“Coon.” For some Howard University students, the word is used in everyday conversation.

As in, “That person’s coonin’.” Or doing the Chicken Noodle Soup dance. That’s “coonin’,” too.

“I guess we use it in the same sense people use the ‘N word,’” says Alesha Johnson, a sophomore broadcast journalism major.

Others though, cite the word’s derogatory history and say they would never take part in its use.

“I think it’s positively asinine that students use it. The ‘n’ word is one thing,” says Zelena Williams, a freshman print journalism major. “You can’t say you’re doing the same thing you’re doing with the ‘n’ word.”

The term’s usage as a slang word became popular on Howard’s campus in the spring of 2005, and it has carried on among many students.

Whether students use the word depends mainly on the student’s personal interpretation of its history and meaning.

“Cooning to me is a negative stereotype embodying all the negative stereotypes placed on Black people,” says Jephree White, a junior audio production major. She encourages students to research the word before deciding whether to use it in conversation.

But some students say they understand enough about the word’s history to justify using it.

“I feel like I’m educated enough that, when I’m joking around, I can pretend to be ignorant. I know the history of the word and what it means,” says  Johnson.

In his history of African-Americans in film, “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks,” film historian Donald Bogle wrote, “Before its death, the coon developed into the most blatantly degrading of all Black stereotypes. The pure coons emerged as no-account niggers, those unreliable, crazy, lazy, subhuman creatures good for nothing more than eating watermelons, stealing chickens, shooting crap or butchering the English language.”

Dr. Russell L. Adams, professor emeritus of African-American studies at Howard, says, “students are using it in ignorance, not realizing that older folks, White especially, will say, ‘Poor things. They really are ignorant as to what we used to do to them.’ Black people will say, ‘Someone has failed to tell them.’”