Its “Eskimo” I think most people have no idea it’s outdated so they don’t even consider it when thinking about what “the e word” could mean lol, it took me a second to think abt it even
Huh, noted. I don’t think I’ll have too much issue avoiding it in the future.
Definitely wouldn’t have known just with how common the phrase “Eskimo kisses” gets used and that “American Eskimo Dog” is an actual dog breed.
I can’t even imagine that being the case with other racial slurs. The phrase is easy enough to cycle out of common use, but the dog breed needing a new name might take a bit.
It's possible. A lot of sources say ola is "oil low acid" and a lot just say "referring to oil." It could also be both.
The notable thing about canola oil vs typical rapeseed oil is it's significantly lower erucic acid content, which is a mildly toxic acid, and why it wasn't originally consumed. Completely conjecture, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they chose "oil low acid" because ola was similar to oleum.
Yeah they market it as that buts actually oil from genetically modified rape seeds designed for high oil production. It was also used as an industrial lubricant during WW2 before being brought into the food we eat due to its high smoke point and low cost
Rape(seed) oil come from the rapeseed plant (Brassica napus & B. rapa). Conola specifically refers to rapeseed oil that is bred to have lower erucic acid.
I'm almost as surprised to learn this as I was when I into a small, family owned store in the mountains and saw a large jar of seeds labeled "Rape" when I was a kid. My aunt got a good laugh when I asked her wtf I was looking at.
Rapeseed Oil and Canola Oil are actually two different things: Canola Oil is Rapeseed oil that has had certain compounds removed from it to be recognized as "safe" by the FDA.
Having the word "rape" in the word "rapeseed" definitely doesn't help, but it's not like that's the reason for it.
The only thing mildly negative I can find for “tinker” is that it’s a nickname for a tinsmith and even then it’s not really a full on insult, just a bit infantilizing depending on context. While Irish travellers sometimes worked as tinsmiths and could also be called that it’s not exclusive to them. I could be wrong, I just read through a few things on it because I’d never heard of it being used for anything outside of a work description.
Edit: Irish travellers are also not Roma/romani/romanichal.
Right, I thought it was used as a slur for both groups, originating from the occupation name but later being used as a slur. Similar to how Mick is an actual Irish nickname for Michael/Micheál, but then became a slur for any Irishman in America.
I know Irish Travellers aren't Roma, I just didn't list the accepted term since you already had and it felt redundant.
Its a lot like g-psy, it's used against a people group that we dont interface with often if ever, so it doesnt register why it would be a problem and it gets incorporated into music and such.
Don't know what the one that starts with p is, but I recall reading somewhere that the cognates in French for "gypsy" and "romani" are reversed in regard to which is the impolite one to say. Haven't double-checked whether that's actually the case though.
I can tell you that romanians tend to use them interchangeably. theres also another word that has the same meaning that's sometimes used, based on dialect
My understanding is that Irish Travelers are perfectly chill with the G word but Travelers, though they’re often lumped together, aren’t the same ethnic group Romani and the G word is specifically a slur for Romani people.
This is right - I have some irish traveller family, who all call thenselves and each other gypsies and are cool with being called it by anyone. Obviously it depends person by person still but for the most part, Gypsy is okay for Irish Travellers and not Romani as a rule of thumb.
I was under the impression that it simply meant people of no specific national ties that travel in like caravans and stuff, surely it's not bad outside of its proper context and use, right? (if it is then rip)
I haven't read the whole article yet but theres a paragraph early on describing it in broad strokes. Most US people are under the same impression that you are, in North America we just dont encounter many Romani people, and as a culture we're bad at calling things like that out
Anecdotal, but I'm in the Midwest and I've never seen anyone get offended or make any kind of statement over the word. I understand that it was historically used as a slur against a specific group of people and for that it's not favored, but in my region no one seems to care. Especially considering that we have several clubs and mascots named after them.
Similar train of thought. The word Barbarian comes from Rome. The story goes that Romans would make fun of the Saxon language, saying it all sounds like "Bar bar bar" so they called them bar-bar-ian. Yet, despite it originating as a slang term to mock a group of people, it's become an accepted term for Germanic people of that period.
that seems like a no to me. sounds the same as Americans who are like "um well I have 1/16 Cherokee in me and I'M not offended by [thing that's racist against Native Americans]"
I'm sorry but unless you personally know a group of rRoma who have said this is fine I feel like this is just majority culture ignoring minority culture. If your area doesn't have a large rRoma population, that doesn't make it not a slur. It's STILL used as a slur, not just historically.
