My husband called me a “honky” the other day, which set me off into a fit of guffaws for more than one reason. First of all, I don’t think I’d heard that word for over twenty years.
I can’t remember exactly how my husband used it, something about “you honkys … blah blah blah”. He’s half-Asian and was saying something about some childhood racial issue and I guess that was the best word he could come up with about us “whiteys”.
After I got up off the floor, I told him that he couldn’t call me a “honky” because only black people could say it. My vast knowledge of the word comes from growing up on 1970s television so as far as I was concerned, George Jefferson OWNED that word.
This whole “honky” thing led me to recall that there was another word reserved for black people’s exclusive use. Which in turn led me to wonder if it’s horribly offensive to say “honky” nowadays. Would anyone under the age of twenty-five even know what the word is?
Maybe a word’s offensiveness scale is determined by the images and feelings it conjures up when uttered. To me, “honky” does not conjure up hate, violence, slavery, war, and rap songs. The images that come to my mind are The Seventies and The Jeffersons and a certain Saturday Night Live sketch. For me, it represents comedy. But then I was raised to avoid conflict and confrontation, so maybe that taught me to find the lighter side first in everything.
Research indicates that its origins were meant to be derogatory, but perhaps over time it sort of lost its heft.
Also, the word “honky” just sounds funny, almost silly. Doesn’t it sound like a cross between “honk” and “donkey” to you? If someone called you (or someone you know) a “honky” today, would you be offended? Or would you crack up like I did?
Should I have been offended? Am I just an ignorant “cracker” who should be angry, rather than amused when hearing such a word?
With the exception of bigots and hate-mongerers, we all learn at one time or another in our lives that it’s not okay to use the N word (see? I can’t even say it when writing objectively about it, it’s badness is so drilled into me.) I learned this at the tender age of seven or so when I presented my mother with a black jelly bean and announced, “Look Mom, a n—– jelly bean!”
Nothing burns into your brain stronger than the look of horror on your mother’s face.
“Don’t you EVER…,” she death-threatened me with her tone of voice, which conjured up images of the wooden spoon that lay on top of the piano in the living room and was reserved for disciplinary purposes. I don’t think I ever saw that kind of reaction from her before that day or since. I must have shocked the hell out of her, such vile filth spewing from her darling daughter’s mouth.
But “honky”? I choose to find “honky” funny. Unless you gasp in horror, in which case I will clam up and vow never to utter the word again for as long as I live.
[…] credit is due. I couldn’t have thought up the name of this post if it hadn’t been for this post at Nanny Goats in Panties bringing the term to mind […]
[…] Goats in Panties admits she is a Honky without the Tonk.The road goes ever on and on… for my wife @ Dispatches from the Northern Outpost in this […]
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I just about fell off my chair laughing at this. You are too funny. It gave me a visual of my own "childhood".
I thought "everything" was funny.
Still do
The Jeffersons was my first thought as I started reading this….and I, too, laughed.
George Jeffereson rocked.
“as I was concerned, George Jefferson OWNED that word.”
HA HA HA HA HA HA
Agreed!
You be funny honkey … (little Eubonics here). ha ha ♥ ∞
Being called a Honky or a Cracker would set me off laughing so hard I wouldn’t be able to speak. I would be rolling on the flooring laughing trying not to pee my pants.
Great post,first time here, I’ll be back.
Timi
I just a cracker..what do I know?
This post was Dyn-O-Mite!!
all words are devoid of any ilk..till we attach some…
isn’t that sad…
as a poet you loose a lot of good rhyming words that way (wink)
Funny. Thanks for the visit at BigShoes the other day. I had a bit of a break from blogging the end of last year and am back on board.
On a sadder note the Englishman neighbor recently passed away from the Jeffersons.
That’s MS. Honky to you!
Well, down here in Texas, we call dance halls honky tonks. I wonder if its origins are related to what you’re talking about. And then there’s Mick Jagger who sang about the honky tonk woman. He might have been talking about me, I don’t know.
Whaddaya think, honky?
KJ
“Honky” should be the N word for clowns… ‘Cause they use horns…
Yeah.
Stumbled.
Living in the Deep South, I can tell you that we do not find Honkey offensive. Same for Cracker. The only surefire name that you can call a redneck to make him mad is queer. Call one of them a queer and the jury will rule that you had it coming.
