Law Vs Cracker

[Coleman John]

Crackersometimes cracka or white cracker, is a racial epithet directed towards white people,[1][2][3] used especially with regard to poor rural whites in the Southern United States.[4] Although commonly a pejorative, it is also used in a neutral context, particularly in reference to a native of Florida or Georgia (see Florida cracker and Georgia cracker).[5]

The term is "probably an agent noun"[7] from the word crack. The word crack was later adopted into Gaelic as the word craic meaning a "loud conversation, bragging talk"[8][9] where this interpretation of the word is still in use in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England today.

The word was later documented describing a group of "Celtic immigrants, Scotch-Irish people who came to America running from political circumstances in the old world".[11][12] This usage is illustrated in a 1766 letter to the Earl of Dartmouth which reads:[13]

I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode.

The label followed the Scotch-Irish American immigrants, who were often seen by officials as "unruly and ill-mannered"[11] The use of the word is further demonstrated in official documents, where the Governor of Florida said,

The compound corn-cracker was used of poor white farmers (by 1808), especially from Georgia, but also extended to residents of northern Florida, from the cracked kernels of corn which formed a staple food of this class of people. This possibility is given in the 1911 edition of Encyclopdia Britannica,[14] but the Oxford English Dictionary says a derivation of the 18th-century simplex cracker from the 19th-century compound corn-cracker is doubtful.[15][16]

It has been suggested that white slave foremen in the antebellum South were called "crackers" owing to their practice of "cracking the whip" to drive and punish slaves.[17][18][19] Whips were also cracked over pack animals,[20][21] so "cracker" may have referred to whip-cracking more generally. According to An American Glossary (1912):[22]

Another possibility, which may be a modern folk etymology, supposes that the term derives from "soda cracker", a type of light wheat biscuit which dates in the Southern US to at least the Civil War.[23] The idea has possibly been influenced by "whitebread", a similar term for white people. "Soda cracker" and even "white soda cracker" have become extended versions of "cracker" as an epithet.[24]

"Cracker" has also been used as a proud or jocular self-description in the past.[25] With the huge influx of new residents from the North, "cracker" is used informally by some white residents of Florida and Georgia ("Florida cracker" or "Georgia cracker") to indicate that their family has lived there for many generations.

Frederick Law Olmsted, a prominent landscape architect from Connecticut, visited the South as a journalist in the 1850s and wrote that "some crackers owned a good many Negroes, and were by no means so poor as their appearance indicated."[26]

In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin quotes a Professor Wyman as saying, "one of the 'crackers' (i.e. Virginia squatters) added, 'we select the black members of a litter [of pigs] for raising, as they alone have a good chance of living.'"

Late 19th century cattle drivers of the southeastern scrub land cracked whips to move cattle.[27] Many slaves and free blacks joined the Seminoles and found work in the cattle business.[28] Descendants of crackers are often proud of their heritage.[25]

Before the Milwaukee Braves baseball team moved to Atlanta, the Atlanta minor league baseball team was known as the "Atlanta Crackers". The team existed under this name from 1901 until 1965. They were members of the Southern Association from their inception until 1961, and members of the International League from 1961 until they were moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1965.

In his essay titled "Black Rednecks and White Liberals", published in 2005, American economist and social philosopher Thomas Sowell argues, that the "ghetto" African-American culture originates in the dysfunctional white southern redneck culture, which came, in turn, from the "Cracker culture".

In 2008, former President Bill Clinton used the term "cracker" on Larry King Live to describe white voters he was attempting to win over for Barack Obama: "You know, they think that because of who I am and where my politic[al] base has traditionally been, they may want me to go sort of hustle up what Lawton Chiles used to call the 'cracker vote' there."[31]

On June 27, 2013, in the trial of George Zimmerman concerning the killing of Trayvon Martin, a witness under examination (Rachel Jeantel) testified that Martin, an African-American, had told her over the telephone that a "creepy ass cracker is following me" minutes before the altercation between the two occurred. Zimmerman's attorney then asked her if "creepy ass cracker" was an offensive term, to which she responded "no". The testimony and response brought about both media and public debate about the use of the word "cracker". A CNN report referred to the regional nature of the term, noting both that "some in Florida use the term in a non-derogatory, colloquial sense" and that it is sometimes regarded as a "sharp racial insult that resonates with white southerners even if white northerners don't get it".[32]

