coon

天気予報のキャスターが番組中、差別的な発言をしたということで解雇されたそうです。


(CNN) — A television station in Rochester, New York, fired a meteorologist Sunday after he used a racial slur on air.

During WHEC-TV's Friday evening broadcast, Jeremy Kappell said "Martin Luther Coon Park," when referring to a downtown Rochester park named after slain civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.

In a video viewed by CNN, Kappell says "King" immediately after using the slur and continues with the broadcast.

Kappell said his use of the slur was a mistake caused by speaking too quickly.
(Amir Vera. New York meteorologist fired after using racial slur on air. CNN. January 9, 2019.)


気象予報士の男性による問題発言は、"Martin Luther Coon Park"という部分ということなのですが、"coon"の意味を知らないと何が差別なのか分かりません。

男性キャスターは早口のために口が滑ったと釈明しているそうですが、有名な黒人活動家であるMartin Luther Kingを"Martin Luther Coon"と言い間違えるというのは、どうなんでしょうか。

この記事をきっかけに初めて知ったのですが、"coon"は黒人を指す侮蔑的な表現として用いられます。アライグマのことである"racoon"を省略した形が"coon"ですが、アライグマの黒い顔との連想があるようです。

また、American Heritage Dictionaryにはやや長い語源解説があり、以下のように説明されています。


...perhaps after Zip Coon, an African American character (depicted as an upstart freeman) in the song “Zip Coon” frequently sung in 19th-century blackface minstrel shows (the character perhaps being so named in reference to the black facial mask of the raccoon and to the practice of hunting and eating raccoons frequently mentioned in minstrel show songs), possibly influenced by 19th-century slang coon, rural white American (often one of modest means and opposed to the slave-owning Southern establishment), fellow, so called in reference to the association of coonskin with American frontiersmen...
(American Heritage Dictionary)


今回の失言についてはSNS上や黒人団体などからの批判が相次ぎ、テレビ局側は事態を重く見て男性キャスターの解雇に踏み切った模様です。