People in my area proudly call themselves Crackers.
The Crackers were the earliest settlers in and around the Okefenokee Swamp. A distinct way of life grew out in this insular pocket with different folkways that were part Indian and part from the land. Crackers were generally unlettered to a man and woman as there was no government, no schools, and no real roads in the swamp.
When the railroads came, the incoming residents discovered that the swamps were full of alligators and ignorant, toothless, Crackers. Thus Cracker became a pejorative among whites. Mandatory education erased Crackerdom and only the blacks remember it as a bad name.
There is an annual cracker festival at, where else, the Stephen Foster Memorial State Park on the banks of the Suwanee river near the Fl Ga border in the town of White Springs.
A museum of Cracker Culture is maintained at the site. As Stephen Foster’s songs were racist in the extreme, anyone with politically correct sensitivities should give it a wide berth.
K. I did not make my point correctly.
It’s not the word.
It is the intention of the person who uses the word…that matters.
Some folks are trying to be funny, some are being hatefull.
We all know the intent…when we hear it.
Words are just words.
The only thing that matters are actions.
I’m a cracker. A proud cracker. Go ahead, call me a saltine cracker…I could care less.
But here’s the thing, with women there is an offensive term. It’s not the N word, it’s the C word.
When someone uses it…you know all you need to know.
Where would Country Music be without the word “honky?”
There would be no “honky-tonk” bars and therefore no “honky-tonk badonk-a-donk” or goin’ “honky-tonkin”.
I happen to like that word…I grew up in the 70s and like whipping out a retro word every once in awhile to keep the kids on their toes.
I am so NOT down with “Whitey” though!
LMAO…I thought only black folks said Honky and most times it was said in jest. It’s just doesn’t have the same zip anymore.
Question, a show like the Jeffersons and All in the Family would never make it in today’s TV world…all the PC going around. That and the fact that there aren’t half baked predults drinking and showing their arse.
I will be back for the funny!
I prefer “cracka”! lol
Personally, I prefer the term “hillbilly”. What can I say? It’s a classic.
I am totally going to start using that word on white people. I’m white, which *I* think makes it even *more* funny.
I’ve thought of this often and I still get sort of sick when I think back to kindergarten and doing eanie meanie miney moe in front of the whole class. “..catch a n….. by his toe”. I’m ashamed of it even now and hate admitting to it. My teacher scolded me in front of the class and then told me that we use the word “tiger” now. I think the episode scarred me for life. Three years later I was cornered in the bathroom of the same school by a little African American girl with a wonderful afro, it was the 70’s, she told me that it was my fault her family was enslaved. She called me a honky and I tried really hard not to laugh. She went on and on until I cried which was probably right away. And no, she was not in kindergarten with me. I don’t think it was payback. But I do remember thinking that she called me a name that had no effect on me. Had she called me lard ass or something I would have been horribly hurt and offended.
“Cracker” is a name that I also find amusing but probably because I associate it with South Park and Chef…RIP.
honky doesn’t bother me, either does cracker, whitey, redneck or whatever other “white slurs” On could come up with..
call me a c*nt… THAT’S a whole other story
Definitely would laugh at being called a honky. But I’m not easily offended. It really is a funny word. I was once called the “N” word on the playground in the third grade by a black kid while being chased by him in a game of tag. He said, “Come back here you little….” I wasn’t offended but I did think it was funny.
And by the way, I’m fairly certain “honkie” originated b/c white folks were scared to touch anything owned or frequented by black people, so if they came onto a black person’s porch, instead of touching the doorbell or the door to knock, they’d make a sort of honking noise with their mouth (or car, I suppose). That’s how it was explained to me, anyway.
I find any cutdown b/c of my being white pretty funny, actually, and I’ve heard them in anger not far from my house. I thinking laughing in the face of an angry black person calling me a “fucking cracker” diffuses his epithet way more successfully than would’ve my responding with a “fucking nigger.” So, I refrain. The high road feels better and results in fewer bullet holes in my ass.
I find it funny…and for me it conjures up that SNL skit (the one I’m assuming you were talking about). God that was funny. I do think it might be a little outdated though but who knows..I’m in my 40s and not down with the kids these days.
I’m down with honkey.
Nanny Goats, you’re such a NUT!
