Re: Redskin
Posted by TheFallen on April 01, 2002 In Reply to: Re: Redskin posted by R.
Berg on April 01, 2002
: : Redskin is a racial slur today, but what was the logic behind
the word's origin? Because Indians scalped their victim, I'm assuming
this has something to do with it's origin. Doesn't anyone know?
: The origin had to do with skin color (or supposed skin color),
not blood. Under "redskin," the Oxford English Dictionary refers
the reader to one of the definitions for "red": "Having (or regarded
as having) a reddish skin." People of other races are similarly
called black, white, or yellow, equally unrealistically.
: The earliest quotation in the OED for "redskin" is "Ye first Meeting
House was solid mayde to withstande ye wicked onsaults of the Red
Skins" (1699).
I suspect it's in some way related to Columbus's original belief
that he'd found the East Indies. Red Indians, though equally as
racist, was an interchangeable though probably fractionally more
polite (!) term for redskins, at least in the UK, presumably to
distinguish them from Indians from India and West Indians too.
- Re: Redskin Jen 04/01/02
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