You my Canadian, Larry?

January 28, 2008 12:32 PM

America might soon have its first Canadian president. Weighing in at The Huffington Post.
posted by gman (64 comments total)

Beer, eh!
posted by Horken Bazooka at 12:36 PM on January 28

This will givewell.
posted by pineapple at 12:36 PM on January 28

Hoax.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:36 PM on January 28

This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by Lord_Pall at 12:37 PM on January 28

Have actually heard slur mentionned by someone from Atlanta Ga a year ago.
posted by jek at 12:39 PM on January 28

Hoax.

Link.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:39 PM on January 28

Goddamn Irish.

This is fun!
posted by generichuman at 12:39 PM on January 28

oh, also I live in Canada.
posted by jek at 12:39 PM on January 28

Texas just needs to hire more ghostwriters.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:40 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

That would be crazy.... I'm not a racist. I'm not a bigot," Mr. Trent said.

Yet he allowed it to go on, and wouldn't admit it.

Seriously though, this is news to me. I'll have to think up a response. How about "I got your Vancouver right here"? The great part will be as scores of rappers start boasting about how they're the Canadian you love to hate or the Canadian you don't wanna fuck with. This ought to be good.
posted by cashman at 12:42 PM on January 28

Okay, the last time a racial slur came out that a lot of nonracists had never heard of ("macaca"), it took down a Republican who was considered a possible presidential candidate in the future. Who can we pin Canadian on?
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:42 PM on January 28

And then when they came for the Canadians, I said nothing, because I was - well - Canadian, actually. But not THAT KIND.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:44 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]

The first time I heard 'Canadian' as a "code word" was back in 1997. It's probably been around longer than that.
posted by yoga at 12:44 PM on January 28

"I know Mike. We laugh and talk about the [Dallas] Cowboys," Mr. Vinson said. "I truly don't believe that Mike knew what he was saying."

Now thats a strong defense.
posted by sfts2 at 12:45 PM on January 28 [4 favorites]

I don't know about Canada as a slur, but some acquaintances(and a bit of myself) did mock a guy about being from Wisconsin. With their cheese and hats...
posted by Green With You at 12:45 PM on January 28

A similar case in Kansas City was reported last year on a Listserv, or electronic mailing list, used by linguistics experts. A University of Kansas linguist said that a waitress friend reported that "fellow workers used to use a name for inner-city families that were known to not leave a tip: Canadians. ‘Hey, we have a table of Canadians.... They're all yours.' "

Well, Canadians (like from Canada) are known for leaving poor tips. If I'd seen that email I'd assume that "Canadian" simply meant someone who would be more "liberal", and thus likely to favor reduced sentences.
posted by delmoi at 12:45 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

Actually, I've never really heard the term 'Canadian' used outside of the restaurant industry. But, there, from the dozen or so friends of mine who've been in the foodservice biz, it's pretty well established as a term, and has been in place for at least a decade and a half, if not more.

Although, I haven't ever ever ever heard it any other context.
posted by The Giant Squid at 12:46 PM on January 28

And, yes, as a followup, it's because both groups are seen by waitstaff to be poor tippers.
posted by The Giant Squid at 12:48 PM on January 28

Well, Canadians (like from Canada) are known for leaving poor tips.

Blame Canada.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:49 PM on January 28

Well, Canadians (like from Canada) are known for leaving poor tips. If I'd seen that email I'd assume that "Canadian" simply meant someone who would be more "liberal", and thus likely to favor reduced sentences.

You have to remember that in Canada, it is illegal to pay anyone including those that earn tips as a primary income source less than minimum wage. A server here earns a basic living wage on every shift regardless of their tips. A lot of Canadians don't realize that in the states, $2-$4 an hour is not an uncommon wage for someone that earns tips.

Having said that, whenever I eat out with friends, we all still leave a 15%-25% tip, so I don't know where this particular myth comes from.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 12:50 PM on January 28 [6 favorites]

This is news to me.

I wish to clarify in no uncertain terms that when ever I have made comments of a derogatory nature about Canadians, I was speaking only of those inhabitants of the cold regions north of our border where root beer and maple syurp are consumed in alarming amounts. They come over here and steal jobs from hard-working American comedians and then go back home for their great healthcare. It's disgusting, I say, and it sould be stopped.


Also, despite my dislike of Canadians, in the first presidential election in which I was eligible to vote, I wrote in the name of an American-born candidate of dual citizenship: J. Quinn Brisben.
posted by mds35 at 12:53 PM on January 28

No Vietcong ever called me a Canadian.
posted by horsewithnoname at 12:53 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

Gman is the star over here.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:54 PM on January 28

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

*lights joint, avails self of free health care*

it's because both groups are seen by waitstaff to be poor tippers

By the way, I've heard tell that part of the tip-generosity discrepancy is because there's a substantial difference in base salary between Canadian and American waitstaff. In Canada, that is, the tip's seen as a supplement to the server's income - 10-15% standard, more than that only for exceptionally good service - whereas in the US tips comprise nearly all of a server's income. Dunno if that actually resolves with reality.