See? I’m not black and I used the N word! But you won’t catch me using the H word around here…
IT WOULD BE KIND OF INTERESTING TO FIND OUT THE ORIGIN OF THIS WORD AND SEE JUST WHAT FUN WAS BEING POKED?! I’M SO NOT OFFENDED, AND I’M ABOUT AS WHITE AS THEY COME–I MAKE SALTINES LOOK LIKE RYE-CRISPS, MY CRACKER FRIEND!
OK,you did it! I’m on a mission tonight to call everyone I see a honky…of course I’m totally doing it George Jefferson style too!!
So Honky is different from Honky Tonk? What the hell is a Tonk? And what is it if you put the two together?
Personally, I’d take it as an insult if someone called me a honky, but I would think they were talking about my driving not my whiteness!
I’m too old. . . What about Honky Tonk Woman by the Rolling Stones???? Was Mick Jagger singing about you????
The N word doesn’t even compare to honky or cracker…it’s soooo much worse. I don’t see anything offensive about honky OR cracker…I, like you, find it funny. Especially cracker. or…crackah.
I agree with you – Honky is no way offensive to me – it seems humorous. Another term that does not offend me is “cracker” – LOL – I’m not sure that there is a “white” equivalent of an offensive term such as the “N” word
A good term to use when addressing any person regardless of race – “Hey you #$#&^@%^!&^%^#!!!
I’m a honkey, she’s a honkey, he’s a honeky..
Wouldn’t you like to be a honkey too?
Catchy.. I bet we could make MILLIONS!
I jokingly used the word ‘bread’ the other day when joking about money. It sounded dated and silly. I put honky in that category.
I didn’t know that cracker was a derogatory term for white people. I’m half Irish/half Italian. I know plenty those slurs if you’d like to hear them.
It just makes me think about how long I’ve been alive. Not really offensive.
honky…i’m DYING! i haven’t heard that word in years!! it is a snort type word. totally!!
here through sits! love LOVE your blog!!
I hear the word honky and I just picture white people dancing really badly… I dont know why.
A friend of mine used to work with a black guy whose derogatory term for white people was “popcorn.” When he was really pissed off, he’d call them “popcorn-ass motherfuckers.”
Now THAT’S an insult. But it still makes me giggle.
being from the south i have heard the word honky. like you it just makes me laugh now. most words are just that…words and they don’t bother me at all. the attitude behind what is being said is more what i question.
I was just sitting here in my plaid pedal-pushers eating Ritz crackers with margarine and drinking a mint julep and wondering…what is all this honky business?
I must ask the girls if they know anything about this at our next meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Let me just jot that down here on my Laura Ashley notepad that I keep next to the phone.
H-O-N-K-Y.
Honky doesn’t bother me, and when someone calls me a cracker, I think it’s hilarious!
No, you’re right it’s funny and completely random… unless he was watching TV land at the time. Try not saying honky when your watching TV land.
What happens when one is an Asian man who is whiter than the caucAzN persuasion. I don’t think it would make sense to call them a ‘cracker’ or a ‘honky’ or any of those as I would like to use. How about we call people by their SPFs? For example, call me SPF:Death.
I remember when “honky” was a strong term of derision. Fortunately not used now. There are many words that were loaded but thankfully have faded in meaning. Could we be getting more civilized? Naw….
Ok – Soooooo today’s theme is racism, apparently. It’s come up in – ooooh – 5 different groups today. Odd.
I am hereby changing the subject!
When I was in grade school, I accidentally flipped my Dad the bird. In front of the entire family. At Thanksgiving.
It’s a complicated story – let’s go with… I was trying to make my tiny fist look bigger than it was. That’s more or less it. One finger slipped out of the fist… BLAMO! Instant shame and a lifetime of harassment.
I didn’t even know what it meant! Honest! I knew it was bad, but that was about it.
Everyone was stunned. I got kicked out of Thanksgiving dinner. (Did I mention that this happened just as we were getting ready to say grace?!)
…looking back, I’m starting to question that strangled sound coming from Grandpa. It might have been a giggle.
See, white people–generically speaking–haven’t been sufficiently persecuted to own a truly derrogatory slur. I agree Honky is hilarous. Perhaps “honky tonk” was an effort to reclaim and put a positive, celebratory spin on this terrible slur.
I think the word racism is completely over used. Even for slights that have nothing to do with race. Some days – I’m not even sure if people understand the meaning of racism.
