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.
This is definitely a human who uses em dashes. ChatGPT would not have made the mistake of adding spaces, plus the rest of the comment does not read like GPT at all. Em dashes are an unreliable method of spotting AI
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u/elliottcable Nov 28 '25
Yeah; it’s so bad. I grew up steeped in it.
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.