This is a throwaway because by the nature of the question you might be able to guess enough about my identity to figure out who I am. I accept that risk but I would like to know opinions from others. I would note that I’m asking because I want to know if I should change things, not because I want to confirm my already-existing opinion.

I’m a white male millennial in the USA. My name has closely been associated with the word “cracker” since early childhood, not in a racially-related way (AFAIK). I don’t really like “cracker” in combination with my name, but I suppose it grew on me. Ever since college I started naming things “cracker*” when I couldn’t think of something better. The biggest example is what started as using it for my wifi name (“crackernet”), and grew with my home network and homelab.

I knew growing up that white people were called crackers and I didn’t think much more of it because for effective purposes I was already called cracker when I met someone new anyway. I recently learned about why:

It has been suggested that white slave foremen in the antebellum South were called “crackers” owing to their practice of “cracking the whip” to drive and punish slaves.

That’s really something I don’t want to be associated with, especially before someone has met me. It would be fine if it was something I kept private because I know how it originated for my usage, but my wifi name is broadcasted to my neighbors and anyone who is close enough to my home. It’s important to me to not unnecessarily offend others and I don’t want someone to be thinking about slave drivers because of my unintentional naming choice.

So, could it be offensive for me to use the word “cracker” in this way?

  • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    111·
    10 hours ago

    Eh. If you’re worried about people thinking it’s a weird or offensive name, just pick another name. You don’t have to use it.

    As an aside: I wouldn’t broadcast a variant of my name as a network name or mention it on social media. I don’t think anything bad is likely to happen, but it’s just good practice.

    • crackerquestion@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      6·
      10 hours ago

      If you’re worried about people thinking it’s a weird or offensive name, just pick another name.

      That’s a good point. I think most of my resistance to doing it so far is all the different devices with different software to change it and thinking of a new name (bit of a perfectionist). Realistically, it would only take a few hours at most to get everything sorted.

      Thanks.