Larry Horn in N.Y. Times

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Nice article, Jesse!

Two quibbles: You say, " People continue to use "squaw" in place names
because the concerns of Native Americans have not been taken as seriously
(which is also why "Redskins" and "Braves" are still used as the names of
professional sports teams). ..."

There is considerable evidence that Native Americans disagree among
themselves about the appropriateness of "Redskins," as the name of the
football team associated with the nation's capital city. While many people
loathe the term and consider it per se offensive, many others do not find it
as objectionable and indeed are proud of the association with the football
team. Or so a national poll indicated a few years ago. I have a friend who is
a Native American and who has a Redskins jacket that she wears everywhere.

The Braves and the Cleveland Indians are more problematic because their
treatment of the Indian motif is less than dignified.

Second quibble: you say that "fag" is a term that is gaining respectability
among homosexuals. Don't you mean "queer"? As far as I know, "fag" is used by
gay men only in the same way that African Americans use "nigger"--i.e., it is
still considered a disparaging term, one that one uses in self-reference only
in an ironic way.


In a message dated 3/3/2001 11:45:35 PM, jester at PANIX.COM writes:

<< An article quoting ADS-L member Larry Horn is in Sunday's New York
Times, in the Week in Review section, available online at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/04/weekinreview/04SCHE.html

The author is no doubt slightly irritated by the fact that
yesterday South Dakota removed "squaw" (and "Negro") from
its place names, a fact that doesn't really change what he
says, but which might have altered the way he presented
the public perception of the word "squaw," but the section
went to press to soon to get it in.

Jesse Sheidlower >>