The word hits him like a saltine underhand-tossed into a lake of whole milk. He feels nothing inside. He does not suddenly call to mind the centuries of injustice and cruelty people like him have suffered, because people like him have not suffered centuries of injustice and…
To assume a man has not ever suffered because he is white is incredibly narrow minded.
Sure, he might not have suffered racial injustice. But he might be gay. He might have a missing limb, he might have a mental illness or one of myriad other things that could cause him to suffer from others or his own trials.
I agree that the word “cracker” has less power than “nigger” due to no history, but if it keeps being used in a racist and derogatory way, it will come to achieve history. Lack of time does not make a hate word more acceptable for use.
As a completely normative white dude I totally agree that white men can suffer! I had mad body image problems for a long time! I had convinced myself I was too fat for w32 pants until I was a sophomore in college! I had a girlfriend that cheated on me a million times and that made me feel terrible! White people can feel bad, even white men, even me!
I’m just trying to demolish that incredibly shrill and incredibly disingenuous argument that (white) people bring up around race discussions and esp. discussions of race & language, “well how come nigger is such a big deal but not cracker?”
