"Monday" as racial slur

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 19, 2012, at 11:20 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

> In the past we've discussed "Canadian" as a peculiar code-word for black people,
> in use among restaurant servers (based apparently on the stereotype of both
> Canadians and blacks being bad tippers):
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0801D&L=ADS-L&P=R14856
>
> Now we have "Monday" being identified as a racial slur, with Urban Dictionary
> and other sources explaining the rationale for the code: "Everybody hates
> Mondays." This has become an issue in the baseball world, since a police
> officer is said to have yelled "Monday" at Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford
> before a minor-league game in New Hampshire:
>
> http://www.telegram.com/article/20120719/NEWS/107199787/0/NEWS03
> http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/8177081/massachusetts-police-officer-punished-directing-racial-slur-boston-red-sox-carl-crawford
>
> One of the UD entries says the "Monday" slur originated in Boston. Anyone have
> any further information on this, regional or otherwise?
>
> --bgz

No, I caught that too, from the espn writeup, but had never encountered in before, in baseball or elsewhere.  I wondered if it might be a reference to Rick Monday, 1980's-era outfielder for the Montreal Expos (the Canadian angle!) and L. A. Dodgers, but that seems unlikely.  Now if the slur had been "Bucky" or "Dent", that would be another story.

LH

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