Remembering Buckra
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It is a perjorative term directed toward white men by black people and originates from the Gullah populations indigenous to the coastal lowcountry and sea islands of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Now, when I was much younger I had been called buckra by a few of the people in my life but I never took offense. This is primarily due to my lack of sophistication and my general amusement with those around me in my youthful failure to understand.
Besides, the word was directed at me by those familiar to me and with whom I interacted regularly. I've never placed a lot of store in 'calling names' anyway.
Nowadays, I can't remember the last time anyone called me 'buckra' but can assure you that it would not be met with much more than that which it stirred in me at 17; which was essentially nothing.
I'm simply not a person who gets set off by any such terms of endearment or even the casting of aspersions by others because I am already far worse than anyone else could ever imagine.
There's something about a particularly powerful and commanding vocabulary which, unlike the lame ebonics largely spoken by the leadership and app group within the IT department of the city of columbia though the discussion is "supposed" to be technical can turn a situation into a gunfight if you allow it so I try not to arm myself with sticks in the presence of real firepower.
It's just not worth it to get all bent out of shape over something you can easily quash with a look, or a few minutes of strangulation, or the drawing of that formidable weapon ... and I have so many from which to choose.
People simply don't typically feel it necessary to "call me out" because I just don't go there anymore. I lack the interest in confrontation — yawn.
So all in all I'm much less the intolerant bully and more at ease than I once was in my impetuous youth. It's all in your experience with the world and it's denizens which makes the bulk of the difference. Hot headedness never benefitted me once. Therefore, those aspects were bound to diminish over time.
Call me what you will. If you set me off you'll wish you hadn't but I'll certainly let you get your entire thought out prior to pouncing on you should the need arise. I don't typically try to injure people anymore. It's just not worth it. I just tolerate the stupid as long as I can then move on.