MovieChat Forums > Pittsburgh (1942) Discussion > "honkie"

"honkie"

posted 8 years ago by Ted-C
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An interesting little item from this movie is that in the course of the movie,
Marlene Dietrich's character refers to herself as a "honkie"! This didn't register with me when I saw the movie in a theater since the perjorative was not heard where I grew up in Seattle and Spokane before the 50's. The term became more widely heard after the Black Panthers began using it as rejoiner to Caucasians using the "N word". I noticed it immediately when watching "Pittsburgh" on television in the 70's.

[–] cine-buff 8 years ago

I believe they are saying 'hunky' which was a term referring to Hungarians, lots of whom worked in the coal mines in the early 20th century. It was one job they could do even without English language skills, having recently immigrating to the USA. Lots of other Eastern Europeans also came for coal jobs.