Alan L Tyree <[email protected]> writes: > On Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:29:32 +1100 > Sonia Hamilton <[email protected]> wrote:
[...] >> PS You might want to lookup what "tonto" means [1] before you go >> around calling people it. It was a term of disrespect for Amerindians >> on the US/Mexican border in the 1800's. At least be grammatically >> correct, and call me "tonta" :-p [1] >> http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/tonto > > For anyone born in the US during the last century, as I was, Tonto is > the Lone Ranger's faithful Indian companion. When we were kids, it was > worth fighting to be Tonto rather than the paleface. It's probably no > longer politically correct, but for different reasons than those > mentioned. Uh, no. That would be inappropriate for *exactly* the reason mentioned, which is to say that it is an insulting racial epithet. The fact that it was used in that sense on television doesn't change those facts. So, just because the term was not seen as insulting doesn't make it any less insulting — just like "paleface" is. Regards, Daniel -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
