When rumors of a video showing Michelle Obama using the term "whitey" surfaced, my first thoughts were, "bullshit." My skepticism stems from the fact that, outside of George Jefferson, whose lines were written by white people, black people do not use the term "whitey." The only people who use "whitey" are corny, self-deprecating white liberals and dim-witted white conservatives who believe that black people blame whites for all of their problems. As a matter of fact, black people don't really use any of the derogatory for white people, probably because white privilege renders them ineffective. Thus, I present the subject of this week's Friday Five. The following five items are racial slurs against whites that black people don't actually use outside of Hollywood and talk radio.
1. Whitey
2. The Man
3. Honky
4. Mr. Charlie
5. White Devil
Any others?
I agree! I've yet to hear a black person call someone whitey, honky or white devil.
ReplyDeleteWhen allegations that Michelle Obama used the word "whitey" I didn't believe it at all.
I use 2 and 4 when trying to make a dramatic, literary point. One time I called a friend, Mr. Charlie, in front of a lot of his White Peers. He fell out. The one Black person standing near looked like he was about to pee in his clothes trying not to laugh. I do shit like that.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't normally use those terms or any terms because only self-defeating, scared Blacks had that paranoia of thinking of them in that type of threatening way use those terms. I do think some Blacks use terms but they are Blacks that really are afraid of Whites and that is their way of asserting some psychological get-back for their own comforts that they called them a name. When Whites do something privileged, like breath, I just make sure to make sure they know how lucky they are. I don't need to worry about calling them a name.
I however will do it, but only in a crowd, to make sure to embarrass them and their onlooking crowd of privileged peers so that they know what their privilege is. I am different. I am different though and I know it. I really am like the original George Jefferson. You can't take me anywhere without some meds to sedate me because I tend to act up in the most inappropriate times for all --- Blacks and Whites.
Blacks hate that I say out loud what too many are afraid to say or challenge of anyone.
Thanks for the comment, Andrea. I agree that black folks use "The Man" and "Charlie," but it's almost always tongue in cheek.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well, I'm not sure I've ever heard a black person say "whitey" unless it was on TV.
ReplyDeleteActually, I've been called a honky and heard white people in general referred to as honkies. This is when I'm a kid, now, back in the '70s. I never heard it after 1980, except ironically. By 1986, I was strictly a cracker.
ReplyDeleteI heard devil now and then in the late '80s, when some of my crowd thought listening to PE made them Muslims. They never called me a devil though, because I was one of the good ones.
And this might just be a local thing, but a couple times I heard poor white people living in black neighborhoods called "grays."
I've heard a lot of older black people refer to whites as "ofays," which is supposedly pig latin for foe. For them, I think that it is less about being derogatory and more about more about keeping their guard up.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Gil Scott Heron's song, Whitey's on the moon?
ReplyDeleteI was personally referred to as "a cracker" by a black kid but we're going back to 1960.
Those 5 are pretty lame, How abow about...
ReplyDeleteCornbread
Peckerwood
Redneck
Cracker
Milk Toast
White Trash
Hockenberry
Lmao!!! milk toast!! How abt pink toes or snow bunnies or hounds with their long ass ears!!
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