[Ads-l] ADS-L Digest - 7 Sep 2022 to 8 Sep 2022 (#2022-224)

Sat Sep 10 07:10:25 UTC 2022

"diverse-owned"??

On Fri, Sep 9, 2022 at 6:07 AM ADS-L automatic digest system <
LISTSERV at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> There are 3 messages totaling 197 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
>   1. BIPOC goes mainstream
>   2. "Squaw" removed from place-names
>   3. Antedating of "white mule"
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date:    Thu, 8 Sep 2022 07:49:21 -0400
> From:    "dave at wilton.net" <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject: BIPOC goes mainstream
>
>
> I've seen and heard the label "BIPOC" before, but only in activist or
> academic circles. But this morning I heard it in an NPR ad for the Target
> department store. Pronounced / baɪpɑk /.
>
> Here's a press release from Target from 10 May 2022 that announces the new
> advertising message:
>
> "New today, Target is introducing a funding program from its in-house
> media company, Roundel, to increase exposure of diverse-owned brands
> through paid media. Designed to offset the cost of marketing programs at
> Target for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) brands, the
> Roundel Media Fund will award more than $25 million in media to
> diverse-owned and founded brands by the end of 2025."
>
> [
> https://corporate.target.com/press/releases/2022/05/Target-Provides-Update-on-Commitment-to-Spend-2-Bi
> ](
> https://corporate.target.com/press/releases/2022/05/Target-Provides-Update-on-Commitment-to-Spend-2-Bi
> )
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Thu, 8 Sep 2022 14:59:54 -0700
> From:    Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: "Squaw" removed from place-names
>
> BRIEF SUMMARY:
>
> Regardless of historical or cultural considerations, the word “squaw” is,
> in English, considered derogatory.
>
> 1. Deb Haaland, the first Native American Interior Secretary, announced
> last year a review of place-names, and today, there was announcement that
> “squaw” has been removed from more than 600 place-names.
>
>
> https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3634253-interior-department-removes-anti-native-slur-from-usage-in-federal-place-names/
> <
> https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3634253-interior-department-removes-anti-native-slur-from-usage-in-federal-place-names/
> >
> (Interior Department removes anti-Native slur from usage in federal place
> names, Zach Budryk, 8 Sep 2022)
>
> 2. Jonathan Lighter mentions Haaland’s policy (
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2021-December/160783.html
> <
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2021-December/160783.html>)
> last year.
>
>
> 3. William Bright notes that as far back as at least 1992 (Arizona) there
> has been activity by government entries or representatives to remove the
> word “squaw” from place-names.
>
> William Bright
> The Sociolinguistics of the “S-Word”: Squaw in American Placenames
> 2000 The American Name Society
> https://tinyurl.com/ydcz3z9r <https://tinyurl.com/ydcz3z9r>
>
> 4. Grant Barrett (
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-September/074657.html
> <
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-September/074657.html>)
> notes this action was taken by Maine, but the article he points to no
> longer exists. See
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw#Efforts_to_rename_placenames_and_terms
> <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw#Efforts_to_rename_placenames_and_terms>
> for efforts to remove “squaw” by various governments.
>
> 5. The OED’s earliest citation is 1622 as  "squa sachim”, a word of Pidgin
> Massachusett, which Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/squaw <
> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/squaw>) also has. It is in a book with a
> long title that can be found on Wikipedia as "Mourt’s Relation" (
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourt%27s_Relation <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourt's_Relation>). It is spelled "Squaw
> Sachem” in the version at
> http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/mourt5.html <
> http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/mourt5.html>.
>
> ACCEPTABILITY:
> 6. The OED says the word is generally considered offensive. The entry
> includes quite a few compounds.
>
> 7. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw>) says that the term is universally
> unacceptable by indigenous groups in the US and Canada.
>
> 8. Dictionary.com <http://dictionary.com/> (
> https://www.dictionary.com/browse/squaw <
> https://www.dictionary.com/browse/squaw>) says the word is disparaging
> and offensive in older use and and as slang.
>
> 9. Jesse Sheidlower (
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2000-April/005718.html <
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2000-April/005718.html>)
> provides a link to the "Straight Dope" where the topic is discussed by
> Cecil Adams (in connection with the Maine policy), who says the idea that
> the word is offensive was first printed in 1973 by Sanders and Peek. Adams
> pins the popularity of the word meaning cunt or vagina on mention of the
> idea on the "The Oprah Winfrey Show". The Cecil article has moved to
> https://www.straightdope.com/21343665/is-squaw-an-obscene-insult <
> https://www.straightdope.com/21343665/is-squaw-an-obscene-insult> and the
> article was also posted by Bruce Dykes at
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2000-March/005360.html <
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2000-March/005360.html>.
>
>
> Adams’s ultimately points out that words specifically for minority women
> are inherently demeaning.
>
> 10. Joel Berson and Edward Callary discuss earlier obscene usage at
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2006-November/064307.html
> <
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2006-November/064307.html
> >.
>
> 11. Marge Bruchac, an Abenaki, has suggested reclaiming the word:
>
> Reclaiming the Word “Squaw" in the Name of the Ancestors
> Nov 1999
> https://archive.ph/obumL#selection-11.0-13.28 <
> https://archive.ph/obumL#selection-11.0-13.28>
>
> ###
> But traditional Algonkian speakers, in both Indian and English, still say
> words like "nidobaskwa" = a female friend, "manigebeskwa" = woman of the
> woods, or "Squaw Sachem" = female chief. When Abenaki people sing the Birth
> Song, they address "nuncksquassis" = "little woman baby.”
>
> ...
>
> Indigenous people must publicly declare that we will no longer allow our
> words, names, skin color, beliefs, etc., to be used against us…. The sound
> "squaw," regardless of its spelling, is OUR word for woman, and it is NOT
> to be used as an insult!
> ###
>
> ETYMOLOGY:
> 12. The OED’s etymology is as follows:
>  < Massachusett squa, ussqua (pronounced /əskwaːw/) young, unmarried
> woman, cognate with e.g. Cree iskwēw, northern East Cree iskwaau
> (pronounced /əskwaːw/) < an Algonquian base with the sense ‘woman’.
>
> 12. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaw>) says that the Algonquian forms are
> bound morphemes that cannot be used alone. ("Even in Algonquian, the
> related morphemes used are not the English-language slur, but only a
> component part of longer Algonquian words that contain more than one
> morpheme.) This aligns with Bruchac’s citations above.
>
>
>
> Having been dragged away from this topic by an offer of remunerative
> activity, I will send this email as is hoping it is not too disorderly or
> incomplete.
>
> Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Thu, 8 Sep 2022 22:31:07 -0400
> From:    Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Antedating of "white mule"
>
> OED: 1880.
>
> 1870 _Waterloo [Ill.] Advocate_ (June 16) 1: So pass along that 'white
> mule,' for I'm thirsty.
>
>  JL
>
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>
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>
> End of ADS-L Digest - 7 Sep 2022 to 8 Sep 2022 (#2022-224)
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