What do you call the indigenous people of the Americas?

What do you call them?

  • Indians

    Votes: 36 29.0%
  • Amerindians

    Votes: 9 7.3%
  • Native Americans/natives

    Votes: 60 48.4%
  • Indigenous people/population (of the Americas)

    Votes: 3 2.4%
  • (American) Aboriginals

    Votes: 4 3.2%
  • Other (please specify)

    Votes: 8 6.5%
  • Who cares what you call them?

    Votes: 4 3.2%

  • Total voters
    124
You know what we're talking about, yes we're all part of the human race but it doesn't mean there aren't occasions to talk about different groups of people, if you want to call them races, ethnicities, whatever.

To make it simpler when talking about Indians, you can say, the feather kind not the dot kind.
 
You know what we're talking about, yes we're all part of the human race but it doesn't mean there aren't occasions to talk about different groups of people, if you want to call them races, ethnicities, whatever.

To make it simpler when talking about Indians, you can say, the feather kind not the dot kind.

That is stereotyping and quite possibly racist
 
Maybe if you're someone that easily gets offended by everything. Lighten up. If someone calls me gay, the SF kind, not the happy kind you don't see me get all riled up do you?

I didn't make it up by the way, from urban dictionary

When discussing Indians there is often confusion about who you're talking about, native Americans or people from India. To clarify the matter you can ask, "Dot or feather?" The feather refering to native Americans or dot, referring to the red dot worn by Indian women.
Judy said, "I was downtown and a large group of Indians were in the park."
Chesney replied, "Indians? Dot or feather?"
Judy replied, "Feathers."

Steve said, "There's a new Indian TV channel on Direct."
Tilt replied, "Dot or feather?"
Steve, "Dot, lots of dots."
 
Who said anything about race?

You did. You wrote.

They are Aboriginal Americans. I was born here and am as native to this land as any other human born here and frankly resent the use of the term Native American to refer to just them.


If you weren't talking about race, then your comments make no sense at all.

Native Americans can be white, black, brown, pink, purple, fuchsia, you name it. Has absolutely nothing to do with race at all. Get out of the old world way of looking at things.

These comments above are a great example of someone making no sense at all. You can cherry-pick your arguments, but you can't cherry-pick your reality. And please don't presume that you know my "way of looking at things"--at least not until you've walked a mile in my moccasins, kemosabe.



well I don't know what people mean other that. Because there is only one actual RACE, the human race.

I would name you the King of the Disingenuous Comment, if only you were any good at it. If you sincerely don't know what people in this conversation mean by the word race, you would do well to can the snark and just read what those who are actually informed are writing about. But of course you do know what we mean by race. You simply suffer from the perfectly American condition of not being able to talk about race without resorting to the ridiculous.

You are, of course, right, that all people are part of the human race. But as the word "race" means "category of people" (John Adams referred to the "American race" on at least a couple of occasions) then only a nincompoop would suggest the existence of the larger set of humans isn't commonly divided into subsets. The question here, then, is are you seriously taking the nincompoop's stance? If so, I will merely respect our differences.
 
Maybe if you're someone that easily gets offended by everything. Lighten up. If someone calls me gay, the SF kind, not the happy kind you don't see me get all riled up do you?

I didn't make it up by the way, from urban dictionary

many Indians don't wear bindis (please use the actual term) and not all natives wear feathers. The I hear people use the term fagot (of wood) more often than gay as in happy

New Oxford American Dictionary said:
USAGE Gay meaning ‘homosexual,’ dating back to the 1930s (if not earlier), became established in the 1960s as the term preferred by homosexual men to describe themselves. It is now the standard accepted term throughout the English-speaking world. As a result, the centuries-old other senses of gay meaning either ‘carefree’ or ‘bright and showy,’ once common in speech and literature, are much less frequent. The word gay cannot be readily used unselfconsciously today in these older senses without sounding old-fashioned or arousing a sense of double entendre, despite concerted attempts by some to keep them alive. Gay in its modern sense typically refers to men ( lesbian being the standard term for homosexual women), but in some contexts it can be used of both men and women.
 
The only time I've heard of fagot as burning wood is in early 20th century or earlier usage.

Yeah obviously not all Indians of either kind wear bindi or feather, I never suggested they did. Who cares?
 
I kind of agree with that too, I mean my ancestors have been in America for over 200 years. I'm not saying I exactly object to using the term Native Americans for Indians but I would support a more inclusive term as well. It seems from what we've heard on this thread that most Native Americans don't even like the term and the only people who insist on it are politically correct whites (I haven't seen a survey on it so just going by what's been shown in this thread) and if that's truly the case why not use native American to mean all native born Americans (of course in that case I suppose it shouldn't be capitalized).

But back to VRC, it seems like he's now acting like different races don't exist in the following post which is being purposefully obtuse in my humble opinion.
 
I don't think hardley anyone thinks wearing feathers makes you inferior.

Depends on how many one wears.




I am superior to the one on the left, but politically equal to those on the right.

And those below are the enemies of all civilization.




Where does one draw the line, then? The following photograph shows someone reaching the tipping point--that delicate political equilibrium just one feather's weight away from looking ridiculous.


Hang in there, sister.
 
I'm 12 years old and what is this?
 
I'm 12 years old and what is this?

Son, I'm just going to have to explain it to you like this. You see that first picture, with the chicken suit? Good. Then we've got a second picture with some ladies, a third picture with the spawn of hell, and back to the ladies for the fourth.

I guess what I'm trying to say is....

Just remember to be sexually attracted to the even numbered pictures, not the odd numbered ones.
 
It may not be the most mature source but I don't have any reason to question their definition of the phrase or their explanation of the usage. I'm not asking the site to explain the French Revolution or something like that.

Forgive me if I sound a bit obtuse but you're not actually 12 are you civ_king?
 
It may not be the most mature source but I don't have any reason to question their definition of the phrase or their explanation of the usage. I'm not asking the site to explain the French Revolution or something like that.

Forgive me if I sound a bit obtuse but you're not actually 12 are you civ_king?

I'm twelve years old and what is this?
 
I have to keep up with my memes. I've never visited --- and I guess I haven't read youtube comments enough. I think ---- might even be blocked in Turkey.

Apparently a certain website's name is actually censored from this site.
 
I agree. As long as the context isn't ambiguous, what's the difference?

Indeed. I don't understand why people think it's confusing to use the term "Indian." It seems a little anal retentive to me.

"The Europeans traded with the Indians." OK that one sentence all alone would be confusing but if it's in a book on the French and Indian War? I mean if you read "Indian" and think Hindu warriors were raiding farms in Upper New York then you're an idiot and context doesn't matter to you.

And "American" is kind of an ambiguous term as well without any context (like most words).
 
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