Date:  Mon, 7 Apr 1997 16:12:45 -0600
From:  Miriam Meyers <MMEYERS[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSUS1.MSUS.EDU>
Subject: cracker and white trash

I've been off the net for a few weeks and have just now read the strand
on cracker and white trash. I agree with Michael Montgomery about use
of cracker among Floridians and Georgians. Almost all my relatives live
in one of the two states. My father (b. 1903) lived his childhood in
Florida and went back in midlife. He always referred to Floridians as
crackers. My cousin's husband, a native of extreme South Georgia
(b. ca.1920) who moved to Florida to work after law school, refers to
himself proudly as cracker. I don't view the term as pejorative.
(And, yes, I attended Atlanta Crackers games as a child.)
But white trash is right down there with nigger; they are two words that
I cringe when I hear. It's based on experience of seeing the wretchedness
of some people who are called that and of sensing how it must feel to be
regarded as trash. This isn't linguistics, maybe, but it's part of my
code: I object to calling any human being trash.
Respectfully, Miriam Meyers, Metropolitan State University, Mpls/St.Paul