"Jim Carter" wrote in message
...

"Floyd L. Davidson" wrote in message
...
You said before that your niece told you how they felt...

The only people I've ever seen get as adamant about it as you
are, are *all* non-Eskimos, and have also all been people who
have limited contact with them at best. (And yes, in my opinion
school teachers typically have limited contact with them,
unfortunately.)

The last school teacher, or former teacher in this case, that I
talked to about it was my daughter. She spent three years going
to school in Albuquerque a few years ago, and told me that a lot
of people objected to her use of the term Eskimo. They'd tell
her she should said "Inuit". She'd politely say, "No, I am
Yupik Eskimo."

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

Floyd: It takes time for some people to adjust to proper and polite
society. It may take years for you to change your outlook on life, as
you
see it, just as it took years for most people in the USA to accept that
certain racial slurs are not acceptable to most people. If you want to
call your Yupik people "Eskimo" then by all means, go ahead, it's your
life, but, please do not refer to the Inuit in the Canadian Far North as
"Eskimo" To do so, you will then be referred to as an uninformed bigot.
I am not "Black" but I would not think it proper to call a black person a
"******" even if "he" calls himself one.

Therein lies the problem. If the term is derogatory then it is derogatory by
any and all that use it, one segment of society cannot reserve the term for
their exclusive use.

"Bert Robbins" wrote:
"Jim Carter" wrote:

Floyd: It takes time for some people to adjust to proper and polite
society. It may take years for you to change your outlook on life, as
you
see it, just as it took years for most people in the USA to accept that
certain racial slurs are not acceptable to most people. If you want to
call your Yupik people "Eskimo" then by all means, go ahead, it's your
life, but, please do not refer to the Inuit in the Canadian Far North as
"Eskimo" To do so, you will then be referred to as an uninformed bigot.
I am not "Black" but I would not think it proper to call a black person a
"******" even if "he" calls himself one.

Therein lies the problem. If the term is derogatory then it is derogatory by
any and all that use it, one segment of society cannot reserve the term for
their exclusive use.

I'm not sure that is a valid statement.

However, one thing is positive, the term "Eskimo" is *not*
derogatory by definition. The etymology is not derogatory, the
proper meaning is not derogatory, and the common usage is not
derogatory.

The fact that some Canadians began to use it in a derogatory
manner doesn't change the English language around the world.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)