North Dallas suburb's school board changes nickname from Coons [Racially Offensive]

Associated Press ^ | March 5, 2002 | A/P Staff

[Sloth]

Why would the Klan carve a racial slur on a dead man who is obviously black?

Of course, the Klan only acts rationally, huh?

[MeekOneGOP]

Many of the people who live in that state call themselves ‘Coon Asses’.

A lady I used to work with was born and raised in Port Arthur, Texas to Cagin' parents. She used to refer to herself as being a Coon-Ass. I've never heard it explained where those monikers came from (Coon-Ass and Cagin). Do you know?

[TxBec]

ya mean Cajun? I know they call themselves CA's a lot. don't know why though

[Cicero]

Cagin' sounds like Cajun to me--i.e., N'orleans French.

[MeekOneGOP]

A fellow I work with has a coffee mug emblazoned with "Frisco Coons". I guess it's now a collector's item.

Tell him to hang onto it. Some old RAcoon might pay good money for it one day! :O)

[DancesWithTrout]

Our local (rural) school hired a pc monkey fresh out of college last year. He felt our mascot was offensive because it projected a warrior mentality and that promoting war was wrong. He tried to begin a student movement to have it changed, but the student body and community managed to ridicule him back into his hole. We have a new teacher this year. small victories.

[CWRWinger]

You won't have a problem with changing Washington, DC to MLK City, would you?

[Sloth]

No reason to, as far as I'm concerned, though I'm sure the modern population of that city certainly identifies more with MLK than George Washington.

[MeekOneGOP]

Probably because for the 30 years you've lived here, Frisco was just a little town until about 4 or 5 years ago. Now it's one of the fastest growing cities in the country.

IMO ... this case is a joke. I don't understand why some people are so over-sensitive about things like this. Sure, kids with no consciences from other schools may use it to pick on the kids from Frisco, but other than that, 'Coon has always meant Racoon as far as I'm concerned.

Actually, I have an aunt and uncle that have a mobil home in Frisco. They moved about a year ago to the Cleburne area where they own a couple of homes. Frisco has grown from nothing quickly, that's true. I think Bill Bates, the ex-Dallas Cowboy, has a home there and used to have a Shindig there just before the regular season opened every year.

I've heard it used both for Racoon and racially, and I'm sure the kids do take a ribbing about it from rival schools.

[MeekOneGOP]

That's right, they did change it from Confederate Air Force.

[Gaston]

I'm not defending the Klan. I just don't believe anyone who says I knew a man who knew a man who had a grandfather who........

It's the stuff urban legends are made of.

[Deguello]

So now we can't have coon dogs?

All on needs to do is add the proper punctuation to the word to make a contraction. The proper change is make it now 'coon. Pretty easy to do and to then be able to keep our Southern slang proper without question of the origin.

[Destructor]

"Some students and parents in the North Dallas suburb had complained the nickname was racially offensive, and the Frisco School Board agreed Monday night, voting unanimously to change the nickname from Coons to Raccoons."

Apparently, they have way too much time on their hands up the in Frisco!

[MeekOneGOP]

ya mean Cajun? I know they call themselves CA's a lot. don't know why though

Oh, yeah. Cajun. Oops! :O)

[CWRWinger]

You believe everything is relative, don't you. I don't see a need to change from "Coon" to "Raccoon". It gives credibility to a leftist PC agenda which is bent on tearing down the past. If you don't have a past, you won't have a future.

[scan58]

While I don't care about the actual name change...'coons to raccoons, s'ok by me...the reasoning behind it is certainly to be pc. I heard about this a few days ago on the Dallas news.
I used to drive thru Frisco 10-12 yrs. ago. At that time, it seemed like just a small, quiet country town with a few older frame houses, a feed store, a local cafe, some old men in faded overalls...you know.
I remembered that when my family moved down to the Dallas area last year and I wanted that sort of older community. It's changed. The homes there are very expensive (too much for me) and it is the fastest growing part of the DFW metro. It's probably chock-full of 'liberal elites' now.

When I heard about the controversy, I was trying to imagine what it might be like to be a white person moving into a community of mostly black people whose HS team were called the "Crackers". That seemed an appropriate analogy, as the word "crackers" could be viewed with the same type of slant.
I dunno, it wouldn't bother me in the least.

[Dakmar]

I think cajun is a corruption of Acadian, the French Canadians who settled the area.

[fnord]

Cajun is short and slang for 'Arcadian', an area of Canada where the early settlers in Lousiana came from. Don't know about 'coon ass', but can't wait to hear.

[VOA]

bump

[scan58]

Coonass - Cajun, Acadian, or Creole descendents in Louisiana...or just someone that was born and raised in New Orleans. The name Coonass is considered the equivalent to "Red Neck", but is a term of endearment to the native Louisiana folks.
Actual COONASS Story: The name Coonass comes from the Atakapa-Ishak Indians. The Indians nickname for themselves was "Kon Nesh," pronounced also "Kon Nash" (Literally meaning, "One strong, tough, durable tree!") In time, that Indian nickname among the Cajuns devolved into the contrived, totally unrelated "Coonass." The latter never was a shunned name for those who knew and remembered its etymology.

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