The Oxymoron of Coonery in "Freaknik"

"Freaknik" (From Wikipedia) - an annual spring break meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, primarily of students from historically black colleges and universities. Begun in 1982 as a small picnic near the Atlanta University Center, it was initially sponsored by the DC Metro Club and was typically held during the third weekend in April to coincide with the schools of the Atlanta University Center's Reading Day. The event increased in size and popularity in the 1990s with dancing, drinking, parties, a basketball tournament, rap sessions, a film festival and a job fair.

But that's just the book definition...

The real question is "do you really know Freaknik?" Have you ever been to Freaknik, have you ever talked to someone who has, have you seen pictures, and what of the plethora of rumors regarding Freaknik have you heard? Let's be honest here, Freaknik was coonery at its finest! Black folks under the influence of alcohol and weed brought to Atlanta under the premise of a good old-fashioned Freak Fest. You and I both know that Freaknik had a lot of "e-r"s "showing their ass!" Now in 2010, we have T-Pain, the ringleader man, the auto-tune king, releasing an animated cartoon entitled "Freaknik: The Musical" which aired on Adult Swim on March 7, 2010 and can been seen here.

Now I have read blog postings, message board postings, and e-mails from people who have expressed a distaste for T-Pain and his newest attempt at expressing his thoughts in the name of Entertainment. I've even heard some go so far as to say that T-Pain is further hurting black people by putting out this fictional work in which such things occur as Lil Wayne doing the voice for "Trap Jesus." But what troubled me the most was a posting when T-Pain was accused of coonery. Coonery in/at Freaknik? ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Isn't that the expected?

The funny part about black folks is how ready we are to throw a word out because we heard it somewhere in an attempt to sound more intelligent than we really are. So I'll help out any reader that I may have who don't really know what coonery is. The unofficial definition for coonery used among Black people is someone who acts like a buffoon or sellout, usually with stereotypical or over-the-top antics, reminiscent of minstrel shows. But the thing about those who portray coonery do so without the intent of being stereotypical i.e. Ray J, Flava Flav, Al Sharpton, and the like. How can we ever portray Freaknik without the coonery that it entailed? I personally found T-Pain's cartoon is very funny, and thought it to be excellent. That satirical portrayal of "Trap Jesus" and his "Hood Commandments" was probably the best part to me. But I am writing this because I wanted to know what others thought. Is "Freaknik" coonery? Or is it an artistic expression of an event which was filled with coonery at its high point?