The N-word versus the C-word, and It’s Not Conservative

Why are the words “cracker” and “honky” not considered a racial epithet, but the word “ni**er” is?

We are all familiar with the word “ni**er.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary says that it is a “usually offensive” term that refers to black people or to “a member of a socially disadvantaged class.” But the same dictionary defines “cracker” as a “chiefly dialect” word meaning a “a bragging liar,” or “boaster.” Nowhere can the phrase “usually offensive” be found. But give Merriam-Webster its due. It defines “honky” as a “usually disparaging” word that refers to white people. Why, if it was disparaging, was George Jefferson (played by Sherman Hemsley) on The Jeffersons allowed to use it frequently?

On August 12, 2012, Michelle Williams (of George Zimmereman bounty fame), New Black Panther Party chief of staff, said:

“I just want to say to all the listeners on this phone call, that if you are having any doubt about getting suited, booted, and armed up for this race war that we’re in that has never ended, let me tell you something … the thing that’s about to happen to these honkies, these crackers, these pigs, these people, these motherf****r … it has been long overdue.”

Williams added that she, “… vowed that as long as whites keep characterizing blacks as ‘ni***rs,’ her ‘feet [will be] on your motherf*****g necks’.”

Please note that Williams used the words “crackers” and “honkies” in her diatribe. But their use could not possibly have been racist (said sarcastically) because, as Malik Zulu Shabazz (born Paris Lewis) says, black people cannot be racist, so “You [white people] CANNOT BE A VICTIM OF RACISM.” If you follow Shabazz’s line of thinking (I would say reasoning, but I can find no evidence of reasoning here) “if you are victimized by the Black Panther racists, you are not a victim.” Shabazz says, “… that blacks cannot be racist because their ancestors suffered as slaves.” I somehow miss what Shabazz is claiming. Is that racist?

And let’s not forget that this is the same New Black Panther Party who had its voter intimidation case thrown out by AG Eric Holder and the DOJ at the behest of Barack Obama. The DOJ won a default judgment when the Black Panther Party did not appear in federal court. But a month later, DOJ dismissed most of the charges against the Black Panthers. Many DOJ attorneys wanted to continue to pursue the case but they were “overruled by Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, an Obama appointee.”

Bartle Bull, former publisher of the Village Voice, says he heard one Black Panther shout, “You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker!” But using the word “cracker” could not possibly, because Shabazz says so, be racist.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a “honky” who reads everything I can find from Dr. Walter E. Williams and Dr. Thomas Sowell.

It’s permissible to be “disparaging” or to use a “chiefly dialect” word, but not permissible to use a “usually offensive” word. Is there some sort of double standard going on here?

But that’s just my opinion.