WA state to change names to 18 geographical features to get rid of word

[Andrew NDB]

https://komonews.com/news/local/washington-state-to-change-names-to-18-geographical-features-to-get-rid-of-derogatory-word

Wonderful use of tax dollars going on in my state.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Out of curioisity, how expensive would it be to change the names?

[Sumac]

Which word?
Link doesn't work for me.

[Andrew NDB]

Which word?
Link doesn't work for me.

It's Squaw.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Which word?
Link doesn't work for me.

The word is:

squaw

A racial slur that was used for Native American women.

[Prowler]

How many people are actually personally offended by that in 2022, though? Excuse my insensitivity, but how many actual Native Americans are there even left nowadays? And I'm not talking about white Americans who had a Native American ancestor they've never even met.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

How many people are actually personally offended by that in 2022, though? Excuse my insensitivity, but how many actual Native Americans are there even left nowadays? And I'm not talking about white Americans who had a Native American ancestor they've never even met.

There aren't many pure native Americans left as compared to the past, their numbers are proportionally decreasing nowadays due to racial mixing. Wikipedia says 3 million pure native Americans, and 6 million in total if we also count the mixed people.

[Andrew NDB]

How many people are actually personally offended by that in 2022, though?

A lot of white women and feminine white men, on Native Americans' behalf. Nobody else, really.

Yeah, occasionally you'll see a freshly indoctrinated Native American college student (always a woman) flapping their gums on Youtube, but that's it.

Excuse my insensitivity, but how many actual Native Americans are there even left nowadays?

lol... what do you mean? They're not, like, dying out. They still have sex and have kids like the rest of us. They're generally not big into the LGBTQ thing, either, so it's largely traditional families. Not super well off ones, but having a decent living.

I technically live within what could be considered a reservation of the Muckleshoot Tribe. Occasionally nice tribe members give me the "tribal discount" for gas and liquor and stuff. Great people.

[Prowler]

A lot of white women and feminine white men, on Native Americans' behalf. Nobody else, really.

Yeah, occasionally you'll see a freshly indoctrinated Native American college student (always a woman) flapping their gums on Youtube, but that's it.



lol... what do you mean? They're not, like, dying out. They still have sex and have kids like the rest of us. They're generally not big into the LGBTQ thing, either, so it's largely traditional families. Not super well off ones, but having a decent living.

I technically live within what could be considered a reservation of the Muckleshoot Tribe. Occasionally nice tribe members give me the "tribal discount" for gas and liquor and stuff. Great people.
Hmm were the various tribes spread out all over the North American territory? Did it have low pop density before Europeans arrived?

Anyway, even if there's a few million left, they're clearly a minority in their own country. But I suppose some tribes have more "members" than others.

[Andrew NDB]

Hmm were the various tribes spread out all over the North American territory? Did it have low pop density before Europeans arrived?

Not really. Though they were doing a great job of killing themselves off in droves before that, anyway.

Anyway, even if there's a few million left, they're clearly a minority in their own country. But I suppose some tribes have more "members" than others.

All of that is true. Though there wasn't a country at all to speak of before it was colonized.

[Prowler]

Not really. Though they were doing a great job of killing themselves off in droves before that, anyway.



All of that is true.

A similar thing probably happened in South America. Even with the flu killing a lot of natives there, some countries in South America still have a lot of natives and people with significant native ancestry left.

I think a subset of people romanticise the natives of the americas a little too much. Ofc it's sad that a lot of them died during colonisation and lost control of their territory, but it's not like they were all holding hands and singing together before the Europeans arrived either.

Anyway, "squaw" sounds like a bird species to me. Dunno why.

[Wildcat]

https://i.postimg.cc/dQCjZVZR/FFCC55-E0-4205-4-DDA-824-D-5-FF3-C3-F2-D91-B.gif

The link didn’t work for me either so I googled it and found it on msn and they censored the word in the article...I thought that’s funny how am supposed to know what word is offensive? I never knew it was. No harm in changing it.

This is my new favorite gif now. :lol:

[Sumac]

The link didn’t work for me either so I googled it and found it on msn and they censored the word in the article...I thought that’s funny how am supposed to know what word is offensive? I never knew it was. No harm in changing it.

This is my new favorite gif now. :lol:
1984 sends its regards.

[IMJ]

Out of curioisity, how expensive would it be to change the names?

More expensive than people think.

All signage needs to be new, the labor to remove and place new signs, the demurrage costs to store old signs (it's government property - if it's not written into the change to destroy them, they have to be stored).

Costs to rewrite and reprint all apocrypha related to whatever thing was changed (pamphlets, stuff like that).

The bureaucratic pay to go towards writing the legislature, not to mention the opportunity costs of what other measures that time could have gone to.

There's more....

Of course that stuff will seem frivolous to the general Louse of the Technodrome forums, but most people here wouldn't even know to tell you that we are a "federalist" country let alone describe the ins and outs of government accounting and budgeting.

There would probably even be an RFP put up on the government site which takes prep time and review time as well, but again the "gender studies" group here knows nothing about any of that beyond their simple complaints about life.

[Andrew NDB]

I think a subset of people romanticise the natives of the americas a little too much. Ofc it's sad that a lot of them died during colonisation and lost control of their territory, but it's not like they were all holding hands and singing together before the Europeans arrived either.

