Group Wants to Change Name of MN Town Because of Racial Slur

What's in a name?  Apparently a lot, depending on the name and what it can possibly mean.  Even if that was not the original intention, it's something that can happen.  This is what brings us to the Minnesota town of Coon Rapids.

I've heard of this town obviously all of my life, and never once did I think of any racist connotation.  Not that I didn't think it was a racial thing, I just didn't think about it one way or another.  But I can see if it's pointed out, how the name could have a racist connotation.  The issue is Coon, which is supposed to be referring to a raccoon.  But has also been associated with racist remarks.

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The group that is bringing up the topic is the non-profit group The Transformative Circle.  They actually put up an online poll to see if the general public would support a name change for the town.  There were about 450 people who participated in the poll, and the results of that poll came back as around two thirds against the change, and one third supported the change.  450 people isn't a huge sample, so it's unclear as to what will happen with this.  They still would like to bring the results to the Coon Rapids city council.

The City of Coon Rapids issued 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS a statement: "The survey about changing the city's name is being conducted by a private citizen group, not by the city itself, and the city respects the group's right to conduct such a survey. Being that the city itself doesn't have any direct involvement with the survey, the city doesn't have an official position on it."

This is the same sort of thing that got the name of Lake Calhoun changed to Bde Maka Ska.  We'll have to wait and see what will happen with this suburb of the twin cities.