What is "buckra"

Buckra \Buck"ra\, n. [In the language of the Calabar coast, buckra means ``demon, a powerful and superior being.''
--J. L. Wilson.] A white man; -- a term used by negroes of the African coast, West Indies, etc.

Buckra \Buck"ra\, a. White; white man's; strong; good; as, buckra yam, a white yam.

disparaging term among U.S. blacks for "white person," especially a poor one, 1790, apparently from an African language; compare mbakara "master" in Efik, a language of the Ibibio people of southern Nigeria.

a. (context AAVE archaic English) white n. (context rare AAVE derogatory English) A poor white person.

Buckra is a slang offensive term primarily used by African-Americans in the Southeast United States to describe a white man or a boss. It is generally thought to derive from a word in the Efik and Ibibio languages, "mbakara", meaning "master."

"De nigger was de right arm of de buckra class. De buckra was de horn of plenty for de nigger. Both suffer in consequence of freedom."...(Moses Lyles, a former slave in South Carolina, speaking in the 1930s). As clearly noted in this 1916 publication, there was also the white trash level of buckra, referred by both Southern races as "poor buckras"...locally pronounced "po' buckras".