hour I debated whether or not I should send an “educational message” to this person describing why they probably would not want this “accessory” on their page if they knew what it meant…

I didn’t send the message though. I came here instead in hopes that more than one person would get the message.


The Origin of the Word Cracker and its Present Connotation


“This definition involves the whip, its pieces, its sound and those who used the whip. One theory is that cracker was coined by black people in reference to the whip-cracking during enslavement; by extension any white person. (Smitherman,100)”

• (Green, 264) The sound of whips cracking was heard when Florida cattlemen would drive the oxen that pulled their carts and wagons and when Florida cowboys herded cattle.





• (Tonyan) 1842 BUCKINGHAM, The Slave States of American (London, 1842, p.210) They are called by the twos people "Crackers," from the frequency with which they crack their large whips, as if they derived a peculiar pleasure from the sound. (OED)





• 1887 Beacon (Boston) 11 June, The word Cracker..is supposed to have been suggested by their cracking whips over oxen or mules in taking their cotton to the market.
  

“This definition of cracker is the racially charged one and is best understood after carefully considering all previous definitions as to how it evolved.”


Cracker is also a…name for whites, especially those thought to be racist. (Allen 50)

• 1977. Smitherman Talkin 252 Cracker, negative term for whites, especially those who are extremely racist. ( Cassidy 826)
  



• 1980 Sun Times (Chicago, IL) 5 Mar Letters [From R.I. McDavid), I must deplore…Jay McMullen’s tactless, racist designation of President Carter as a "Georgia cracker." It is one of the most offensive terms that can be used about whites, and it has been traditionally used by blacks to designate the poorest, most degraded whites with whom they come in contact. (Cassidy 826)

Being "proud of being a cracker" is synonymous in so many ways with being proud of being racist, not being proud of being white. Of course sometimes whiteness and racism are mutually exclusive but they don't have to be. Also, I don't think a picture of a saltine really captures the meaning of the word.

Julia '08

"don't do stupid shit like this" 101

• Do not single out the only person of color (domestic or international) in the room and use her as a "representative" of a culture, race or country. This is racist.
• Just because we have an enormous international population on campus, do not conflate this with racial, or socio-economic “diversity.”
  
• Don't "pull a JoJo" (I saw this with my own eyes) in which you respond to a student's mentioning of her background with, "Oh, wow! How EXOTIC!" Bad word.
  
• Don't treat non-European people and societies as homogeneous monoliths
  
• Don't exoticize different countries, cultures and races (like the Hampshire hippie Indo-phile in my South Asian Studies class did). I'm not even comfortable repeating the spectacularly “Orientalist” and racist comment she made.
• Don't ask someone where someone is from in order to essentially find out why they're not white, or why they have a name that is "unpronounceable" to you.
• One girl complained in a seminar that the film we watched should have had subtitles, basically arguing that it would have been more "effective" if it catered to people who speak English with the mainstream US accent and outlook that she has. The film was about the Jamaican national debt.
• Faculty don't give a white person kudos for repeating a point a student of color just made.
• White students, don't conclude that race doesn't matter, just because it doesn't matter to you.
• During class discussion, pay attention to whose ideas you respond to with follow up questions/comments/reflection and whose you leave alone and move on from (i.e. I've seen in my classes in the past that white students will engage with each other's comments but just sort of ignore the comments made by students of color).
• During class discussion, do not dismiss students' discussions of lived experience as somehow less authoritative or real than the sanctioned theories or dominant views you are teaching (i.e. don't tell a student of color that her story is "an interesting personal experience, but...")
• Faculty be open to students interpreting a paper assignment on their own terms in order to revise any racially-biased criteria you may not have been aware of--don't hold fast to it for the sake of being "right."

have any more? Add them to the list

Sulekha '09, Shannon '09, Julia '08, Laura