I still hear the word Florida Cracker from time to time. The difference is it’s not a derogatory term. A cracker is basically a pioneer that blazes a path of adventure and brags about tall tales to others. The good old boys always have some story to tell... So when cowboys colonized southern states like Florida and had to cut paths through subtropical jungles and swamps with wild animals like Florida panthers, alligators, crocodiles, poisonous snakes, etc. and had to fight with the most fierce and war like Native American tribes on the continent while driving cattle there were plenty of tall tales to tell. In the rough unforgiving terrain of marginal lands in the south cowboys had to adapt eating swamp cabbage stew with whatever meat they could hunt that day and use cow whips and dogs to chase down and round up the heard in razor sharp saw palmettos. Tough work for tough men. It’s a romanticized time in history. The only reason the word has a racial connotation at all is because Black people fear the tough rural manly men of the south. It doesn’t even have much to do with slavery considering Florida wasn’t even purchased by the United States until 1819 and it was very challenging to colonized these lands. Florida wasn’t even a slave state until 1845 and 20 years later slavery ended in the USA after the end of the civil war in 1865. In that very limited period there were quite a few slaves in the very northern counties of the state on newly established cotton and sugar plantations, but it was short lived. The main fear is due to the stories of Florida Crackers driving freed slaves from the Spanish settlements out of the country by force as the lands were conquered and colonized. Most Blacks left for Cuba or the Bahamas because Florida men weren’t playing around. Anyway after the states short bout with slavery the state grew slowly, but eventually in 1892 Henry Flagler built the Florida East Coast Railway opening the state to real development and then things took off. Most plantations in Florida had nothing to do with slavery, they were just farms run by tough families conquering a tough land by the sweat of their brow and the seat of their pants. So native Floridians are proud to be Florida Crackers, because it’s basically like calling some a real man. That’s why it’s always funny to hear Black people call White people a cracker.
To turn a negative into a positive. Ask any black person why they use the N word, and they'll tell you, "It's to turn a negative into a positive." They were called "niggers" during the times of slavery. Now they're basically trying to change the meaning of the word. "My nigga" is basically their way of saying "My friend", "My brother", "My pal".
I think black people use it as a term of respect for each other, but I’m white so I’m not 100% positive. Also, a lot of black people DON’T talk that way. My friend’s black and she goes berserk when she hears people talking like that. Says it’s low class and disrespectful.
That’s our word for bro, I don’t say it cause I’m not allowed to by my parents tho. It’s turning a bad word into a word for friendship. It’s exclusive you need a pass if ain’t black.
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I think it’s to take back power by claiming it, since it was used as an insult against them for so many years. By making it something only they can say they’re taking back the power that was taken from them back in the day.
It was to "take back the word" but, well, they have failed. Miserably. Now it's just due to stubbornness and it being culturally ingrained.
Oh i have heard White people calling other white people cracker before lol, but Black people know its not bad when other black people use it, its only bad when other races use it in a negative tone.
Fuck it why not? I calk myself a Gringo I don't care.
They just like to show that they have the power to use that word, or ANY word that they want, without any retribution from anyone. It's clearly an unfair double-standard
Because ignorant people are ignorant.
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