Very true. There is always this big "noble savages" picture the left always love to paint about Native Americans (and they only love to do it because the more purer the Native Americans look, the more evil the colonists can be depicted by contrast... otherwise they wouldn't care one bit about them). Were there some tribes relatively peaceful? Sure. But there were many more that were not, who'd roam around massacring other tribes wholesale over basically nothing, ripping them apart in front of their own children and then dancing and singing about it while rubbing the dead's blood on themselves. And then doing it again next week.

[IndigoErth]

Oh no, lets all get offended that an insulting word is going to stop being used because taking it away will dramatically affect our lives when we have far better things to be concerned with. Also no, sorry, if you aren't Native and don't have a vagina then you don't get the supreme opinion on if it's a bad word or not in year 2022.

You wanna be mad about "wasting tax dollars," I'm sure you can do like my state and waste far more on constant road construction that never actually improves anything.


edit: Their percent of the population may not be what it was a while back, but there are still many Native people.

[Andrew NDB]

Oh no, lets all get offended that an insulting word is going to stop being used because taking it away will dramatically affect our lives when we have far better things to be concerned with.

Classic leftist response. "Why are you noticing this? Why are you worried about it?"

Also no, sorry, if you aren't Native and don't have a vagina then you don't get the supreme opinion on if it's a bad word or not.

I'm mostly native American... in that I'm mostly South American.

[IndigoErth]

Classic leftist response. "Why are you noticing this? Why are you worried about it?"
:lol: And that is so frequently also a rightest response to leftists "noticing things" they (rightists) don't care about or want addressed. Do any rightest have self awareness or is it true that they really compartmentalize everything and miss their hypocrisies and the conflicts in the things they accept.

I'm mostly native American... in that I'm mostly South American.
I guess you missed the "and" in there. Not "or." Also never heard of the word being a thing outside U.S. borders either. But why would you care what insults women.

I can't speak for them either, but even as a mostly white woman that word has a similar cringe to it as the "c word."

[Andrew NDB]

But why would you care what insults women.

Because it's one more little example of lefties exerting control over the language, which is their favorite thing to do and preferred weapon for shifting the world to their utopia (that is actually an authoritarian nightmare). That's why I care. I don't care who they pretend they're doing it to protect this week... they're lying.

[Jester]

It's not just signage in Washington for things that use that outdated term for Native American Woman... there's now a move to rename the Gypsy moth because Gypsy is offensive to Romani. In fact the character of gypsy from mst3k was renamed a few years ago to GPC.

[oldmanwinters]

It's not just signage in Washington for things that use that outdated term for Native American Woman... there's now a move to rename the Gypsy moth because Gypsy is offensive to Romani. In fact the character of gypsy from mst3k was renamed a few years ago to GPC.

Is Pacific Rim safe from this new outrage?

How about Cher's music backlog?

[Jester]

How about Cher's music backlog?
I do wonder how often a specific Cher hit gets radio play anymore.

[Prowler]

But what about the Gypsy Kings? Those guys are actual gypsies. So surely it's fine if they call themselves that? :lol:

In all seriousness now, I've always thought Gypsy was simply the English word for, well, Gypsies/Romani people. In Portugal we call them "ciganos" and they call themselves that. In Spain, I think they're called "gitanos". And I believe in Italy they're the "zigani" or something like that. In other European countries, I have no idea.

[Andrew NDB]

I know a few Romanian people whose whole face changes when they say "gypsy" like as if they were saying the N word about black people. So I don't know. Generally not a fan of "forbidden words," though.

[Wildcat]

When I googled this yesterday I glanced at some comments and someone said...you would not name stuff with an offensive term today so why should old ones be kept?

Not saying everything that anyone finds offensive should be changed but thought it was a good point.

Aunt Jemima recently changed their branding to Pearl Milling Company. It’s the original name but they could have come up with something better. Like a cartoon animal named Pearl as a nod.

[Bahamut810]

Also no, sorry, if you aren't Native and don't have a vagina then you don't get the supreme opinion on if it's a bad word or not in year 2022.

Yeah, no. One of the reasons I don't like 'progressive culture' is the general authoritarian attitude. 'You are not allowed to have an opinion on XYZ and *have* to take offence because we are changing the context of XYZ' is one of those authoritarian attitudes.

I have done quite a bit of travelling, and I have *never* heard the term squaw used in an insulting manner. I have only used it in the way one would use the term 'Brave'. Woman and Man.

there's now a move to rename the Gypsy moth because Gypsy is offensive to Romani. In fact the character of gypsy from mst3k was renamed a few years ago to GPC.

Thats for reasons outside of the USA. Here in the USA, gypsies are always talked about as free spirited, mysterious, sensual rogues. In Europe that is considered a slur, and some places have laws forbidding them or trying to keep them out.

[Mayhem]

I know a few Romanian people whose whole face changes when they say "gypsy" like as if they were saying the N word about black people. So I don't know. Generally not a fan of "forbidden words," though.
Gypsy is generally okay here, it's when it gets curtailed to "gypo" (in the same way it used to be "paki" for "pakistani") that gets the heckles up for some people. But the reason for the slur is normally when significant sections of the community act like complete dickwads where they are parked and have no consideration for anyone else. Let alone the stealing and burglary.