Title: Coon | Definition of Coon at Dictionary.com
Headings: coon
coon
noun
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British Dictionary definitions for coon
coon
noun

Content: Both the song “Zip Coon” and its resulting character gave rise to coon songs, a racist genre of music and parody of Black culture popular between around 1880–1920, often accompanied by Blackface in performance and advertising. Leading up to the Civil War, through the Jim Crow era and into the 20th century, coon has remained an extremely offensive racial slur against Black people. In its history, coon has also been used to disparage Native American and Aboriginal peoples. Much less heinous is the Maine Coon or Maine Coon cat, a breed of cat known for its long hair, large size, and striking coloring, which might be said to resemble the markings on a raccoon. Folk tales like to claim the cat is actually part raccoon, but the cats were probably bred from long-haired cats carried over to the American continent on ships from Europe. Coon cat is also a name for the cacomistle, a smaller relative of the raccoon. How is coon used in real life? The racial slur coon not only implies many intensely harmful stereotypes about Black people but it also dredges up the painful history of Blackface. Because of its history as a slur, avoid using coon as a shortened form for raccoon. As a clipping of raccoon, coon does appear, however, in coonskin, a raccoon pelt, mostly as seen in the coonskin cap associated with such American frontiersmen as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett.