Honky, We Hardly Knew Ye

Given all the press that the word "nigger" has been receiving lately, what with books about it and white comedians blurting it out uncontrollably, we at Unfettered Letters thought it a good time to look more closely at the history of another racially charged word: the much beloved and lamented "honky." Popularized in the 1970s as an alternative to the "n-word," "honky" was invented in order to serve as a way to give Whitey a taste of his own medicine, and give blacks a way to demean The Man, just as they had been demeaned for centuries. It was, as the cultural anthropologists say, a "cultural correlative." But "honky" had one big problem when it came to its future as a viable slur: it was kind of funny sounding. Thus, "honky" began to acquire comedic properties, was largely deflated of its potential for making its targets debased or enraged, and fell out of popular usage. To many in the black and left-leaning white communities, this was a real shame. Given the Tea Party/New Klan militia activity, and the fact that finally Whitey is on the run, many feel it is time to bring "honky" back.

Lester Newton, grand-nephew of 60s black radical Huey P. Newton, and founder of the New Black Power Movement, or "blappies," as its members are known, puts it this way: "We really suffer from a lack of racial slurs for whites in this country. Many people have simply not taken to the traditional white epithets in the same way our culture has embraced the word "nigger" – and as a result white slurs have just languished in the forgotton file cabinets of our collective memory. I mean ‘Cracker?’ Whitey just laughs it off. Even "Whitey" doesn’t work anymore. All of the slurs that used to work are virtually obsolete: ‘paleface,’ ‘Angloid,’ ‘Alabama Albino,’ ‘golf-monkey,’ "martini-head,’ ‘Pat Boonies,’ mayonnaise eaters,’ ‘Wonder Bread bitches,’ ‘fluffer-nutter motherfuckers,’ ‘Volvo whores,’ BMW S.O.B’s,’ "Lake Wobegofuckyourselves," ‘Updicks,’ Cheever Beavers," ‘l’il penis," ‘serial killer,’ ‘ski-lift skanks,’ ‘thin-nose,’ a-capellapussies,’ etc. etc.  They’ve all gone by the wayside." He looks away wistfully. "We really need to return to a tradition of successful white slurs. Young black men have enough problems already – an unfair justice system, drugs, poverty – with being denied some time-tested possibilities for insulting and denigrating white men." Newton is determined to do something about this. He has been traveling the country, educating audiences at high schools and colleges, and promoting his new book, "Honkie: A Philosophical and Sociological Argument For The Re-Institution of a Misunderstood Word (or, Honky If you Love Me, or Why I Stopped Worrying and Learned To Love Chaz and Biff)." He even has devised a way for whites to use "honkie" or "the H-Word" in a relevant way – suggesting in his book that they call each other "honka" as a self-referential alternative to the normal usage. And Newton asks that all our readers send in their white epithets to our Etymological Editorial Board – for as he puts it, "we are always looking for new possibilites."