In re the "dropped voice" ... back when I was a teenager (when dinosaurs roamed ghe earth), my then boyfriend (my first!) and I went out to dinner with my parents and some friends of theirs. They lived in New Canaan, Connecticut, and were, to put it politely, less than enlightened. At one point my boyfriend mentioned someone and said he was "a real hunk" ... which led to the woman tugging on my arm and stage-whispering "A hunk! Does he mean he's a HUNKIE?". I was able to say that, no, in our arcane teenage language it just meant he was good looking.

I had never heard the word hunkie used as a slur before. Jeepers.

My rural 1970s upbringing was full of racial slurs, but I've never heard that one. I'm not even sure what it's supposed to mean. Black?

I was thinking it was a variation of "honky"

Did white people use that term? (Or maybe Todd's parents' friends weren't white?)

I'm realizing this is an area where I'm SUPER naive, so I'm going to stop making guesses.

I would guess from "bohunk."

I think it is Hungarian/Slavic

I think Sophia called it. I wish all the racists get my neighbor upstairs...white enough, but self-involved, lot of romantic drama(I know cause mucho Adele) and the hyperactive child that runs up and down the hall a thousand times a day and night. Seriously, sometimes I miss the drug dealers. All they did was vacuum and have cars park in the front of their place.

Definitely not something I head in rural Ohio in the 70s and 80s.

sometimes I miss the drug dealers. All they did was vacuum

Awww, drug dealers who keep a tidy house!