The sadness of Rachel Jeantel's testimony

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. "Cracker" isn't even always a derogatory term, although it is often used as such.

There is a old Florida culture about "crackers" being 19th century cattle ranchers, who got their name by cracking their whips while herding cattle. There's cracker cuisine and cracker architecture, and cracker culture was popularized by "Yearling" author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. There's nothing intrinsically racist about "crackers" in that sense.

Granted, "cracker" can also have a somewhat negative connation as a term that blacks might use against whites they deem racist, and that's quite possible Trayvon meant to describe Zimmerman in that context. Even so, I don't see that necessarily as a negative for the case, as it showed Trayvon appeared naturally suspicious of Zimmerman.

And in no way is either "cracker" or "n___a" as derogatory or inflammatory as "n_____r."