Posts by Vanilla
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I told my family about this change. I’ve got a 12 year old daughter that is the sweetest, kindest, most naive person I know. Her statement was essentially “everyone is changing everything because all words mean something different today than they did 5 years ago.”
I share that backstory to say this: isn’t that what “squaw” generally meant 50 years ago too? It seems to me with the way things are going they should avoid Native American terms entirely so in 10, 20, or 50 years they aren’t having the same conversation about changing it due to a term being derogatory or cultural appropriation. Name it after a bear or a fish. PETA will be upset by how offensive that is but we don’t care what they think.
I don’t really have an opinion on whether the term is offensive or not. But native Americans very much were in support of removing this word from what I’ve read. I think it means something different to them than I ever thought or understood. This is how I explained it to my daughter in a way I felt she would understand: We are of the prominent faith here in Utah. Not long ago the president of our church asked us to no longer call ourselves “Mormons” and called on media and the general public to stop using that term as well. It’s not a term we want to be associated with any longer. These things happen. It’s not something I’m going to lose a lot of sleep over.
I asked this question because I legitimately couldn’t find the meaning in a few brief online searches.
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Or maybe the Puite (my autocorrect kept going to “Paiute,” which is correct?) tribe could have told them to pound sand, we don’t want to work with your school. And that would have been fine too.That's my whole point of working with the local tribes. Had CHS gone straight to the Piute Tribe, and worked with them on a real resolution, CHS wouldn't be the "reds" today. They might not be the "Redmen", but they might be something close that honored the history of the Native American people here in our area, and brought not just pride back to CHS, but some real understanding as well. Win / Win. Instead we got a lose / lose. Go redwolves. errrr....wolves! doh, I mean Reds! (what's a Red???). Ugh. Go Canyon View!
When it comes to this stuff I think there needs to be enough room for people to respect what others think without getting upset about it. I’m not Native American, and don’t even pretend to understand their culture or experiences. I am far from being able to tell them how they “should” feel about something. I may not understand it and in some cases even disagree with what they’re saying, but I can still be respectful and let them feel the way they want to feel.
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8,545 Posts
Geese everywhere are offended!
1 - 6 of 41 Posts
