Quote:
Originally Posted by red-beard
Seriously, one of my Canadian friends has a conniption every time she hears "Eskimo".
Of course, she's from "Eastern" Canada, and Blue eyed, Blond and very paled skinned...
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Now that the main topic has been summed up, I'll tell the story I heard re Inuit...
the early French explorers of what is now Canada and Alaska traveled west in search of the ocean... they met up with some Indians (Athabaskans) and asked if there was a big salty lake in the area. "Nope."
- well, who lives to the west of you guys?
the Athabaskans gave them a derogatory term meaning eaters of whale blubber or azz whole primitive jerk offs who eat whale blubber -- something along that line
-the French explores translated it phonetically as Esquimeaux, and it was then Anglicized into Eskimo
and obviously they aren't real fond of the word
several posts have noted that many different peoples are racist, and I agree.
we had one group who considered themselves the Middle Kingdom (between Heaven and the primitive savages on Earth); groups that depicted early European sailors as monkeys (well, the sailors were hairy like monkeys and not exactly schooled in the social graces); groups that declared that those not farming and not of their religion had not property rights to the land they had lived on for thousands of years... those are just a few examples