First off, my main news feed directed me to an article with a link to a "Fox5" news report about the incident. Two Black anchors standing next to a blurred-out racial epithet. Not THE racial epithet, but one that's still a problem. Looking stern and whatnot. But wait, they are African American human beings working for Fox News. I'm not saying Fox News is officially OK with racism, but I'm also not saying it's not. So that's funny, I think. I'm not sure. Besides, these folks work for Fox TV and not Fox News, so it's probably not as ironic as I'm imagining. Fox News also has lots of African American anchors, I assume.
Anyhow, I at least figured the Official Fox News website would have been dismissive about the whole thing, but the official Fox News website even blurred out the word. It's "Coon," by the way. Also, I'm not the bad person for writing it. In fact, I could not, for the life of me, figure out what racist word it was when I read an article that said it was spelled c_ _ n. I kept coming back to another C-word that is probably much more offensive to many more people. It wasn't until I made the connection with the Broncos, extracted some letters, and figured it out, that I realized the students in Georgia must have been reading KKK manuals from the 1930s or something.
OK, these kids were freakin stupid, but the problem might have been their limited options. They wanted to be funny on Senior Night, and all they had were the letters B-R-O-N-C-O-S. Here's an annotated list of their options, with the better ones in green. Actually, after looking at my list, I think they probably deserve some punishment, since there are all kinds of better words to make:
BRONCO - Boring, yes. Offensive, no.
BRONCS - a nickname for Broncos
BRONC - Like Gronc with a C instead of a K
SCROB
BORONS
CROONS
COBS
BOONS
BOORS - unrefined, ill-mannered people.
BORON
BOSON
BROOS
COONS
CORNO
CORNS - like, foot issues
COORS - Sure, it's beer, but if a Supreme Court Justice can like beer (a lot), who cares?
CORSO - Lee Corso does college football
CRONS - Crohn's Disease has an H
CROON - so much nicer
NOOBS - people who don't know
SCORN - what you get if you spell the wrong word
SORBO - Kevin Sorbo as Hercules!
COB - Corn cob, maybe. It's fall.
BOON - helpful or beneficial
BOOR - an unrefined, ill-mannered person.
BOOS - That's fine. Better than expulsion.
BORN - All of us were born, so not making fun of anyone here.
BORS
BROO
BROS - We're all bros, right?
CONS - Pros and cons. Not referring to criminals, necessarily.
COON
COOS
CORN - Everyone loves corn. Not Korn, because that band sucks. But the veggie that offers few dietary benefits and lots of government subsidies.
CORS
CRON - Kind of a nerd-specific thing that has to do with websites and stuff.
NOBS
NOOB - singular of Noobs.
OBOS
ORBS - Those things you see when there might be ghosts. Or at least a crappy camera.
ORCS - Obviously, this one is awesome. There are no Orcs to offend, unless you're in Middle Earth. However, Sauron isn't spelled Soron, which would have worked.
ROBS - Like Cons, this one has plausible deniability.
ROCS
SNOB - Again, it can be negative, but no big deal. Maybe this would garner expulsions from the East Coast Prep Broncos.
SORB
ROONS
BON
BOO - Ah, Boo Radley. Was he a hero or a potential child-molestor? Oh, and the more obvious Halloween theme.
BOR
BOS
BRO - Like Bros.
CON - Like Cons.
COO
COR
COS
NOB
OBO
OBS
ORB - Like Orbs
ORC
ROB - That one's funny if someone in the band is named Rob.
ROC
SOB - Another one to probably avoid. As much censure? Probably not.
SOC
ONOS
OONS
ROON
ROOS - Short for Kangaroos, I guess.
SOON - Perfect for Senior Night
SORN
BO - Bo knows football.
OB
NOO
NOR
NOS
ONO
ONS
OON
OOR
OOS
ORS
ROO
SON - That's nice.
NO - Just say NO to racist words, people.
ON - Yes, we're ON the field.
OO
OR - Gold in French
OS - Bone in French
SO - Therefore in English
I was in an English class in college once with a woman who refused to read Huck Finn because it was so racist. She even interrupted the class so much that she had to be removed. I disagreed with her, in favor of confronting the racist words in the book rather than just getting rid of it. Really, it's the same for these kids. There's still time to explain to them why it's so bad rather than just expelling them and being done with it. When you offend someone else, you do it on purpose, but not everyone understands the purpose to that offense. It's all about power, and if you can belittle someone else, then you obtain (or retain) the power, even if you feel powerless in other aspects of your life. Let's talk about why using the word "Coon" is so bad rather than blurring it out and expelling kids who have heard the word from their parents all their lives. They'll just become more racist if we don't. There's a lot of racial tension in Georgia right now, and covering it up is probably the best way to make it worse.
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