Honky
Disrespectful term for a white person, typically used by Black Americans in the late 1960s and early 1970s, at the height of the Black Power movement, as a conscious retort to the n-word. There is no general agreement on the derivation of the term. The term 'hunky', once used as a slur against Hungarian and other Central European immigrants, may have served as a model: or it may have been adapted from 'honky-tonk', a type of country music favoured by whites, to signify whiteness in general.
Unlike the n-word, 'honky' achieved little cultural traction in its original usage, and never seems to have been reappropriated by those at who it was aimed (there are no 'proud honkies'). It is mainly encountered now in popular literature and movies of the period, and otherwise sounds very much of its time.
Unlike the n-word, 'honky' achieved little cultural traction in its original usage, and never seems to have been reappropriated by those at who it was aimed (there are no 'proud honkies'). It is mainly encountered now in popular literature and movies of the period, and otherwise sounds very much of its time.
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