Huh. Sure, peon is derogatory, I guess. I thought there was more to it than that.
Daniel
Just to note, in Indian English, there’s no negative connotation. “Peon” is simply the plain job title of the guy who makes your afternoon tea, fetches your laundry and your lunch, calls for a taxi, and books your rail tickets. I wish I had a peon.
Just to continue the highjack, our dentist’s name is Ms. Tuggey. Good thing she chose to be a dentist; her only alternative would be as a hooker who specializes in hand-jobs.
Mr. K once had a dentist names Dr. Gore. I mean, really…
What? No complaints against the term Idaho? (Think about it for a moment.)
Hmmmm. Do you have any examples of the word being used to refer to a building, that aren’t part of a building or place’s name? If I were giving you directions and said “Turn right at the next street and go until you see the large plaza on the left” would you be looking for an open space or for a building?
Re plaza, they use it in French too: Place des Arts, Place Ville-Marie, Place Montréal Trust, etc., all buildings or building complexes, not squares (which is the official meaning of “place,” as in Place d’Armes.)
For God’s sake, people! Peon! Pee on! Am I the only one around here with the mind of a twelve year old?
Would you it had been this woman?
???
Do these people have editors?
The fact that any American Indian woman, of any tribe, having any native language is automatically expected to accept the application of a mispronounced Algonquin word by white people might be considered just a tiny bit condescending.
White women might find it demeaning to be referred to as squaws as well. But the linguistic case is precisely the same. Not their language, not their culture, just another case of “those people” all being the same.
Tris
[singing]Whoah-oh, here she comes…[/singing]
It’s not karma. It’s nominative determinism. 
Here in Anderson, the go-to guy for extractions and tricky dental surgery is Dr. Mohler.
The state of Indiana has no plans to change the names of French Lick, Floyd’s Knobs, or Gnaw Bone, so there! 
I was always surprised when the local mountain once know as “Chinaman’s Peak” had it’s name change to “Ha Ling Peak” (after the first man to summit it), but “Squaw’s Tit” has been left as is.
My only explantion is that the local Chinese population has better lobby groups than the local Aboriginal population.
Or Lickskillet or Shake Rag. And not of Mexico, Peru, or Chile either…