You are a "Nigger" and I am a "Cracker"

Bull. We can know about the word without having it plastered all over the place all the time.

I don't like the term 'cracker', I prefer the term 'Aryan Norwegian'.

I like crackers.

I was called a cracker once. This black kid on a skateboard whizzed around me as I was walking down the street and he clearly hissed "Cracker!" as he zipped by. I scanned the ground quickly, looking for fallen saltines and hours later the slow realization began to sink into my brain that there were no crackers on the ground. I pondered the situation. By now there were crowds of people gathered on their lawns, clustered in circles and whispering.

I clearly heard one of them say, "The crazy old coot has been shuffling around, looking at the ground for hours. Someone call the police."

I then noticed a bunch of them on their cell phones and I could hear distant sirens.

I jumped on a bicycle which was propped up against a nearby tree and pedaled for my life, darting down alleys and making my escape in a serpentine fashion.

I had forgotten about that incident until I saw this thread and now the rage is beginning anew. I'm gonna get that kid.

Somehow, someway, the cracker-calling skateboarder is going to pay.

With cream cheese?

I can not believe you can say the N word here. Cracker does not have the same badness related to it as the N word. I do not have to see it, hear it or be exposed to it in any way to know that it has negative feelings for some people or to not forget where it came from any more than a man calling a woman the B or C word does not dull it for me.

LMBO!





Exactly Gustav!

Eh yeah, cause "plastering it all over the place all the time" is what I was writing about, of course

(Nimh rule #1: If someone needs to make **** up about what you wrote in order to make his argument, his argument aint very good.)

By the way, where's ZIPPO, the one who started this thread?

and we like you too.

Nimh,

PC is useful, in that it provides a public standard of conduct to which private conduct can be compared. Children are quick to recognize hypocrisy.

actually, cracker does have the same badness.

just because chris tucker says it all day on tv doesnt make it a word thats not offensive.

I would not agree that "cracker" has the same cultural impact. You may feel insulted hearing the word, but I don't see Keebler renaming any of their products....

so it doesnt matter if it is offensive?

then nigger isnt bad either. im not offended by it so i guess it doesnt matter!

Did I say it doesn't matter? I said "it doesn't have the same cultural impact."

I can't think of a time anyone went out and hanged a bunch of crackers.

There is a serious qualitative difference between the two words; you are free to disagree.

So are you saying I was made by elves in a hollow tree?

There go all my basic christian beliefs....

I know of alot of incidents of black people killing or injuring white people because they were white.

read the news, racism is racism, there arent "degrees" of racism, there are only "degrees" in which people act on their racism.

black skater call him a cracker, he is a racist

black gang beats down a maintenance guy at a las vegas casino, they are racist But they chose to act on their beliefs in a violent manner.

racism is IGNORANT period, any show of racist beliefs is a sign of ignorance, white black pruple whatever.

yeah im done with this thread. people saying racism is more acceptable based on what color is being portrayed by the word, pure garbage.

Other minorities can also be racist.

On this, we agree.


Reread what I've written. I said nothing about racism, per se. I was discussing the emotional import of certain words.

Yes, words can cause emotional reaction. Lots of things cause emotional reactions in people. The idiocy of congress and the white house and the courts at times cause me to feel anger and disgust. Not only words upset folks. A word in itself can't cause damage to me or anyone else. On the other hand, some of the laws made in congress or the rulings made by a court CAN and often DO cause me damage, in many real ways.

I'd worry less about what slurs offensive people toss around than I would about what becomes the law of the land. Tax increases and over-regulation do harm me. Carelessness about letting terrorists into the country may harm me. But words, unless they are the legal words of the law restricting my rights and taking my money, don't do any damage beyond perhaps upsetting folks. And folks will get upset by lots of things, many much worse than words.

Right now, we are dangerously close to losing our freedom of speech rights due precisely to the fuss about the N-word. Somehow now murder is worse if it's preceeded by the N-word since that makes it a hate crime. Hey, murder makes someone DEAD. It doesn't make one iota of difference if he's dead out of hate or some other thought in the killer's head, such as desire for his wallet.

This nation is now going to judge and punish MOTIVES? THOUGHTS? BELIEFS? Hey, stay out of our heads! It's only what folks DO with their emotions that matters. Prejudice and hate are not pretty, and we all wish it would go away forever, but given human nature Utopia aint gonna happen. All we can punish is what folks DO to others. We can never be sure of what someone thinks anyway, since the courts have no mind-reading machine. But we can know what they DID, and that's all we have a right to punish.

All the laws against certain words won't change thoughts. And it's THOUGHTS that lead to actions. To punish thoughts of any sort is wrong, and ridiculously unconstitutional. It's only ACTIONS that are within the realm of law. And actions are what matter in the end.

Sometimes, perhaps, cussing someone out and saying mean things in the heat of the moment can PREVENT bad actions, since it lets off the steam that is building inside. Without this release valve, worse things than words can happen... in a moment of anger many people have maimed or killed others. I'd much rather have them call me names instead.

Just something to think about next time you get upset over mere words.