"Indian Country Radio" in NYT

[Natalie Maynor]

Anna Fellegy writes:

> Imagine, Indian radio stations. Rumor has it Indians even have their own
> newspapers. Could it be true? Should we send the anthropologists in?

??  Maybe I'm misrembering what was said in the posting on this
subject, but I thought its point was about the use of the word
"Indian" rather than "Native American" -- a matter of interest to
people interested in language.

>  And if you consider the tone of
> this to be one that silences discussion, have you ever considered how
> being talked about as an object of study and curiosity by Ph.D.s is
> silencing at a much deeper level than that of discourse?

I don't understand this part at all.  Linguists study language.  Most
of us on this list find our own dialects the object of study and
curiosity at times.  And we usually participate in the discussion.
Or to move to something closer to the question of labels for groups
(like Indian), if you believe that being an object of study is somehow
insulting or silencing, isn't it pretty bizarre that people like John
Baugh and Geneva Smitherman have published articles on the use of labels
like African American?

   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)