Gonna shoot them ‘coons’
There is a commercial for either the Yellow Pages or a company called Southern Plumbing here in Wellington. Now, it doesn’t give a phone number (kind of ironic if it is for the Yellow Pages) otherwise I’d have called them the minute I heard this on the radio.
The ad begins with a southern American woman talking about how she had coons, and she threw the Yellow Pages at them. It goes on with her complaining about coons and how she has to get rid of them, and the last sound in the scene is her priming her shotgun.
I can’t see the connection to plumbing because for most of the broadcast I am in total shock.
Yes, she uses the word coon.
I know you can be ignorant and assume that coon is short for raccoon, which is bound to be what they will say, but why then did the woman need to have a southern US accent? Maybe the Americans reading this can inform me if there more raccoons in the south.
I just thought of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Yellow Pages company in New Zealand was recently bought by an American corporation so I don’t buy the argument that with the new management no one knew about the racial connotations.
It paints the whole image of the Klan, lynchings and murders of black Americans.
If the Southern Plumbing I linked is the firm that has put this ad out in conjunction with the Yellow Pages, then I would be seriously worried.
I have written to the firm. I would like to think this ad was done out of sheer ignorance but there are way too many coincidences here. If they realize they have few African-ethnicity clients on their database it sure won’t be down to the small number of people of African descent in New Zealand.
PS.: The term is used in Australia, too, referring to Aboriginals:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22931249-5001021,00.html
which makes me wonder just how many New Zealanders made the same connection.—JY
Comments
Jack, I think that you are being too sensitive this time- but I didn't hear the commercial so I will withhold judgement on the commercial. It does puzzle me why they used the skit in NZ? We have pack rats in Tucson and Cyotes are a big problem if your pets are left outside.
"I know you can be ignorant and assume that coon is short for raccoon"
I didn't "assume" that coon is short for raccoon. Coon IS short for raccoon. If someone in the US said there was a coon in their backyard, I wouldn't have to plead ignorance to think that they meant a raccoon. I would know perfectly well what they meant; I felt a bit insulted by your insinuation that only an ignorant person would claim that coon was short for raccoon.
Saying that, it would make more sense to me for a NZ company to maybe use possum instead of coon... as more NZers are familiar with possums than they are with raccoons.
Dave, normally I’d agree. It’s why I posted this one, to get some discussion going and to have a reality check. Yes, I figured out she probably meant raccoon—but it sure wasn’t the first definition that came to mind (as it wasn’t for Ms Genevieve). This depends, I believe, on which definition is stronger for you—sadly, the racist one is for me and the whole southern thing is too much of a coincidence!
This was explained by Brenda—so if raccoons are more common in the south that explains the suitability of a southern accent. Frankly, I don’t know where raccoons are commonplace in the US—which is why I asked.
Dave, if coon’s racist meaning was so minor that few would get it, then I’d have no problems.
Zak and Brenda, the use of raccoons is what I don’t get. Possums, exactly. Would make infinitely more sense. Even if they are not being racist then surely they are playing some stereotype about Americans being southern hicks shooting guns? Kind of like those ads where Chinese are shown to have pigtails. Or those western movies where we never get the girl!
I wouldn’t know how I could get the file for you to listen to. It would be interesting to get a fair judgement of the advertisement but more importantly, it would be interesting to get a judgement of the advertisement from the minorities affected. I am not affected and most of you here are not—but Ms Genevieve is.
I sure wouldn’t like some commercial going on about Chinks even if they were referring to chinks in the armour and having some guy with a strong Chinese accent, and more than a few Caucasians were upset with Chris Tucker’s constant references to ‘whitey’ in Rush Hour 2. It’s not about deconstructing the English language ad infinitum, but just having our eyes open about what words are right in what context. Advertisers need to have responsibility.
Humorists from different regions of our country have used regional accents and cultural differences to make light on the human condition. What I find sad is that skits like this to some will indict Americans from the south and southern culture as racist. You will find good people everywhere; I'm trying to stay positive.
I just don't see why this ad would work in NZ- It might work in Atlanta or Birmingham and it may be controversial. Making everything antiseptically politically correct is traveling down the wrong road, one where thoughts are a crime as in "1984".
No reply at the moment from either Southern Plumbing or the Yellow Pages Group.
I am OK with humour such as: the gags on Mind Your Language, and Benny Hill as Chow Mein, the Chinaman.
While some false stereotypes are touched on, at the end of the day it is not the minority who looks stupid, but rather it is evenly divided.
Here I am not so sure. No one wins here: southern Americans look daft, and we get a racial term on the radio.
Hi Mr. Yan,
I was just passing by and saw the hunting party, thought maybe an American could sit and have a global chat about some coons. See you have company today, howdy folks.
Now that word coon... Funny word, don't hear it round these parts much, na not too much anymore. But, Mr. Yan I can tell you... Back in the 30-70s there were lots of coon hunts, and little colored lawn jockeys stood in front of some homes, people were killed while that term was uttered in hate. See, it is the context that creates the presentation of cultural icons be they positive and uplifting, or historically based in a racial lexicon.
People would use that word to address Humans in an era when America was not so very kind.
Interestingly, its not such a funny word now that I think about America, race, poverty and one man's dream to end the racial construct of the word coon.
Last Friday was the 40th year since America's greatest advocate for diversity was slain. Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream... The word coon reflects everything that he fought against.
Yea, that word coon has a real meaning to us plain folks, some call us country, others just plain call us uneducated about the value of words. I've heard some say that spoken and written words repeated over generations can break a man's soul.
Heck, that's just some ole legacy history stuff.
One world, one race.
Best.
Peace.
b.