cracker turkey

Cracker, sometimes white cracker or cracka, is an ethnic slur for white people,1 used especially for poor rural whites in the Southern United States. It is also at times used indiscriminately and pejoratively against any person of white background. However, it is sometimes used in a neutral or positive context or self-descriptively with pride in reference to a native of Florida or Georgia (see Florida cracker and Georgia cracker).

On its own, the term jive was slang all the way back in the 1940s for, among other senses, actions that ranged from foolish and frivolous to vile and deceitful. It was in the 1970s, though, when calling these shady fools jive turkeys became a thing. Turkeys are known to gobble, adding to the sense of jive, and have been variously used to insult someone as “dull” or “worthless.”

Then, in 1974 the funk band the Ohio Players released the song “Jive Turkey,” which uses the phrase repeatedly in the lyrics: “Give me it straight baby / Jive turkey, jive turkey / Jive turkey / Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.” No doubt there are some sexual undertones here, with jive also historically referring to sex. The insult jive turkey also appeared on popular 1970s-1980s sitcoms, such as The Jeffersons.