Is “Too many chiefs, not enough Indians” really racist now?
I have trouble keeping up with shit.
Used to be, the working man - women stayed home - wanted his kids to go to college, so they would have 'a better life.'
As more Americans - women, too - went to college, got too expensive for all but the elite. Legacies.
And gifted athletes.
There are way too many lawyers.
Today they want us to learn how to be working men again. Women welcome now.
So we might make enough money to send our kids to college.
Meanwhile, climate change.
Imagine you were born in the first half of the last century. And there were only two sexes and four religions.
And you were almost a teen before rock 'n' roll first frightened mom and dad. Imagine your grandparents were born in the recent previous millennium
Before those bicycle mechanics first took off, back when folks drove
horses.
Rare was the magnet school massacre and nobody blamed the buildings.
Maybe YOU have trouble keeping up with shit, too.
And so a lament cries out. Fuck fuck fuck. Primal war chant. Honestly. Hardly even feel bad about it. Anymore. Not an ass. Just a little behind.
When teaching about Native American issues, choose your words carefully.
Perhaps the two words that most often give offense in the classroom are “chief” and “squaw.”
In traditional Indian culture, chiefs are revered individuals; Native people would never say things like “How’s it going, Chief?” or “We have too many chiefs, not enough Indians.”
As for the word “squaw,” this term was once an Algonquin word meaning “woman,” but its modern meaning is now slang for a “fat, lazy Indian woman” or for female genitalia.
Teachers are best off avoiding this term altogether and simply speaking of “Native American women.”
One other suggestion about language is to eliminate common phrases that invoke stereotypes, such as:
- “You’re acting like a bunch of wild Indians.”
- “Please sit Indian-style.”
- “You’re behaving like an Indian giver.”
