“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. |
2 Responses to ““Canadian” the new N-word euphemism?”
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I think I can help.
I worked in the bar/restaurant industry for a long time.
Believe me or not, find it wrong or right, it’s accepted as a truism that Black folks don’t tip very much, if at all.
Sorry, it’s just true and Black co-workers acknowledged it, as well.
Now, tipping is not a tradition in Canada and bartenders and waitresses in the northern states have just learned to accept that, too.
So, again, wrong or right, I could guess that “Canadians” became slang for someone who you don’t expect to tip very well and, since wait-persons live for tips, you can imagine that a deigrative term for any group of person who will impact your evenings wages will arise.
Again, wrong or right, it just is.
Dave, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve read today. Congratulations.
It probably developed because it was a way of distinguishing people that don’t tip with a non-insulting phrase that only coworkers would pick up on.
And racists are losing what little balls they had. Probably too many African Americans were beating their asses in, so they decided to compliment them instead.
Of course, I’d sure as hell love to see some Burly Hockey Players beat the ever-loving **** out of some Slack-jawed Southerners.