“Canadian” the new N-word euphemism?
It’s come to my attention that “Canadian” is the new n-word, something that is both baffling and disturbing to me:
The bigger mystery is how “Canadian” came to be code for black. An online directory of racial slurs defines Canadian as a “masked replacement” for black.
Last August, a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. “She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn’t understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else,” the blogger wrote.
“After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian’ was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using to describe persons they would have previously referred to nigger.”
A similar case in Kansas City was reported last year on a Listserv, or electronic mailing list, used by linguistics experts. A University of Kansas linguist said that a waitress friend reported that “fellow workers used to use a name for inner-city families that were known to not leave a tip: Canadians. ‘Hey, we have a table of Canadians…. They’re all yours.’”
The article concludes that the term “Canadian” is being used by racists to refer to black Americans because it affords a cultured sense of otherness, and because other immigrant nationalities, such as “Mexican,” would have been too obvious.
Urban Dictionary at least lends some credence to this alternate definition, odious as it is. Hopefully this is just a linguistic passing phase, limited only to a few select idiots in the Southern USA.
Update: There is an article in Passport Foreign Policy which says, “There is just so much wrong with this situation on so many levels that I don’t even know where to begin. So, you be the judge.”
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 8:47 pm and is tagged with inner city families, urban dictionary, alternate definition, passing phase, n word, southern usa, racial slurs, fellow workers, otherness, derogatory term, black americans, southerners, electronic mailing, racists, linguist, credence, nigger, nationalities, university of kansas, waitress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
Leave a Reply
Please take time to enjoy the archives: June 2008 (2) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (1) February 2008 (1) January 2008 (3) October 2007 (2) September 2007 (1) August 2007 (3) July 2007 (4) June 2007 (3) May 2007 (2) April 2007 (5) March 2007 (3) February 2007 (3) January 2007 (1) December 2006 (3) November 2006 (4) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (3) August 2006 (2) February 2006 (3) January 2006 (2) December 2005 (3) November 2005 (2) October 2005 (4) September 2005 (1) August 2005 (5) July 2005 (4) June 2005 (1) May 2005 (3) April 2005 (8) March 2005 (8) February 2005 (8) January 2005 (11) December 2004 (6) November 2004 (6)
Fresh, related resources:
- ?Canadian? the new N-word euphemism?
It?s come to my attention that ?Canadian? is the new n-word, something that is both baffling and disturbing to me:. The bigger mystery is how ?Canadian? came to be code for black. An online directory of racial slurs defines Canadian as ...