Did y'all know Tree-Hugger was a racist term? A boxing story.

[Marchegiano]

Nero ***** (C H I N K) and Panama Joe Gans used to train in the same facility. Nero is a Puerto Rican and Panama was actually from Barbados.

Nero didn't like Gans much and was always trying to get under his skin to get a fight out of Gans. ***** felt Gans time was passed and his time was coming but because Gans was just a Colored champion and not the lineal Panama felt he had bigger fish to try to fry.

One day while training separately at the athletic club Nero let loose a string of insults Gans simply laughed off until Nero rolled out "treehugger"

A fight ensued and Nero got the better of Gans before the rest of the AC broke it up. Gans agreed to fight Nero and gave him a whoopin'


I felt like that was interesting. From modern eyes it seem like Panama was really into the environment, or, really hated people who were. Which is kinda weird for a boxer. So I was looking into why Panama took the term treehugger to such offense but other terms Nero had tried did little to affect Gans' mood.

Turns out treehugger was a term used by blacks and Puerto Ricans similar to the n-word but for the West Indies peoples.

Nero wasn't calling him a hippy, he was calling him a racial slur. Which makes way more sense and is an interesting anecdote I felt like y'all might like to hear.

Commonwealth Sporting Club, Oct 1921


Had hoped the censor was better with the BS change over, but, no. It's not often I'll do this, I do think the folks running the forum should get more **** for people like me doing **** like this, where I explain a boxer's name beyond a censor.

[travestyny]

Nero ***** and Panama Joe Gans used to train in the same facility. Nero is a Puerto Rican and Panama was actually from Barbados.

Nero didn't like Gans much and was always trying to get under his skin to get a fight out of Gans. ***** felt Gans time was passed and his time was coming but because Gans was just a Colored champion and not the lineal Panama felt he had bigger fish to try to fry.

One day while training separately at the athletic club Nero let loose a string of insults Gans simply laughed off until Nero rolled out "treehugger"

A fight ensued and Nero got the better of Gans before the rest of the AC broke it up. Gans agreed to fight Nero and gave him a whoopin'


I felt like that was interesting. From modern eyes it seem like Panama was really into the environment, or, really hated people who were. Which is kinda weird for a boxer. So I was looking into why Panama took the term treehugger to such offense but other terms Nero had tried did little to affect Gans' mood.

Turns out treehugger was a term used by blacks and Puerto Ricans similar to the n-word but for the West Indies peoples.

Nero wasn't calling him a hippy, he was calling him a racial slur. Which makes way more sense and is an interesting anecdote I felt like y'all might like to hear.

Commonwealth Sporting Club, Oct 1921

lol. Good story! Never knew that term's dark origins

[billeau2]

Nero ***** and Panama Joe Gans used to train in the same facility. Nero is a Puerto Rican and Panama was actually from Barbados.

Nero didn't like Gans much and was always trying to get under his skin to get a fight out of Gans. ***** felt Gans time was passed and his time was coming but because Gans was just a Colored champion and not the lineal Panama felt he had bigger fish to try to fry.

One day while training separately at the athletic club Nero let loose a string of insults Gans simply laughed off until Nero rolled out "treehugger"

A fight ensued and Nero got the better of Gans before the rest of the AC broke it up. Gans agreed to fight Nero and gave him a whoopin'


I felt like that was interesting. From modern eyes it seem like Panama was really into the environment, or, really hated people who were. Which is kinda weird for a boxer. So I was looking into why Panama took the term treehugger to such offense but other terms Nero had tried did little to affect Gans' mood.

Turns out treehugger was a term used by blacks and Puerto Ricans similar to the n-word but for the West Indies peoples.

Nero wasn't calling him a hippy, he was calling him a racial slur. Which makes way more sense and is an interesting anecdote I felt like y'all might like to hear.

Commonwealth Sporting Club, Oct 1921

Very cool! Thats a great story.

[billeau2]

lol. Good story! Never knew that term's dark origins

It is always interesting when these terms become deconstructed and lose their power.

