From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Redskin is a racial descriptor of disputed origin for Native Americans. Although by some accounts not originally having negative intent,[1] the term is now defined by dictionaries of American English as usually offensive,[2] disparaging,[3][4] insulting,[5] taboo [6] and is avoided in public usage with the exception of its continued use as a name for sports teams. The term derives from the use of red as a color metaphor for race following European colonization of the Western Hemisphere, although initial explorers and later Anglo-Americans termed Native Americans light-skinned, brown, tawny, or russet. According to historian Alden T. Vaughan, Not until the middle of the eighteenth century did most Anglo-Americans view Indians as significantly different in color from themselves, and not until the nineteenth century did red become the universally accepted color label for American Indians.[7] Slang identifiers for ethnic groups based upon physical characteristics, including skin color, are almost universally slurs, or derogatory, emphasizing the difference between the speaker and the target.[8]
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 01:49:19 +0000
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