I think that in our multicultural time, all Americans should be able to answer some basic questions about various minority groups. Here are three that come to my mind:
1. In December, most African-Americans celebrate a winter holiday called __.
2. Most American Jews organize their lives around the __ calendar.
3. People in the 48 contiguous states who are descended from peoples who inhabited the Americas before the European conquest (but are not Hispanic) are most likely to prefer that their racial group be called __. [UPDATE: I added the parenthetical in response to Bumpjon’s comment, and the reality that many people do treat Hispanic as a racial designation, even though the census and many others view it as an ethnic one that could apply to people of any race.]
To see the answers, click on the “Continue” link that immediately follows this line:
1. Christmas.
2. Gregorian.
3. American Indian (according to 1995 data; please let me know if you know of more recent data).
William Sulik says:
I would guess the chief patriotic holiday for persons of Mexican descent in the USA would be: Independence Day (July 4). William Sulik(Quote)
QET says:
2 out of 3. I naturally guessed “Native Americans,” I wonder why? I believe Canadians use “Amerindian,” which we should adopt if for no other reason than that it shortens the designation by two syllables. QET(Quote)
sbron says:
I remember that survey about “Native American” etc. The first preference of American Indians was to be referred to by the name of their tribe, Indian was second. sbron(Quote)
notaclue says:
Nice point, EV. It’s patronizing to be more sensitive on others’ behalf than they are themselves. notaclue(Quote)
sbron says:
Also, Canada refers to its indigenous people by the uber-PC “First Nations”, although “Aboriginal” is also used in government terminology. sbron(Quote)
PersonFromPorlock says:
Even shorter is “Amerind,” a term from anthropology. PersonFromPorlock(Quote)
CJColucci says:
Reminds me of the results you get when you ask, which is correct: “Two and two is five” or “Two and two are five.”? CJColucci(Quote)
Bumpjon says:
I thought it was Mexican, Latinos, or Hispanic. Bumpjon(Quote)
L says:
I said Christmas, Gregorian, and Indians. I’ll take partial credit for #3. L(Quote)
bee says:
“According to 1995 data...”
Reminds me of the joke about the drunk looking for his dropped keys near the lampost — not because he dropped them there, but because that’s where the light is. I don’t expect 1. and 2. have changed over 15 years — and I don’t imagine anybody had a difficult time guessing the right answers to those questions.
3. seems like a much closer call to me and should probably have been left off in the absence of better evidence. “Native American” was a comparatively new term back then — its usage has since spread. Google searches comparing “Native American” with “American Indian” consistently favor the former term — sometimes by a considerable margin.
Then again, I don’t know whether you have much of a joke without #3. bee(Quote)
Laura Victoria says:
I’ve spent a lot of time in the southwest and been on a couple of reservations. They like Indians, not native-Americans. The elitist self-appointed spokespeople always are different. Most blacks prefer blacks, not African-American. Laura Victoria(Quote)
yankee says:
Got my Julian and Gregorian calendars backwards, oops!
If you’re attempting to point out how dumb multiculturalists are, you need to try harder though. Who thinks most American blacks celebrate Kwaanza or most American Jews organize their lives around the Jewish calendar? (And where are the multiculturalists trying to promote the opposite view?) The point about “American Indians” is a bit more obscure, but I give this particular effort at trolling us multiculturalists a C-. yankee(Quote)
Kevin! says:
#2 is kind of a crappy trick question, isn’t it? The best answer would be mixed lunar/Gregorian, with the religious holidays matched to Gregorian equivalents. As stands, it’s kind of an eye-rolling commentary about integration. Kevin!(Quote)
Urso says:
Shouldn’t the answer to #2 be Jew-lian? ROFL
...
I’ll show myself out. Urso(Quote)
ruuffles says:
Nowadays the use of the latter is not so much for PC but for clarity. Is it dots or feathers? ruuffles(Quote)
KevinM says:
“Most ... are likely to”?
