Katy Steinmetz, “Wednesday Words: Weird Slurs, Olympics Slang and More” (Time, Aug. 1, 2012)
Monday (n., slang): used by whites or other non-blacks as a hostile term of abuse or contempt for a black person. A black Boston Red Sox outfielder recently alleged that an off-duty police officer had called him “Monday.” An investigation ensued, and the officer was soon dismissed for making racist comments. This, of course, left sports media confused about how Monday, a seemingly innocuous day of the week, had become covert racial abuse. Language guru Ben Zimmer did his own investigation and traced the usage back to at least 2004, explaining that comedian Russell Peters later “put ‘Monday’ on the map” in a comedy routine about how “white people are getting real…clever with their racism.” The comedian’s reasoning: “Nobody likes Mondays.” Perhaps “Friday”seemed a bit too high-brow for their purposes.