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Crackers, please…
Salon ^ | June 27, 2013 | Joan Walsh

Posted on 06/28/2013 8:02:10 AM PDT by NotYourAverageDhimmi

Who cares if Trayvon Martin called George Zimmerman a “creepy ass cracker”? White grievance-mongers, that’s who

Finally people on the right have begun to see that there may be an aspect of racism at the heart of the Trayvon Martin case – and predictably, it’s against accused killer George Zimmerman.

On Wednesday prosecution witness Rachel Jeantel, who was on her cellphone with Martin while he was being pursued by Zimmerman, actually testified that Martin told her he was being followed by “a creepy ass cracker.” But it wasn’t until Thursday that it blew up the right wing of the Internet – when Jeantel offered the badgering defense attorney Don West her opinion that the term isn’t racist.

From Glenn Beck’s the Blaze to the Breitbots to smaller right-wing shriekers to Twitter trolls everywhere, white grievance-mongers seemed less bothered by the fact that Martin allegedly used the term, than by Jeantel saying it wasn’t a slur.

For the record: I have been known to say “Jesus Christ on a cracker,” and I want to make clear I am not praying for the Son of God to jump a white person.

My God, don’t these people get tired of themselves? So much of the trumped-up racial upset on the right, generally, is about language: If black people can use the N-word, why can’t we? (Even Paula Deen tried to use that as self-defense at first.) Now we’re moving on to: If the N-word is racist and forbidden, words like “cracker” should be, too.

But “cracker” has never had the same power to demean, or to exile, or to sting. No social order has ever been devised whereby African-Americans oppress people they deride as “crackers.”

We don’t even really know where the term comes from. I’ve seen it suggested that enslaved black people invented it because of the “crack” of the slavemaster’s whip, but it was used by planter class elites to describe the hardscrabble Scots-Irish dating back to the late 18thcentury. (Both meanings could be true.) If it’s demeaning at all — and some white Southerners have embraced it — it derives from white-on-white snobbery. But like most discussions of white class distinctions in this country, this one will be preempted … because black racism!

Still, I’m not sure why Zimmerman defense attorney Don West zeroed in on Martin’s use of the term, or even less relevant, what Jeantel thought it meant. (For the record, she seemed to focus on the “crazy ass” part and said she thought Martin was trying to describe a “pervert” pursuing him, which is why she said she told him to run away.) Those shocked by the fact that she didn’t see a racial slur in Martin calling Zimmerman “cracker” might note that she also said her friend told her “the nigga is behind me,” right before Zimmerman caught up to Martin. Maybe that proves Martin is the real racist!

On the week that the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act because we’ve supposedly come so far in eradicating racism, there’s a perverse kind of political poetry in the outcry on the right over the use of the word “cracker” here. Let’s remember: a white and Latino man is on trial for killing a young black man, in a clash that began because the white/Latino man thought the black man was hanging around someplace where he didn’t belong, looking “like he’s up to no good.” But let’s freak out over the victim reportedly describing the accused as a “cracker.” Crackers, please …


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: joanwalsh; morethorazineplease; salon
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To: NotYourAverageDhimmi

I saw it from the beginning when the half white guy squatting in the White Hut said Trayvon looked like his son if he were to have one.


101 posted on 06/28/2013 10:57:10 AM PDT by ballplayer
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To: dfwgator
She is saying that white people don't have a right to be offended when blacks sling hateful and derogatory words at them. I wonder if she feels the same way about homos and fudge-packers?
102 posted on 06/28/2013 11:12:01 AM PDT by peeps36 (America is being destroyed by filthy traitors in the political establishment)
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To: NotYourAverageDhimmi

she lied on the stand andthey could have proved it.

they could have ot her to explain who does and doesn’t qualify as a cracker, and it would have been shown only whites get called that, because they are white. and that it isn’t a friendly term or term of endearment.


103 posted on 06/28/2013 12:00:26 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: clintonh8r

if they riot there’s gonna be a lot more george zimmermans out there ready to keep the peace.


104 posted on 06/28/2013 12:01:37 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: NotYourAverageDhimmi

< Who cares if Trayvon Martin called George Zimmerman a “creepy ass cracker”? White grievance-mongers, that’s who >

Why should black grievance-mongers like Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Kanye West have a lock on the market in peddling grievances? It’s such a lucrative gig after all, and it’s time to spread the wealth around according to the current grievance-monger in chief who helped to kick of this episode and the resulting show trial, half-black BO. So, monger away, and ignore caviling members of the in-the-tank-for-BO punditocracy like Walsh. They’re just jealous that the field is not left to them in an increasingly crowded market place as their market share dwindles to the vanishing point.


105 posted on 06/28/2013 3:00:43 PM PDT by Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek (No good deed will go unpunished by those who benefit from the evil it challenges.)
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To: Liberty Valance; big'ol_freeper; Lil'freeper; TrueKnightGalahad; blackie; Cincinatus' Wife; ...
Re:

I gotta tell ya, Liberty... for a man I shot, you only steal from the very, very best!

And it's good thing da Duke gave you a pass on dat thievery... or I'd have to talk to ya the old school way--

106 posted on 06/28/2013 3:04:25 PM PDT by Bender2 ("I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me." RAH Beyond this Horizon)
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To: Bender2

I only steal from the best Bendy!

107 posted on 06/28/2013 3:10:45 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Gabrial
The term “cracker” used by black racists comes from the color of Saltines, i.e., white.

Now I understand my saltineness. Guess what..I stayed out in the South Texas sun too long yesterday and got a sunburn. I guess now I'm a Ritz. :)
108 posted on 06/28/2013 5:44:13 PM PDT by jy8z (From the next to last exit before the end of the internet.)
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To: RummyChick

Now that’s a creepy ass cracker.......(uh ..sorry...cracka).


109 posted on 06/28/2013 6:17:43 PM PDT by HusbandMan
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To: nutmeg

Rest assured that 19 year old drug addled punks aren’t referring to the pioneer settlers of Florida when “cracka” is preceded by “creepy azz.”


110 posted on 06/29/2013 4:48:23 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Now we all have Obama phones.)
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To: NotYourAverageDhimmi

Well, Joan Walsh is still a crazy ass.


111 posted on 06/29/2013 5:15:38 AM PDT by savedbygrace (But God.)
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To: dfwgator

Y’all gonna do a song about Freddie’s Fashion Mart?

;-)


112 posted on 06/29/2013 6:06:20 AM PDT by sauropod (Fat Bottomed Girl: "What difference, at this point, does it make?")
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To: ken5050

I don’t think so.

Ever see her? She’s *fugly*.


113 posted on 06/29/2013 6:07:55 AM PDT by sauropod (Fat Bottomed Girl: "What difference, at this point, does it make?")
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