A 1783 pejorative use of crackers specified men who "descended from convicts that were transported from Great Britain to Virginia at different times, and inherit so much profligacy from their ancestors, that they are the most abandoned set of men on earth".[33]

In his 1964 speech "The Ballot or the Bullet", Malcolm X used the term "cracker" in reference to white people in a pejorative context.[35] In one passage, he remarked, "It's time for you and me to stop sitting in this country, letting some cracker senators, Northern crackers and Southern crackers, sit there in Washington, D.C., and come to a conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to have civil rights. There's no white man going to tell me anything about my rights."[35]

In 2012, in Jacksonville, Florida, Michael Dunn murdered Jordan Davis in an argument over loud music coming from a car. Dunn alleged that he had heard the word "cracker" coming from the vehicle occupied by high school aged teenagers.[37][38][39] This claim, along with other details in Dunn's testimony, was not substantiated by other witnesses in the criminal proceedings.[40]

First, use fresh graham crackers if possible. You can grind them up in a food processor or put them in a Ziplock bag and crush them with a rolling pin or meat mallet. Second, be sure to use the proper ratio of graham cracker crumbs to butter. If you have too much butter, the crust will sink down into the pie plate while baking.

Sylvester Graham, sort of a Colonial Dr. Oz whose portrait is captured for all of eternity (even on throw pillows) in a tragic crossed-eye pose, was a health nut in high socks. Dude was obsessed with stone-ground, unbolted (not sifted, therefore super coarse) flour, and the general philosophy that what you eat affects your livelihood and probability for disease/sin. He was first and foremost a preacher and a great speaker, so, like Dr. Oz, his words caught on. He spurred a small movement when he wrote his Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making (1837), which mentioned stuff about how commercial bakers are suspect and you should bake your bread at home. I'll gloss over the part where he rants about how only wives and mothers should bake bread, and you can also read more about his theory of repressing evil sexual urges with wheat flour here. But yeah, he's the star of the show.

Later in the century, Graham flour (a coarser whole wheat flour, essentially) became thing because of him, and varying recipes for Graham crackers starting popping up, though most are just flour + water. In the wonderful Feeding America archive, I found one in The Woman Suffrage Cookbook from circa 1886 that calls for only cream, milk, and flour. You knead the dough for 20 minutes, roll thin, cut into squares or rounds, and bake for 20 minutes. Pack them in a stone jar, she notes. Sounds...bland if you ask me.

I'm so enamored by this surprisingly easy recipe I wrote about it in the small hopes of changing the world (casual). So I didn't change the world! But I repeat: make this recipe, crumble graham crackers on top, bookmark recipe to make again later.

Can you tell this is a Thanksgiving recipe? The sweater sort of gives it away. I made this pumpkin spice latte-inspired icebox cake no less than three times last holiday season. Every single iteration, my guests ate the whole thing because they have no shame and sweater season is forgiving. The Graham crackers get coated with espresso, a layer of mascarpone whipped cream, and doctored up pumpkin filling. It's CRAZY.

Yumtastic News! We brought the big taste of real SKIPPY Peanut Butter down to bite size! These portable, pop-able P.B. Bites are packed with the subtle sweetness of graham-cracker-greatness. Find them in the peanut butter aisle.

Honey Peanut Butter Coating (Palm Kernel Oil, Peanut Flour, Sugar, Peanut Butter [Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil Cottonseed, Soybean, Rapeseed, Salt], Nonfat Milk, Whey Protein Concentrate, Dextrose, Mono and Diglycerides, Honey, Soy Lecithin, Salt), Honey Graham Cracker (Enriched Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid], Whole Wheat Flour, Sugar, Palm Oil, Honey, Molasses, Salt, Sodium Bicarbonate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Annatto).

Make toffee: In a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and brown sugar together. Stir until it begins to boil, then whisk (which will help the butter and sugar come together) for 2 to 3 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. I only add salt at this point if using unsalted crackers, i.e. not saltines. Pour over cracker-lined pan(s) and use an offset spatula to evenly spread the caramel, working quickly as it will be eager to cool and set.

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