Boards›Player Behavior

Don't Say The Word "Co-on" In League of Legends Either

wizardhunter·5/24/2018, 6:52:48 AM·24 votes·16,215 views

I was playing the raccoon twitch skin and referred to myself as "The Co-on" from the South Park Game with no intent of it being racial at all. In the context I used it, I was clearly only referring to a raccoon * my character*. I was honestly having a blast talking like Cartman from South Park to my friends and everyone was laughing. I have lived in Louisiana all of my life and have never heard that term being used in a racial way at all. I even have a African-American step-father and he refers to raccoons in the short version. I am not using this as an excuse, just giving my point of view. After watching some videos my friends sent me, I see that a Twitch streamer was punished for using the term while referring to a player who looked like a raccoon and he also had no ill intent. This honestly scares me because context is not being considered. I have such mixed emotions right now because I just had one of the best games of League of Legends of my life * I was honestly dying laughing because I was just running around pretending to be a superhero while referencing a funny character* and that might be my last game of League. I hope that the enemy team also did not get in trouble because they refereed to me as "The Co-on" as well, in a friendly manner.

In short, Make sure not to say the term co-on in ANY game, no matter the context because it is racist to some people. i had no idea of this.

I sent a support ticket asking to have a second chance but will not likely get one because I was honor level 0, 2/3 and was permanently banned. I am hoping that my years of never saying ANY racial slurs in league can show that I have never attacked anyone of their race before and will never do it. (PS, my heart is crying, I don't have any Smurfs and have been playing since season 3, I hope this is not the end for me)

Game 1 In-Game wizardhunter: IM A COON - I realize the twitch skin is a Raccoon wizardhunter: Fear The COON - I start talking as "The Coon" w/o knowing that it had any other meaning besides raccoon wizardhunter: FEAR THE COON wizardhunter: THE COON COULD BE ANYWHERE wizardhunter: HOLD UR UTTERS CLOSE COW wizardhunter: THE COON IS GONNA GET A SUCK - I apologize for verbally assaulting a cow wizardhunter: THE COON IS COMING wizardhunter: THE COON IS ALWAYS WATCHING wizardhunter: THE COON ALWAYS GETS REVENGE wizardhunter: ARE YOU ASKING THE COON? wizardhunter: THE COON AND BIRD BOY WILL DOMINATE wizardhunter: THE COON AnD FRIENDS WIN AGAIN - Even referring to the show/game wizardhunter: POPPY HOW ARE THOSE TOOTHPICKS? - Poppy killed Camille wizardhunter: THE COON IS ALWAYS WATCHING wizardhunter: THE COON WILL RISE AGAIN - I was behind was referencing the dark knight rises wizardhunter: The coon.. cough.. is too weak - My friend on discord told me someone on twitch got banned for saying coon so I stopped typing it Post-Game wizardhunter: gg was fun wizardhunter: I hope riot doesn't ban me :( - I say this because I was level honor 0 2/3 and was not trying to be racial or toxic.

Here are ALL of my chat logs. I believe halfway through the game I stopped acting like "The Coon" because my friend in discord was like "You better stop, you could get banned". The Alistar on the enemy team refereed to me as "The Coon" a swell and I hope he did not get punished. No one that was actually in the game on my team told me about "The Coon" being a racial slur. I was just trying to get the people on my team to laugh.

159 Comments

Critmaster Garen5/24/2018, 7:35:26 AM23 votes

seriously? coon is a racist term?

who even uses that? its the first time ive ever heared this in my life. ive only ever seen it used in context of the animal.

something is seriously wrong, if you can ge punished for using a certain word, because its interpretation is automatically defaulted to an obscure, racist context, even when its clearly not used in that context.

am i never allowed to use the word "monkey" anymore, just because its sometimes used in a racist context against black people?

this is honestly getting ridiculous. if its not an obviously racist word like "%%%%%%", that only has one clear interpretation, slow it down with the censorship. context matters.

edit.: lol, cant even get my point across because of said censorship.

Critmaster Garen5/24/2018, 8:02:20 AM13 votes

a Twitch streamer was punished for using the term while referring to a player who looked like a raccoon and he also had no ill intent.

whats wrong with this society constantly finding/creating race issues where are none?

Chermorg5/24/2018, 7:29:59 AM11 votes

I'd wait for the support ticket. I'll admit I'm not holding my breath, but a situation like this is definitely more towards the "I think they might give a second chance" side of the spectrum as opposed to the "don't even try" side.

No guarantees. I'd recommend being very patient and polite in the support tickets with RIot - you'd be surprised how far that can go (not just with Riot but in life in general).