As Yogi (possibly) said, 90% of the game is half mental.
[Good point, revised it. –EV] KevinM(Quote)
byomtov says:
I’ll show myself out.
Make it quick. byomtov(Quote)
uh_clem says:
1. New Year’s Eve
2. Microsoft Outlook
3. Fred
How’d I do? uh_clem(Quote)
Whaddona More says:
So all libertarian geeks should feel free to visit their local inner-city predominantly African-American/black neighborhood and refer to the individuals there by the n-word term used in rap music. Bonus points for using the popular pronounciation dropping the final R. Whaddona More(Quote)
Sonicfrog says:
I voted “present” on all three! Sonicfrog(Quote)
Bleh says:
D’oh! You sure got us uber-PC, left-wing, commu-nazis there! Bleh(Quote)
Malvolio says:
That reminds of a riddle (a Sikh friend told me!): what’s the difference between Hindus and Sikhs? Hindus are push-start (mime pushing the bindi with your finger); Sikhs are pull-start (mime grabbing the end of the turban-wrapping and giving a chainsaw-like pull).
If you are not Hindu or Sikh, perhaps you better be very good friends before you pose this riddle to someone who is. Malvolio(Quote)
Bama 1L says:
I don’t find the suggested answer to number 2 satisfactory. Unless Jews don’t participate in the economy with everyone else, they organize our lives around weekends and civil holidays (some of which are Christian in origin), except for when religious holidays intrude. The Saturday-Sunday weekend and the civil calendar aren’t particularly Gregorian. So I think a better answer is “the American civil calendar, plus specific religious holidays.”
But here’s the thing: every religious adherent does. Christians, too, make use of a lunar-influenced religious calendar for calculating Easter, which in turn shapes the rest of the liturgical year. The Islamic religious calendar is lunar, for that matter. Bama 1L(Quote)
Bill Poser says:
In Canada “First Nations” and “aboriginal” mean different things. In Canadian constitutional law (specifically, Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982) three ethnic categories are specially recognized: Inuit, Métis, and Indian. The three together are referred to as “aboriginal”. “First Nations” is the politically correct term for “Indians”; it does not include the other two “aboriginal” groups, namely the Inuit and Métis.
Not only does the Constitution Act use the non-PC term “Indian”, so do most Indians. “First Nations” is used mostly by PC non-natives, but to some extent by native organizations in official contexts (e.g. many of what in the US would be called “tribes” that used to be called “such-and-such Indian band” are now called “such-and-such First Nation”). The minority of Indians who refer to Indians as First Nations other than in formal contexts tend to be highly assimilated. Bill Poser(Quote)
Tony says:
Would having the facts right change my answers? Frankly, I don’t know. Tony(Quote)
Houston Lawyer says:
American Indian makes the most sense. It is both clear and descriptive. I always objected to referring solely to American Indians as Native Americans, since I feel that anyone born here is a Native American.
Is anyone offended by the “dots or feathers” question? I could see someone taking offense, but it is always used solely for clarity as far as I know. Houston Lawyer(Quote)
falafalafocus says:
I don’t understand what you are trying to say here. How is this relevant to the topic? falafalafocus(Quote)
second history says:
In comments about the 2010 Census, the National Congress of American Indians never once uses the term “Native Americans.” second history(Quote)
Maistre says:
Hilarious. Bravo Prof Volokh! Maistre(Quote)
Mark Horning says:
In my experience most American Indians refer to themselfes as Navaho,(or Pima, or insert tribe name here), and Indians second, often combining the two as in Pima Indian. Mark Horning(Quote)
U.Va. Grad says:
But two and two indeed make five, for large values of two.
