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Name: Willie1986

Comment: What a wasted column. Who cares??!! Lenihan was fired with just cause. Slip of the tongue my @ss, he enjoyed saying what he said you could hear it in his voice. Step ya game up MoK. I rather read about your thoughts on the Duke lacrosse team controversy or Rep. Cynthia McKinney's ignorance.

Name: Dexterm

Comment: Willie1986...I think you missed the point of the commentary. Being called a "coon" is just as offensive when it comes from a Black radio station.

Name: McNasty

Comment: Both are derogatory towards blacks, both were used in a derogatory way towards blacks and it really makes no difference. The fact remains that we cannot turn these words into anything different than what they are, nor can we continue to use them and think others shouldn't - that doesn't make any sense to me. Nor does hearing whites slang hip hop speak and use n i g g a - my first reaction was to slap the mouth it came from. We don't react when we hear it in our neighborhoods, desensitized I guess, we don't react if we hear it from 'our' radio stations and media outlets but we hit the friggin' ceiling when yt says it. How hypocritical of us and how dare we. We set the example of how people treat us and now that they know we treat each other any kind of way, they are doing the same. It's long past time for each of us to find the regalness we all possess and turn our image around. It's also time for us to stop being accepting of bad behavior - ours!

Name: MorrisOKelly

Comment: This is just for you Willie: Here are my thoughts on the Duke situation. I believe that neither the Lacrosse players nor the woman involved is telling the truth. As a journalist who typically editorializes I would be foolish at this point to get out in front of this story...as they say. As I said before, I believe both sides are lying...and the truth is somewhere in between. How far the 'truth' pendulum swings to which reside remains to be seen. You'll notice that the nature of this story changes almost daily...in terms of the facts and the perception of who is telling the truth. IT's WAY too early to address that situation yet. Satisfied?

Name: MorrisOKelly

Comment: and one other thing Willie...that's fine if you believe Lenihan's remark wasn't a slip...but to then have NOTHING to say about the incident in which it was INTENTIONAL is my point exactly. Thank you for illustrating my point. You were completely indifferent to that side of the equation.

Name: queeniebunz

Comment: I tend to be about as militant as they come but I want to present another view here, maybe. I have heard blacks say things like, "he's coonin'!" or "he's an Uncle Tom" and it is not considered to be complimentary to the person the comment is directed towards. That being said, the use of the word "coon" or "step-n-fetch-it" or "Uncle Tom" by black folk to describe black folk is more in line with Chris Rock's commentary that "there are black people and then there are n*ggers" which he ended by saying he hates "n*ggers" and I feel comfortably saying that most of us do hate his definition of "n*ggers". That being said, to call something "coon (fill in blank)" as a black person - it is usually a criticism and not a term of endearment like a black dude saying "that's my nucca!" My point here is this - we criticize ourselves all the time using terms that whites used to use/still use behind our backs. I don't think that is necessarily a horrible thing. It may be considered by many to be bourgie to say such things but it isn't self hatred. It is an expression by one "class" of people commenting on what they deem to be a "lesser" class of people. Example - seeing Snoop Dog on the commercial with Lee Iococa and describe his behavior as "coonin"...to some he is. To others he isn't. Seeing a group of black kids at the mall acting up, being loud and generally looking like little baby thugs. As a black woman with some education and sense, I shake my head and think to myself that they obviously have no home training and I cringe because they are an embarrassment to me and look like a nightmarish modern day minstrel show. My point is this - we judge ourselves sometimes more harshly than whites judge us and I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing and if the word "coon" is used, oh well. Act like a coon and I'm probably gonna call you one...

Name: MER82

Comment: I would like to know why the Black DJ said Blak was "Coon Cola"? COntext does matter--IF he had a reason, what was his reason for saying it? If he just said it with no back up commentary-then he should have been called out on using it, point blank. FOOD for thought- Yes we tend to let ourselves get away with things we don't want others doing, but that is really no different than I can talk about my family and my momma, but nobody else can. Again, we have to move beyond these words, if they don't affect us, then they won't be effective when others use them. 'Coon' is not a regular everyday, used word. The N word is. I think the only argument people had for getting over the use of the N word that is valid is that in the younger generations--other races would be using it on themselves which cancels out its negative power. ON the flipside, we can't expect the words we don't like to go away if WE KEEP USING THEM. How many of us on this board can say that neither of these words have come from our own lips at some point? Exactly. Are we going to make this a national stand--a call to Black Americans everywhere to stop using these words? Are we going to expect that will make a difference? Are we going to show and prove that our unity will supercede all else and use this energy to keep fighting against all of our plights?????

