Rock & Roll and Language (was: 70s crap)

[Robert King]

Uh, I don't know where the original writer was posting from, but here in
Florida the word Cracker is generally considered a term of pride among the
longtime white residents, not an insult. Our own U.S. Sen. Bob Graham went
around calling himself a "Graham Cracker" a few years ago. Our governor,
who says cryptic things like "The old he-coon walks before the break of
dawn" during campaign debates, has bragged that he's bilingual because he
"speak(s) Cracker."

Of course, that didn't stop the cops in a couple jurisdictions from
charging black suspects under the state's hate crime statute for using
that word. (Generally, these were the same counties that also banned that
2 Live Crew album back in '89). But the charges never went very far.



On Thu, 17 Jul 1997, Ted Samsel wrote:

> I detect a bit of bigotry towards accent, pal. "Cracker accent"...
> seems like my folks (some of them "white trash" with Cherokee/
> Choctaw admixture) are the only ethnic group one can slam. How
> nice of you to point this out and share it with the group.
> 
> (;-)
> 
> tejas at infi.net
>           "I only use my gun whenever kindness fails"
>                                  Robert Earl Keen
>