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The attempt at a “gotcha” is annoying. I can only speak from my lived experience as a white person who grew up on a reservation. I married a native, and almost
by iron0013 6y ago
The attempt at a “gotcha” is annoying. I can only speak from my lived experience as a white person who grew up on a reservation. I married a native, and almost all my closest friends were (and are) natives. Everyone I knew called themselves “native” or “Native American”. “American Indian” wouldn’t have been considered offensive (unlike “redskin”), but it really wasn’t the common parlance. The only place one would routinely see the phrase “American Indian” is on government paperwork, eg from the BIA.
This is one of those things you can find out for yourself: go to a pow-wow (non-native visitors are typically very welcome) and ask the people there how they usually refer to themselves.
- DuskStar 6y agoThat'd be evidence for CGPGrey being wrong, then. But I'd still love to see statistics on what proportion of people found the existence of the Redskins to be offensive.
- iron0013 6y agoThere’s also this element of framing surrounding the word “offensive”. when someone is put on the spot and asked if they find something “offensive”, it’s kind of a socially precarious moment. If they say “yes”, it could lead so challenges and confrontations (“why? Can’t you see that it’s just a word? No one’s getting hurt, it’s just a game”), but if they say “no”, the conversation will probably end, without any uncomfortable follow-ups.