U.Va. Grad(Quote)
Bruce Lagasse says:
There is no such thing as a “native American”. The first inhabitants of North America would be more properly designated as “Siberian Americans.” The only truly “Native” anythings would be the original inhabitants of the Olduvai (sp) Gorge and the Great Rift Valley. Everyone else on the planet is an immigrant or a descendent of immigrants. Bruce Lagasse(Quote)
ShelbyC says:
I though it was great. Why so low? Do you know of a better way to troll multiculturalists? ShelbyC(Quote)
yankev says:
Kevin, most of my close friends are Orthodox Jews, but we are a small part of the American Jewish community; even as an Orthodox Jew, I know a lot more non-Orthodox American Jews than I do Orthodox. Take my word for it, the correct answer is Gregorian. yankev(Quote)
yankev says:
He’s saying he does not like libertarians. yankev(Quote)
yankev says:
And 1+1=10 if we’re dealing in binary numbers. yankev(Quote)
Woodland Critter says:
Per cursory inspectio of the linked report, It would be more accurate to say “Survey participants who self identify using the term “American Indian” or equivalent, ....” Many of us, identify ourselves as “white”, “black”, etc. Woodland Critter(Quote)
Mike B. says:
I don’t know why, but I find this quiz to be a bit creepy. Mike B.(Quote)
D.R.M. says:
Sure there is. Anybody born here. D.R.M.(Quote)
Ha says:
My experience teaching on the reservation is that “American Indian” or really just “Indian,” is a generational form of speaking. Just like you hear older Americans with substantial African heritage still refer to “coloreds.” It’s comfy to use words the way you grew up with them. Ha(Quote)
L says:
I can’t figure out what this has to do with multiculturalism. A multiculturalist might, I guess, assert that Indians should be called “Native Americans,” but even a non-multiculturalist might believe that they prefer to be called that. The non-multiculturalist might just not care. Or, a multiculturalist might be aware that Indians call themselves “Indians” and still assert that they should be called “Native Americans” anyway. I guess my point is that multiculturalism is a normative position, and these questions are all empirical matters, so I don’t see the connection.
Unless the idea is that multiculturalists are multiculturalists because we are ignorant of certain empirical truths. I don’t know if I’m a multiculturalist or not, but I don’t think I became any less of one when I learned that Indians call Indians Indians. L(Quote)
yankee says:
uh_clem wins the thread. yankee(Quote)
Petep says:
Que ? No habla .... Petep(Quote)
D.O. says:
What’s the point? Suppose, as a matter of contrast, the correct answer to the question “The majority of American gun owners consider their most cherished right to be ______ ” something else than a right to have a gun. This will prove exactly what? D.O.(Quote)
yankee says:
He needs to come up with trick questions to which the “trick” answer reflects something multiculturalists advocate or believe. It would also help if they’re not transparently obvious trick questions. Question 3 sort of qualifies, but questions 1 and 2 are pathetic. I don’t have any suggestions, but I’m supposed to be the victim of trolling, not the troll. yankee(Quote)
Dave N. says:
I find it interesting, though, that terms do change: I doubt any of us would use the term “Negro” anymore, though 50 years ago it was common (and still used by the United Negro College Fund) let alone “Colored” (other than by the NAACP, which hasn’t changed its name either). I think most people would probably use “Black” instead — in large part because it is less of a mouthful than African American and it is not considered an offensive term.
On the other hand, attempts by Uber-PC types to create words to describe groups has frequently fallen flat. I know of very few people who use “Chicano,” “Afro-American,” or, my favorite for utter idiocy, “womyn.” Dave N.(Quote)
Steve says:
I don’t even understand what #2 means. The vast majority of American Jews celebrate the Jewish New Year. Jewish religious holidays, even in this country, are calculated according to the Hebrew calendar. If we’re just talking about day-to-day life, on the other hand, is there anyone at all who thinks most American Jews write the year as “5770” on their checks? Steve(Quote)
John Thacker says:
A similar issue comes up with certain of the Alaska Eskimo people, such as the Yup’ik. In Canada, there’s a movement to avoid using the term “Eskimo,” and to use Inuit, because it’s thought offensive, including by Canadian Inuit themselves. (And I agree one should avoid offense.) However, the Yup’ik (found in Alaska but not Canada) are explicitly not Inuit, though their language is similar enough to the Inuit language that they are Eskimo. As a result, they prefer Yup’ik, but strongly prefer Eskimo to being called Inuit. (Imagine someone objecting to the term “Oriental” but then insisting that all East Asians be called “Chinese” and you have some idea of the problem.) John Thacker(Quote)
RowerinVA says:
Thread winner! RowerinVA(Quote)
yankee says:
Even the NAACP and the UNCF, though they still retain their full names, have chosen to emphasize their acronyms. They don’t use “negro” in any other context.
