Discussion: Charlie Rangel: I Thought 'White Cracker' Was A 'Term Of Endearment'

TPM Article Topics
1

Discussion for article #230043

2

Take that, you tar baby lovers!

12 Likes
3

Go home Charlie…its time…

1 Like
4

As a white boy from the era where that vernacular was common?
I always laughed whenever I heard cracker or honky used pejoratively.
(Just did again when I said honky out loud!)

It’s hard to piss someone off when they’re giggling.

jw1

1 Like
5

Charlie… haven’t you figured this out yet? On this issue, you can’t have it both ways: “You don’t get to call me a n*gger, but I can call you a cracker because I think it’s a term of endearment.” Flip it the other way and see how you like it.

Live by your own rules. Or better yet, retire already.

3 Likes
6

To me, terms like honky and cracker are basically poking fun at white people for things like being nerdy, stiff and lacking in hipness.

The “N” word though originating from a relatively neutral word really is a term of derision and hatred and is saying that such person is sub-human and is subordinate to all white people.

1 Like
7

Oh my goodness. Isn’t it obvious? He is giving Haley Barbour a bit of a poke over his ‘tar baby’ comment. Charlie used the same type of apology that Barbour used. Believe me, Charlie is well aware of race relation issues.

22 Likes
8

It was probably out of context. Like if he had referred to Haley Barbour’s honky policies.

9

What? A white, thin, wafer often eaten with cheese or other savory toppings? It’s a compliment.

2 Likes
10

uNLeSs YOu haVe NO TOPpinGS!!!1!!11

jw1

6 Likes
11

On a 1-10 scale of racial name calling “white cracker” is about a two.

Personally, I think “redneck” is much worse – and I use that all the time. They got off easy. Go, Charlie!

3 Likes
12

Yeah, endearment. Like say, redskin. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

3 Likes
13

I always figured there must be a reason Georgia is called the Cracker State. Now I find out it’s because they’re such lovable people.

3 Likes
14

Expert trolling detected.

9 Likes
15

“How dare those ni(CLANG!) use a term of endearment! Only we Teabaggers can use a term of endearment!”

“And when are those little ladies going to get in the kitchen and make me some pie!?”

16

White crackers are very good sandwiched around some peanut butter and jelly.

17

So? He’s been asking the Tea Party to refrain from racism. Have they done so? So why should he remain polite?. Most of the people complaining about this are people who can dish it out but not take it.

5 Likes
18

Please adjust your trolling meter.

19

When I was a kid growing up in NE Pennsylvania, the N word was used nonchalantly. like someone would say hello. Even though, where I lived, there were no black people and in the larger city of Scranton there were very few and even when you went into town, you didn’t see them much. So the people who used the N word were just pure ignorant folks who were racist from what they had heard, not from experience. I remember a kid being called out for using the N word one day and he said “my Daddy said that Niggard is in the dictionary and it means stingy person” !!!

Need I say more?

20

The longtime congressman ruffled some feathers last year when he told the Daily Beast that members of the tea party were the same group of “white crackers” who tried to fight desegregation in the South during the Civil Rights movement.

Rangel was simply telling the truth about many of these tea party goons.

NO APOLOGY NEEDED.

Exactly as described to me by Miss Margaret and Miss Kim, an elderly friend and neighbor of mine and her daughter from Mississipi: While all blacks were niggers to a cracker not all whites were crackers to blacks, just the racists.