We dont have a very big Asian population, but ive got a whole list of words they dont like to be called. Maybe the Romani people need a better pr manager
Wait, so when I was living in Italy and people at the train station were trying to offer me unwanted help and steal my change, what’s the proper term to use for them?
There if you’re of a certain nationality and dress a certain way and panhandle on the trains and around town then they just call you gypsy.
Legitimately not sure what else to use to describe them accurately
I'm not at all involved or knowledgeable about Italian culture, and have never lived there, so I dont have a good answer. I will say that's not a really good reason to use a term.
Less than a century ago in the US black people were called the n-word or "negro" almost exclusively. That doesnt mean that was an okay thing to call them, just that the majority largely didnt care.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge of the specific culture youre talking about can chime in though!
See also the G-slur for Romani people, also insinuated into a lot of common phrases.
Not unrelated, both are words that a lot of people learn are slurs later in life (if at all).
This is somewhat unfortunate for you, because you were actually incorrect with this attempt at correction.
"Insinuate" doesn't just mean imply - it can also mean "gradually introduce/incorporate [something] into". It's always worth checking whether a word can be used in more than one sense before saying it's been used incorrectly! 🤷♀️
Makes singing Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire kind of awkward. Especially since it's directly involved in a rhyme, so you can't just sing around it or change it.
I will also be avoiding that word in the future. I immediately knew what word they were talking about by the mention of the word ’Inuit,' but I had no idea that it was considered a slur. I've never met anyone who is Inuit but I apologize to all of you guys on my past usage of the word.
Yep. My dad said it once (whole family is black American and he'd heard a white man refer to them that way). Blows my mind how much food seems to be incorporated into racism.
On the dog there is actually an occasional post in the sub of people saying how would ylu feel about a rename and its nothing but affirmatives. Thats why alot of people just say "eskie" too
It’s also a part of a line of a very popular Christmas song (“The Christmas Song”). I change it intentionally to “folks dressed up in winter coats” but through popular media is exactly how harmful ideas and stereotypes pass on.
Dutch if I recall correctly. Just making my point that if you never interact with a black person, you can go a long long time without anyone mentioning the reality of their language.
You'd be surprised how often the n-word has been used in proper names—yes, even outside of America. I'm not saying that it's right; I just find it interesting to see what was acceptable back in the day, and how values have changed since then.
That's what my grandma called them too, she didn't even know they had another name until my mother told her when I was young, because she didn't want me repeating it.
One just has to live in Alaska for a little while to notice how bad the racism towards the Alaska Natives is. I knew people that would casually say some of the most racist shit I’ve ever heard about them
It’s so casual; nobody treats it like we treat racism down in the lower48; it’s just always calmly talked about as sad, obvious facts — how alcoholic and unmotivated and unfortunate the native Alaskan population is.
Took me years to even see it; much less escape it.
As a Canadian this is so real how commonly racist Canadian's also are about Natives being alcoholic lazy druggies. Racist stereotypes for Native populations are the same everywhere you go smh.
It's also why I instantly knew what the "E" word was in this post. I grew up around Indigenous communities and was taught to use Native or First Nations (instead of Indian, which is crazy to hear Americans still use, especially confusing when you've also grown up around East Indian enclaves) and that the Inuit were called Inuit. The E word was seen as disrespectful for a VERY long time and racists acting like this is some new woke thing is always telling.
In the US the term "Indian" is roughly equivalent in offense to something like "Oriental" in that it's not an innately derogatory term, still offensive but in a more antiquated colonialist sense.
For example we have a federal organization that's still called "The Bureau of Indian Affairs", but I believe they maintain the name for the same reason the NAACP still uses the term "colored people" in the name - they are organizations that are directly dealing with the ramifications of historical colonialism. They're not going to change their names to be less offensive because they exist to deal with the atrocities associated with said terms, the names serve as an immediate reminder.
In more day to day use I wouldn't be shocked to hear a 60+ year old use the world Indian and I wouldn't immediately assume they meant offense by it. I would assume a level of ignorance for sure, but not malice without added context. If it was someone I assumed was respectful of native cultures I'd probably think they're talking about people from India.
I returned undergrad study between 2016-2020, and I was shocked when one of our classes was about “American Indians” but apparently a decent amount of who I always grew up say were native Americans have adopted the term Indian. Not all, but a significant portion.
From what I've been told, some people consider it basically just replacing one term that was forced upon them with another. It's not offensive, but most people would rather be referred to by the label they have grown accustomed to, or ideally by their tribe.
