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Rednecks, poor whites & crackers

Posted by Scott Marsden on July 14, 2000

In Reply to: Rednecks, poor whites & crackers posted by Frankie on July 13, 2000

: I applaud your non PC attitude of some of these old ethnic slurs being retro-cheezy than actually insulting. Most of these origins are very funny.

This brings up a couple of points... First off, with "honky", I have always felt that any insult of whites in general like "honky" or "whitey" never really works. Racial insults are insulting because they try and call attention to a person's membership in a group that (in the insult-hurler's eyes) is seen as inferior, different, and deserving of scorn. Calling someone "honky", however, only calls attention to the fact that the receiver is white. I don't think most white people feel any shame about being a part of a majority group, especially the racists who most deserve the insults... Now, if you call someone "white trash", then that implies inferiority and is insulting.

Point 2- with "hunky" or "bohunk", I am part Ukrainian but I don't see them as offensive insults -- in fact, I hardly ever hear them used. This is because in my, younger generation, those of Eastern-European descent have have become accepted members of Canadian society and are generally not looked down upon for their ethnicity. Members of the older generations, however, can remember a time when Ukrainians, Poles, Russians, Hungarians, etc. were insulted, discriminated against, and beaten up, and they certainly do take "hunky" and "bohunk" to be very offensive words. About 15 years ago, a restauranteur opened up a Ukrainian restaurant called "Hunky Bill's", and he caught a lot of heat because of it, even though he himeself was Ukrainian. So you can see, time can soften these insults, but not entirely...

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