I'm not super keen on the word myself, but I suggest that we might have more important things to worry about and fight over.
The dust-up began when Lafayette attorney and former CODOFIL chairman Warren Perrin threatened to file an FCC complaint against Eunice-based KBON 101.1 FM over lyrics to the song "RCA (Registered Coonass)" by Jamie Bergeron and the Kickin' Cajuns.
The chorus of the song includes the 'c' word, which Perrin considers an insulting term, basing his claim upon a definition first put forward by the late Jimmie Domengeaux, who founded CODOFIL.
Domengeaux maintained that the word derived from the French word connasse, which he said Frenchmen used in reference to Cajun soldiers serving in France during World War II. He said the word translates to "dirty prostitute." The Louisiana legislature used that definition when it passed a concurrent resolution in the 1980s condemning the word but not outlawing it.
However, further research suggests that Domengeaux's connasse etymology may be skewed, since the word "coonass" was used in Louisiana well before World War II. Modern French dictionaries make no reference to a prostitute in defining connasse, it just means a stupid, disagreeable woman.
A good number of researchers now believe "coonass" has a much more innocuous beginning, coming from cunaso, a Caribbean Indian word that most likely got here via the Spanish. It describes a fellow who lives simply on and with the land--which is a perfect description of the early Cajuns (who came here when Louisiana was held by Spain).
Some etymologists suggest "coonass" is more offensive to white-collar folk than to blue-collar workers. It has something to with what sociologists call "covert prestige."
Whatever definition you choose, there are a lot of Cajuns who don't find the term derogatory at all; you can still see bumper stickers reading, "Proud Coonass," on vehicles across Acadiana. Those drivers apparently agree with Bergeron's assessment of his song and of the lyric.
"It's a party song, it's a fun song and that's what it's all about," he said. "Some people find it degrading, but it's all in how you put it," he said. "I'm not calling anyone out, I'm calling myself a coonass, I'm proud to be a coonass.
"I didn't resurface the word; the word is there, it's used. I hear it, I use it, people use it around me. It's not a degrading word, that's who we are, that's who I am," he said. He said it is because of fans' requests that he's printed up a bunch of RCA T-shirts to sell.
At last word, Perrin was still considering a complaint with the FCC. He says he would base the claim on a 1980 court case, Roach v. Dresser, in which federal judge Erwin Hunter Sr. declared Cajuns a bona fide minority. Perrin says that gives Cajuns the same protection from ethnic slurs as other groups such as Jews, Spaniards, or Italians.
That puts the question bluntly: In either the court of law or the court of public opinion is the "c" word judged a degrading ethnic slur or simply a slang word that some people find offensive?
And, more practically: What are the chances of Perrin's complaint before an FCC that allowed Archie Bunker to call Jews, Spaniards, Italians, and others by nicknames that you can be pretty sure they didn't like?
I don't like the "c" word and I don't use it, but I think that by custom and definition the word may be nothing more than a nickname some people don't like and others don't mind.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jhbradshaw@bellsouth.net or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.
Now rush to church and sit in the front pew and make sure you keep track of who leaves early!
The Operative Word
Bradshaw contends that “by custom and definition the [C] word may be nothing more than a nickname some people don't like and others don't mind”. Over the years, I have read and heard numerous arguments both for and against the use of the term “coonass”. Being the wife of Warren Perrin, Jim can probably guess which side of that fence I am on. But my feelings about this word have not so much to do with my admirably militant husband, although he is a certainly factor, but more to do with the beloved elders of our culture, those still with us as well as those who have passed on. And now that I myself am becoming an “elder”, I understand better what it meant to them to be called that by derogatory term. Today, in 2012, the designation is perhaps far less demeaning than it used to be--now, when the term "ass" is bandied about daily in the media and in casual conversation. And young people now are far removed from the days when being called the C-word meant that you were uneducated, unintelligent, perhaps poor, and spoke broken English--although how many people who denigrated Cajuns for their bad English in those days were themselves bi-lingual at all? Being bi-lingual is and always has been an asset the world over. But I loved my parents, my grandparents, my aunts and my uncles, and I loved my husbands’ parents as well, his grandparents and his aunts and uncles, both living and dead, too. I know how much shame they felt in being called a coonass. For me it is a mark of love and of REVERENCE for my elders not to use or condone that ugly term. I VENERATE all of those who have gone before us who have made us who we are today, I PAY HOMAGE to them for their sacrifices during WWII to keep us free. I APPRECIATE those who played a vital role in making our culture the vibrant, colorful, loving and hospitable culture that is today admired the world over. To use the term “coonass” dishonors those hard-working and persevering people, people who, by and large, can no longer speak for themselves. Our forebears deserve far, far better. The operative word here is RESPECT.