Honky

For other uses, see Honky (disambiguation).

Honky (also spelled honkie or sometimes honkey) is a racial slur for white people, predominantly heard in the United States. The first recorded use of honky in this context possibly dates to 1946 (although the use of Honky Tonk appeared in films well before that time), yet the exact origins of the word are generally unknown.

Honky may be a variant of hunky, which was a variant of Bohunk, a slur for Bohemian-Hungarian immigrants in the early 1900s. Honky may also derive from the term "xonq nopp" which, in the West African language Wolof means, literally, "red-eared person" or "white person". The term may have originated with Wolof-speaking slaves brought to the US.

Another documented theory and possible explanation for the origins of the word is that it was a nickname African-American people gave white men (called "johns" or "curb crawlers") who would honk their car horns for prostitutes to come outside in urban areas such as Harlem and red-light districts in the early 1910s.

Honky was adopted as a pejorative in 1967 by black militants within Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) seeking a rebuttal for the term nigger. National Chairman of the SNCC, H. Rap Brown, on June 24, 1967, told an audience of blacks in Cambridge, "You should burn that school down and then go take over the honky's school." Brown went on to say: "If America don't come round, we got to burn it down. You better get some guns, brotha. The only thing the honky respects is a gun. You give me a gun and tell me to shoot my enemy, I might shoot Ladybird."

Honky has occasionally (if intentionally ironically) been used even for whites supportive of African-Americans, as seen in the 1968 trial of Black Panther Party member Huey Newton, when fellow Panther Eldridge Cleaver created pins for Newton's white supporters stating "Honkies for Huey."

In music and entertainment

The word honky-tonk may refer to a particular type of country music or entertainment, most commonly provided at bars for its patrons.

Country musicians such as David Allen Coe and other successful artists have used the words honky and honky-tonk in popular songs such as: "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" (Kitty Wells), "Honky Tonk Women" (The Rolling Stones), "Honky Cat" (Elton John), "Honky Tonk Blues" (Hank Williams), "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow" (Alan Jackson) and "Honky Tonk Man" (Johnny Horton).

Honky Tonk Man has also been used for popular culture purposes including The Honky Tonk Man (a ring name and persona for professional wrestler Roy Wayne Farris) and Honky Tonk Man (an album by innovating country rock musician Steve Young).

Other uses of honky in music may refer to Honky (an album by Melvins), The Chicago Honky (a style of polka music), MC Honky (DJ stage persona), Honky Château (an album by Elton John), Talkin' Honky Blues (an album by Buck 65) and Honky (an album by Keith Emerson).

The long version of the 1976 Disco/Funk hit "Play That Funky Music", by Wild Cherry, mentions "honky" towards the end of the song.

Television and film

In a popular sketch on Saturday Night Live (SNL), Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor used both nigger (Chase) and honky (Pryor) in reference to one another during a "racist word association interview". During this period, SNL also aired (musical guest and stand-up regular) Steve Martin's rendition of "King Tut," which contained in its lyrics the word honky. Even though it was intended as light hearted humor, it questions the Afro/Arabic ethnicity of Tutankhamun-disputed amongst Egyptologists to this day.

On the TV series The Jeffersons, George Jefferson regularly referred to a white person as a honky (or whitey) as did Redd Foxx on Sanford and Son. This word would later be popularized in episodes of Mork & Mindy by Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters.

The neighbor on the TV show Love Thy Neighbour, played by Rudolph Walker, would often refer to his bigoted white neighbor (Jack Smethurst) as 'honky'. The Canadian TV show Jamaican For Honkeys, starring comedians Kevin Jackal Johnston and Trixx, uses the term in the show title. In an episode of Family Guy, Peter Griffin uses the word to try to get out of jury duty.

These and other shows, as exemplified by the controversial All in the Family, attempted to expose racism/prejudice as an issue in society using the subversive weapon of humor. However, the effect that this theme had on television created both negative and positive criticism.

In film, Honky is a 1971 movie based on an interracial relationship (starring Brenda Sykes as Sheila Smith and John Neilson as Wayne "Honky" Devine). There were some movies using honky without any derogatory connotation. Honky Tonk is a 1929 American musical film starring Sophie Tucker. And Honky Tonk is also a 1941 black-and-white Western film starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner.

Honky Tonk is also a 1974 Western film starring Richard Crenna and Margot Kidder. Additionally, Honkytonk Man is a 1982 drama film set in the Great Depression. Clint Eastwood, who produced and directed the film, stars in the film with his son Kyle Eastwood.

Other meanings and uses

In Australia and Singapore and also in Hongkong / Hong Kong itself, the term is used in a casual nature to refer to people originating from Hong Kong.

Honky is also a familiar short form for "honcarenko" (pronounced "honk-a-ren-ko") which is the Slavic word for "Ukrainian".