Given that I was the author, I can guarantee you that nothing derogatory was meant -- by implication or inference. It is a new one for me and I just have never heard of that connection.My guess is we'll have an editor's note to that effect in the upcoming issue.UPDATE: I got this note from a friend of a friend:So... don't I feel foolish. If anybody was offended, it was not the intent. And somewhat surprising in a fairly diverse office, nobody noticed.And, after all, I was impressed.
So given this week's Buzz of the Week, "Doan gives GSA a new shine," I got this e-mail:
Ms. Doan considers herself Black. Talking about blacks and shinning in the same sentence is a big no-no. This is very old racist terminology when one talks about blacks shinning. I'm sure the author didn't mean any harm and probably didn't know any better but this does not mean that someone might take it the wrong way.
It is a slur. It's kind of old-school. As slurs go, it was used like 40 or 50 years ago. Younger people may not even know it. It's kind of like "floozy". People don't use that one much any more.