A brief, random pictorial history of race relations in the US. (graphic )

[wildeyed]

So we are having several discussions about whether the use of the word cracker is as bad as the use of the word nigger. Some people think that any insult denoting a person's race is equal to any other insult. I don't believe this is true.

I can't think of another word in our culture that is more fraught with meaning and hate than the word nigger. This is because of the HISTORY of whites oppressing blacks in the US. There is no comparable history of blacks oppressing whites.

I am using photos to illustrate my reasoning here because I seem to be failing with words. (Warning, some of these photos are of graphic violence. But you should still look.)




























Here are two pictures of white people lynching black people. I was not able to find any of black people lynching white people. These are actually the least graphic of the bunch that I looked at this morning. More here http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/lynching.htm





These are picture from the civil right movement. One is a police officer setting a dog on a protester, the other a lunch counter sit in. I was not able to find any photos of a black officer setting dogs on white protesters, although many whites protesting for black civil rights were attacked and even murdered.

So what's the deal here? In light of photos like these and our history in the US, how can anyone say the epithets denoting whites are the equal of epithets denoting blacks? Again, I don't condone either. But I don't believe that they are comparable.

I know this is a pretty random and very brief pictorial, and that we haven't even touched on the issue of slavery. But this is a starting point.

The word nigger conveys these images to any thinking, marginally educated American. The word cracker cannot.

[livinginphotographs]

1. I will say any profanity there is without bleeping it....

But the N-word is one I will not say, ever, not even for the sake of argument, because of the photos posted above.

And white people who deny that their race grants them privilege are doing nothing but closing their eyes, covering their ears, and singing "La la la la la!"

Thank you for posting this. You make an excellent point, and the pictures emphasize that point quite well.

[Beware the Beast Man]

2. Get the fire extinguisher ready.

:nuke:

[arwalden]

3. Back Away Slowly... Surely This Can't End Well.

[indepat]

4. Those with the mindset depicted are running the whole show now IMHO

[LoZoccolo]

5. I guess I just don't see what you're trying to accomplish.

So some epithets are worse than others. So? What are you trying to do with this?

[wildeyed]

6. To establish that some epithets are worse than others.

There is a thread with 400+ replies floating around here about how calling someone a cracker is as bad as calling someone the n word. I disagree and was having trouble making my point with words, so I thought maybe pictures would be more effective.

[Karenina]

7. Americans by and large these days

seem to recoil from the photograpic evidence that contradicts their view of themselves as the "good guys." These are very sad times.

[wildeyed]

8. What is also disturbing,

people seem to be ignorant, either willfully or otherwise, that these events occurred in our country's past. And are unable to see how it is connected to our present.