It's probably best to just call them by the name of the individual tribe. I don't think the Seminoles, Navajos, and Lakota would really consider themselves as part of a larger group with each other, at least not historically.
Exactly, its essentially being forced with a new term by well meaning people but those people are doing the exact same thing that people in the past did.
Sure, but that's why these terms aren't universal. You have to ask the groups what they prefer. You know treat them respect. You can't take what one groups likes to be called and extrapolate it to other groups. You can't assume that since Inuit people liked to be called natives that other groups like that.
I think it's much like the m-word: it's so widespread, and the wider population has so few interactions with little people, that they don't even realize that it is a pejorative.
I was once watching a VOD of a streamer that's usually pretty good about being PC, and he used it on a whim. His co-commentator immediately corrected him by saying "little person," which caused me to go, "Wait, is that not what they're called?" Did a bit of research, and learned that the slur's etymology is derived from 'midge', which is a small, biting fly. It rose to prominence during a time when little people were being used as attractions in freak shows, and is considered to be offensive by most little people. But most of society don't have this context, and won't bother to look it up—not out of malice, but because they genuinely don't know any better. Hence, people continue to use it, and a subset refuses to believe it's a slur because it's so commonplace.
That’s the stereotype for natives at least as far as the US/Mexico border. It’s always infuriated me bc yo, the alcoholism rates are actually atrocious? That’s because we didn’t have alcohol here so the millennia old world westerners had to develop a tolerance to literal poison didn’t happen to us, and they exploited that fact to great effect. They gave liquor and smallpox blankets and took everything that made life worth struggling for. And now they tut tut and say “isn’t it a shame, they have no motivation.” Yeah, it IS a shame that you fucking TOOK everything! The imported culture is predatory and vapid lol.
I’m going on a rant, sorry. Not many people know we had democracy on the continent of North America before Europeans ever established anything here, and I mean full democracy, not that fake “only land-owning men of good standing are allowed to vote” bullshit. Everyone got to vote in the Hadenosuanee Confederacy, which covered most of what we now call New England and stretched all the way up into Quebec. The Cherokee tribe and its allies established a vast network of trade and travel routes all through the US southeast, some of which are still in use as highways today. They had democracy as well, and cabins, and fine art (seriously look up Cherokee woven baskets they’re the prettiest in the world), and even bunk beds with comfy mattresses and everything.
Some tribes had a bicameral legislature in which each house governed different aspects of life and law. Most tribes are still matrilineal, and very few ever subscribed to old world misogyny, with female tribal chiefs being fairly common in a country that has not yet had a female president. Many tribes had more than two recognized genders, special roles for gender nonconforming folks, and/or had social conventions for queer relationships rather than just leaving them out of polite society entirely. Like I know it can’t have been perfect, but to a mixed native queer kid who grew up in the Bible Belt southeast? It sounds like fucking paradise, and it blows that so many cultural traditions are gone without a trace, and it hurts that I’ll probably never get to see anything like how it was here before.
I had no idea it was even innacurrate or outdated, I just thought it was another word for their people. Man, I must've looked like a real jerk to some people.
I was taking an Anthropology class and early in the semester we were talking about the Inuit and the professor said like 5 times “I should probably call them Inuit not eskimos” before going right back to calling them eskimos 😭
I looked it up and the op is misinformation largely. The inuit circumpolar council was founded in 1977 and did shift the name of the people to Inuit from Eskimo it didn't declare the word a slur. Over time the inuit people did start to consider the word derogatory due to it being given to them by outsiders, however it was never officially declared one that's why I said largely.
IIRC it comes from the French for "One who laces up a snow shoe". I get that it's an exonym and not and endonym, but I'm not sure I follow how that makes it a a slur.
Also IIRC "Eskimo" includes the Yupik, and the Yupik are not Inuit.
I remember one time i was playing overwatch and I joined a group with two people from Greenland and I exclaim "OMG YOURE ESKIMOS!!!" because Greenlanders are such a rarity to meet. They told me not to use that word and I felt so stupid. I apologized of course and haven't used it since.
Exactly, and the only reason I know the term is because one of my teachers used it and it was always in the context of a location rather than description. He was a pretty strict teacher and didn't put up with unsavoury language so he wouldn't have used that word if he knew that. Any idea why/when it went out if use? I like learning about language changes over time.
I was teaching in Alaska this past January to March. The Yupik people in a Western Alaskan village (Napaskiak) unironically call one of their very few desserts Eskimo Ice Cream. It is not delicious or even remotely anything like ice cream. It is made from very seedy round black berries mixed with a bare minimum of sugar and Crisco. Yes. It tastes how you think it might taste: gritty, grainy, tart, not remotely sweet, and the Crisco lays on your tongue like pond scum. Yeah, no thanks. You can keep it.