And on preview, guess it does. Thanks, WinnipegDragon. Though with the apparent exception of your high-rolling crowd, I don't know anyone who routinely tips more than 20 percent.
posted by gompa at 12:58 PM on January 28

Canadian, please.
posted by psmealey at 12:59 PM on January 28

And another troll to the front page from gman....
posted by dios at 12:59 PM on January 28

A little Googling has revealed to me that the following groups are often considered bad tippers: black people, Canadians, lesbians, church groups, young people, old people, and the visibly wealthy.

Huh.

Also, I learned this joke:

“What’s the difference between a Canadian and a canoe? Canoes tip!”
posted by Bookhouse at 12:59 PM on January 28

Do Canadians tip as well as Australians?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:00 PM on January 28

A Racist Rosetta Stone:

"Canadian" = Black
"Sumerian" = Canadian
"Inuit" = Basque
"Lace-curtain Irish" = Australian Aboriginal
"Laplander" = Magyar
"Mameluke" = Colombian
"Taprobanian" = Welsh
posted by Iridic at 1:00 PM on January 28 [8 favorites]

Nice CYE reference in the post title!
posted by stevil at 1:03 PM on January 28

The case cited in the first link doesn't particularly prove that this is what the email's author (via the prosecutor) intended. It's pretty bold to accuse someone of using a racial slur with scant evidence.

It seems to me that it could just as easily be referring to "liberals" or bleeding-hearts or something. Especially considering it's from Texas.
posted by Adam_S at 1:03 PM on January 28

Though with the apparent exception of your high-rolling crowd, I don't know anyone who routinely tips more than 20 percent.

I used to work in the point of sale industry for both the grocery and hospitality industries, so I have a soft spot for wait staff. Even with the minimum wage laws, they generally don't get paid enough for the abuse that they often take.

I do know people who never tip, but I think everyone knows someone like that.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 1:04 PM on January 28

Booooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
posted by Mister_A at 1:04 PM on January 28

This isn't a hoax. I learned about this five years ago when my brother asked me "so you're Canadian?" with this smirk and I said that yes I was since I'd got Canadian citizenship in 2001. He laughed and then my sister piped in that this was the new code word for blacks so that they don't know "we" are talking about them.

Yes, it's used by racists, and yes, pretty much everybody in my family, still stuck in the rust belt (NW Indiana, which is rusty even by rust belt standards) and has that mentality. My brother just moved to Noblesville (suburb or Indy) so his son doesn't have to raised around "them." This sort of thing happens.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 1:09 PM on January 28 [1 favorite]

Nobody likes anybody outside their own tribe?
posted by Cranberry at 1:09 PM on January 28

Always bet on Canadian.
posted by blue_beetle at 1:11 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]

Texans tip like this, Canadians tip like that.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:13 PM on January 28

Huh. This would explain why black people get mad whenever I use the expression "call a Canadian a Canadian."
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:15 PM on January 28

I'd also like to add that I now have this incredible urge to ghost ride the whip.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 1:15 PM on January 28

I'd always thought that only a Pepsi would regard 'Canadian' as a slur.
posted by Flashman at 1:16 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]

Gman is the star over here.

Burhanistan is the star over here.
posted by gman at 1:16 PM on January 28

Well, in all fairness, this looked like it would be swiftly deleted. But how nice of you to care.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:19 PM on January 28

"Canadian" is derogatory shorthand for Southern Creoles (blacks) or Cajuns (whites), who typically hail from poorly-educated, low income families Within the past 20 years, the Baton Rouge/Lafayette region of Louisana has prospered considerably, allowing a considerable number of households to find gainful work in the Lone Star state. You can be sure the more Antebellum-minded Texans have been upset over the matter.
posted by Smart Dalek at 1:21 PM on January 28

A little Googling has revealed to me that the following groups are often considered bad tippers: black people, Canadians, lesbians, church groups, young people, old people, and the visibly wealthy.

So by elimination we arrive at good tipper = a straight, white, working class (or old-money rich), agnostic American.
posted by crapmatic at 1:22 PM on January 28

Hoser, please!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:22 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]

So how am I supposed to slur Canadians now? Because goddamnit I have had it up to here with those people.
posted by LarryC at 1:23 PM on January 28

Speaking as a Texan, the bigots here don't speak in code. They don't need to speak in code. It's Texas. One syllable words are spoken as if they have three, and three syllable words are spoken as if they had one.

Y'all cain't unnerstaind us anyhoo!
posted by ZachsMind at 1:24 PM on January 28

At least they weren't a jury of French Canadians.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:25 PM on January 28

I have to add that our UBC linguist referenced in that National Post article is completely wrong. Completely. "Canadian" has nothing to do with actual Canadians, as "other" or otherwise. It's just a tricky thing that black people would probably not catch on to.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 1:25 PM on January 28

Well, you know Canada is new France after all...
posted by boubelium at 1:26 PM on January 28

I used to work in the point of sale industry for both the grocery and hospitality industries, so I have a soft spot for wait staff. Even with the minimum wage laws, they generally don't get paid enough for the abuse that they often take.

