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A Slur Mispoken, and a Career in Jeopardy

I was very disturbed to hear this news story about Dave Lenihan, the DJ in St Louis who was fired for using a racial slur against Condi Rice.

Lenihan had been heaping praise on Rice, who has said she aspires to run the National Football League one day but has more recently ruled out seeking to replace retiring NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

“She’s been chancellor of Stanford,” Lenihan said on the air. “She’s got the patent resume of somebody that has serious skill. She loves football. She’s African-American, which would kind of be a big coon. A big coon. Oh my God. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that.”

He said he had meant to say “coup” instead.

I was accidentally listening to Sean Hannity in the car tonight and I heard the clip for myself. There is no mistaking that the comment was not intentional. Lenihan was so flustered he immediately took a station break. Unfortunately for him, the station managers don't want to hear it - he's gone for accidentally saying "coon", end of story. In addition, the Belleville News Democrat reports that he was suspended Thursday from his job at Logan College of Chiropractic, where he's taught anatomy and neuroanatomy since September 2004.

The station and Logan College should have the right to fire or suspend Lenihan for contract violation at the drop of a hat - though I am not sure what part of his contract with Logan College he might have violated with this word mispoken while at another job. The actions of the station and Logan College reflect an atmosphere of fear bordering on paranoia. As Larry Elder notes in the News Democrat article, black radio hosts have said far worse without reprisals. Double standards are always worrisome, as is an irrational fear of a particular word.

But that isn't why I was disturbed to hear this story. You see, I have a cousin named Dave Lenahan (not Lenihan - note spelling difference) who has been a songwriter and DJ in Ohio for roughly my entire life. I haven't kept up with his radio career over the last five years or so, and it wouldn't have been impossible for him to have recently started a gig in St. Louis without first clearing it with me. I thought it was him being introduced on Sean Hannity's show tonight. It didn't sound quite like my cousin, but with that crappy cell phone it was tough to tell. I imagined the blood draining from the faces of my aunt and uncle as a potential national controversy whipped up around their son.

Thankfully, a little web searching showed that the guy getting screwed is some guy I don't know. That doesn't make what happened to him okay, but I would really just as soon not have it be my cousin sitting there on Hannity and Combs tonight, trying to explain how he called the Secretary of State a "coon". And cousin Dave's parents - my godparents - can sleep easy tonight... unlike the Lenihan family, who has heard Dave called a member KKK on air over this incident, and who are probably wondering how they will replace his two jobs that are now in jeopardy.