Native Americans protest South High's refusal to let student wear eagle plumes, beads on graduation

[happyslug]

58. The names of people and things change over time, but their intention is to define people or things

Prior to the 1950s the preferred words for African Americas was "Colored", thus the National Association of Colored People (NAACP) uses the term Colored in their name (Martin Luther King used the term "Colored" in several of his speeches in the 1950s and 1960s).

Starting in the 1950s and becoming the dominate by the early 1970s, "Black" replaced "Colored". Most of this movement was self identification for the term "Colored" originally meant someone who had genes from not only other African Americans but from the White population. In the 1800s it was common to place "Colored" above "Blacks" for it was assumed the white blood made the "Colored" a smarter person then someone without those genes.

By the 1960s this division within the African American Community was seen as self defeating. How can you fight for equal rights when lighter skin African Americans saw themselves as "better" then darker skin African Americans? The answer is you could not, so the term "Black" became the preferred word replacing "Colored" almost completely.

Starting in the 1990s several African Americans Commentators noted the use of Irish-Americans, Polish-Americans etc among ethnic whites and said that the term "African-American" was a more accurate term then "Black" for "African Americans". Do Irish-Americans or Polish-Americans etc what to go back "home"? The Answer is NO for their home is the USA. The same with African Americans, they are proud of their African Roots but their home is in the USA, thus the term "African American" has slowly replaced "Black" (Through NOT as quickly as "Black" had replaced "Colored&quot .

The same with Native Americans, they are Americans not people from India (or the East Indies, or where ever Columbus thought he was when he named them). Indian is a poor name, it has with it confusion with India/East Indies AND bad connotations from all of the old stories of the Westward movement of White Americans. Thus a better word was needed and using each tribe own name was not a real option for they knew they needed a name to show who they were but that they were also Americans.

It took them a while and the various variation of the term "Native Americans" (First Americans, etc) before an universal accepted name could be "adopted" (Adopted not in some formal adoption but its wide spread use instead of "Indian&quot . Like African Americans (And its variation, Afro-Americans etc) it is still in the process of being adopted.

As to whites claiming to be "Native Americans" we do not have to make such a claim, we are still the Dominate group in the USA and even if present trends continue (and they will not) we will still be the single largest minority in the USA even as the percentage of whites drop below 50% of the population by 2050. All we have to say we are "Americans" and people know who we are, i.e. WHITE AMERICANS. We do NOT need to be known as "Native Americans", it is a term we do not need.

On the other hand "Native Americans" is easy to see applies to people who are NOT "Americans" (defined as "White Americas&quot . They still see themselves as part of the USA but they are the descendants of the people who were already here in 1492 as oppose to us White Americans who rarely can trace ourselves back to 1607 (and are NOT brought in to do heavy labor as was the case with African Americans).

First Nations is a good option, but Nation of what? I like Native Americans for it shows that they are AMERICANS (As good as any White American) but also are NOT white Americans. I maintain the same with the Polish-Americans, Irish-Americans, German-Americans, Mexican-Americans etc. they are all Americans and the use of the word America in the Ethnic Name shows they are one with this Nation we call the USA.

That they are NOT White Americans is shown by the Ethnicity. That background has some affect on how they see themselves as Americans and we have to accept that for many of these "Ethnic" Americans were NOT treated that well by "White Americans". That we are working together to solve the problems caused by that pass mistreatment is a sign this country is addressing its ethnic problems.

On the other hand doing an attack on a term because you want to say you are under that term, even if by nature of the term you would NEVER have used it yourself is something else (i.e. you are still holding the position, maybe only on the subconscious level, that the only real Americans are White Americans). As a fellow White American I take affront to that assumption, Native American is a good term, it better defines that group then "Indians" or "American Indians".