Saying someone was ‘white as a cracker’ in an essay?
Why? Just why…
“Cracker” clearly has other connotations…there are a lot of other things that are pale/white that can be used instead and would make far better choices…ghost/sheet/alabaster/flour/marble/cloud/paper…
If you mean it in the racist sense, perhaps you should rethink the point you are trying to make…
In what kind of essay would that EVER come up?
Yes and yes. And unnecessary
You could always say “white as a sheet.”
Oh wait…
The only situation in which I think you could write that a person was as white as something would be if, perhaps, they just experienced a terrifying experience, as in, “When the burning plane finally landed, my face was as white as a sheet.” Even then, it’s probably better to avoid. “White as a cracker” is not, as far as I know, an idiomatic expression in English, and sounds weird. Unless you are trying to refer to the insulting term for rural/Southern white people, it doesn’t even make much sense, because many crackers aren’t white in the first place.
Saying “white as a ghost” would be nearly the same as that, but not at all like saying “white as a cloud”. Go figger.
@Hunt I would never use such derogatory terms to describe people(honestly i didn’t know about the Southerners thing). I meant a thin crisp wafer…lol…just to be clear.
Ok…judging from the chilly reception from this test group, am cutting that out from my essay.
I hope noone was offended.
Based on the reactions from this CC focus group, it’s reasonable to project that u will get similar reactions from admissions readers.
In my (limited) opinion, it’s not quite as offensive as some other slurs/slang words, but it’s still racially charged, while something like “white as chalk” or “white as a ghost” is not.
I will point out that white “ghosts” played a large part in the whole Post-Civil War/Reconstruction history thing.
OK, now that we know you don’t mean the kind of “cracker” that I, as a Southerner, might be, here’s a more important point: a really good writer of English won’t write that a person (or even an object) is “as white as a cracker.” Why? Well, this is a matter of idiom. There are certain things that are proverbially white: sheets, ghosts, chalk milk–in English. Even though sheets aren’t always white. Crackers, even though they are sometimes white, don’t belong in that group, at least in English. (And although you might refer to somebody as “white bread” as a kind of mild insult, you wouldn’t refer to a person as “white as bread.”)
How is a person supposed to know this? Well, the best answer is that you know things like this by having read a great deal of well-written English prose. If you have, “white as a cracker” will just sound weird to you. Of course, if you’re in the process of writing your college essays, it’s too late to go and do a few years’ worth of reading. Instead, you have to show your essay to adults who are likely to be able to point out infelicities like that.
Considering your username is MalcolmX, not really surprised that you’re asking this
That seems uncalled for…
OP, even though I immediately knew you meant cracker in the thin crisp wafer sense, it was still an obvious no go given the obvious, alternative meaning of the word “cracker.”
Hope no one or nothing in the essay is as “black as a coon’s (as in raccoon) face.” @-)
While yes, I believe the KKK did wear the robes to resemble ghosts, I don’t think anyone would view “white as a ghost” to be racially charged like “white as a cracker” would be.
I will also toss in “white as snow” as another appropriate simile/idiom.
“White as snow” is a good one. I will note that referring to somebody as “white as snow” would be more likely to refer to their moral state than to their physical appearance. So, you might say, “I was as white as a sheet when I got off the roller coaster.” But you wouldn’t use “snow” in that sentence.
Just to say–I can’t imagine a college essay in which you’d need to say that a person was as white as anything (or black, either).
But say someone used it as a joke…what comes out funnier ‘white as a cracker’ or ‘white as snow’…it kind of loses its flair, doesnt it.
@iwannabe_Brown
Besides i wanna play the race card and say minorities cant be racist…just saying
MalcolmX? Really?
Better safe than sorry. Pick another simile.
Racist “jokes” aren’t jokes. What’s the point of this? Do you just want to be annoying and prove how tone-deaf you seem to be about race relations? Or what?