Friday, March 06, 2015
'Squaw' is a racist term?
Silly me! I just thought it meant a female American Indian
On Monday, the fashion label Dsquared2 showcased a Native-themed line at its Fall/Winter 2015 Women’s Show in Milan, Italy. The show streamed live on the company's website, and was followed up by a series of Instagram and Twitter posts of photos from the event.
Dsquared2's designers, twin brothers Dean and Dan Caten, dubbed their collection "Dsquaw" and used the racial-slur pun as a hashtag.
The posts and tweets prompted angry comments from Instagram and Twitter users, who called out the term as racist, offensive and insensitive. Many added that the clothing itself was yet another display of cultural appropriation.
Hours later, the #Dsquaw hashtags were removed from Dsquared2's Instagram page but can still be seen on the auto-Tweets posted to the @Dsquared2 feed.
SOURCE
This "cultural appropriation" bit gets me. Are we not allowed to learn from other cultures? My Anglospheric culture has been appropriated by half the world. How am I disadvantaged by that? I am rather pleased about it in fact.
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7 comments:
Theres a wild flower called SQUAWS CARPET its a close the ground plant
IIRC squaw at one time meant a young girl. But, as with the word "gay", meanings change over time. A Native American woman told me that in her area "squaw" now is used as a reference to female genitals. Who knows what meaning is attached to it elsewhere.
The word is offensive to Native Americans and should be to the rest of us also.
I remember several attempts to get them to change the name of Squaw Valley.
Then there's PETER PAN with the indian maiden TIGER LILY
If Native American people ask me not to use the term 'squaw' because they find it offensive I will probably do so.
If others are taking offence on behalf of Native Americans and paternalistically determining what they should and shouldn't be offended by - I'd probably tell them to go to hell.
There is going to be a lot to change in that case. Arizona changed Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak in honor of Lori Piestewa and this I can understand. However there is a Squaw Mountain in Maine, Colorado & California. And don't forget Squaw Creek at Squaw Valley at Lake Tahoe. And check out Squaw Mountain Gardens in Oregon and Squaw Mountain Ranch in Texas. The perpetually offended won't ever let it rest, will they???
AIB44
The largest problem in America with the native populace was setting up the ridiculous notion that they could live in essentially separate countries within the United States to preserve their native culture. No one has really benefited from this arrangement.
The Indians could not live on their lands because the lands were stolen by non-Indians and almost every treaty was broken by the Government.
In some usages, squaw means whore.
In Maine, their are many Indian names for places, rivers, etc.
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