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“You people” is a dangerous term, filled with racial innuendo. Any politician worth his or her salt has steered well clear of it since at least 1992, when U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot used it in a speech before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Perot didn’t intend it as an insult, but as a way to emphasize the human cost of inner-city crime and drug abuse on urban black communities. The words touched a nerve, however. As the president of the Tucson branch of the NAACP put it: “Ross Perot worries me. I’m not sure that in the area of civil rights he has the cultural sensitivity that’s required or the staff to advise him.”

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Don Cherry clearly remained unaware of this, even so long after others got the message. The world of professional sports is not known for quickly adapting to changing times outside the arena. “Chirping” — i.e. insulting your opponent in hopes of throwing them off their game — is still an accepted strategy on the ice. Racial and homophobic references have been outlawed, but broadcast cameras still gleefully hone in on players and coaches spitting the crudest of epithets at one another.