As you may have heard by now, new Alabama football coach Nick Saban has gotten himself into a little bit of trouble after using the word "coonass" to refer to a man of Cajun heritage in an off-the-record but still-taped chat with Miami media (Deadspin). One of the reasons that the incident has aroused attention—even though the word appears to be on the lighter end of the slur spectrum— is because it (intentionally or not [Wikipedia]) combines the words "coon," which is a pretty derogatory term for black people, with "ass," which can also be a somewhat mean word. Confusion over the nature of the term has led to two separate government incidents in which a black person complained after misconstruing the nature of the insult.
In 1997, a jury awarded $120,000 to a black Department of Energy employee based in DC who brought a racial harassment suit against a Cajun DOE employee who gave her (and other white employees) an "Honorary Coon Ass" certificate to commemorate a training session he hosted in Texas. (You can read more about it here.)
In 1992, chief of Seattle's ferry system was docked two days pay after a black co-worker complained that he used the term "a real coon's ass" in a conversation. The chief was describing a Cajun friend from Louisiana.
While many Cajuns find the term to be derogatory, others have claimed it as their own. As James Carville said once on Crossfire, "I am not a redneck, I am a coon-ass. And damn proud to be a coon-ass."
Subscribe to the Gelflog RSS
Comment Rules
The following HTML is allowed in comments:
Bold: <b>Text</b>
Italic: <i>Text</i>
Link:
<a href="URL">Text</a>