Anti-Canadianism here at LPSG

[Rugbypup]

YouTube - Robin williams blame canada

Cheep shot but funny, lol

 

[SpoiledPrincess]

Who couldn't love Canada they gave us that fine actor William Shatner, those love gods Dan Ackyroyd and Rick Moranis and the unforgettable John Colicos

 

[Drifterwood]

Don't forget Pamela's

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Don't forget Pamela's

I try but I fail. Can't forget Pamela.

Now, straight off the presses (and I hope this hasn't been quoted yet), the word 'Canadian' itself is being used as an invidious epithet in parts of the U.S., and who knows, perhaps by peeps here on LPSG!!!!!!!

Here's the gen, folks:

In the U.S. south, is Canadian a new racial slur?
Graeme Hamilton, National Post Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008

It was a routine e-mail from the boss sent to congratulate a junior prosecutor in Houston, Tex., who had won manslaughter convictions against an intoxicated driver.

"He convicted Mr. Sosa of a double intoxication manslaughter, got a weak jury to give him 12 years in each, and then convinced Judge Wallace to stack the sentences," Harris County assistant district attorney Mike Trent wrote in an office-wide memo. Then came the odd part: "He overcame a subversively good defence by Matt Hennessey that had some Canadians on the jury feeling sorry for the defendant and forced them to do the right thing."

The e-mail was sent in 2003 but came to light only this month as part of an unrelated controversy with his office, forcing Mr. Trent to defend himself against accusations of bigotry -- not because he offended the people of Canada, but because "Canadian" has apparently become a code word for blacks among American racists.

"There is a double meaning to that word and I didn't know it. I was horrified when I learned what it was, and I immediately addressed the issue with the people who brought it up," Mr. Trent told a local Fox News reporter in a recent interview.

"I'd never heard of Canadian being used as a term for a black person or for a racial slur," he said.

"If I had, I would never send that out in an office-wide e-mail that's going to go to people who are going to be offended if they recognize it as such. That would be crazy.... I'm not a racist. I'm not a bigot," Mr. Trent said.

Mark Vinson, who was a chief prosecutor in the Harris County office at the time, said he was puzzled by the reference to Canadians when he got the e-mail but was too busy to give it much thought. Then some colleagues informed him about the slang meaning of Canadian, and he felt crushed.

"So much has been accomplished in terms of equal opportunities, and the office had a super reputation," Mr. Vinson, who is black, told the National Post. "I just couldn't imagine someone in the office who would engage in that conduct."

He said he believes Mr. Trent's assurance that he had simply repeated a term used by the prosecutor on the case, Rob Freyer. Mr. Freyer did not return a message left yesterday.

"I know Mike. We laugh and talk about the [Dallas] Cowboys," Mr. Vinson said. "I truly don't believe that Mike knew what he was saying."

It is unusual that a seasoned attorney like Mr. Trent would not have wondered how a Harris County jury came to be stacked with Canadians. (There were no Canadians on the jury but there were some black members.) "The only way that there could have been Canadians on the jury, was if they were born in Canada and then became U.S. citizens, and then became citizens of the county in which the case was tried," Mr. Vinson noted.

Mr. Trent told Fox News that was not out of the question. "It would not be impossible or unusual for people from other countries to be on our juries," he said. "That's what I was told, and I took it as the literal meaning."

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 [with the N-word.]"

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.' "

Stefan Dollinger, a postdoctoral fellow in linguistics at University of British Columbia and director of the university's Canadian English lab, speculated that the slur reflects a sense of Canadians as the other.

"This ‘code' word, is the replacement of a no-longer tolerated label for one outsider group, with, from the U.S. view, another outsider group: Canadians. It could have been terms for Mexicans, Latinos etc. but this would have been too obvious," he said. "What's left? Right, the guys to the north."

 

[Gillette]

Cute. I guess that makes me half again the Canadian I was before reading this. (150&#37

I imagine the usage of Canadian over other reference choices is derived from the common destination of the underground railroad.

Way to go racist assholes!

Rubi, thanks for bringing this to light. Now we know.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Cute. I guess that makes me half again the Canadian I was before reading this. (150%)
I imagine the usage of Canadian over other reference choices is derived from the common destination of the underground railroad.
Way to go racist assholes!
Rubi, thanks for bringing this to light. Now we know.

I say we burn the White House down again.
Up for it, Gillette?

 

[Gillette]

I say we burn the White House down again.
Up for it, Gillette?

The last march for that started in Nova Scotia as well, why not!

Deja vu...

Rubester, you might want to put that in the Black History Month thread as well. I think it qualifies as relevant breaking news.

*edit, scratch that march. The white house isn't in the South. You almost had me.

 

[Drifterwood]

Maybe, Obama will change its name.

 

[simcha]

I never knew that Obama was Canadian?

 

[Drifterwood]

That's why you'll be voting for him.

 

[simcha]

I like Canadians.

 

[kalipygian]

Canadian jurors is an excellent idea.
Maybe Canada and the UN could start a program of supplying competent and impartial jurors to other countries, parallel to the Carter Center international election monitoring program?

And Gillette, DC is in Maryland and used to also be in Virginia, the Mason-Dixon line is to the north, between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Maryland tried to go with the south in the civil war.

 

[Gillette]

And Gillette, DC is in Maryland and used to also be in Virginia, the Mason-Dixon line is to the north, between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Maryland tried to go with the south in the civil war.

Thanks, Kali. The Mason-Dixon line is something I've never been able to keep straight in my head. (As I've just demonstrated for everyone's amusement)

I guess the march is back on. If y'all aren't to busy laughing, that is.

 

[JustAsking]

Canadian jurors is an excellent idea.
Maybe Canada and the UN could start a program of supplying competent and impartial jurors to other countries, parallel to the Carter Center international election monitoring program?

And Gillette, DC is in Maryland and used to also be in Virginia, the Mason-Dixon line is to the north, between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Maryland tried to go with the south in the civil war.

That's a good idea. A kind of jurist foreign exchange program. Also good info on the Manson-Nixon line. Thanks.