Fair enough. I was once a cabbie, so I always overtip taxi drivers. Because, seriously, nobody else does. And you haven't had a lousy customer till you've been the one charged with driving home the drunk that just got tossed - bodily, headfirst - from the bar. Or else explaining why you won't drive him home.
posted by gompa at 1:28 PM on January 28

You want to support that assertion, councelor?
posted by Richard Daly at 1:29 PM on January 28

Well, Canadians (like from Canada) are known for leaving poor tips.

We are? What's considered a decent tip down in the land of 1-inch-snowfall-freakouts then?

If I ever have to go under deep cover, I don't want to blow it by leaving a Canadian tip.
posted by CKmtl at 1:32 PM on January 28

I wonder what they call black people in Canadian, Texas. For that matter, I wonder what they call white people, as "Canadian" would apparently be right out.
posted by adamrice at 1:32 PM on January 28

This is not a hoax.
posted by tadellin at 1:33 PM on January 28

Allow me to provide some insider's context. I'm not Southern, Canadian or ^*wink*Canadian^*wink*, but I do have a large Irish Catholic family that reside in an Irish Catholic neighborhood on Chicago's south side. This area, just so you know, is heavily populated by minorities; apparently in those enclaves where whites reside, they band together with superhuman bigotry in an effort to somehow psychically deter anyone of color from crossing the wrong street, railroad track or other virtual boundary. I've heard my share of racial jokes (each told in an impeccably stereotypical accent, catering to whichever ethnicity is being targeted; to be fair, this includes the Irish) and probably know some racial slurs that members of those races have never heard themselves. I do not feel privileged to house this knowledge, but there it is.

I heard "Canadian" being used in this sense as far back as the mid-eighties. My aunt and uncle were discussing, with unhindered derision, the fact that some Canadians had moved in down the block. I didn't think much of it at the time, figuring some actual Canadians from the country to the north had settled down here and were receiving the same treatment that any other non-Irish, non-Catholic group would receive. (My family members are equal opportunity racists, after all.) Only later did I discover the "code" quality of this term.

Until now, I thought it was unique to Chicago's south side.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 1:34 PM on January 28

I grew up near Canadian, Texas. We considered folks from there to be only a sight better than the mouth breathers from Fritch, who were only just a wee bit more tolerable than the Matt Houston fans in Muleshoe.
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 1:36 PM on January 28

Son, never ask a man if he's from Canada. If he is, he'll tell you on his own; and if he's from Texas, well, he might think that you're asking something completely different.
posted by koeselitz at 1:38 PM on January 28

From what I've seen as a part-time parking valet, ethnicity, gender, and age have no real predictive power as to whether to a client will tip above or below the average range. (For our complimentary operation, 2 to 5 bucks.)

That's not to say that there aren't definite trends among the skates. You know you're probably working for free if:

-You can't find a key or fob for all the crap on the client's keychain.
-The car is a Toyota Scion.
-The client leaves their radio tuned to Michael Savage.
-The client is Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig.
posted by Iridic at 1:38 PM on January 28

What I find interesting is that the Canadian designation is particularly interesting in light of the tendency of the Ku Klux Klan to use codewords. (They weren't particularly clever codewords, but codewords nonetheless.) It was a big part of the appeal of the Klan to be this insular secret society - mostly because that members got to feel like they were part of a "special group."

I think you can look up in Freakonomics where the producers of the Superman radio show infiltrated the Klan and used their own code words on the air - deflating that air of exclusivity.

Perhaps there's something here with the "Canadian" designation.
posted by BrianBoyko at 1:38 PM on January 28

As a South Carolinian, racial slurs are unfortunately an area of my expertise. Yes, "canadian" means black. It is predominantly used in the restaurant industry to indicate that a waiter or waitress is waiting on black people and therefore believes that he or she will not receive a good tip because black people stereotypically do not tip or do not tip well (i.e. "Shit, I got nothing but canadians in my section. I won't make shit tonight."). I first heard about it being used at least three years ago from a friend who was working as a waiter at an Outback. I had never heard that it originated from the fact that Canadians stereotypically don't tip well.
posted by ND¢ at 1:38 PM on January 28

One of my mom's friend's elderly parents has been using Canadian to mean Black for a very long time -- as long as I've known the lady and I've known her since I was a child. From the Chicago South Side, by the way ...
posted by macadamiaranch at 1:39 PM on January 28

I had not heard that expression used as cited here. Reminds me that there wee some people in the north who did not want the north to fight the south to keep the union together. They said to let those states wanting to leavek go. And instead, grab some Canadian land to enlarge the union.Might have been a good move, though my in-laws might not be allowed to move to Florida as damned Yankees.
posted by Postroad at 1:43 PM on January 28

Friends from Philadelphia have reported use of this term. Friends in the restaurant industry report that Europeans are horrendous tippers, but are not shy about being extremely demanding.
posted by ibmcginty at 1:44 PM on January 28