In Canada, the official term is First Nations people recognizing the indigeneous people. It is a highly contentious climate here with First Nations people claiming land back and recently the Government officially apologized to the First Nations for the crimes committed by white settlers who took the children away and put them in Christian residential schools where they were punished if they spoke anything but English, sexually abused and generally robbed of their cultural connections. Last year the First Nations group in Vancouver successfully reclaimed a 100 year old golf course as their land. They are a larger percentage of Canada's population (30 million total i think) so they are more noticeable but they also have a greater voice. When i first moved here after being in the US I was really struck by the name given to them. On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 6:24 AM, Nithya Sambasivan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I read somewhere that the term "Asian" is offensive in the United Kingdom, > and "South Asian" is politically correct. Can someone from the UK confirm > this? > Whereas in the USA, "Asian" refers to south-east Asians. How did the term > Asian come to not include the Indian subcontinent? > > I wonder how the term "Black" is still in existence. I agree that "African" > has evolved to not encapsulate the race and the diaspora, but has come to > signify belonging to the continent (South African is different, though?), > unlike terms like "Indian" and "Persian" which signify culture as well as > race. If we can have terms like Indian-American, Persian-American and other > variations and hyphenations of the race/country/continent of origin and > country of citizenship/birth, then why not just eliminate the term "Black"? > Why is it black music, black cuisine, it's-a-black-thing-to-do? Or do we > need a Shakespeare to coin a new word? I thought Caucasian was the term for > white-skinned people, although I have seen "white" on forms too. > > --nithya > > On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 8:33 PM, Perry E. Metzger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > Eugen Leitl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > On Tue, Jul 01, 2008 at 08:11:29PM +0530, Deepa Mohan wrote: > > >> Touche, Perry.... but.....I must tell you that when someone here saw a > > >> photograph of the person who has now become my son in law, he > > >> exclaimed, "Oh! He is an American American!" > > > > > > That would be Red Indian, I presume ;p > > > > The autochthonous population prefers the term "Native American" -- > > the terms "Red" for such people and "Yellow" for East Asians are now > > considered impolite (and besides, factually wrong given what colors > > those terms usually mean), though for whatever reason "Black" is > > still considered polite for discussing people of African descent (who > > are not actually not what one would call "Black" in any other > > context). "White" is also still polite, although I am sort of a medium > > beige and not anything like the shade of paper, and even people who > > produce only pheomelanin and no eumelanin (colloquially "redheads" > > though the color of their hair is more orange than red) are more pink > > than white in shade. > > > > My friends (both those with lots of melanin, and the melanin deficient > > like myself) have taken to using the term "Brown" when speaking > > ironically in the voice of bigots -- as in "Oh my God! The Supreme > > Court is going to allow prisoners at Guantanamo to have access to the > > courts! What horror is next, allowing brown people to vote?" > > > > > > Perry > > > > > > > -- > PhD student > Human Computer Interaction | Information and Computer Sciences > University of California, Irvine > http://www.ics.uci.edu/~nsambasi > -- Radhika, Y.R. Project Manager, Centering Women project, Sri Lanka International Center for Sustainable Cities 415 - 1788 W. 5th Avenue Vancouver BC Canada
