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re: Coon Ass
ER — (archived)

Lawton Chiles, the recently deceased and loved Florida governor was proud of his Cracker roots and liked to call himself an "old he-coon".

I think we spend too much time trying to avoid offending, and the result comes out not as respectful, but patronizing. There are a few key buzz words which are decidely offensive, usually known by the circumstances in which they are used and taken, and we all know what they are. But to scrutinize every slang term for potential slur-value and replacing it with some euphemism strikes me as being offensive in its own way; like the big debate now on when and how to use Hispanic or Latino, Asian or Oriental, black or African-American or Negro, I still haven't been able to figure out which is which. At one time, even the word "guy" was an insult (the derivation was from the traitor Guy Fawkes of Gunpowder Plot fame). Today it is neutral.

Still, unless you and your subject come from a culture or a region that commonly uses or recognizes coon-ass as innocuous, it seems to me you had better know how to fight.

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