Apparently, this is a derogatory term for white people. Oddly enough, I didn't find this out until my senior year of high school, and when I did, I laughed. A lot.
I was having a discussion with a bunch of people at lunch in the secret senior lounge. Somehow the conversation got around to talking about the word "nigger". Someone asked Kahleb, who is black, why it was OK for black people to call other black people niggers, but it wasn't OK for a white person (ah yes, the age old question). Kahleb was a good friend to some of us, and we were completely baffled as to why he would be offended by that, since he must know that we would mean nothing bad by it.
His response was, "Well, it's like if I called one of you a honky."
Baffled, we all kinda looked around, and Anne said, "A what?"
"You know, a honky? The white equivalent of nigger?"
We were all thoroughly shocked, and Anne and I both laughed and said that we wouldn't mind being called honkies at all.
In retrospect, I realize though that this is just another example of the huge racial divide that we're trying to break down. First of all, why do people know the word nigger but not the word honky? Second of all, why does it not insult us? Is it because of "white privilege"? Do we unconsciously take our place in society for granted, and because of it, not feel any sort of threat behind the word the way black people do with nigger?
A lot of difficult questions that need answers in order to dispel racial labels.
(odd that there are so many writeups under nigger yet so few under honky)
Other noders with honky discovery stories:
- 2002.02.20@16:35 Billy says re: honky; only time I heard it was on The Jeffersons...such is the result of growing up in a majorly white neighborhood i guess