The Daily Omnivore

Hillbilly is a term (often derogatory) for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia in the east but also the Ozarks in the center of the country. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term can be offensive to those Americans of Appalachian heritage.

Origins of the term are obscure. According to Anthony Harkins in ‘Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon,’ it first appeared in print in a 1900 ‘New York Journal’ article, with the definition: ‘a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him.’

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Honky is a racial slur for white people, predominantly heard in the United States. The first recorded use of honky in this context may date back to 1946, although the use of ‘Honky Tonk’ (a type of bar common in the South) appeared in films well before that time.

The exact origins of the word are generally unknown and postulations about the subject vary. Honky may derive from the term ‘xonq nopp’ which, in the West African language Wolof, literally means ‘red-eared person’ or ‘white person.’ The term may have been brought to the US by slaves.

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Cracker is a derogatory term for white people, especially poor rural whites in the Southern United States. In reference to a native of Florida or Georgia, however, it is sometimes used in a neutral or positive context and is sometimes used self-descriptively with pride as a form of reappropriation. There are multiple suggested etymologies for ‘cracker,’ most dating its origin to the 18th century or earlier.

One theory holds that the term derives from the ‘cracking’ of whips, either by slave foremen in the antebellum South against African slaves, or by rustics to guide their cattle. Those white foremen or rural poor who cracked their whips theoretically became known as ‘crackers.’ Another whip-derived theory is based on Florida’s ‘cracker cowboys’ of the 19th and early 20th centuries; distinct from the Spanish ‘vaquero’ and the Western ‘cowboy.’ Cracker cowboys did not use lassos to herd or capture cattle. Their primary tools were cow whips and dogs.

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An angry white male (AWM) is a pejorative reference to someone with what is typically known as a traditional conservative viewpoint, especially in the context of U.S. politics, characterized by opposition to racial quotas, political correctness, affirmative action, and other liberal policies.

The movies ‘Joe,’ ‘Falling Down,’ and Clint Eastwood’s performances in both the ‘Dirty Harry’ series and ‘Gran Torino’ have been described as definitive explorations of the angry white male. The protagonist of ‘Falling Down,’ a former defense worker who descends into a spiral of increasing rage and violence, was widely reported upon as a representative of the stereotype.