As for “Chicano,” Afro-American,” and “womyn,” even those of us who are very lefty-PC (the right has its own brand of political correctness) don’t say that stuff. The only time I ever see “womyn” is by right-wingers mocking its supposed use among feminsts,* and nobody says “Afro-American.” I think “Chicano” is still used by some activists though.
*There’s a “Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival,” but they’re the only exception I’ve ever heard of. yankee(Quote)
Paulie Carbone says:
This is what passes for clever around here? Paulie Carbone(Quote)
r gould-saltman says:
What comes to mind, after this comment thread, is the sequence in Freakonomics in which Sudhir Venkatesh, attempting to poll gang members in the projects, realizes, IIRC, that the range of permissible responses to the poll question:
“How do you feel about being young, black, and poor?”
needed to be expanded from:
“a. Very Good; b. Good; c. fair; d. not very good; or e. very bad”
to
“a. Very Good; b. Good; c. fair; d. not very good; e. very bad; or
f.Fuck you!.” r gould-saltman(Quote)
Ken Arromdee says:
Googling and ignoring dictionary, Wikipedia, and such, gives the first hit as “Womyn’s Web — Celebrating the Power of All Womyn”. The second one is that music festival you mention. The third is on a left-wing site called Indybay that is using the term seriously. The fourth is “Rural Womyn Zone”, the fifth is “Amaranth Womyn Lesbian Community”. The sixth is a breast enlargement ad, which may not be feminist but is obviously trying to tie itself in to feminists. I didn’t get a single right-wing result until “The Failures of Feminism” on page *4* (unless you count the Urban Dictionary one). Ken Arromdee(Quote)
Dave N. says:
Yankee,
I agree that neither the UNCF or the NAACP uses the words “Negro” or “Colored” except in relationship to their official names. My point is that when those two organizations were founded, the names were not chosen out of any sense of irony and that times have changed.
Seconding Ken Arromdee, “womyn” has 270,000 Google hits — the first being a paid ad headlined: “Shop Womyn at Nieman Marcus.” So evidently we are to believe Nieman Marcus is a right wing organization engaging in mockery. Who knew?
In the first 10 pages of Google hits, I found fewer than half a dozen links that were anything but positive about “womyn.”
By the way, “Chicano” has 13.6 million Google hits and “Afro-American” has 2.6 million, so SOMEONE is using these terms. I must travel in the wrong circles. Dave N.(Quote)
JK says:
I feel like there is something I’m not getting. I got all three questions right, but I thought I must be wrong because it was so obvious. I guess the second question has a tiny bit of irony as the Gregorians where a Christian monastic sect, but that was a long time ago. We also all use “Arabic” numerals, is that also funny?
I’ve known “American Indian” sense the Smithsonian opened using that name. Are we really still laughing at Columbus not knowing where he was?
What is so clever about this that it’s getting all these bravos from commenters? JK(Quote)
A.W. says:
reminds me all of a beer commericial from a few years back. it showed a bunch of old men over irish pipes, shambling into bars, as the voice over says, “every year, all across ireland, thousands of people congregate in pubs to celebrate a traditional ethnic holiday.”
Then it shows in the pub itself and its mexican music and everyone is shouting, “Happy Cinqo de Mayo!”
