Reply #103: This is the Internet, of COURSE it's vague [View All]

[Nevernose]

And that's why I'm talking about context. It's only;y confusing unless the context in which it is being discussed is confusing, such as over the Internet(s) or the case of your friend in high school. We're beginning to see a different world, however. For instance, at the admittedly limited experience at the high school I teach at, we have not one single Indian. We do, however, have about 150 American Indians, about 5% of the student populace -- more than the white kids or the Asian kids. They prefer to be called Indians, or at the very least AMERICAN Indians.

And though these kids generally have never met a person of South Asian descent in their lives, Gandhi was an important part of middle school, and so they all know the difference between a Native American and an Indian.

Even on the INternet, if I posted a thread about Kashmir, would you assume "Indian" meant Native American or American Indian? And if I posted about the land rights of inhabitants prior to Anglo settlers, would you probably be correct in assuming that I was talking about the US?

Columbus was a putz, a genocidal maniac, and/or longitudinally challenged, but I don't think that changing the entire language of the last 500 years will overall help. We as a society need to work more on our attitude toward one another than our opinions on linguistics.