IsaacNW82You can play this game with the N-word too, it has clear Latin roots from the Latin word for "black", that's literally what it means. There is some evidence that its early use in America actually didn't have any pejorative connotation, at least at first. In Spanish, Negro is a word for a color, like you'd find on a crayon. There is a French-speaking African country, Niger, with a similar name, too, albeit the etymology is less clear. None of this makes the N-word any less offensive, of course.
A word being derogatory is a function of its usage in history. The "S-word" is somewhat different because a lot of Americans were actually not aware of its history, but it is real, and Native people are acutely aware of it. Remember, most Americans do not regularly interact with Native people, whereas Black people have a much larger US population and sizeable influence in politics, music, sports, movies, etc.
The easiest and probably best way to tell if a word is a slur is to simply listen to the community it's directed at. I'm not trying to reduce this to identity politics here per se, but when talking about slurs specifically, I think identity is important. With that being said, most of the efforts to rename places named after the slur have been spearheaded by local Tribes or Native officials, such as Deb Haaland banning the word from official Department of the Interior use. Likewise, the Washoe Tribe was heavily involved in the name change of Palisades Tahoe. In my opinion, if anybody's voice should carry more weight when deciding whether this word is offensive, it should be Native women first and foremost, as they are specifically targeted by it.
Yes, I know you probably won't read this or change any opinions you have, I know you think I'm on my high horse or doing it for woke points or whatever other weird incentives you have dreamed up, and no I really don't care. Maybe some random onlooker will read this and learn something.
TL;DR: the people targeted by the word overwhelmingly say its a slur
This is an incredibly well thought out and articulated response.
Serious adhd question though for the language peeps: since we all came from Africa, but indigenous basically means descending from the first generation of the first culture to settle a specific region, can we technically claim we are indigenous Africans? Or indigenous Europeans? Etc? If you think about the basics of it, it really is just a specific culture that got somewhere first and claimed "first" and we put a term to it (fun fact term originated in 1600's to define things in the "new world" oof lol). This is all assuming we know everything about human history and migration. Has every indigenous culture gotten fucked over by others who arrived after them? Or are there examples where this didn't happen? Just curious.
foolmetwiceI hate that there isn’t a better phrase for addressing a group of women than “you guys”. Feels so weird to call women “you guys”
Try "y'all" next time. Neutral. Gender inclusive. And even will fit in with the hicks and rednecks.