Which despite the obvious irish stereotyping going on there, is a pretty funny ad. A.W.(Quote)
Sammy Finkelman says:
1. In December, most African-Americans celebrate a winter holiday called __.
The answer you are looking for is Kwanzaa, but I don’t think it is true. I first heard of Kwanzaa in 1986. At that time I found out it was invented in 1966. It’s pseudo-old. I don’t think a MAJORITY of African Americans celebrate taht although by now probably everybody has been exposed to taht in school.
2. Most American Jews organize their lives around the __ calendar.
Jewish calendar. You could call this News of the Tautological.
Actually, that’s probably not most anymore, although Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur and to some degree Passover are are at least noticed
You could still say significant events or days in their lives.
You could also call it a lunar-solar calendar.
3. People in the 48 contiguous states who are descended from peoples who inhabited the Americas before the European conquest (but are not Hispanic) are most likely to prefer that their racial group be called __.
Well, their spokesmen maybe may prefer Native American. In reality few mind Indian. Eskimos are separate and the word perhaps is not liked now because of stereotypes so there is Inuit. Thias has gone further in Canada. Sammy Finkelman(Quote)
Sammy Finkelman says:
So you actually wanted the real answers. Sammy Finkelman(Quote)
Sammy Finkelman says:
It was used almost universally until the winter of 1968–1969. The transition took place from approximately October 1968 to april 1969.
For a few years before black was sometimes used as an adjective, particularly by “black militants”
The word black replaced Negro only over Martin Luther King’s dead body. This is literally true. He strongly opposed the use of the word “black.” If he had not been killed on April 4, 1968 we would still be using Negro, or perhaps something else other than black. (but not colored which was the less respectable Southern word)
The way it is now they even rewrite his speeches to avoid the use of the word Negro and hide the truth from younger generations. Sammy Finkelman(Quote)
Syd Henderson says:
I see “Womyn” on T-shirts sometimes but the T-shirts are starting to look rather worn out. Syd Henderson(Quote)
Bleh says:
Obviously the fact that this little quiz has thoroughly discredited multiculturalism. Duh.
Clearly the only answer given these results is to lump people into groups that are as large as possible, tag everyone in the group with the majority accepted label for the group, and ignore the fact that such compression may ostracize certain portions of the group.
I’m just glad that we have a leader like Professor Volokh who’s willing to embrace his own label as a left-wing university professor... Wait.... Bleh(Quote)
josh says:
How many Native Americans (or American Indians) need to say they want to be called Native Americans before I would be justified in calling the entire group Native Americans? Does it have to be 50% plus 1? What if it’s only 30%, but that 30%, and the remaining 70% refer to themselves as American Indians, but don’t really care that much? josh(Quote)
Perseus says:
The term that feminist multiculturalists have adopted is Chicana/o (ladies before gentlemen). Perseus(Quote)
L says:
You already may call Indians “Native Americans” or “American Indians,” whichever you prefer. L(Quote)
ploome says:
In the Americas, ‘hispanic’ is a euphemism for the indigenous people of Central and South America. In USA we call them Native Americans. ploome(Quote)
Dave N. says:
I am not doubting your history, but I know the term “Black” was not unheard of before then. John Howard Griffin’s book Black Like Me, for example, was printed under that title in 1961. Dave N.(Quote)
Crunchy Frog says:
Just don’t call them late to dinner. Crunchy Frog(Quote)
Crunchy Frog says:
So are the womyn wearing them. Crunchy Frog(Quote)
Libertarian1 says:
For many years whenever I filled out a questionnaire, I answered that I was ” native American”. I was born here so that was an honest answer. Evidently so many others must have chosen similarly and skewed their data that they have changed the potential answer to Native American/American Indian. So now I just ignore it, along with income. Libertarian1(Quote)
brent says:
brent(Quote)
Foobarista says:
A funny story: I live in a city where numerous South Asian Indians live, and reported their ethnicity as “Indian” on the 2000 census.
