I object to the term "Native American"

[Wittlich]

Meh ... For lack of a better term; I for one, don't mind being called "Native American."

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Geronimo


it's not a huge issue here by any stretch. Sava AFAIKT is the only one showing any hint of passion over this.

Well, of course I'm exaggerating, but most native tribes in the USA strongly enforce not to be called Indians, natives in Canada insist on the terminology "First Nations" or somesuch, while many peoples in South America don't make similar demands.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Wernazuma III


Well, of course I'm exaggerating, but most native tribes in the USA strongly enforce not to be called Indians, natives in Canada insist on the terminology "First Nations" or somesuch, while many peoples in South America don't make similar demands.

Nope. Native peoples played a huge role in planning the new smithsonian museum The Natonal Museum of the American Indian, whose mission is to preserve the heritage of the "Native Americans" Seems to me that they use both interchangebly, and dont make a huge fuss.

Even in the area of terminology, they have more pressing battles to fight, like 'redskin' 'squaw' etc.

[Barnabas]

I think amerindian is the best term

[SlowwHand]

Call them Casino Owners.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Call them Casino Owners.

Maybe in some parts of the US (just get rid of your ridiculous gambling laws if you don't like the Indians to run the casinos).

In South America, call them dirt hole dwellers. And I've seen seriously ****ed up reservations in the US and Canada too.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
White people objecting to what other people call themselves

The point of being an anything-American was not to highlight differences between them and "real"-Americans but to point out, that in fact they were Americans also. After all, until very recently an American was a white person who descended from immigrants from Scandinavia, Germany, England, or Scotland. Everyone else was just a dirty scummy foreigner, including the people whose ancestors lived here before anyone else and the people who were kidnapped to be here. Hence, Italian-Americans called themselves such to remind racist *******s that we too, are Americans.

As for Native Americans, this song pretty much says it all.

King Missile - "The Indians"

The Indians lived all over this land before we came and killed them.
That was very bad of us.
We thought we needed the land,
But for the most part,
We just ruined it anyway,
And now, nobody can use it.
That's the way we are.
We're pigs.
One of my favorite foods to eat is called corn.
The Indians call it , "maize."
We call the Indians , "Indians."
This is because Columbus thought he was in India
When he first came to this land.
Some people say we should call the Indians, "Native Americans,"
'Cause they were here in America before us,
But before us,
This land wasn't called, "America."
It was named "America" by a mapmaker who never even came here.
He just lived in Europe
And made maps and when he found out about this land,
He just made a map of it,
And just put his name on it,
'Cause he could.
That's the way we are.
We're pigs.

As I was writing this,
A cockroach fell from the sky and onto the table.
I killed it,
'Cause I did.
That's the way I am.
This doesn't really have very much to do with the Indians, though.
I guess I got kind of sidetracked.
Anyway, I hope you see my point.

Chegitz hates white people.

[Asher]

Check out your comedy thread, cracker!

[Sava]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

The point of being an anything-American was not to highlight differences between them and "real"-Americans but to point out, that in fact they were Americans also. After all, until very recently an American was a white person who descended from immigrants from Scandinavia, Germany, England, or Scotland. Everyone else was just a dirty scummy foreigner, including the people whose ancestors lived here before anyone else and the people who were kidnapped to be here. Hence, Italian-Americans called themselves such to remind racist *******s that we too, are Americans.

Then how come we don't call people of Anglo descent "Anglo-Americans"?

or... caucasian-American (to include other countries)?

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Actually, North American Indians themselves tend to prefer "Indian" to "Native American."

That's quite understandable

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Sava


Then how come we don't call people of Anglo descent "Anglo-Americans"?

or... caucasian-American (to include other countries)?

anglo-americans has been used used for A. all english speaking whites in North America (see De Toqueville) and B. The US and UK alliance (see most usage wrt WW2) It would be too confusing.

Also cause most Americans of English descent are of mixed British descent (IE Scots, Welsh, Scot Irish) Which is why "WASP" is inaccurate. And also often some Dutch and French Huegonot mixed in. I prefer "old stock Protestant" for that group.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Sava

or... caucasian-American (to include other countries)?

You mean Americans whose ancestors come from Georgia and Armenia?

[Elok]

Originally posted by Sava
Then how come we don't call people of Anglo descent "Anglo-Americans"?

or... caucasian-American (to include other countries)?

I've heard both terms used, actually. I hear "white" a lot more often, but then I also hear "black" a lot more than African-American. We probably use "white" more frequently overall, just because it's not really a hot-button issue what we're called provided it's not "cracker" or "honky." With black people there's a lot more awkwardness hanging in the air due to slavery, segregation, and the fact that people like Farrakhan won't stop bringing up slavery and segregation and insisting that everything white people do is some vestige of one or the other. Plus the preferred term was prone in the past to change with the wind, from "colored" to "negro" to "african-american" to "black" to who knows what. So people get especially twitchy with the terminology.

"Native Americans" are almost as touchy as a subject, again because of the bad blood, but because most of the really bad stuff was longer ago and stereotypes about them aren't quite so prevalent in the media (because there aren't as many of them), it's less bad. With Asians and Hispanics, there's typically no really ugly massive institutions or historical atrocities, just the usual nothing-personal economic exploitation of immigrants combined with some level of xenophobia. So it's (in my experience) even less touchy with them. Of course, there are also much more black people in my area than Asian, Hispanic or Native...

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

As for Native Americans, this song pretty much says it all.

King Missile - "The Indians"

The Indians lived all over this land before we came and killed them.
That was very bad of us.
We thought we needed the land,
But for the most part,
We just ruined it anyway,
And now, nobody can use it.
That's the way we are.
We're pigs.
One of my favorite foods to eat is called corn.
The Indians call it , "maize."
We call the Indians , "Indians."
This is because Columbus thought he was in India
When he first came to this land.
Some people say we should call the Indians, "Native Americans,"
'Cause they were here in America before us,
But before us,
This land wasn't called, "America."
It was named "America" by a mapmaker who never even came here.
He just lived in Europe
And made maps and when he found out about this land,
He just made a map of it,
And just put his name on it,
'Cause he could.
That's the way we are.
We're pigs.

As I was writing this,
A cockroach fell from the sky and onto the table.
I killed it,
'Cause I did.
That's the way I am.
This doesn't really have very much to do with the Indians, though.
I guess I got kind of sidetracked.
Anyway, I hope you see my point.

They were conquered. It sucks for them, but it's a fact of history. Until very recently, this is what groups of people did. They moved into lands they wanted, expelled / slaughtered / absorbed the original inhabitants, and made the land their own.
The "Native Americans" have no more right to North America than the Germans have to Silesia, the pre-Turkish people have to Anatolia, the Celts have to England, the Goths to Hungary, etc.

I have nothing against giving them aid or helping to improve their standard of living, but I feel no shame for living on land that they formerly controlled. It's not my fault that they lost the wars to control the land.

I think that they should be called Aboriginal Americans, but Native American is no problem. I don't like the term Indians.

[Sava]

I still say we should use the RGB system.