Canadian is the new Nigger?

Have you seen the news? Apparently racists are using the word Canadian as a substitute for nigger! Canadian!? Apparently in Texas (surprise surprise), assistant district attorney Mike Trent sent a mass email aimed at congratulating a junior prosecutor for winning his case.

He wrote: "He overcame a subversively good defence by Matt Hennessey that had some Canadians on the jury feeling sorry for the defendant and forced them to do the right thing."

Apparently, even though everyone who received the message knew there to be no Canadians on the jury, no one questioned the e-mail. I guess it's just a well known racist switcheroo tactic down in Texas. According to the article it's listed in the online Racial Slurs Database so I checked it out and, yep, there it is:

Slur Represents Reasons/Origins
Canadian Blacks Used as a masked replacement for 'Nigger.'

In his defence, Trent said that he honestly believed there to be Canadians on the jury and that he didn't understand the negative connotation of the word. Reminder: he's the assistant district attorney for Texas State.

Below is the statute which covers qualification to serve as a juror. It is as follows:

Sec. 1307a.(1) To qualify as a juror a person shall:
(a) Be a citizen of the United States, 18 years of age or older, and a resident in the county for which the person is selected, and in the case of a district court in districts of the second and third class, be a resident of the district, and in the case of municipal courts of record, be a resident of the municipality.

(b) Be conversant with the English language.

(c) Be physically and mentally able to carry out the functions of a juror. Temporary inability shall not be considered a disqualification.

(d) Not have served as a petit or grand juror in a court of record during the preceding 12 months.

(e) Not be under sentence for a felony at the time of jury selection.

(2) A person more than 70 years of age may claim exemption from jury service and shall be exempt upon making the request.

(3) For the purposes of sections 1371 to 1376 a person has served as a juror if that person has been paid for jury service.

It's the first damn one!
Hmmm, a DA who doesn't know that only Americans can sit on American juries?

"There is a double meaning to that word and I didn't know it. I was horrified when I learned what it was, and I immediately addressed the issue with the people who brought it up," Trent told a local Fox News reporter in a recent interview.
"I'd never heard of Canadian being used as a term for a black person or for a racial slur," he said.
"If I had, I would never send that out in an office-wide e-mail that's going to go to people who are going to be offended if they recognize it as such. That would be crazy.... I'm not a racist. I'm not a bigot," Mr. Trent said.
It would not be impossible or unusual for people from other countries to be on our juries," he said. "That's what I was told, and I took it as the literal meaning."

*insert sarcasm* I imagine Texas has a lot of transplanted Canadians...and even though the DA would be keenly aware of exactly who each juror is and where they're from (c'mon who hasn't read The Runaway Jury), since there is the process of jury selection at the beginning of the trial. Yep. I'm satisfied that this educated prosecutor in Texas, where racism is a thing of the past, knew-not what he wrote. He was a victim of naivety.

In the National Post they dig further, actually finding a Black former chief prosecutor and colleague of Trent's, to go on the record and validate his non-racism.
They even get a linguistics professor to speculate as to why Canadians has become the new choice for covert racism. His deduction is not really one at all, merely repeating that we're replacing a word that's "no-longer tolerated" because we're outsiders too.

This doesn't bother me in the least though, in fact I kinda dig it. Tthis could change the face of hip hop as we know it. Will Lil' Wayne start talkin' about Canadians all up in his jail cell?
Will the Crips gang sign be obliterated by the one-love proliferation of "Canadian" pride?
Will it change the way I listen to the national anthem from now on?

"Oh, nigger, we stand on guard for thee"

Sheeet, we're the biggest Canadians going since we're Black and actually livin' in Canada...does that make us Supreme Canadians? Can we come up with a gang sign for that? Or maybe when Canadians meet up with Black Canadians we can throw signs and hiss to show our dominance over ordinary Canadians! Mind you, it's kinda bulky, the word Canadian. 4 syllables is a lot for an American to master ;-) and it doesn't rhyme as well as it could. Aw man the dilemmas of being a Canadian Canadian. I'm willing to go with it though. Mike Trent you have opened this Canadian Canadian's eyes and I am gratefull.

See you on the flip side, my Canadian. *hisssssssssssssssssssss*