Well, at the risk of clutter.....
I believe I'm responsible for using that title on my posting and didn't
think of it as racist, only a little corny or "hick", but apparently I
was wrong. I don't want to offend for no good reason, and I'll not use
the term. I'm aware that "Indian giver" is not generally acceptable in
polite company currently (and ain't that phrase an irony when the white
man kept abrogating "treaty" after treaty....Ah, these humans, what can
you do?). A call to the local Inter-Tribal Friendship House here in
Oakland confirmed that "Native American" is preferred and "Indian" is
OK and that "Injun" is considered undesirable at best EXCEPT that many
Native Americans will use the term with each other (a la "nigger"
amongst blacks, uh, excuse me, African Americans). So, perception
appears to be paramount, while it seems intent and context should at
least be a factor in social acceptability of word usage. If I'm friends
with a "black" or "red" guy, my use of the
otherwise-considered-derogatory term would apparently be quite
acceptable, with a similar (non) effect to a friendly reference to me as
a Finnish pig or somesuch (hmm, maybe that should be Finnish-American
pig). Ironically, I recently had a major row with a person over his use
of "nigger". I guess all of life is learning and hopefully becoming
better at this human business Thanks for your comment, John, and
thanks just for speaking up.
Benn (still a goodly ways from perfection)
----- Original Message -----
From: <jthorn65@sbcglobal.net>
To: <Land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 12:00 PM
Subject: (Fwd) RE: Fastest Injun??
> You guys might want to change this subject line back to Indian rather
than Injun.
> That's a very ugly racist term.
> Also please spare me any wailing about the onerous burden of being PC.
> Send such garbage to me directly rather than clutter up this list with
it.
>
> John Thornton
|