This is a throwaway because by the nature of the question you might be able to guess enough about my identity to figure out who I am. I accept that risk but I would like to know opinions from others. I would note that I’m asking because I want to know if I should change things, not because I want to confirm my already-existing opinion.
I’m a white male millennial in the USA. My name has closely been associated with the word “cracker” since early childhood, not in a racially-related way (AFAIK). I don’t really like “cracker” in combination with my name, but I suppose it grew on me. Ever since college I started naming things “cracker*” when I couldn’t think of something better. The biggest example is what started as using it for my wifi name (“crackernet”), and grew with my home network and homelab.
I knew growing up that white people were called crackers and I didn’t think much more of it because for effective purposes I was already called cracker when I met someone new anyway. I recently learned about why:
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.
That’s really something I don’t want to be associated with, especially before someone has met me. It would be fine if it was something I kept private because I know how it originated for my usage, but my wifi name is broadcasted to my neighbors and anyone who is close enough to my home. It’s important to me to not unnecessarily offend others and I don’t want someone to be thinking about slave drivers because of my unintentional naming choice.
So, could it be offensive for me to use the word “cracker” in this way?
The only people who would get mad about the word “Cracker” are crackers and they can suck it.
source: I am pasty white dude and I have been called every slur for white folks you can possibly imagine. Not a single one has ever bothered me in the slightest. Most of them are hilarious.
Some of my personal favorites were: Caulkie, ghost, honkaloid, milkhead, moon cricket, mulletard, pigmently-challenged, powdered donut, raw chicken, saltine, tornado bait, wonder bread and mayonnaise packet.
Here you dropped: mayo monkey and vanilla gorilla
Those are both fantastic haha.
If it bothers you enough to ask, it’ll bother you every time you see your network name. Might as well come up with a new one.
We don’t actually know where the term cracker originated from, that’s just one theory. A lot of white (particularly Irish) slaves and indentured servants in the early colonial years were called crackers too.
The term now just means a poor rural white person particularly (but not always) from the South. I got called it growing up and don’t find it offensive if it’s not said in a mean way.
We don’t actually know where the term cracker originated from
I kinda got that sense from skimming the Wikipedia page when I wrote this, but I don’t know what it means to anyone other than myself in 2025 so I figured I would ask.
I’ve only ever been called that because of my name and while that’s “offensive” to me in like a “worlds most unoriginal joke” kind of way, but my experience with the word has biased me.
“What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?”
Eh. If you’re worried about people thinking it’s a weird or offensive name, just pick another name. You don’t have to use it.
As an aside: I wouldn’t broadcast a variant of my name as a network name or mention it on social media. I don’t think anything bad is likely to happen, but it’s just good practice.
If you’re worried about people thinking it’s a weird or offensive name, just pick another name.
That’s a good point. I think most of my resistance to doing it so far is all the different devices with different software to change it and thinking of a new name (bit of a perfectionist). Realistically, it would only take a few hours at most to get everything sorted.
Thanks.
I just noticed your account age and name. Did you create this account just to ask the question?
I did. Should I not have?
No, that’s awesome! It’s an impressive level of opsec. 👍
Edit: By “no”, I mean there’s nothing wrong with doing that. Like I said: awesome.
At worst you’d be offending thin-skinned crackers, but it’s unlikely you’d even offend them if you’re a cracker.
As a cracker: no. Only cringe losers give a fuck about being called cracker.
Edit: and if you’re worried about offending Black people, I think you don’t need to worry, considering the idea that slaves/Black Americans coined/popularized the term.
I wasn’t really thinking about offending other white people. Regardless, I am asking even for the cases of “thin-skinned” individuals. As I said, it’s important to me to not offend people unnecessarily, regardless of how much skin they might have.
It’s never offensive
