Pennsylvania Rep. Thomas Yewcic of Cambria County in SW PA was speaking in PA's house in favor of a bill that would allow members of homeowner's associations to fly American flags even if the covenants prohibited it:
"I don't think we should be embarrassed or ashamed to support the American flag or what it represents," Yewcic said. "If any ethnic group wants to fly ... a flag, and they're embarrassed to fly an American flag, they should go back to their ethnic origins and fly it there."
Yewcic is white, and that prompted Philadelphia's Rep. John Myers, who's black, to utter the following:
"I think that those type of remarks would come from a cracker"
Not only that, he followed it up with an "apology":
"I'm hearing my colleague. I appreciate him standing up and being a man, and I'd like to do the same thing. I'm sorry for referring to him as a cracker..."
According to the AP, the last prompted "hoots of laughter mixed with boos." The same or a similar AP report is in the S.F. Chronical, but note that they edited out the full explanation of the "apology." And, you can see "liberals" supporting this use of the word "cracker" here.
In previous reports, you can see a very similar reaction to the use of that racial epithet from the DUmmies here. And, you can read about Al Franken's "liberal" racism here.
MultiCultiCult · Fri, 07/01/2005 - 11:33 · · Importance: 1
Independent, in-depth coverage of immigration, politics, and media bias since 2002. Also: multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...
If you can't find what you're looking for, see the About page or use the navigation features to the right.
Atom feed · RSS 2.0 feed · RSS 0.91 feed · WML
Immigration 2008a · Immigration 2007b · Immigration 2007a · Immigration · Immigration (6/05 to 12/05) · Immigration (1/05 to 6/05) · Immigration (8/04 to 12/04) · Immigration (before 8/04) · Immigration & Terrorism · Immigration & Driver's Licenses · Immigration & Consuls · Immigration & Media Bias · Immigration & Europe · North American Union
Blogging Across America
MultiCulti Madness ·
General Politics ·
Privacy ·
Miscellaneous ·
The "Peace" Movement
Los Angeles ·
California ·
Outdoors and sports ·
Celebrities ·
Wackiness ·
Inside Blogging
Iraq ·
Beltway Sniper ·
Terrorism & Extremism ·
The Saudis ·
Warblogging ·
War On Drugs
Comments
From here:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=cracker
"Offensive.
Used as a disparaging term for a poor white person of the rural, especially southeast United States.
Used as a disparaging term for a white person."
This is the accepted meaning of the word, colloquailly as well. A synonym might be redneck.
Looking up the definition of the word ignoramus is left as an exercise.
Posted by: eh at Jul 2, 2005 11:40 AM
FYI: cracker does not refer to a specific raced and is therefore NOT a racist term
Posted by: Ralph at Jul 1, 2005 5:37 PM