I find the word in this day an age HIGHLY funny!!! my sisters last name is Graham we are always sayin ‘here come the Krackers’
Oh but thn again not much offends me…i have 3 beans yanno ♥
I love the word “honky” and I can tell you it was still in use 10 years ago when I got lost lost in a not-so-good area of town and pulled over for directions and the cashier said, “man, you must be one STUPID honky.”
All I thought of was the SNL sketch, and Elton John’s “Get Back, Honky Cat” song.
I’m okay with Honky, Whitey, Red neck…what the heck call me what you will. My only complaint is that if an ethnic group finds a word offensive…then DON’T use it amongst yourselves either! I hate it when rappers use the “N” word…and then would freak if I did. Just like if I called myself a Honky…then flipped out if a Asian or black or hispanic person called me that. Offensive should be offensive no matter what color your skin is. Otherwise it’s just to darn confusing!
You’ve got me laughing. Before I even saw the picture of George Jefferson, his face was going through my mind as I read the word “Honkey” How funny is that? Yes, it seems like a harmless word today. It’s archaic and as strange as saying “Groovy.” I also think “cracker” was also used as a duragatory word.
Lol. I just had to read your post, because I have never heard that word before, but of course I know what a donkey is.
Honky, cracker, nigger? These words have all basically lost their heft and punch from extreme overuse and age. Can’t say I’ve used or heard any of them much recently. And whatever happened to honky-tonk women anyway?
I must say I find the word honky very amusing – probably because I too remember the show The Jeffersons. It just doesn’t sound like a derogatory word ….
I’m a honky… and I don’t care.
I feel the same as you about the “n” word It is vile.
Cracker doesn’t bother me at all…
Just don’t call me late to dinner…then I’ll get pissed!
I know the word “honky” but have never been called it and wouldn’t care if I were…
Now “bitch” — that’s another story. Don’t like it. I don’t care who uses it, it’s nothing to aspire to!
Great blog.
😀
Pearl
Honky never offended me, neither did cracker and I’ve been called both. And in those instances when I was called such silly words, I nearly peed my pants from laughing so hard.
Okay, what I find so very entertaining is the fact that if I used this word around my kids, they would be clueless as to what I meant. But they love to spew what they know about sexual harrassment to me. Am I the only one, or is it strange that my 14yo son talks about someone calling somebody else “gay” and pointing out that it’s sexual harrassment to say so.
Honkey…heehee…that is a funny word. Sounds like the name of a clowsn.
*gasp* Juuuust kidding….
I think if someone seriously tried to insult me with the word honky, I wouldn’t know how to react. I don’t think I’d be able to do anything but laugh.
Wow, I haven’t heard that word in forever either. It does sound kinda funny, unlike a lot of other words out there which just sound downright mean. I guess it’s all in how it’s used.
I think I might have laughed too. Nicknames for white people just aren’t funny. Cracker, redneck…well, maybe “white trash.”
Come on now. Everybody knows that racism only works one way. It flows from whites to everyone else. That’s why shit that would be racist if us whitey’s did it isn’t racist if anybody else does it!
I grew up in GA and I have been called honky, GA cracker, and I was even called a “white honky Bit*h” by a little black/african american (whatever) boy who was with his father. I have also been called racist by a few black people when they did not get what they wanted. Honky and cracker, I could care less about and they are funny. The WHB remark was very offensive considering the little boy was with his father, who did nothing. I would have beat my kids down for using the N-word personally. Racist really ticks me off because it tends to get used, as I said, when someone doesn’t get what they want. I say; “I am not racist, I hate every body equally.” BTW I was married to a man who is white/Japanese/Chinese/South Pacific Islander so my kids have practically all the bases covered.
I hope Prince Harry doesn’t read this blog… he might learn a new word!
Honky … horny … what’s the difference?
I think Honky is funny, not offensive but then some people say ‘bitch’ like it’s a bad thing. So what do I know.
Funny, though, I was usually the one threatening to wash my parents’ mouths out for using the N word, and other less-offensive but definitely un-PC words.
Why the EFF do I always have problems commenting on your blog?
Are you sending out some crazy honky goat heebie jeebies to my computer??
Sorry…
Hey woman! Remember me?
I grew up in Helena, MT where the population makeup was about 99% white peeps and 1% Native American.
I’d never heard of any of the derogatory terms or stereotypes until I moved to Michigan.
