Is the term cracker considered a racial epithet?

[mactire]

24. "Scotch Irish"

If I’ve learned correctly from other historical texts and my own origins, the “Scotch Irish” are not from Celtic roots as Mr Ste Claire ascertains. They were descendants of planted people that took over the confiscated lands of native Irish folks in the province of Ulster, north east part of the island( in which six of the nine counties became the entity known as “Northern Ireland” a century ago, thus the moniker) These planters originated from northern English borderlands and lowland counties of Scotland which had little or no Celtic DNA. The galloglasses basically were from a different era, mostly from western Scotland(mostly Celts) and the outer isles and Hebrides, of which many had a mixed Celt- Viking background, and hardly friendly (or “loyal”) to the English usurpers. Many of those were people that travelled back and forth between Eire and Scotland through the generations of the kingdom of Dalraida which comprised much of the aforementioned areas. On a lighter note, I can’t contribute any explanation as to the origin of the term “ cracker “, but I do enjoy the term “craic”, of the same pronunciation as crack, meaning a grand old time or gathering, which has been used in both lands and is gaining popularity in places around the globe .