“Cracker” is what I would be referred to at times and it never bothered me. Not because it wasn’t derogatory, but because it literally held no actual weight on society as I knew it. “Crackers” weren’t systematically oppressed. “Crackers” weren’t being targeted by the police. Being a “Cracker” didn’t affect your place in society. “Cracker” was just a word.
Many people ask well “if the N word is so bad to say, then why isn’t the C word as bad” One is a word and the other torments you. One word is used as a clap back and the other is used to cut you. One is the word of the moment, the other is a word derived from the cruelest moments in our nation’s history.
Other people ask the question, “Why can’t I say the N word if Black people say it to each other?’
It is because THAT is their word. The N word has been used as a racial slur and a representation of the oppression for centuries. Since the blood was first placed on the white hand by the slavery they instilled in this nation. That blood, stains. Every time a white person says the N word, it cuts like a knife in an open wound. The N word represents all that is wrong with White vs. Black in this country. Our Black American citizens decided that rather than let this word be used against them, they keep it. That by being so restrained in its use, it gives white Americans (specifically) a taste of what it is like to not be entitled to “do anything they please, anywhere.”
So no, the C word will never be equal to the N word because Black Americans have never been offered that same opportunity. They have been kneeled on by the power of government and law in a country that’s primary principle is that All Men Were Created Equal and All Men Deserve Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
So “Crackers”, if you find this word offensive, think of what a lifetime of being exploited feels like.
Sereniti Sparkles 