The Ecdysiast5/24/2018, 8:52:04 AM11 votes

"Or" questions can't be answered with "yes or no".

R35URR3C710N5/24/2018, 10:09:26 AM10 votes

This is an interesting conversation, and a complex one at that.

First, let's look at the offending word in question. "coon". A word with two very different meanings. 1- A shortening of of the word "Raccoon". commonly used in (but not exclusive to) the rural south.

2- A racist slur targeted against black people, attributing the perceived negative traits of the namesake animal to them, thereby devaluing and dehumanizing them.

(edit: Origins of the slur. "The colloquial abbreviation coon is used in words like coonskin for fur clothing and in phrases like old coon as a self-designation of trappers. In the 1830s, the United States Whig Party used the raccoon as an emblem, causing them to be pejoratively known as "coons" by their political opponents, who saw them as too sympathetic to African-Americans. Soon after that the term became an ethnic slur,especially in use between 1880 and 1920.")

 Historically, the first definition is the proper definition. In fact, various dog breeds are referred to as "coon hounds", and raccoon hunting is commonly called "coon hunting"      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coon_hunting  (I also suggest reading "Where the red fern Grows")

 I do believe it is possible to be ignorant of the second definition while knowing the other, especially in the current social climate where casual racism is vilified harsher than in the past. 

 Where this gets a bit tricky is that the OP is specifically referencing South Park's Cartman, a character who is a known racist, and whos alter-ego "The Coon" is a clear reference to the racial slur, while maintaining technical innocence by having him dress up as the first definition. Its clever dark humor, if not exactly tasteful. This joke is made (as several are in South Park) in parody of the subject. Cartman is meant to be an unlikeable ass, representing several negative qualities in a single person for us to laugh at.

 I think in a case like this, intent is the most important aspect of whether someone should be considered guilty of a "crime". Just as in real life, where accidently killing someone carries a far different punishment than intentionally killing them. (manslaughter vs murder).

So the real question here is: Was OP intentionally racist, and if so, can we prove it? We don't have chat logs/recordings to go off of. 

Also: Does quoting something blatantly racist while being entirely ignorant of the context and the meaning of what was said make the mimicry inherently racist?

This isn't a simple discussion. Either way, though, I believe it is a mistake to assume every use of word with dual meanings is referring to strictly one of those definitions. Context and intent are important when deciding whether punishment should be handed out or not.
ModPeriscope5/24/2018, 7:28:06 AM10 votes

I was honestly having a blast talking like Cartman from South Park to my friends and everyone was laughing.

Cartman is only funny given the context: he's a rude jerk and a perfect example of someone you wouldn't want to be friends with. That's more or less Matt Stone and Trey Parker's take on the character. So, saying pretty much anything he says without the context that you were imitating a South Park character would more than likely be interpreted as rude. And not everyone even watches South Park, and fewer have watched episodes involving his alter-ego "The Coon" (as far as the episodes I've seen, is just a Batman parody. And yes, I've grown up in the South and definitely knew that was a slur.

Further, if you were playing with others that weren't your friends, you're exposing them to what is otherwise looking like slurs and insults.

Warlord Rhinark5/24/2018, 9:39:21 AM8 votes

Do you think of it as a negative slur or the short name for an animal?

Yes

See how that poll doesn't really work?

BootyHunterRengo5/24/2018, 4:35:32 PM4 votes

Never heard that term in my whole life

KZ Engel5/24/2018, 5:11:03 PM4 votes

the question in the poll isn't a yes or no question, and you only gave yes and no as answers

Arisha the Dark5/24/2018, 10:30:30 AM3 votes

I'm not from states and you guys are getting freaking bonkers in there. Coon is a racial slur? I mean come on. And don't give me that crap of "educate yourself". How about you educate yourself and understand that not every single country had black slavery to begin with and far from every country had it to an extend US did. Even n-word isn't considered all that racist in many countries, because they don't have history of using it as racially insensitive word. But fine, n-word is famous enough for rest of the world to know why it's not OK to call random people on the Internet that. I agree with that. But coon? Fucking coon?! I can go outside, ask 100 random people on the street do they think coon have racially insensitive meaning, every single one of them will ask me "what racially insensitive meaning can that word even have?".

So while keeping obviously racist words out of this game is good, this is just insane.

Teemo Gromp5/24/2018, 8:00:39 PM3 votes

Coons can also be Maine Coon cats. I often hear that "my coon's fur's matted again" and such. I like Maine Coons. Oh no, it's a cat race. So I am racist² now?