ST:TOS question

[sarren]

I just read someone's meta about how using the prefix K/Mc for Kirk/McCoy is offensive:

The problem for me, though, is that "Mc" has been used historically in Great Britain, the United States, and elsewhere as an ethnic slur against Irish people, which McCoy is.*

Obviously as my name does not begin with Mc or Mac, I can't have an opinion on this but the part I'm fixated on is, I'm pretty certain that McCoy's not Irish. He has a Southern US drawl and I remember he talks about mint juleps in at least one TOS episode, but that's all I remember. And now I really want to know.

Does anyone remember any specific episode where McCoy refers to where he's from, or am I going to have to watch the whole damn show again?

Edit: I'm going with Georgia, like DeForest Kelley, the actor who played him (first).


*For the record, I copied and pasted that line, I wasn't paraphrasing to make a point - the author of the post has since edited it to read differently.

Comments

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

I had never ever heard of the "ethic slur", but as scotsnow started to explain it to me, I totally get it. irishman = a "Mic" (obviously a "Mc") or as I said, a "Miccy". So then I had a whole "Oooohhh I get it" moment.

Still don't think it impact on McCoy as a character, as I don't think that he's Irish. He went to the Uni of Mississippi for example, so reckon he's supposed to be from the South. And I don't think that referring to the pairing as K/Mc (which I'm really liking with the Reboot) is offensive however.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Ha, his uni doesn't mean anything, I bet in the future he could commute from PERTH if he wanted to.

The actor's from Georgia.

He's supposed to be a good ol' Southern boy, I was just wondering if they ever mentioned the state, like Kirk's from Iowa.

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I only got the "Uni of Miss" part, couldn't find anything about where he was from. Think that was important with Kirk, and obviously everyone else, but it doesn't fit right that they'd have someone else from the British Isles, with Scotty playing such a big role in that way. I reckon he's from the South somewhere - I get that feeling.