It obviously can be used as a slur. There is no other denotational definition of redskin than an offensive term for Native Americans. If someone refers to Native Americans as redskins, that is a racist term. Regardless of the sports teams that are supposedly using them in a non-offensive manner, I hope that we can all agree it would be racist to name a sports team "the ni**as," so I don't see why this is acceptable as a sports team name because it degrades Native Americans as opposed to African Americans.
But to argue that the government should take action on this front is a complete waste of time and violation of free speech.
I'm curious what percentage of people think Redskin is a slur separate from whether or not the team's name should be changed.
Except "ni&&er" (I hate that word) doesn't refer to any physical traits. ...
You don't think that world comes from "negro," Spanish for black?
Except "ni&&er" (I hate that word) doesn't refer to any physical traits. It's a derogatory term exclusively. Native Americans did have reddish skin, so the term came about because of the physical reality of their being. They (the Native Americans) referred to the English as "the white man". It would appear that each original group was merely referring to the color of the others' skin, and not in any derogatory way.
I completely agree with your last sentence.
It bears noting that within native Americans languages, the words that translate out to roughly "red peoples" is not an uncommon name for other native Americans.No, it actually came from "Niger" which is Latin for black. It didn't evolve into a positive word. The Indians who the white men met here in the 1600s had red skin. They didn't call them "Redders" or "Redasses".
Actually, ni**er is based on a physical trait. It's derived from "negro," Spanish for black, and therefore refers to skin color. The difference between referring to the European settlers as white and Native Americans as redskins is that the "traditional" name, if that's want you want to call it, for White people is white, while for Native Americans it isn't redskin. Since there was so much racial tension between settlers and natives during the colonization of North America, I would argue that just as settlers referred to Native Americans as redskins with racial animosity, the Native Americans, at least to a degree, referred to settlers as white with a certain degree of racial animosity at the time.
Yes I just posted about that. But the N word is from Niger, Latin for black, which came before Negro.
So if the "N" word is simply pointing out that the person has black skin, then it isn't a slur?
I don't think the original settlers were racist. They were land grabbers. The color of the Indians' skin wasn't relevant except in its noteworthiness to them as they had never seen it before. I have a copy of John Winthrop's journals which I have read and seen his use of the words "red skin" when describing the Indians. His issue with them was that they weren't Christian, not that they were a different color.
No. Evidenced by my original post, I think they're both racial slurs.My point was that based on their respective etymologies, there isn't a significant difference between the two words.
Indeed, not all settlers held racist sentiments, and I'd agree that religion was all a factor in the tensions between them. But I think that there racism played into a large part of it; even though there were attempts to convert Native Americans to Christianity, there were also a large number of massacres, murders, and battles. In addition, the Trail of Tears incident forced Native Americans who had already "Americanized" their own cultures to pick up and move themselves.
Depends. Is yellow skin a slur?
I do have some 'skin' in the game, but not enough to really be impacted by the term. I do think you'd have to ask a Native American, not a white person interested in preserving a trademark.
I'm curious what percentage of people think Redskin is a slur separate from whether or not the team's name should be changed.
I think a lot of people are so used to the Redskin name they don't even think of it as a slur because they see it simply as a descriptor of Native Americans or of its heritage and never thought of it as an insult.
Can we ask a white person, as well as any other person, who is interested in protecting free speech in this country?
There is no other denotational definition of redskin than an offensive term for Native Americans. If someone refers to Native Americans as redskins, that is a racist term.
I'm curious what percentage of people think Redskin is a slur separate from whether or not the team's name should be changed.
I think a lot of people are so used to the Redskin name they don't even think of it as a slur because they see it simply as a descriptor of Native Americans or of its heritage and never thought of it as an insult.
I'm curious what percentage of people think Redskin is a slur separate from whether or not the team's name should be changed.
I think a lot of people are so used to the Redskin name they don't even think of it as a slur because they see it simply as a descriptor of Native Americans or of its heritage and never thought of it as an insult.
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