But some of my best friends are Canadian! January 29, 2008 Jill The new racial slur: Canadian. Yeah, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry either. Thanks to Kyle for the link.
I wonder if many anti-Canadian Americans who listened to the Weird Al song “Canadian Idiot” realize that the song was really poking fun at them…
That is so weird. I just heard of that term for the first time today in a blog written by a waiter. Have you ever noticed that once you learn about a new thing, you suddenly see it pop up everywhere?
Well, I don’t think Weird Al was talking about black people we he said “Canadian.” Good point. Canadian as code for Black people does not compute. 🙁 A reason why the first thing I thought about was that song.
A friend emailed me this link yesterday and I sat staring at it for five minutes thinking it must be something from the Daily Show (guaranteed they will pick it up if they haven’t already). Tangentially related (but on a more serious note) re: US-Canadian relations and concepts of race, here’s a link to this fascinating story about an African-American man who was shipwrecked off Newfoundland during WWII, and how the experience changed his perspective on racism in the American South: Act Three. Newfies. Reporter Chris Brookes had always thought the story was a joke: During World War II, a black sailor from the U.S. washed up nearly dead onshore in Newfoundland, and the white nurses — never having seen a black man — thought he was covered in oil and tried to scrub him clean. But when Brookes finally tracked the sailor down, decades later, it turned the whole thing was true. And the sailor said that sort of treatment was a lot nicer than what he’d been used to at the hands of whites down south. Brookes tells the incredible story of the sailor, Lanier Phillips, and how his experience in Newfoundland changed his life. (23 minutes) I’m not quite sure what this says about Canada or us, but it certainly has an interesting story to tell about the cultural construction of racial identity–or, how much our reactions to race are based on our cultural expectations–or something like that. Just go listen to it.
One can only hope that in the fashion of the Enigma machine, news of this code-breaking doesn’t spread to the people that use it. It would be nice to be able to identify people who are not only deliberate crypto-racists, but ones who are stupid enough to use “Canadian” as a substitute racial slur.
My friend Nell, who is African-American works at restaurant and actually told me about this a while back. The staff uses it, as in, “Canadians at #5. You know they don’t ever tip”
My racist father would shit very unhappy kittens over this one- his maternal family is all Canadian! I think the conflict would make his head explode.
I had heard this for the first time several years ago. As said before, it’s not a very creative code.
Polite, well-spoken and sensible about money- this is supposed to be a slur? People really need to get more creative.
And so a real, live, actual Canadian (geographically speaking) would be a Mexican? And obviously a real Mexican is a Bulgarian. We need a chart.
My mom’s racist coworkers do something similar. They use “hawaiian” as code for “jews” so they can complain about Hula Girls in public. And bitch about how they don’t go to Wegman’s anymore because it’s such a Luau.
Canadian as code for Black people does not compute. Indeed not. Also, what are we supposed to call actual Canadians?
I think it’s time for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to come down and give some miscreants a firm talking-to.
Oh yeah, this is an old one. Actually, members of my family prefer to use “Canadian” as a code slur for “Jewish.” Charming, right?
As an actual Canadian, who likes to think that she stands for all that is good and pure and polite and reasonable and Canadian, I’m…perplexed. Doesn’t it get confusing when there are actual Canadians around? What if you are a waitperson in a restaurant, and you have a table of blacks, a table of Canadians, and a table of black Canadians? Does your head explode?
Ok..I got stuck in comment que, so I bet this’ll be a double post, but as I said before… My friend Nell works in a resturaunt where the servers use this all time, b/c you know, black ppl don’t tip well.
My fiance has a poker buddy who says this. I had no idea it was widespread. I just thought he was an idiot.
One of my siblings uses this term too. (I’m with Meghan, I didn’t know it was widespread, and thought my sibling was an idiot too.)
Hifalutin anti-Semites like Father Coughlin used to use “Orientals” as a code word for “Jews.” I guess there’s a tradition of using obscure/inane geographic references to mask bigotry.
Wow… but how do I make fun of Canadians if people don’t know I’m talking about Canadians and actually think I mean black people? How will I mock our neighbors to the north? Does this mean when I am poking fun that I am actually saying black people say “aboot” and “doncha know”? I’m so 🙂 confused, and (seriously) fearful of being misinterpreted from now on.
I had never heard of this in my life, and now I wonder if I did hear or see it and didn’t realize what it really meant.
I’ve never heard this term either. But, I live in Canada and don’t know many overt racists. Tangentially related (but on a more serious note) re: US-Canadian relations and concepts of race, here’s a link to this fascinating story about an African-American man who was shipwrecked off Newfoundland during WWII, and how the experience changed his perspective on racism in the American South I can’t believe that Newfie nurses in the 40s had never seen a black man (since there have been people of African descent in the Maritimes for 100s of years) but I suppose some areas of Newfoundland are fairly remote and maybe isolated.
Wow… but how do I make fun of Canadians if people don’t know I’m talking about Canadians and actually think I mean black people? Brings a whole new meaning to “Blame Canada,” doesn’t it?
As an actual Canadian, who likes to think that she stands for all that is good and pure and polite and reasonable and Canadian, I’m…perplexed. Doesn’t it get confusing when there are actual Canadians around? Moi aussie. What about actual black Canadians? Wow… but how do I make fun of Canadians… Why would you want to do that?
Another thing, this is gonna SERIOUSLY mess with my genealogy. WTF are my Canadian ancestors really from? Did anyone get the secret decoder in their cereal box yet? Please plug in “Miramichi-New Brunswick-Canada”and let me know the real location…
Oh. I heard that the other day and was very confused. *sigh* My list of reasons why people are ridiculous is growing by leaps and bounds lately.
My list of reasons why people are ridiculous is growing by leaps and bounds lately. Sounds like a t-shirt or mug logo: “People suck. Ask me why.”
This usage might result from the influx of Canadian-jamacans that used to shop in the US. Many are lacking in hygiene, are thieves, and resoundingly rude. For some reason, they accepted the stereotype of shiftless darkie and played the roles during their trips to the US. Retailers soon learned to check each bag, stroller, child, and adult as they left the store.
A source for this new euphemism is the influx of Canadian-Jamaicans on shopping tours of the US. No VAT. The retail grapevine has long had tales of this group of folks and almost none of it is positive. After a bit, most just shorten the title to “Canadian” as everyone knows the group that is being identified. Racist, probably.
Oh, no, it’s an old one. Mid ’80s Chicago real-estate person told me the folks in her office used “Canadian” as code for black — i.e., undesirable prospective tenant.
the use of the word “canadian” to refer to african american,jewish or whatever is some thing only a idiot could come up with, canada is probaby the most diverse culture ,black, chinese, japan,italian,pakstan,indian. the americans,abuse and sold black people ,kill and stole everything from the indians, make judgemental remarks about canadians when they don’t have a clue about canadians, they just wallow in a life of complete and utter ignorance maybe the new term for any racism should be “american” cause if you look back through history Americans had the most racist lifestyle and practices