Census bureaucrats hacked the dataset and replaced “Indian” with “Native American”, and briefly claimed we had one of the highest Native American populations in the country... Foobarista(Quote)
Denny says:
Until this week, hispanic and herpanic referred to illegal immigrants stopped by Arizona police. Denny(Quote)
Laura(southernxyl) says:
Re: being oversensitive on behalf of other people.
I read a couple of articles some time back about people being sensitive on behalf of Muslims in England. First, “The Three Little Pigs” was no longer taught in elementary school b/c the administration didn’t want to offend Muslims. We don’t eat pigs, but we don’t mind our kids reading about them, the local Muslim leaders said. The second was about schools not offering hot cross buns at Easter anymore, for the same reason. The local Muslim leaders said, but we like them too. Laura(southernxyl)(Quote)
Bruce Hayden says:
A couple of thoughts.
I deal with one Indian tribe that calls itself a nation — but then, I realized that the organization that I deal with is Canadian.
I think that one of the most ridiculous things going on right now in the PC world is Kwanzaa. Christmas has now morphed into a combined Christmas/Kwanzaa/Hanukkah celebration. You go to a late December school presentation, and they seem to invariably any more try to combine all three. While some Jews I know question celebrating Hanukkah this way, as a Christian, I have no problems. But pretty much every Black I know is (usually a pretty devout) Christian, and is already celebrating Christmas. Throwing in this made-up holiday presumably just to placate Blacks and to make them feel better about themselves is absurd.
Finally, if you want to see the dynamic that Sammy Finkelman was pointing out, note the “Moynihan Report”, officially titled “The Negro Family: The Case For National Action” by the U.S. Department of Labor written by liberal icon Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1965. We had to read it as freshmen/freshwomyn in 1968, and yet by the end of the year on campus, no one was using the “N” word. Bruce Hayden(Quote)
sbron says:
The cutting edge term is Chican@.
Similar to the official Spanish government spelling Tod@s for Todos/as. sbron(Quote)
1Ler says:
Sometimes I wonder if this blog is a magnet for grumpy people with chips on their shoulders. Then I realize that it’s just the internet in general. 1Ler(Quote)
Norman Normal says:
Here you go,1Ler. Norman Normal(Quote)
Ken Arromdee says:
You may think it’s funny to say, when asked “what may I call them”, to reply “you may call them whatever you want”, but the joke falls flatter than usual when the question wasn’t even worded in a way which allows this misinterpretation. He asked when he’d be justified in calling them Indians. Ken Arromdee(Quote)
d-berg says:
Of course, they are an American Indian organization. But which words do Native American organizations use? d-berg(Quote)
Xanthippas says:
sbon is right. Many Native Americans identify with their tribe, but that’s amongst themselves. They refer to themselves as “American Indian” or “Native American” when identifying themselves to non-Natives. The term “Native American” is not the preferred term of “elitist spokespeople”, which is a ridiculous and uninformed statement. The difference is generational. Most older Natives prefer American Indian, because that’s what they’ve been called forever. Younger Natives don’t like that term because they don’t like the inaccurate term “Indian” (they do not consider it “clear and descriptive” like Houston Lawyer above, because it isn’t.) Very political Natives of all ages really don’t like American Indian, but you usually don’t run into those. The truth of the matter is Natives in general don’t really care that much about this issue, and won’t get offended if you refer to them as Native Americans or American Indian, because they understand that it’s sort of in flux as to which term is considered “appropriate.” You may get extra credit for referring to them by tribe though. Xanthippas(Quote)
Throbert McGee says:
Better yet, use the phrase las chicanas o los chicanos — which lets you dazzle the monolingual riffraff with your hard-won mastery of the Spanish definite article and its almost satanically complicated inflectional paradigm. And, also, it demonstrates that you know how to say “or” en español. Throbert McGee(Quote)
Allan Leedy says:
I assume this principle opens up the n-word to all? Allan Leedy(Quote)
Peter Shalen says:
Stay, please. That was great! Peter Shalen(Quote)
Peter Shalen says:
Whatever may be said for the term “Native American,” it does not contribute to clarity. I grew up thinking I was a native American, and I find the use of the term for American aborigines a major source of confusion. Peter Shalen(Quote)
Today's Tom Sawyer says:
I know that my people use the name Cherokee....1/32nd myself, but never have heard the bloodline referred to as Indian Today’s Tom Sawyer(Quote)
bbbeard says:
In Texas I’ve heard the terms “real Indians” and “fake Indians” — because, as everyone knows, real Indians come from Oklahoma.
