Meaning no disrespect to a serious cause, am I a bad person for indulging in an ironic chuckle over the name of the person chosen as spokesperson?
As you can see in the story here, Native Americans are asking that the word “squaw” be removed from various place names. They say it’s a very dirty word, and I have no reason to doubt them; but the reason they want it removed is not that it’s dirty, but that it demeans and disparages people.
I’m okay with that. I have no problem with their campaign and wish them well. I don’t intend to start a debate about the word.
I can’t help but laugh a little, however, out of the fact that they’ve chosen, as their spokesperson to spearhead the campaign against a demeaning term, Norma Peon.
I’ve always understood squaw to mean woman, but I acknowledge that native americans find it offensive. However, a native american friend of mine gave me a recipe for Squaw Corn. Kinda hard to determine how offensive it is. I don’t get where the “offense” comes in if it means “woman.” I guess I’ll tell my little niece to start calling it Native American Corn.
Kalhoun, I’m asking that we not debate the issue in this thread.
To address your specific complaint, I would venture a guess that dictionaries in general may be bowdlerized. Think about it.
LHOD, to be honest, I read the article in a local (physical) paper and ust quickly Googled for an online source to quote. I didn’t mean to get “Ten-year-olds present: today’s news!” That does look like a book report, doesn’t it?
You see, the spokeswoman’s name is a perfect example of a case where one word that’s offensive (at least to the OP) in one language is not in another.
The lowest grade for any trade or industrial job is a peón, in Spanish. Second lowest is a peón especializado. In chess, it’s the name for the pawns. Nothing wrong with the term at all.
So long as I’m speaking English, a “plaza” is a building (usually a singular one, but not always, I’ve seen English-language “plazas” that were completely surrounded by other buildings); when I speak Spanish it’s an open space between buildings where several streets meet (what’s called a “square” in English).
Squaw may be insulting in its original language - in English, it’s not.
Well, at least in Florida, “Plaza” usually refers to a building or collection of buildings similar to a shopping mall, but with no enclosed space between the shops (i.e. you walk in the open air between them.)
Occasionally you will see the word referring to a semi-enclosed place such as Nava and yourself refer to. And occasionally you will see buildings developers want to be associated with that, more “upscale” meaning, referred to as plazas even when they aren’t.
Peon =
1.
a. An unskilled laborer or farm worker of Latin America or the southwest United States.
b. Such a worker bound in servitude to a landlord creditor.
2. A menial worker; a drudge.
3. also (pyn) In India and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, a person of menial position, especially a messenger, servant, or foot soldier.
It’s got a fairly negative connotation, somewhat akin to “minion” or “servant”, which could also be said, in some nations, of “squaw”.
But more specifically that, again in *some *Nations, “squaw” pretty much means “female peon” or “female person of little or no social worth or value who does only menial labor.”
That does look like a book report, doesn’t it?