What’s new in racism
The scandal involving District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal here in Houston has brought to light a new way to be a racist without actually saying anything “racist”. The word is “Canadian” as in “a couple of Canadians on the jury felt sorry for the defendent and convicted him of a lesser charge”. The Canadians in question? Those would be black Americans serving on a jury here in Harris county.
It was a routine e-mail from the boss sent to congratulate a junior prosecutor in Houston, Tex., who had won manslaughter convictions against an intoxicated driver.
“He convicted Mr. Sosa of a double intoxication manslaughter, got a weak jury to give him 12 years in each, and then convinced Judge Wallace to stack the sentences,” Harris County assistant district attorney Mike Trent wrote in an office-wide memo. Then came the odd part: “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.”
The e-mail was sent in 2003 but came to light only this month as part of an unrelated controversy with his office, forcing Mr. Trent to defend himself against accusations of bigotry — not because he offended the people of Canada, but because “Canadian” has apparently become a code word for blacks among American racists.
I haven’t heard it myself. The racists I run across around here are pretty open about it. I guess it’s racism for the upper class.
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Comments
Being a canadian I see the link in the justice system aspic ( the majority of the people hate the lenient prison sentences ). I can’t speak to the racist connection, ii might be we are not well liked because of our country’s politicians stand on Iraq.
I remember seeing this story on the news when I was at home over winter break - guy claims he was just repeating what he’d heard from someone else, and had no idea the guy was using coded racist language.
Personally, I’m with you - I had never heard of this before this news story, and it just sounds too bizarre to be true. I mean, really? Canadians? Could we get a slightly more nonsensical euphemism, please?
This sounds like an urban legend which everyone thinks is true, but there aren’t actually any people out there using the word with that intent (or at least, not before this story broke). Kind of like how for awhile all the parents (and some of the kids) were convinced that teenagers were having crazy sex orgies and/or wearing different coloured plastic bracelets to display their sexual conquests (or what they were willing to do). Because, really, the type of person who would make loud comments about ‘Canadians’ in public and thinks he’s somehow being clever is just a tiny bit less cowardly and retarded than all the teenage guys who started using the word “niggardly” as often as they could manage after the David Howard incident.
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Wait…what do you do if you’re actually Canadian? How am I supposed to be politically correct when speaking about myself?! Come on! NO FAIR!