this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
154 points (89.3% liked)

Asklemmy

49151 readers
449 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I just got up from conversation with a couple of older black men, that I said "well I got to go back to work and start cracking the whip." And it occurred to me then that it was probably a really insensitive stupid thing to say.

Sadly, it hadn't occurred to me until it's already said.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 33 points 2 years ago (4 children)

When I was younger, I thought the term "cracker" referred to white people being pale like a cracker that you'd eat. I did not realize until later that it was referring to whipping.

[โ€“] pastabatman@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

I'm 38 and I did not know this.

[โ€“] ULS@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 years ago

So you're telling me Saltines aren't part of my American heritage?

[โ€“] chaos@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh, fuck. This would have been nice to know sooner.

To be fair, in Florida at least it referred primarily to the whips used to drive cattle, not anything slavery related.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_cracker

[โ€“] Thisfox@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 years ago

Huh. Never heard of that before. But then, am Aussie and don't know much yank idiom.