BBB bbbeard(Quote)
bbbeard says:
I knew you were looking for the answer “Indian”, but I’m not convinced your answer is correct — at least not for the question as you’ve worded it. What percentage of the “white” population has an Indian ancestor? My wife and children do, although my wife is “white” and my children are multiracial only because my mother was Japanese. I would bet a Coke that there are more “white” people with some Indian ancestry in this country than there are people who call themselves either Indian or Native American. bbbeard(Quote)
Andy McGill says:
The answer to number 2 is that most most American Jews, like a majority of American families, organize their lives around the school calendar. Andy McGill(Quote)
NickM says:
I asked these questions to 3 non-political people I know. 2 of the 3were unable to answer question 2, because they were unfamiliar with the name “Gregorian calendar”.
Nick NickM(Quote)
Gringo says:
The United States has always been a meeting ground, a mixture. I find the multiculturalists rather naive. They remind me of people who thought THEY had invented the wheel, or of someone who just realized he had been speaking prose all his life. ¿Me entendés?
I am fluent in Spanish, have worked overseas, and had foreign students for roommates when I was in grad school. I have American Indians in my family tree. The homeowners in my HOA include Blacks and immigrants from all over the world. I relate to them as fellow Americans.
The multiculturalists are full of hooey. I detect a very strong condescending tone to them, as if they are trying to bring enlightenment to the benighted. Gringo(Quote)
Eugene Volokh says:
NickM: See, it really is a multicultural literacy quiz — it would be good if the people you describe were more knowledgeable about our culture, and in particular the calendar that it uses. Eugene Volokh(Quote)
silverpie says:
Frankly, most of life is organized around the week, which is the same in the Hebrew calendar as in the US version of the Gregorian (as opposed to the European, which starts weeks on Monday instead of Sunday). silverpie(Quote)
betty from boulder says:
In my part of the country the answer to no. 3 is “not Ward Churchill.” betty from boulder(Quote)
Visitor Again says:
I remember the precise moment when I began using “black” instead of “Negro.” It was the summer of 1967; I was working for a law firm in Santa Barbara after my second year of law school, and I was living in Isla Vista, the student community next to my alma mater, UCSB.
When I graduated from UCSB in 1965, there were no black undergraduate students at UCSB; at least I never ran across one, undergraduate or graduate for that matter. When the student council, trying to take a slight corrective action in the 1963–64 school year, proposed using student funds to sponsor a single scholarship for a black student, they were prevented from doing so by University of California lawyers because they were told it was racial discrimination. Thus UCSB, in the name of anti-discriminatory principles, remained lily white, not a single black face among the 5,000 us. I digress (although I would like some of you younger folks to see why affirmative action was needed).
Anyway, I was in I.V. in the summer of 1967, talking to n friend from my college years and one of his black friends. I used the word Negro in the conversation, and my friend showed some displeasure and said “black” was the term preferred by most blacks. His black friend confirmed this. When I returned to Harvard for the 1967–68 school year, nearly all the students were using “black” instead of “negro,” although professors were slower to change their usage.
