Hunters chop a frozen caribou and devour it uncooked. Indians called these northern tribes Eskimos, “Eaters of raw flesh.”
So go the words of this 1947 National Geographic article. Seems pretty cut and dry to me. But evidently we’re not supposed to say “Eskimo” anymore; Eskimo is considered offensive, especially in Canada, being widely thought to stem from a Cree pejorative meaning “eaters of raw meat,” which is precisely, accurately what they are doing in that very image. So I don’t know how that is offensive. But in this day and age, isn’t everything?
Demeaning any group for their race or heritage is clearly wrong, but good luck staying abreast of all the latest victim classes and subsequent acceptable language. It shouldn’t be too hard to avoid the E word if you live in a non-igloo location. Is it okay to say “igloo”? Will the judge allow it?
Calling an eater of raw flesh the word for “eater of raw flesh” seems fine to me, but a sliver of my race pie is European (read: privileged white person) so what do I know? And I’m in the South, and them is up in the Nawth. So what do I know from Eskimos?
I DO know this is racist:
Absolutely. I get it. Demeaning.
But this next ad from 1958? All I see is a cutie patootie selling me delicious chocolate, which I imagine is waaaay better than frozen caribou. Is there a word for “middle-aged eater of chocolate”? I’ll take it!
There isn’t any hate behind this ad that I can see. But some folks will go looking for it, scavenging for it, desperately trying to find malicious intention. Cute kids sell ads. Always have, always will.
In 2016, then-President Obama signed legislation that replaced Eskimo with “Alaska Native” in federal laws because Non-Inuit people had assigned the term. Isn’t that what all language does? It assigns terms? I guess I just don’t get it there. Does that make people feel like they’re taking their power back if they get to change the language?
So what about Eskimo kisses? Is that okay to say? Is it okay to do?
Is a Native American eskimo-kissing a white male offensive? OF COURSE IT IS! The boy-child Peter Pan is culturally appropriating a Native American headdress. No race is ever allowed to wear anything that another race has ever worn; that is theft, and it has to stay separate and never shared. And how do I even know she is Native American? Because she appears to be a woman of color? She could be Hispanic. She could be a number of ethnicities, even a tan Caucasian, appropriating both the hairstyle and dress of a tribe not her own.
But what if you’re many races, like many of us? A dozen different results from Ancestry.com? Can you “appropriate” those customs if you hand out a laminated copy of your DNA results to everyone who witnesses your blatant racism–that then allows you to don the gay apparel of your forefathers? Or should I say foremothers? Well, that gets tricky. And let’s be honest: even though she is literally pushing him back, he is metaphorically pushing her down both by being white and male. And immortal.