terms of endearment

[Joel S. Berson]

This of course might be the smoking gun (said, not did) that
definitively would allow the Feds to intervene -- the question of
whether this incident was a crime of racial bias/hatred.  I'm not
surprised that attorney Craig Sonner is trying to turn Zimmerman's
words into a euphemism.  Although "fucking goon" too does not sound
like a term of endearment to me.

If Sonner hasn't heard "anyone younger than 40 who uses 'coon' as a
racial epithet," I wonder if he's been talking to the right
people.  But I live far north of the South.

Joel

At 3/26/2012 08:09 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>CNN's experts, standing right next to the speakers, can't say for sure what
>Z muttered.
>
>I certainly couldn't tell from what I heard, which was mediated further by
>the at least one more set of CNN devices plus my own TV.
>
>It could have been "fucking coons" or "goons" (which occurred to me too),
>or something else I haven't thought of. Furthermore, I've only heard the 2
>seconds in question without any context.  Anybody who's done transcriptions
>knows that once something gets fuzzy, it can be difficult or impossible to
>know what was actually said.
>
>Furthermore, in those cases one tends to hear what one expects to hear.
>
>Specialists need to examine both the entire tape and Z's ordinary speech
>before concluding anything about what he said.
>
>Said, not did,
>
>JL
>
>
>
>On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 1:00 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      terms of endearment
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Groan!
> >
> > http://goo.gl/gQ8s1
> > > After reviewing a 911 call George Zimmerman made before gunning down
> > > Trayvon Martin, many believe they hear the shooter calling the
> > > 17-year-old a "fucking coon."
> > > But a friend of Zimmerman's family told ABC on Sunday that people were
> > > jumping to the wrong conclusion.
> > > "I spoke with my teenage daughter yesterday, and the word in question,
> > > it's the difference between a 'C' and a 'G' from what I understand,"
> > > attorney Craig Sonner explained.
> > > "And 'goon' is apparently a term of endearment in the high schools
> > > these days," he added. "I don't know of anyone younger than 40 who
> > > uses 'coon' as a racial epithet."
> >
> > video on the page
> >
> > VS-)
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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