Kawlija
Shared on Sun, 04/01/2007 - 18:31 Ask yourself if words can be owned? Who has the rights to them? Who can dictate their usage? It’s not a real stretch these days to understand how the Black community has taken possession of the word “nigger.” Let’s acknowledge that the word, however it came about, came to be identified with their culture and over a period of time, they took the word back.
Why was this acceptable to everyone who WASN’T Black? Perhaps everyone came around to the understanding that it was a mean and hateful way to address members of the Black community. Perhaps it was the way they got angry every time it was used by anyone who wasn’t Black.
What about the word “negro?” That word had little weight with anybody, yet the Black community as a whole stood up and said, “We don’t want to be called that anymore.” Turns out, that was okay with everyone else too, and the use of the word negro fell out of usage.
Well, for Native Americans, there are also a couple of words we don’t like hearing either. Unfortunately, their use is acceptable to everyone who ISN’T Native American, so I guess it’s okay to address these people in a mean and hateful way. Maybe, instead of keeping our mouth shut and frowning when we hear these words, we ought to get mad as hell and tell everyone we’re not going to take it anymore.
Let’s start out small and work our way up. Squaw. Natives know what this is but everyone else thinks it’s a referral to an Indian woman. Let me politely inform you that this word is actually a French bastardization of an Algonquin term for a woman’s vagina. It is accredited to fur trappers who were learning the language who began referring to the females among us who had a squaw. Frightfully, this crude term became very common and widely used, while insulting and demeaning the Native American population all at the same time.
So if you were wondering where the movement to rename Squaw Mountain, Squaw Valley, Squaw River and Squaw Butte came from, there you go. Pause for a moment, the next time you see this term used on tv or in the movies and every time you hear it muttered, picture them saying cunt. Sometimes, no matter what the language, words can be offensive.
The next big stumbling block is the word “redskin(s).” Native Americans of this country will tell you that we’d like as much control over this one as the Black community has of the word nigger. However, once again, somehow this word is acceptable to everyone who ISN’T Native American.
Wait a minute, you ask, “How can this be mean and hateful? It’s our nation’s capitol football team!”
I’ll forgo the obvious argument “Why aren’t their any Yellowskins or Blackskins football teams?” Somehow everyone can see right through that one, but I digress.
Instead, I feel I have to explain what this word means to Indians: Bounties. Death. Dismemberment. Unmerciful killing of women and children. Holocaust.
Every seen an animal skinned? Did you have any feelings either way seeing that? It’s just an animal, right? Now picture doing that to a man. An old woman. How about seeing children skinned alive?
Native Americans are unique in that they exist as a distinct race of people despite the fact that it was an OFFICIAL doctrine of the United States government to eliminate them from the face of the planet. It was common in the settling of this continent by the white man to offer bounties for Native American skins.
In fact, this policy gave birth to another bit of (mean and hateful) Americana, the cigar store Indian. Were you aware that these were carved and left outside businesses so that bounty hunters knew where to take the red skins and scalps they harvested and collect their money? You might look at them and think those look nice but they just make me cringe because it meant the slaughter of my people for the almighty dollar.
So are you catching on how mean and hateful the word redskin might be to Indians? I don’t care where the word came from or who used it first. I know what it means and that’s enough for me.
There’s more, but here’s the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry:
"Redskin" is a racial descriptor for Native Americans and one of the color metaphors for race used in North America and Europe since European colonization of America. The term was used throughout the English-speaking world (and in equivalent transliterations in Europe) throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a common term of reference for indigenous Americans. The term was once in common use, as evidenced in Western movies, but is now largely considered a pejorative and is seldom used publicly. As with any term perceived to be discriminatory, different individuals may hold differing opinions of the term's appropriateness.
Wait a minute. Do different individuals hold differing opinions of the term nigger? If the Black community argues to not use the word, why is that enough for people but it’s not enough for the Red community to argue against redskin?
Hey, look at this! The leading newspaper in the nation’s capitol did their research on the word and came to the conclusion, that no, it’s not mean and hateful. (White publishers of the world unite!) This guy must be Snyder’s pal if he wasn’t before.
A Linguist's Alternative History of 'Redskin'
Term Did Not Begin as Insult, Smithsonian Scholar Says; Activist Not So Sure
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 3, 2005
October 3, 2005
If you want to see more on the debate, (wait a minute, what fucking debate, there is no debate):
Various opines on the term from all angles.
I thought this website was good to evaluate this for yourself because of the spectrum of the points of view collected in one place.
And I guess I couldn’t be objective if I didn’t include the official www.redskins.com website. Fuckers.
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Comments
Submitted by microscent on Tue, 04/10/2007 - 17:27
Submitted by CrypticCat on Sun, 04/01/2007 - 21:29