How ‘Monday’ Became A Racial Slur

An off-duty police officer recently called a Major League Baseball player a “Monday” and as a result, lost his job.

It happened at a minor league game earlier this summer: Officer John A. Perreault of Leominster, Massachusetts taunted Boston Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford, an African-American who last season was seen by fans as a symbol of his team’s collapse.

Monday And The N-Word

The story brought to light the fact that the word “Monday” has become a slur that is slang for the n-word.

Boston Globe language columnist Ben Zimmer traced the usage of “Monday,” in the online Urban Dictionary and found that it started popping up in 2006, many say on the East Coast.

It was the popular comedian Russell Peters, a Canadian of Indian descent, who put “Monday” on the map. In a January 2008 standup routine for Def Comedy Jam (widely circulated on YouTube), Peters tells of a Bostonian referring to blacks as “Mondays” and giving the same bigoted clarification that “nobody likes Mondays.” “White people are getting real…clever with their racism,” Peters jokes ruefully.

Boston Globe: ‘Monday’ Becomes A Racist Slur

Guest:

Ben Zimmer, language columnist for The Boston Globe

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Merch_guy

Canadian and French Canadian are codes for jews and hasidic jews used in “upper class” circles in the New York area,,
Fvento

back in the early sixties, my pal’s bartender father used the word apaches as a racial slur on folks with dark skin
http://www.facebook.com/people/Matt-Westwood/1205146556 Matt Westwood

It’s worth referencing Gore Vidal here (no time like the present) for the novel he self-censored, replacing all the indelicate words for parts of the body that one should not mention in polite company with the names of the various high-court judges who passed injunctions against some of his works on the grounds that they were obscene.

Apart from that, all that comes to mind is the concept of euphemism creep. Er, we are still allowed to use the word “creep”, aren’t we?
Marek

“Illegals” is rapidly becoming a coded slur for hispanics.
Former Server

I’m going to play Devil’s advocate here because it’s fun and people tend to live in echo chambers. The guest mentioned that servers in restaurants use the code word “Canadians” for African Americans because Canadian citizens are notoriously bad tippers. I used to work in a restaurant and I heard the term quite often. The term was more of a socioeconomic statement directed not against all African Americans, but against those that have also been characterized as “ghetto” or “gangster.” I understand that this does not make the use of the term any less offensive, but the issue with “Canadians” was that they were, as the guest pointed out, “bad tippers.” So, “Canadians” was the slang for African American guests who treated the server like servants and then left no tip, or sometimes not even enough to cover the entire check. This particular restaurant was relatively nearby a lower income neighborhood, beneath a transitional housing building, was near several colleges and next door to several colleges. The servers had slang for each of these particular members of each of these communities that were bad tippers. The rich, largely white theater audience literally treated you like their servants and often left no tip because they either felt that they were entitled or because they would become indignant about any fault that may occur, even if it was not the fault of the server. College students were just plain notoriously bad tippers as well. The, mostly white, guests from the transitional housing were often just plain crazy and didn’t tip because we had to ask them to leave quite often. The servers hated all of these people equally, regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, etc. Even African American servers used the slang Canadians, but that’s OK because they’re African American, right?. It’s all about them being bad tippers. For example, even the most religious, homophobic server was happy to get a large table of gay men because they are notoriously good tippers . Waiting tables is a harder job than most people think and the customers treat you terribly. It’s expected that the staff is going to blow off steam in the kitchen or break room. Yes, racism is always bad, but some would argue that it could be viewed as being akin to gallows humor under the circumstances.
- Leggett406
  
  Good point well-made. Listening to the feature I too was struck by the obvious difference between ‘Monday’ and ‘Canadian’, since the former was a euphemisn for ‘nigger’ whilst the latter was a euphemism for a tight-wad. To conflate the two was simply poor journalism.
Karl

In the Detroit area, especially the Macomb county suburbs I have heard�
“democrat” often used as a code word for African-Americans.
Mark

“Spoda” as a racial slur against African-Americans. “They always be doin’ somethin’ they ain’t spoda be doin.”
workerbee

the kids at my job say nigerian.
LAS

Interesting piece- this was news to me. When I lived with a bartender for several years she did not seem to have such code words, but blatantly complained when she had to work a hip-hop or reggae night, since this meant bad tips. Of course the best nights to work were “industry nights” attended by fellow bar and restaurant workers. Anyway, her complaints always grated on me- in her mind she was just stating the facts, but I knew she was saying things she’d never say in front of non-white people.

As I saw it, the bar and restaurant business is tough, and inevitably comes with good days and bad days, good tippers and bad tippers. I know when I first started going to bars in college I didn’t even KNOW that you were supposed to tip a bartender! Whoops!

Often foreign tourists, regardless of skin color, don’t tip well because they are totally unaccustomed to a 20% tip rate, compared to most other places where patrons leave a few coins behind or round up the bill. Perhaps restaurants should add a “voluntary tip” line to the bill, as I’ve seen in other countries, and this would guide patrons in the right direction.
Lo

I myself like to use the word ignorant for people who believe everything and never search for the truth!
Daynaire33

For the ones who bartender or served as a waiter/waitress not tipping well depends totally on the service I receive. Because i’m black doesn’t mean I’m a bad tipper it just means that you were not worth a good tip. It disgust me that you people (white) have not gotten over anything and you continue to consider yourselves better than anyone. You are the first to turn on someone in a heart beat . There are just as many white trash as there are ghetto black people and there is also ghetto white people. I feel sorry for you racist people that had to grow up w/o your own mind and you never even give people a chance. Every nationality has its faults but you dont knock them just because. America now is made up of all nationalities and that’s a beautiful thing. Remember white people took this land ( america) from the Indians this is not your land.
Vandermeer

Never heard of the term “Monday”. Sad that there are still so many stupid Americans out there. We are not our skin color!
Keith Cosentino

for leggit402 or whatever how did u get that canadian was being a slur of anykind. Russel peter’s ethinicty is indian, as in from india and he lives and resides in canada which makes him canadian. it’s not poor journalism, its all you people looking for something thats not there and magically finding it. Racism happens but not nearly as much as everyone thinks or sees. Stop taking shit ouot of context and actually think about the things said and also how they were said. ignorance is all to funny sometimes because it’s not the “racists” that you think are being ignorant its you the reader or listener who clearly weren’t reading or listening.
Keith Cosentino

i apologize leggit406 i now understand what you were getting at and yea i agree however the rest of my post is exactly a point i had.
Discouraged

I am an African-American male and have been a Montreal Canadiens fan for years I own a replica Maurice Richard sweater that I have worn proudly in public. I play a musical instrument and have a Canadiens sticker on my instrument’s case. For these and several other various reasons, I was deeply distressed by your segment. Yes, I know that racism is a form of mental illness and that hatred simply renders one blind and stupid but it is truly sad that many people simply cannot help themselves and have to find new ways to prejudge others. I will probably keep my enthusiasm for the Habs to myself for fear of being considered ignorant or being laughed at. EVERYTHING in the United States boils down to race and money. Everything. I cannot help but wonder if this country has changed very much at all over the past 75 years.
- Jordan
  
  You can vote, ride in the front of the bus, and drjnk from the same water fountain as I do. Ya, I would say its changed
Merci232

What are the most commun hispanic slur expressions?
Curlie

What is the slur to describe illegals like Iris, Italian Greek ?
Curlie

There are many people with illegal entry to the USA but what is the slur word for Iris, Italian Greek etc? en general ?
Jmatuja

Sorry to say, but as a server, even black servers think that a great deal of blacks don’t tip, and it is true a lot of the time, why?