We ought to be free to call people by the term we ourselves prefer except when that term is displeasing to those to whom it is applied. The exception is common civility. Visitor Again(Quote)
jeff says:
#2 I prefer “Rigid Tool”. jeff(Quote)
helene edwards says:
Undoubtedly the single most important multicultural fact is the one Richard Pryor made part of his act in the ’70’s. He said, “black people walk like this (mimes slow languid); white people walk like this (fast robotic). Explains just about everything, really. Law firms, many of which like to boast that their work “needs to get done yesterday,” somehow find a way to avoid those afflicted with the first style. helene edwards(Quote)
Xanthippas says:
This is not very persuasive. Hardly anybody who was born here ever needs to use a term to distinguish themselves from immigrants. Americans who were born here refer to themselves by their ethnicity, or simply as “Americans.” Therefore it is really not all that confusing that people whose ancestors are native to the continent might use the term “Native American” to distinguish themselves from people whose ancestors are later arrivals. Native American is in fact more accurate than “American Indian” and the only people who ever quibble with it are people who think the term Native American is “PC” or otherwise wish to deny minority groups the ability to name themselves as they see fit, for whatever political justifications they might dream up. Xanthippas(Quote)
Xanthippas says:
I’m from Texas and have heard the same, but used by Native Americans to distinguish people who are legitimate members of a tribe by descent or enrollment or tradition, from the approximately 50% of the white population that claims to have had a Cherokee grandmother. Xanthippas(Quote)
yankev says:
Used to see it a lot more in the early to mid-70’s, when it was used by some of themore extreme feminists.
That’s 1970’s, by the way, not the 5770’s. yankev(Quote)
yankev says:
Tell me you didn’t at least smile at the answer Microsoft Outlook. yankev(Quote)
yankev says:
Langston Hughes used it too. But it did not go mainstream and become the politely accepted term until 1968. I remember noticing it as it happened, but did not realize the connection with Dr. King. I do remember Sammy Davis going on TV to plead for calm after Dr. King’s murder; during the plea, he referred to himself as Afro-American, which gained some brief currency in the 1960s and early 1970’s. yankev(Quote)
integregated says:
I prefer my kid’s gradeschool terms, beige and brown. She liked to paint and would describe her friends in gradations of those two colors. integregated(Quote)
Rich Rostrom says:
JK says: “the Gregorians where a Christian monastic sect...”
Trying to be clever here? There is not and never was a “Gregorian Order”. “Gregorian” refers to Pope Gregory XIII, who established the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, by the bull Inter gravissimas.
It can also refer to Pope Gregory I (the Great), who was credited in legend with inventing the plainchant form of rendering psalms and other liturgical verse. Rich Rostrom(Quote)
Steve Skubinna says:
The term “Chicano” originally referred to a subculture, the successors to the “Pachucos.” There was a major generational gap, and the austere dress of the Chicanos (generally jeans and tee shirt) was a reaction against the more formal, dandified attire of the latter (Zoot suits).
While many use it to refer to Hispanics, or more narrowly to Mexican-Americans, I doubt that it is universal. Many Hispanics I know would be puzzled and a little irritated to be called Chicanos. Steve Skubinna(Quote)
bbbeard says:
Pope Gregory was also an early student of probability and statistics. I’m sure you’ve heard people refer to “Gregorian Chance”.... ;-)
BBB bbbeard(Quote)
ohwilleke says:
I’m doubtful regarding Native American v. American Indian answer.
In 1995, the Native American preference was about 30% for a relatively new usage. Fifteen year old data is probably insufficient, in light of a high level of public debate on the subject including many renamed sports teams that would have to change only modestly to tip the balance.
The legal term is generally “Indian” and the legal term for a reservation is generally “Indian Country,” but the globalism has made the term “Indian” standing alone ambiguous outside a context like a legal opinion where there is no possible alternative meaning.
The reference above to the 2010 Census comment is also questionable for establishing usage, just as the NAACP’s official name would be misleading.
The context of the question also assumes acceptance of the view of everyone the category as a form of self-identification. Many people would identify themselves of “Navajo” or “Cherokee” or “Sioux,” for example, rather than as part of an outsider created global ethnic group. ohwilleke(Quote)