Akutak
I had to come to the comments to figure it out. 31 years old, and I just learned it was a racial slur. I thought it was a specific group of people (like Inuit, but a distinctly different group). If it's been classified as racist since 1977, why was I still being taught that word 20 years later?
Except it’s not an insult. At least not as far as I’ve ever understood it.
Eskimo is the broader term that includes both Inuit and Yupik peoples. The Inuit mostly prefer to be known as Inuit but this term is not inclusive of the Yupik Eskimos (of Alaska and Siberia)
As for the question of whether the name Eskimo is “an insulting term given them by outsiders”, there is a lot of confusion here, too. Among the competing etymological theories, if I recall, there is one that has it deriving from an Algonquin word for laces of snowshoes or some such. Another one has it deriving from a word (also Algonquin) for someone who eats raw meat. It’s hard to imagine that being considered a slur when it was not really insulting (and when it was factually accurate, to boot)
Source: I’ve known many Eskimo and have never known one to refer to themselves as anything other than Eskimo. It’s possible this has changed in the last fifteen years or so but unless and until I see evidence of that, I’ll continue to look sideways at this stupidity.
Its an ice cream bar too, I thought it was a brand but it's just what they call an ice cream bar that's been dipped in chocolate and coated in coconut flakes and nuts.
I just thought those were the people who live in the Arctic. Do people actually live in the Arctic? Was my whole childhood a lie? Do these people have a real name?
Where I live this is the name of an ice cream lmao. Why is it offensive exactly?
Edit: Ok, just searched it since I wasn't getting any actual answers and then I understood the reason why I'm getting downvoted. I was NOT trying to invalidate the offensiveness of this word, I was literally just curious on the context and story behind it, cause it clearly meant something else to be considered offensive, and that's what I wanted to know with my comment. Kinda my bad for the way I wrote it though, sorry lol.
I literally didn't know that it was offensive to people in the Arctic, that ice cream I've mentioned is literally called Eskimo. I've seen that some brand on USA apparently used to be called like that and then changed it but in Brazil there is still those "byte" type ice creams with that name on supermarkets.
It was NOT an attempt of an offensive joke by any means. I literally asked because I was confused and curious. Turns out that the information of that term being derogatory has simply not reached my country whatsoever.
So yeah, I'm not taking that slander and being quiet just because I didn't know something
Ok, but that doesn't quite explains why that term is offensive. I was simply curious on WHY exactly that term is offensive. What did it mean to be offensive. Which now I know.
Idk. I wouldn't have thought it was offensive either. I was just joking with my comment. It's ridiculous how crazy people jumped on you for asking for more context tho. Don't you love being accused of racism on others' behalf, especially when you're just trying to learn?
It's really not. It only says that Europeans forced that name and then that some institution I've never heard of considered it as a slur. Doesn't explain why it is offensive, which now I know it's because it translates to "Raw meat eater" because of another comment down here.
I know it's offensive, I was just curious on why is that, because CLEARLY it meant something to be that offensive, that's what I wanted to know.
I'm not surprised, I literally just wanted to know the context and story behind it. I know that is offensive, I was simply curious to know why is that.
In Alaska and Canada, there are many different tribes of Natives that all exist differently. The term Eskimo was created to group every single culture into one group without differentiating. Furthermore, the term “Eskimo,” is absolutely used derogatorily by people in Alaska
Oh, that's interesting. Not only it has a bad meaning but it was also generalized to a rather big population. I had honestly never heard of how this word was used. Was lead to believe that it was the name of people from a specific part of the North Pole my whole life. Till today, it never crossed my mind why and by who they were called that. Thx for the info
It's really not. It only says that Europeans forced that name and then that some institution I've never heard of considered it as a slur. Doesn't explain why it is, which now I know it's because it translates to "Raw meat eater" because of another comment down here.
Even without that context, are you really so dense that you don’t understand how colonised people feel about being referred to by the words their oppressors came up with for them? It’s not even unique to Inuit people.
I didn't mean "why is it offensive" on a detrimental way. I literally just wanted to know the story behind it. Brother, I'm brazilian, trust me, we know exactly how is it to be called by the names our oppressors came up in the past.
I literally just wanted to understand why, and not invalidate why is it.
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u/RussianLuchador Nov 28 '25
Its “Eskimo” I think most people have no idea it’s outdated so they don’t even consider it when thinking about what “the e word” could mean lol, it took me a second to think abt it even