[erlang-questions] Coon - new tool for building Erlang packages, dependency management and deploying Erlang services

[Krzysztof Jurewicz]

Fred Hebert writes:

> Anyone is of course free to name their software whatever they want. Picking
> a racist name is however never going to be consequences-free as this e-mail
> thread first shows on the first day of release, and adoption figures may
> also reflect it.

Merriam-Webster online dictionary (naming itself as “America’s most-trusted online dictionary”) says that there two meanings of “coon”:

⒈ raccoon;
⒉ offensive — used as an insulting and contemptuous term for a black person.

I presume that context matters. What makes you think that in this context this word means ⒉? Wikipedia in the article about raccoon says that is also known coloquially as “coon”, so I guess this is not a very uncommon usage.

Or are you saying that non-racist usages of words that have also racist meanings should be eventually abandoned?

(I’m not a native speaker, so bear with my eventual ignorance).