# "In a dog's age"... Offensive to black people? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 27, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-dogs-age-offensive-to-black-people/266233 "2004-09-27T02:08:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-dogs-age-offensive-to-black-people/266233/21 "2004-09-27T20:56:08Z")
Holy Smokes! :eek: Why do people look for things to be offended by? :rolleyes: I grew up saying “In a coon’s age”, and I’m familiar with using ‘coon’ as a racial slur, but I never until reading this thread associated one with the other. To me it meant (and still means) just a long passing of time. When I was a kid growing up in the panhandle of Oklahoma, we’d go coon hunting, and if you ever ‘treed’ a coon, you’d better be prepared to wait for a while. ggurl, if this is really a friend of yours then there won’t be a problem. Furthermore if “a dog’s age” is somehow an entry into the racial vernacular, then your friend will understand that you meant nothing by it, and will just let you know what it means to her. e3 ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-dogs-age-offensive-to-black-people/266233/22 "2004-09-27T23:48:58Z")
Where I come from, the equivalent phrase is _“donkeys years”_. I’ve never heard of dogs years _or_ coons years. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-dogs-age-offensive-to-black-people/266233/23 "2004-09-28T00:42:23Z")
I’ve never heard of referring to anything by animals’ years, but it sounds like a lot of people don’t even equate “in a coon’s age” to the word “coon”'s bigoted meaning. Although it’s better to be worried about nothing than to go around blissfully spouting racist phrases, I’d say you’re probably pretty much in the clear. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-dogs-age-offensive-to-black-people/266233/24 "2004-09-28T07:11:45Z")
Good lord, if somebody’s so racially sensitive that they’ll take a perfectly innocent phrase, associate it with another innocent phrase that could potentially be misconstrued to have racist tones, and hold that against you, then clearly their worst problem is that they have no real problems to deal with. Such a person has waaaayyyy too much time on his or her hands. And if your friend is that easily offended, you might want to make sure she didn’t take that dog comment as you calling her ugly or a bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-dogs-age-offensive-to-black-people/266233/25 "2004-09-28T07:41:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Where I come from, the equivalent phrase is “donkeys years”. You bigot! Stop being so offensive about Democrats! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-dogs-age-offensive-to-black-people/266233/26 "2004-09-28T08:59:24Z")
> [@t-keela](#): > > I wish people could get over this racial bullshit. It’s been the biggest plague on man since the flood. Well, it’s at least the second, after the heart-break of psoriasis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-a-dogs-age-offensive-to-black-people/266233.md?page=1)