Name: MorrisOKelly

Comment: To clarify the dude was trying to be funny, indicating that we as Black folk had been putting coffee and cola together for years. He was trying to be funny and nobody called him on it. I would be more interested to see the facial expressions of everyone in the studio at the moment to know if they co-signed with the remark. We'll never know, but nobody called him on it...which could've been intentional. Often times when somebody steps across the line on the air...you try to keep it movin' as to not bring attention to it.

Name: queeniebunz

Comment: So basically what he was saying was like me and my family calling the punch in the gallon jug from the grocery store "ghetto punch" - we call it that because it's supposed to be like Hawaiian punch but it's the generic brand. Some folks would get offended by that but oh well. I think in this case as with any word usage, we need to choose our battles. Ghetto punch, coon cola - not the biggest deal to me. We have important issues to deal. And, a white man slipping and calling a black person a "coon" is not one of them to me. I assume all whites are closet racists and go from there. It is NEVER a surprise when whitey slips. It is actually more funny than anything to me when they slip. I'm like, "big dummy! you need to hide it better! now yo dumb behind has no job!"

Name: Renegade

Comment: Salley seems like a cool person, but he should have known better. Dumb azz Ananda should have called him on it.

Name: PHScott

Comment: Funny, when we look at Condi Rice from the Black perspective, I've heard us refer to her as a coon because of her allegiances to the GOP & George W. Bush, and her apparent neglect of her race, her heritage, her upbringing, and her people. I am always of a mind that words are words and you need to take a hard look at the people that use them. I've never heard of Dave Lenihan, so I assume he just had a "Freudian slip". Truth is, the thought had to be in his mind somewhere. I believe he's heard his Black friends say this very thing about her and it was in his subconscious mind as he was talking about her. As a Black American I'd love to put Ms. Rice up as a person we can all admire for her accomplishments, but we cannot because of her politics and her allegiances to an establishment that could care less about the public in general. That said, in my own private thoughts and conversations within my inner circle of family and close friends, Condi Rice has been referred to as a coon, a turncoat, a kiss-%*$, a puppet, a %*$!(, etc. Those characterizations are not fair because we don't know her personally. However, perception is reality and in politics you are judged by your actions and your alliances, so all those aforementioned terms are befitting of her in that circumstance. If she were just a Stanford professor, she'd be admirable to Black America. In The BEAT case, there is no defending what they did. That's just plain ignorant and it's indicative of the problems we as a race of people face in the world today. We call each other ni**ers and b**ches and coons, then get angry when someone outside the Black race says it. We have fooled ourselves into thinking that changing the spelling will negate the tone of the word itself. If you introduce yourself as Joe, that's how you'll be addressed. Say, "Hi, I'm Joe Stupid", well... In closing, I'd like to say that it is highly ignorant to condemn an entire race of people based on assumptions. When it's done to us, we get mad as hell and want to burn s**t up. Do you understand, queeniebunz? She is right though, more important issue abound us, so wake up!

Name: PHScott

Comment: That was kiss-a$$ and bi*ch (sorry).

Name: My2Pennies

Comment: I'm not sure I get the big deal with calling a can of soda pop, Coon Cola. And since we're on KKBT, I think it's quite tacky to have a man and woman on 3 way phone with John Salley while he reads the results of a paternity test ala Maury. I only heard this one time (not my regular station) and for those with inquiring minds................................................. ..........the man on the other end was NOT the father.

Name: Gemami

Comment: Morris this was a thought provoking article. PHScott, I agree with everything you said. I may not be right but this is my thought -- I personally do not think either should have been or should be fired because the first was from my understanding an honest slip of the tongue and the second was used in content with the discussion. I see this in the same way I see the used of the word n*gger/%*$!(. Black say the word so much, some believing it's a term of endearment, but when a White person (like Emimen) or someone of another ethnicity (like J.Lo) says the word in the same context we often use, we want to get all bend out of shape.

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