The late **** Gregory tells us what a "Honkey" is: Apparently in parts of the South, when a White man wanted to take a colored young women out, he would ride into the neighborhood and looking for the proper front porch, when located, would hit the car horn as a signal for the women to come hither. Obviously it was beneath him to get off his fat cracka butt and meet his date at the door!

[Anthony342]

It is always interesting when these terms become deconstructed and lose their power.

The late **** Gregory tells us what a "Honkey" is: Apparently in parts of the South, when a White man wanted to take a colored young women out, he would ride into the neighborhood and looking for the proper front porch, when located, would hit the car horn as a signal for the women to come hither. Obviously it was beneath him to get off his fat cracka butt and meet his date at the door!

Really? Because you often hear about that with white guys honking their horn for white girls who just don't wanna meet a girl's parents or just want the girl to come out to the car for their date too.

[smeck]

The late **** Gregory tells us what a "Honkey" is: Apparently in parts of the South, when a White man wanted to take a colored young women out, he would ride into the neighborhood and looking for the proper front porch, when located, would hit the car horn

Well...I have a lot of admiration for Brother Greg, even got a chance to meet him, but not everything he wrote or said is factual. (Or as Mort Sahl used to say, "actual if not factual.")

Another fanciful definition/supposition for "Honkey" was spoken by Steve Landesberg on an episode of "Barney Miller." He said it was based on the "nasal tone" or "honk" of Caucasians.

Scholars will tell you that the word comes from Bohunk, a term for white immigrants from Poland and Hungary. It became "Hunky." Jack Burns (playing a bigot opposite Avery Schreiber's cab driver character) used that term.

As to "honky tonk," some say that it referred to low-class redneck bars where the entertainment was bawdy dance hall girls gyrating to the cheap sound of a guy playing a Tonk Brothers piano. That seems like a guess to me, but who knows, maybe there were a lot of Tonk pianos in bars a hundred years ago.

It's kind of easy to just think up some logical supposition for a slang word that has eluded defined scholarship. The fiction is often more amusing than the truth.

[billeau2]

Really? Because you often hear about that with white guys honking their horn for white girls who just don't wanna meet a girl's parents or just want the girl to come out to the car for their date too.

Well same idea, different color lol.

[billeau2]

Well...I have a lot of admiration for Brother Greg, even got a chance to meet him, but not everything he wrote or said is factual. (Or as Mort Sahl used to say, "actual if not factual.")

Another fanciful definition/supposition for "Honkey" was spoken by Steve Landesberg on an episode of "Barney Miller." He said it was based on the "nasal tone" or "honk" of Caucasians.

Scholars will tell you that the word comes from Bohunk, a term for white immigrants from Poland and Hungary. It became "Hunky." Jack Burns (playing a bigot opposite Avery Schreiber's cab driver character) used that term.

As to "honky tonk," some say that it referred to low-class redneck bars where the entertainment was bawdy dance hall girls gyrating to the cheap sound of a guy playing a Tonk Brothers piano. That seems like a guess to me, but who knows, maybe there were a lot of Tonk pianos in bars a hundred years ago.

It's kind of easy to just think up some logical supposition for a slang word that has eluded defined scholarship. The fiction is often more amusing than the truth.

Yes... Very true about Gregory. Some of these expressions probably also have cotangent evolution. They could be several mergings, and a renewed use of the term.

I would be willing to bet that "Honky Tonk" has roots in onomatopoeia in some sort of way, or another.

[The Old LefHook]

Can't you write a post without censured words, for shìt's sake? Who is *****?

[Marchegiano]

Can't you write a post without censured words, for shìt's sake? Who is *****?

No, it's my protest. I don't talk about it anymore but I make no attempt to get around the censor because boxer's names should not be ****ing censored on a boxing forum any goddamn way

I was told our readers can take physical violence but adult speech is too far and the names of boxers can pay that forfeit.

So, OLH, I've no issue with you wanting to know who I was talking about, but, I typed his name. Not a nickname, not a stage name, not an intelligible but misspelled name, but rather, the only goddamn name we actually know the man by.

Take it up with Mods, maybe someone else will help you, but, **** that noise. I don't condone his name being star'd in the first place.