Crimson Tide's Saban under fire for Cajun slur
 

Yes as a Dolphin fan, I like the idea of Saban squirming a bit. When does he go to Baton Rouge again?

He's a jackass.

Anyword that contains both "coon" and "ass" is probably going to net out as offensive.

Just a little rule of thumb there...

My fav. defense is it was "off the record".

The guy is from Fairmont, WV. I haven't met a person from there that isn't a racist.

All language that we use has been heard or learned from elsewhere. Using that as an excuse for using offensive language is immature and irresponsible.

AND NOBODY KNOWS IMMATURE AND IRRESPONSIBLE LIKE NOMYTHS.

Expecting WVUFAN in the thread in 3 .... 2 ....

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ighlight=Saban

I'd like to call the fact that no one cared about this yesterday "the albionmoonlight effect" -- however I suspect it has more to do with the time of day it was posted yesterday. Any ideas for how to name that?

My father's side of the family is from Fairmont, WV and all of them are racists.

My father played HS baseball with Nick Saban.

I suspect it's because it was a play on the Biden thread and until I saw this link, I'm not sure I realized there were 2 threads with virtually the same name.

This snippet from wikipedia pretty well sums up what I believed was the controversy about this particular term.

working-class Cajuns tend to regard the word "coonass" as a badge of ethnic pride; whereas middle- and upper-class Cajuns are more likely to regard the term as insulting or degrading, even when used by fellow Cajuns in reference to themselves.

Until the past decade or so, it's been used by governors, presidents, and was even part of the logo of the Louisiana Air National Guard. I suspect that without the job change, this wouldn't have been anywhere near as controversial.

Word. I'm practically a synonym.

It's ok to say anything offensive as long as you're just repeating what someone else told you. It's all ok then.

Sounds good to me. I'd like to see him do poorly in Alabama, or at least be in hot water as often as possible.

Thats kind of funny- I have never heard of the term being considered offensive, its what everyone down here calls each other when you do something in a coon ass way....Anyone taking offense to it is trying to make something out of nothing.

Wiki got the first part right about it being a badge of honor for working class, but I have never heard an upper class person take offense to it either.

You should meet more people from Fairmont.

I work in the oil patch in Houston. We have a ton of Rigs in Louisanna and it is a very common term here. I hear it used all the time and my father in law calls himself a coon ass with pride.

Actually he said when we crossed the Sabine River to come to Texas they took the coon out of him and only left the ass.

Interestingly, I had never heard of this term before this week, but I am reading Michael ("Moneyball") Lewis's new book, "The Blind Side," and one of the guys in the book is from LA. and referred to Ole Miss's head coach Ed Orgeron as a coonass. And, he didn't mean it in a bad way.

Waits for Saban to say something to the effect -- "I meant no disrespect whatsoever by that term. In fact I consider myself to be something of a coonass..."

Neat, I have an effect named after me.

Much better than a syndrome or a disease.

And I second (or third or fourth) the notion that in my experiences growing up in New Orleans, the word is considered much more descriptive than insulting.

Maybe a close approximation would be using the word redneck to describe a (stereo)typical rural working-class Southerner.

And the n-word is sometimes a term of endearment. On a smaller scale, this is just like a white guy using the n-word at the wrong place and time. Coonass is generally considered complimentary, but it depends on who says it and the context. Non-Louisianans and non-Cajuns should be careful when and how they use it. And Nick Saban has lost the 'right' to use the word as far as many folks in Louisiana are concerned. Is that fair? No. But that's just the way it is.

What is that cake with the baby in it?

I know about 50. :)

king cake

I haven't met a person from Fairmont who is a racist. I've met hundreds. Oh yes, by the way, you would NEVER hear me talk about that about anyplace I have ever been or from whence I know people. Because, growing up in southern West Virginia, I was taught manners.

-Anxiety

Thanks. That was driving me crazy.

Coon ass is not an offensive term? I am pretty sure if I used that term in my office, I would be unemployed in short order. Guess it depends on the region you're in?