What?! The Spearchuckers is the name of my javelin team! You're just looking to be offended!

[gundamtsubasa]

SC considers 'coon hunters' license plates

By Dexter Mullins
2:00 PM on 01/05/2011

The word "coon" is stirring up a big debate in South Carolina. The state legislature is considering printing license plates that would read "coon hunters" on the back at the request of the South Carolina Coon Hunters Association. Coon has long been considered a racial

Comments

[urplesquirrel]

Why can't they just have license plates that say "raccoon hunters" instead? Advertising their sport without as much risk of it being interpreted as racist.

[bantiarna]

Well no one calls it Raccoon hunting. Its looking for a racial connotation where there is not one. Its like Daniel Boone Coon-skin caps. You know to expect a gray fur cap with a tail hanging down the back.

I think its silly regardless to have a half dozen different license plates regardless.

[urplesquirrel]

What reticent_lass said below. It will be taken and misused by people for actual racist purposes.

[telemann]

I think its silly regardless to have a half dozen different license plates regardless.

Vanity plates are a huge cash cow for states in dire need of revenues. I forget the exact statistic, but my home state of Virginia has one of the highest ratios of vanity plate owners in the country.

[reticent_lass]

I don't care what the association's intent is, the plate is going to be taken and used by people who know a great excuse for thinly-disguised public racism when they see it.

[homasse]

Yeah, pretty much this. Some people are going to take it and be jackasses because they are racist dillweeds.

[elialshadowpine]

Pretty much this.

[xochitl]

*SMDH*

[roseofjuly]

It's because it's going on a license plate, not just because of the term. And because despite that in this context it's pretty innocuous, racist asshats are going to use the license plate as an opportunity to be a stealth racist.

And let me clarify by saying I don't think that's a good reason on it's own to ban the license plate, but just that the argument that it shouldn't go on a state-sanctioned license plate is quite different from saying people shouldn't say the word coon at all.

I know that was rhetorical, but...

[ampris2007]

Purely for the sake of playing Devil's advocate, since I can see both sides on this one...(or all three sides if you include opportunistic racists?)

South Carolina Coon Hunters Association

The name of the organization that's requesting it is the Coon Hunters...they are called Coon Hunters and it's called coon hunting by everyone that I've ever seen refer to it (you can refer to Coon Hounds, for instance, a recognized breed of dog, where that's even it's official name...it's not short for raccoon except in origin). It's the existing and accepted abbreviation and I truly don't think that the organization would have thought of the potential racist connotations.

That being said...will it be used be ignorant opportunists? Quite possibly. Will anyone but them and the people they clue in get it? Probably not. Raccoon hunting is a big sport in many areas. So yeah...I'm a fence sitter on this one. Let's see what the state's residents decide...

[roseofjuly]

'Cause that's not what it's called...it's just called coon hunting. Southerners call raccoons coons and thus raccoon hunting is coon hunting. Just like you'd be hard pressed to hear a southerner say 'opossum.'