what is the origin of the black on white racist terms 'honky' and 'cracker'?

Answer 1

The word "HONKY" as a pejorative for caucasians comes from "bohunk" and "hunky". In the early 1900's, these were derogatory terms for Bohemian, Hungarian, and Polish immigrants.

Cracker (sometimes "white cracker") was originally a pejorative term for a white person, mainly used in the Southern United States, and still is in many instances.

Answer 2

The word "honky" as a pejorative for caucasians comes from "bohunk" and "hunky". In the early 1900's, these were derogatory terms for Bohemian, Hungarian, and Polish immigrants. According to Robert Hendrickson, author of the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, African-American workers in Chicago meat-packing plants picked up the term from white workers and began applying it indiscriminately to all Caucasians.

These are some other folk etymologies for the term honky:

Derived from Yankee, a term used in the southern U.S. to describe people from the northern U.S.

Resembles the Wolof word honq meaning pink or pale.

Taken from the "honking" of horn used by males trying to attract the attention of prostitutes in predominantly African-American neighborhoods (believed to be 1920's - 1930's

Cracker (sometimes "white cracker") was originally a pejorative term for a white person, mainly used in the Southern United States, and still is in many instances. It has also, however, increasingly been used as a proud (or self-deprecating) term by some Southern whites—or American whites in general—in reference to themselves.

The term "cracker" was and is used most frequently in the South, especially in Georgia and Florida. Since the 1870s a nickname for Georgia is "The Cracker State", which is displayed proudly with no hint of insult.

Historically the word suggested poor, white rural Americans with little formal education. Historians point out the term originally referred to the strong Scots-Irish of the backcountry (as opposed to the English of the seacoast). Thus a sociologist reported in 1926, "As the plantations expanded these freed men (formerly bond servants) were pushed further and further back upon the more and more sterile soil. They became 'pinelanders,' 'corn-crackers,' or 'crackers.'" [Kephard Highlanders] Frederick Law Olmsted, a prominent landscape architect from the northern United States, visited the South as a journalist in the 1850s and noted that some crackers "owned a good many negroes, and were by no means so poor as their appearance indicated."

Usage of the term "cracker" generally differs from "hick" and "hillbilly" because crackers reject or resist assimilation into the dominant culture, while hicks and hillbillies theoretically are isolated from the dominant culture. In this way, the cracker is similar to the redneck. In the African American community, "cracker" is a disparaging term synonymous with "white trash." (The OED cites the 1830s origin of white trash as a word used by slaves on rich plantations to ridicule poor whites.)

Since 1900 "cracker" has become a proud or jocular self-description. With the huge influx of new residents from the North, "cracker" is now used informally by some white residents of Florida and Georgia ("Florida cracker" or "Georgia cracker") to indicate that their family has lived there for many generations.

However, the term "white cracker" is not always used self-referentially and remains a disparaging term to many in the region

Answer 3

"cracker" comes from the cracking of the whip that was used when beating Black people.

I don't know about honky though

Answer 4

Honky came about when white men would drive down to areas where there were black hookers. Whitey was affraid to get out of the car to talk to them, so he would honk.
Cracker, because of the sound of whip back in the slave era.

Answer 5

I think honky came from country bars called honky tonks, and cracker because we be white

Answer 6

I don't know about honkey, but cracker came from the term "whip cracker", which has obvious origins.

i think madison is right about honkey. Started out that way for hungarians. It was more of an insult that a yankee would use, but somehow it got thrust onto all white people.

Answer 7

Cracker is from the slave owner cracking his whip, and I think Honky was derived from "Yankee" and I've also heard it is from white men honking their car horns ar hookers in black neighborhoods. Sounds viable to me!

Answer 8

I think honky comes from honky tonking rednecks. Just a guess

Answer 9

Honky because we sound nasal when we talk, cracker 'cause we have the color of crackers.

Answer 10

cracker is white bland and tasteless , honky almost like the n word just made up to make people mad.