» When people from the US talk about someone being Indian, I always get really confused.
Indian? From India? Nope, still using the word Indian to mean Native American, even though we’ve since a) discovered that the Americas are not actually India and b) thought of loads of better, more accurate names to refer to Native Americans (that being one of them).
USians, you need to sort your bloody language out! We invented it, so you pull the short straw and have to adjust your crap for us to understand. Those are not your pants!
Whoa there friend, there are some who prefer to be referred to as American Indians rather than Native Americans.
Also, language evolves?? No one has a monopoly on English, different terms are going to appear in different regions.
American Indians would be one of the better names?
Yeah, language evolves, and creates terms more accurate and less confusing than Indian to refer to people who are not Indian.
Yes, no one has a monopoly on English (but hey, it is English, not American, and a lot of American English is like an internet troll made the changes) and different terms are gonna be used BUT this is the internet, it’s worldwide. Would it kill USians to use globally understandable terminology? Why is it for me to never say rubber, but say eraser, to avoid confusing USians, but then USians aren’t expected to never say rubber, but say condom?
Would it kill people to not generically refer to Indians when they mean Native Americans? Obviously, if one person prefers to call themself Indian (meaning Native American), I know they aren’t Indian (from India) but when someone tells me their Indian friend or this Indian on TV, that’s nothing but confusing.
Okay, please actually listen. In 1995, the US government conducted a series of interview that included Native peoples as respondents. Here’s where I got this chart (note that census.gov is a pretty reliable source). Here’s the important bit:
Americans aren’t being oblivious in this case, so please listen.
Also, really? Funny thing about your ideas for creating clarity online. Yeah, your country invented the English language but using that terrible logic about cultural ownership uh, hello? guess who invented the Internet (here’s a tip: it’s the US).
The point isn’t to claim national rights and try to hoard culture but for everyone to mutually accomodate each other. That’s a matter of common courtesy. Accepting and using the terms minority groups choose for themselves is less courtesy and more being a decent person but hey.
(Source: superawesomephoenix, via superawesomephoenix)
