Regarding the Term "American Indian"

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Down here in Alabama we say Indian. Many times we simply say the tribe, like Cherokee or Choctaw or Creek. Almost everybody who is born in Alabama and has family here for several generations is part Indian. It's a huge part of the culture here and we have tribes, exhibitions, arts and crafts, and even an Indian burial ground that schools go on field trips to. Everybody here seems to know which tribe they are and how much Indian blood they have. When we say Indian down here most people know what we mean, and when we mean someone from India we simply say "A guy from India" or "a foreign lady Indian". American Indian is the default Indian in our vernacular. We still have many school mascots that are Indians and I've yet to see anyone be offended or crying their little eyes out over that. I've actually seen kids say that they should get to wear the mascot costume at the ball games because they have more Indian blood than the particular cheerleader who has been wearing it. It's about talent, not amount of Indian blood though, so that never works.

At my kids school, which has the mascot of an Indian and the name of a particular tribe, they have an 8 foot tall Indian statue dressed like a Plains Indian in the entranceway of the school. There are tomahawks painted on the parking lot and on school themed items. Many people in this county are that type of Indian, but the biggest group in Alabama is Cherokee. I'm actually in a Cherokee tribe and I have a roll number from the government. So does my oldest son. I need to get my other kids signed up for it as well. A lady I used to know worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and said it was important to sign up for that so when your kids were older they could get scholarships. Thats honestly why most people signed up. They do go to the "pow wow's" and learn the crafts and such, but mainly the gatherings have nothing to do with Indian stuff. It's usually just the same people who show up at the tribal land and spend the weekend in the cabins hanging out, listening to football or Nascar on the radio and portable TV's and cooking BBQ or fishing and just kicking back.

Even though to the govt I'm Indian, I identify as Italian. I'm half Italian but only 1/8 Cherokee. You can be in a tribe and have a roll number up to 1/32. Also, because of how things used to be in the South, where lots of times Indians didn't have birth certificates and many people were ashamed of Indian heritage until around the 60's it's common for it not to be documented. We don't have to have documentation down here, at least my generation doesn't. There isn't anything anywhere on anything that states my grandfather's mother was full blood Cherokee, but everybody in the family knew it, there are old pictures that are obvious, stories about her and her family etc. My grandfathers sisters denied it to the day they died, but that's because it was considered mixed race to be part Indian and they were born and raised during a time where if you were anything other than full blood white, you were "less than". That started changing in the 60's.

I have a roll number from the gov't and the term Indian doesn't bother me, so I'm certainly not going to listen to somebody else define what I should be offended by. Also, the term dago, guido, guidette, guinea, nor wop offend me.My younger son even tells people that he's a guido, because he really is. You rarely see a blonde one, but he's got the olive skin and dark brown eyes, and he's tall unlike a lot of Italians, but he's very much a stereotypical guido about his clothes and belongings and such. He's not a douchebag guido though, there is a difference. His gf is mostly German and really wishes she was one of those guidettes but he has told her that if he wanted a trashy gf he wouldn't be with her, and guidettes from Jersey Shore, which is where she gets her ideas, are the definition of trashy sluts, so he's glad she isn't one.

Maybe I have a thicker skin than some or maybe I realize that slang isn't insulting and it's not the same as a slur. I've met so many people who use slang about ethnicities that it's not funny. One of my good friends is Romany. That's Gypsy. Many of the PC whiners nowdays will tell you not to dare say Gypsy because that's an insult. He says it's not. His family is very, very ethnic. They are the kind of Rom who follow the purity laws very strictly. They even have sheets on the furniture that gadje might sit on and don't let outsiders use their china and silver, and they use the word Gypsy, not Romany to identify what ethnicity they are.

I just don't see what the big hoopla is about finding everything except textbook labels to be demeaning and insulting. I think it's a form of oversensitivity.

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LOL...it's funny to hear an Alabaman use "guido."

I've only heard it used in Brooklyn!

And I've never heard it until I was in my 20s--and I've known quite a few Italians.

I once had a girlfriend who had considerable Indian blood--and she looked the part. She insisted on being called "Indian."

I used to work with somebody about 20 years ago who was part Wampanoag.

Being offended is the new cottage industry of the world.

Another part-Cherokee, here----my 100 percent maternal grandmother stepped right off the reservation, and right up to the altar. I say: "Call me anything----just don't call me late, for supper!"

My great-great maternal grandfather is full blooded Sioux, and on the other maternal side a great great great grandmother is a so-called Indian princess, per Cherokee.

That helped me get my first job....

Per Federal Employment..

Per minority preference..

But Haha! I have naturally blonde hair, extremely light blue eyes but tan as bronze as any Indian one might ever see....

The other ingredients are French, Spanish, English, Irish, and French in relatively speaking the same European area...of fair and olive skin mixed....

But without the tan, I am about as white as white comes for humans..

I don't do PC.... Period.

There is more to live for than labels and words.....and math.. too....and science... too.... AND all that other 'formal' 'PC' School stuFF too....

LOTS MORE.....!..

I may be the only person in this thread with not one single bit of Native American/Indian/Amerind DNA. As verified by 23andme.