dagmaraka wrote:
native american? you?
let's not even go there.
I am using the term like my other identify: native New Yorker.
I am not a Native American. I am an American born in this country; a native.
And, much is politically correct today, so I discount what does not coincide with my own experience. Like today Russians are Eastern Europeans; in my childhood, Russians were referred to as Eurasians. Not that either is correct, but I am just explaining the usage of terms that I remember.
Another example: While today my ancestry might be referred to as Eastern European Jewish, the German Jews that were here before my grandparents referred to them as Oriental Jews (since Russia is on the Asian continent). See. Times change the usage of terminilogy.
Or, in WWI there were posters in the U.S. to join the military saying something about "beating the Huns." How many people today think of Germans as Huns? Canard or not, it was standard usage then.
And, since so much of this thread is Obama related, let us be honest and admit that less than 100 years ago there was a term that individuals of mixed Black and White parentage referred to themselves as. It was not considered an epithet, but became one when there was a politically raised consciousness that desired group cohesion, in my opinion.
Continuing the quest for candidness, there was also the term octoroon (one-eighth Black) which might have been used in small town America, more than urban America, since the inference was that someone might be blond and blue-eyed, but there are Black ancestors in the family.
I am not sure how well you relate to the
historical racial divide in this country, since I do not know if your perceptions tend to reflect a current "snap-shot" of how you see society today. That is why I find it difficult to discuss this topic with you. You might have read a lot, but there are other perceptions that one picks up, if they grew up in this country, in my opinion.