When I first got here, I was always in danger of offending people completely unknowingly. Here’s an example:
I was driving my teen-age Stepson through the McDonald’s drive-through in mid-January quite a few years back. I ordered him some Chicken McNuggets and they came over the speaker and said they were out of McNuggets.
I ordered him something else and when we got up to the window, I said, “I can’t believe you’re out of McNuggets? Must be because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day yesterday, huh?”
My stepson looked like he was going to pass out and squeaked out, “MOOOOOOOM! That is SO RACIST!”
I calmly said back to him, “Kid, they were selling the 20 Nugget packs yesterday for $5! Chill out!!”
Hey woman! Remember me?
I grew up in Helena, MT where the population makeup was about 99% white peeps and 1% Native American.
I’d never heard of any of the derogatory terms or stereotypes until I moved to Michigan.
When I first got here, I was always in danger of offending people completely unknowingly. Here’s an example:
I was driving my teen-age Stepson through the McDonald’s drive-through in mid-January quite a few years back. I ordered him some Chicken McNuggets and they came over the speaker and said they were out of McNuggets.
I ordered him something else and when we got up to the window, I said, “I can’t believe you’re out of McNuggets? Must be because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day yesterday, huh?”
My stepson looked like he was going to pass out and squeaked out, “MOOOOOOOM! That is SO RACIST!”
I calmly said back to him, “Kid, they were selling the 20 Nugget packs yesterday for $5! Chill out!!”
Want to hear something some people will consider “racist”?
I think that honkys go out of their way to be accepting of anything thrown at them because they were trained to be “socially acceptable” and “socially aware”.
And some people are trained to take offense and get all “in your face”. And so it goes.
It’s all about the ‘tude’.
For some reason everytime I hear the word honkey I’m reminded of the Yup-Yups from Sesame Street.
I don’t like to be called anything.
I don’t like to be called white, because I’m not, I’m decidedly porcelain. I don’t like to be called Caucasian because I was never on The Jeffersons.
And don’t call me honky because I am not a donkey. I just wonder what your mother would have said if you had called her a honky.
*gasp*
Chris Rock has a great skit about all things you can call whiteys, honkey being one of them. I enjoy saying it at times, but agree, it’s a dumb word.
Sigh. I am not only a honky, but I am an ooooold honky. So old that I watched the Jeffersons on TV. With an antennae.
I think of the exact same thing when I think of the word Honky. Although there are some words that should never be uttered, I think it’s all about the intent of the person who says it.
I couldn’t even use the N word.
I had a honky jelly bean the other day.
Donkeys are so funny looking. As are goats.
This was a pretty inspired post for a honkey.
I always thought the word was funny. I think it has to do with the nasal way us honkeys have of speaking. Honkey has a much shorter history than our derogatory words for others -350 years for the N word along with unimaginable abuse and maybe 10 for honkey – plus Jefferson re-runs, of course.
I horrified my daughter recently when we passed some livestock on the way to the grocery store and I spotted a little white donkey. When I exclaimed, “OMG.. IT’S A HONKY DONKEY!” she expressed her horror at my political uncorrectiveness.
Sometimes I think sense of humor skips a generation.
Would you have been offended if he’d called you a Honky C_nt?
Just wondering. 😉
To be honest, I kinda find “cracker” more offensive than “honkey” but maybe that’s just me. . .
A couple of years ago, my husband, who is half black, and I had some fun with my family (including my darling little sister-in-law who once actually tried to explain her neighbors’ bizarre behavior by whispering to me “well, they’re colored.”). I brought a sweet potato pie for the holiday dessert and explained that hubby had told me that it was all the rage among The Coloreds. . . meanwhile, he offered the faint praise that “it’s not bad for a White Girl.” That sort of thing. . .
We did draw the line, though, at watermelon. He hates the stuff.
I never knew about it. I just knew cracker or gringo.
That is such a dumb word. It just doesn’t really have a hard hitting punch to it and that’s probably because of what you said…it’s too much like donkey.
I’d never even heard the word Honky til now!
Well it doesn’t bother me, the “N” word does or some reason and I will not use that word. But it might offend some so maybe we should now have the “N” word and the “H” word, They go well with the “C” word and the “F” word. soon we will have the whole thing done and we will just be talking in letters……oh we are lol
you’re such a funny honky…….