Buckra

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>I seem to remember it (defined in one of Stirling's stories) as derived from
>buckram, a heavily sized coarse cotton fabric used to stiffen collars (which
>would have probably been only worn by white men), and being S. Carolina
>(maybe Gullah) B.E., but not derogatory.

>On a related note:  I was recently reading S.M. Stirlings "Islands in the
>Sea of Time" series of alternate history novels.  In them, a major character
>is a black woman Coast Guard officer from the Gullah region of South
>Carolina.  She refers to whites, occasionally, as "buckra".  That's a new
>one on me -- is it derogatory (it didn't seem so, from the context)?

DARE has a number of citations, under these definitions: (1) master, boss;
(2a) any white person [now usu. derog.]; (2b) poor white person, white
trash; (3) [attrib.] white.

The origin is said to be West African (e.g., Efik "mbakara" = "European"
[OED]) via Gullah; I think this is plausible although I don't know that
it's established firmly.

The first time I encountered it was in one of the James Bond novels, where
it was a rude epithet used in (IIRC) Jamaica in reference to a white person.

It appeared in one or more of some stories by Chesnutt (late 19th century)
which I read a few years ago: it referred to poor people who were white (or
considered white), and it was not derogatory there as I understood it.

-- Doug Wilson