A Canadian Inuit woman on holiday in NZ has taken offence at a piece of kiwi confectionary known as Eskimos, a chewy, baby-shaped sweet popular in the traditional "50 cent mix," and the choc ice cream Eskimo pie.
Apparently the word Eskimo is now considered offensive to Inuit, as it's a Canadian Indian word meaning something like "an eater of raw meat," and Inuit apparently don't like being labeled by their traditional foes from the south.
Anyway, let's consider liberal autonomy theory.
Under liberal autonomy theory, names of peoples should be self-chosen, and no group should have to put up with names imposed on them by others.
This is why Eskimos are now called Inuit and Canadian Indians are known by the highfalutin' title First Nation Peoples.
This also applies to names of places, which is why foreigners can no longer refer to Mumbai as Bombay or Sri Lanka as Ceylon, and why children's knowledge of geography is just sooo good these days.
There are however, a couple of major difficulties in the application of this liberal autonomy principle.
"Powerful" groups such as western whites, have to respect indigenous names, but minority indigenous people don't have to refer to whites using white names. Hence New Zealand Maori are allowed to refer to European New Zealanders as Pakeha, and Canadian Inuit can call Canadian whites Qallunaat, but Canadian or New Zealand whites can't come up with their own names to replace Maori and Inuit.
Another problem is that if you don't allow people to use their own names to describe others, things can get pretty confusing.
For example, in some contexts an Inuit can't call Canadian Indians, Native Americans, since Inuit are a type of Native American and to do so would be to suggest Eskimos aren't indigenous.
However, if he were to call them Indians he'd be using a term imposed on Native Americans by whites, and since whites can't call Inuit Eskimos, why should Inuit be able to call Native Americans or First Nation Peoples Indians - what's the pecking order there, PC theorists.
Given all the problems with applying this PC theory in practice, it might be best if such minor breaches of political correctness were overlooked.
Non-Canadian Whites have adopted the word Eskimo in good faith, and only use in an informal context, and anyway would this woman prefer we called Eskimo pie, Inuit pie. I think not, since that would probably be more offensive, since instead of being a quaint, naive title Inuit pie might be taken as an informed racial slur, referring to the previous Eskimo practice of leaving unwanted babies out on the ice to die during hard times.
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5 comments:
You are right that there is a double standard but that doesn't mean that some of the pc descriptors shouldn't be embraced. To me the word 'Pakeha' is very helpful (and i am proud to call myself such) as it separates out ethnicity (new zealander of European decent) from nationality. Without words such as this you will have a)more people denying that they have an ethnicity (the 'we are all just New Zealanders' crowd) b) confusion as to whether a description relates to ethnicity or nationality - eg would a short newspaper article that described someone as English or German cover a second generation pakistani or turkish immigrant to those countries?
While Maori can refer to "pakeha" but NZ whites can't come up with names to replace Inuit misses the point. The term Pakeha is not derogatory, however the word Eskimo is offensive to Inuit. If it is considered derogatory to the Inuit, is the fact that the name was originally adopted in good faith and used in an informal context, a good enough reason to continue its use as a label on a one of Tip Top's popular icecreams?
Mark,
I take your point, about ethnicity, people who say they are 'just kiwis,' are people who are denying their own cultural background.
Chris,
"If it is considered derogatory to the Inuit, is the fact that the name was originally adopted in good faith and used in an informal context, a good enough reason to continue its use as a label on a one of Tip Top's popular icecreams?"
Since it's now part of kiwi culture, I think it's up to the locals to decide.
If the branding/name is dated and offensive then they can complain to the company.
I'm happy to respect other cultures wishes in formal situations, and support the 'when in Rome' principle, but I think people in their own country should be allowed to express their interpretations and opinions of other peoples in other places.
If this Canadian "Inuit" woman has a problem with the descriptive word of "Eskimo", then I suggest she begin her childish quest in Canada -- beginning with the official Edmonton Eskimo Football Club!
Inuit literally just means "people"; those who use it often refer to non-Inuit humans as qallunaaq, which is a term from Inuit mythology referring to the offspring of an Inuit and a dog. If that isn't enough, some Inuits want to refer to themselves as Inupiat, meaning "real people", just to make their racism against everybody else even more transparent.
I think the lollipop hater should focus on eliminating racism in her own culture before coming down to complain about New Zealanders.
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