Help with black slang- are these black slang nicknames offensive?

I will ask again- if I had a character named Coon- would that offend people?

Use a bit of common sense Jason. Of course some people would be offended by that, but why does that bother you?

"Coon" refers to raccoon - I am not going to name a black character that name.

I wouldn't call a black character "Spade"- what if I called a black character "Smoke" or "Shadow"?

I have other ones named Ace, Deuce and Trey.

Cuffy is also defined as:

http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Cuffy

Definition
Noun 1. A name for a negro.[Websters].
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)


Date "Cuffy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1825. (references)

Specialty Definition: Cuffy
Domain Definition
Literature 1: Cuffy A negro; both a generic word and proper name.
2: "Sambo and Cuffey expand under every sky." - Mrs. Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.

Cameron Cuffy Cameron Eustace Cuffy (born February 8, 1970 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines) was a West Indian cricketer, who was often likened to Joel Garner and Curtly Ambrose. 6 foot 7 1/2 inches tall, he seemed to deliver the ball from the clouds. But there the comparisons ended with his famous predecessors. He was neither quite as fast nor quite as effective. (references)
Cuffy (person) Cuffy, or Kofi, was an Akan slave in the Dutch colony of Berbice in present-day Guyana, who in 1763 led a revolt of more than 2,500 slaves. They held most of Berbice for ten months, but divisions among the rebels and attacks by the Dutch led to the collapse of the rebellion, and Cuffy committed suicide soon after. (references)

Are people necessarily going to think of this when I use the name "Cuffy"?

This was the definition I gave for Cuffy:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cuffy

cuffy 17 up, 8 down
The illest nigga alive
wow i dont understand why that cuffy kid is so abap

What sort of bowler was he?

I will ask again - would other blacks be offended if I had a character named Cuffy?

Cuffy, according to some dictionaries, is a generic term for a black person. Urbandictionary defines Cuffy as a "bad apple".

I think "Black Diamond" would be a cool name for a black character- one of the slang dictionaries I use defines it as a tough person with a "heart of gold".

Would other blacks be offended by that term? What if I had a black character named Coal?

I am black- I don't see these terms as offensive. I am asking if other see them as such.

Herb and Tack are black slang terms for nerds- I have some black nerdy, genius types in my comic.

It's also the trade-marked name for a brand of cheese.

I already have a character named Diamond - would Diamond and Black Diamond confuse people?

The name Tuffy has been used before - but I am not naming another cartoon mouse with it.

I don't understand. Your characters are cats and dogs. How can they be multicultural?

"Coon" is an offensive term for a black person that's been used for more than a century. It's probably not a good choice for any character, whether you plan on making that character "black" or "white" or Asian, to whatever extent you think a dog can be any of those, unless you're deliberately courting controversy. But then you seem to be remarkably tone-deaf about the whole naming thing.

The black characters will conform to the crude racial stereotypes of the 1930s.

I am using cat and dog breeds to represent people in different cultures.

No- there is a cat breed called the Maine Coon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_coon



I was going to name a Maine Coon "Coon". I have a Maine Coon character named Bearcat.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bearcat

bear·cat   [bair-kat] Show IPA
noun
1.
Informal . a person or thing that fights or acts with force or fierceness.

Yeah, I know Maine Coons-they tend toward polydactyly. You'll notice your picture shows a largely black cat. Coon's still not a good choice for a name.

Maine Coons aren't even an African cat breed- they come from Maine.

This is a list of all the possible coat colors:

http://www.mcbfa.org/mainecooncolors.html

Duh. Irrelevant.

I wasn't going to make "Coon" brown- I would have made him silver-colored.

I am going to ask others what they think.