RUSH: Let’s go to the phones. Rich in Manchester, Michigan, you’re first. I’m glad you waited, and welcome to the program.
CALLER: Rush, how are you today?
RUSH: Fine, sir. Thank you very much.
CALLER: Good. You’ve been talking to me for over 20 years now. It’s a thrill to be able to talk back at you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Even though it’s to take issue. I got an issue with this cracker thing that’s going on in the news and on talk radio. You know, it’s like, you know, kill the cracker women, kill the cracker babies, kill every iota of a cracker, and it’s a very offensive racial epithet.
RUSH: I wholeheartedly agree.
CALLER: I think what we need to do, maybe, is try something a little less offensive, like maybe ‘C-word.’
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait a second. You think I need to be less offensive?
CALLER: Well, I think everybody does, including you. I didn’t really think that you would be getting in on this cracker thing that’s all over the media, but —
RUSH: Well, see, that’s the point: It’s not all over the media. That is precisely the point, Rich.
CALLER: It is when you only listen to talk radio and watch Fox News. I could listen to CNN — or watch CNN.
RUSH: It’s not on CNN. It’s not on CBS, ABC, NBC, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today. It’s not there. Nobody’s talking about the offensive death threats that are being enunciated daily by the New Black Panther Party. Nobody’s talking about the voter fraud case the Department of Justice threw out because black defendants aren’t going to be prosecuted according to Obama and Eric Holder. It’s not all over the media, and now I’ve put it there where it deserves to be and it deserves to be in there because the rest of the country needs to know who it is that’s talking this way.
CALLER: I understand, but don’t you think it would be a little less offensive if you heard, like, ‘I want to kill every iota of a C-word instead’ of cracker?
RUSH: I don’t know what you mean by ‘C-word.’
CALLER: Ummm. Well, it’s because it’s a racial epithet.
RUSH: If I start talking about ‘killing every C-word,’ nobody’s going to know what the hell I’m talking about. There’s a bunch of different possibilities for C-word. I don’t even want to get into them.
CALLER: Oh, you’re right. Yeah.
RUSH: Yeah. I always am right — and, by the way, offensive? When did that ever bother me? The purpose here is not to be offensive or to not offend. The way I look at it, you can’t go through life without offending people these days. There are people who live to be offended. Speaking personally, I don’t give people the power to offend me. I don’t. I don’t give people that much power to make me upset by what they say. But this is serious stuff. We’ve got Barack Obama. We got a supposedly a postracial country now, a postracial president, postpartisan. We’re supposed to be in utopia now, and the tea party is being called racist by the NAALCP! Obama finally has a grievance with Al-Qaeda. They’re racist! All of this is absurd, and what I do is illustrate the absurd by being absurd.
So George Steinbrenner passes away and I say, ‘That cracker made a lot of millionaires outta African-Americans.’ It’s undeniably true. According to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Shabazz, King Samir Shabazz, people like that describe them as crackers because he’s white. But he made millionaires out of a lot of African-Americans. Well, if they can use the word with impunity, because it’s not circulated widely that they’re speaking this way — and these are people that the Department of Justice is protecting, Rich. Malik Shulu Zulu Shabazz, King Shamir Shabazz — who is a minister, by the way. The Department of Justice refers to him as a minister, and he’s out talking about killing cracker babies, and this man is being shielded from prosecution by the Obama Justice Department. And what about the original, legitimate crackers?
Does anybody know who the original legitimate crackers were? I will hold off in informing you about this. But there are original crackers and they should be offended at all this, and I’m not talking about Ritz or Saltine. There are some original crackers, and I’m not talking about graham crackers. I especially don’t want to upset him. The original crackers are native Floridians. Brian, a native Floridian, is a cracker. The term was originally applied to native Floridians. A cracker. The term has now been co-opted by the New Black Panther Party and its affiliates and allies. So I’m sorry if it offends you, but the fact is it’s not being reported. The people who are using the term in a derogatory fashion, who are threatening violence and death against white people and white babies are being protected and shielded by the Obama, Eric Holder Justice Department. So that’s why we make a big deal.
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RUSH: All right, from the Urban Dictionary, the definition of ‘cracker’ from the Urban Dictionary: ‘White slave driver,’ because he would crack the whip. So that’s the definition of a ‘cracker’ in the Urban Dictionary. In Florida, the cowboys of Florida were called cracker cowboys, in modern times (which is now for those of you in Rio Linda). ”Florida cracker’ is used informally by some Floridians to indicate that their family has lived here for many generations. It’s considered a source of pride to be descended from frontier people who did not just live but flourished in Florida during a time before air-conditioning, mosquito repellent, and screens.’ So Senator Bill Nelson is an esteemed and proud cracker, you might say.
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RUSH: St. Louis, Michigan. This is Eileen. It’s great to have you here. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. Rush, I just wanted to call and give you the definition of a cracker since I am a descendant of a true cracker of Palm Beach County.
RUSH: Oh, cool.
CALLER: My grandfather was born in Palm Beach County in 1898.
RUSH: You’re talking about Palm Beach County, Florida?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: And I was also born in Palm Beach County in 1940. But the true definition of the cracker, they were cattlemen.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And they spent their days rounding up scrub cattle, and then they would drive them to Fort Myers, and they would use the whip on the drives, and crack the whip over the cattle and they would sell them and load them on boats and sell them to Cuba.
RUSH: So the crackers sold cattle to Cuba?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And that’s where they got their name, they called them crackers.
RUSH: Thank you very much, Eileen.
CALLER: That is the history of the crackers. They were pioneers.
RUSH: You can find the original usage of the word ‘cracker’ in Shakespeare. Yeah, you can find a definition of cracker that means supreme ego. I mean there’s many kinds of crackers. And, by the way, some of you have written to correct me, thinking that I incorrectly identified the British biscuits as crackers, that those are cookies. I know that. I was just looking for any excuse to use the word ‘cracker’ today. I know that British biscuits are cookies, and I know that British crisps are potato chips, but ‘cracker’ is the word of the day.
Now, I have a question that I want to ask all of you. We are told in our culture that it’s okay for members of groups to use derogatory or inflammatory or offensive terms about themselves but that nobody else can. For example, it’s okay for rappers and others in the black community to call each other the N-word, but nobody else can. If you do that they’ll Imus you. But we are crackers, are we not? They say we are crackers. Well, Snerdley, you’re not, but I mean according to the New Black Panther Party, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Minister King Samir Shabazz, we’re crackers. Therefore we can use the term, right? I can call Brian a cracker. I can call Steinbrenner a cracker. I can call Dawn a cracker ’cause I am one, right? Isn’t this the way it works? But they can’t call us crackers. If they call us crackers it’s offensive, but somehow something’s gotten out of whack here ’cause I called Steinbrenner a cracker and I’m the one committing the offensive act, from other crackers. Steinbrenner and I are both crackers, according to King Zulu Shabazz or whoever it is. So we can use the term, they can’t, but they use it and then get away with it. I’m just saying.