Had a nice discussion on Facebook with an on a anothers page. I'm glad she facilitated my venting. She must have an open heart.

It started with a news article honoring Navajo windtalkers from WWII at a football game. It was seen as exploitative and racist by some.

I agree, but disagree. I disagree that it was negative ~ which is what racism implies at this point in humanities culture. (2014-June-12)

Ended with this note...

They're trying to ban the name Atlanta "Braves" too for the same reason, because a "Brave" in that sense is directly associated with American Indians and thus race related and racist. Where do we draw the line with curtailing language to stop racism? With so much focus on individual words, the discussion is lost. No one knows if it's right to call Native Americans - Indians, American Indians or anything else. I grew up with "Indians" but I understand that's confusing with the people from "India." However, I grew up sitting "INDIAN STYLE" In school and now it's RACIST?! The kids comes home from school calling it "Cris Cross Apple Sauce." Screw that yo. Well it "can be interpreted as racist" against both Native Americans AND India Indians, since they sit like that sometimes. Black people are afraid to call me white and white people are afraid to call blacks black or African Americans, no Colored, no something else. I feel like it's demeaning to a black person to call them African American so I don't hurt their feelings. Sometimes I do anyway, because I think they'll be offended if I call them black. People are fighting racism by fighting the acknowledgement of it's existence ~ banning words ~ making politically correct alternatives. That works with some things in life, but why not this? Because race is in every ones face every day, literally. We can't defeat this problem by hiding it. We can only confront it and go beyond it. Limiting the very words which are ingrained in the discussion about race only makes the discussion harder and gives those words more unearned power. No one should be offended by a slur, only feel sad for the user. If a slur can bring us to anger, that word owns us. The ridiculousness of blackface is as ridiculous as paleface. The natural evolution of language is to produce descriptive words with the least number of syllables (e.g. listen to locals of nearly any town, they regularly smash the words together to create less syllables)... Blackface has too many syllables, black will suffice. Paleface has too many syllables, white will suffice. "Native Americans?" Due to the sheer number of syllables, you can tell it is a new word. I find more honor in "redskin" than the politically correct term "Native Americans." But then again, I'm a mut ~ a dog of nations. I can't claim much of anything except being an Earthling. In fact, that's the only race everyone one of us can claim; human. These other "races" are just subsets of our own species. In hating any race, we only hate part of ourselves. If my passion comes off as arrogance, I apologize. I just can't stand negative racism and the world seems to go about it with a swift hammer when we need understanding hearts. Look at MLK Jr., Ghandi & Mother Theresa ~ Acknowledge, discuss, defeat. If we can't have an open discussion like we're doing, then we aren't really seeing each others as equals. I really appreciate this open discussion we've had. Thanks.

~~~ May we focus on being human together and share in our wealth of history. Let us remember our triumphs, shames, and the mundane. They are everyone's. ~~~