CMV: People should stop using the argument that Native Americans should be referred to as members of their tribe instead
A lot of the time, when the argument comes up over what to call people who are descendants of the people who lived in the Americas (and generally who were in the US) before Columbus arrived (I will be referring to these people as Native Americans for simplicity), some people will say that those people should be and prefer to be referred to as members of their tribe. You shouldn't call them Native Americans, or Indigenous Americans, or anything else; you should call them the Navajo people or the Choctaw people.
But I feel this argument is senseless. Native Americans are each part of their own tribal nation, yes. But that doesn't mean using a word to collectively refer to them isn't useful, and that's why people are asking/debating over a term in the first place. Even if a term that fit that criteria would be referring to a highly diverse group of people, we already have and use terms like that for other groups of people. For example, people often use the words "European" and "Asian", even though, like "Native American" and other terms for those people, those words refer to people from many different nations and many different cultures, religions, languages, and ethnicities. Having a
Bluntly speaking, the framing does a lot of heavy lifting here which is why the comments look the way they do Interested to see the follow-up. That’s the impression it gives me.
From my side, the direction makes sense but the details are messy which turns this into more of a debate That’s just how it reads to me.
To be fair, the main issue seems to be how this is handled That’s what makes this interesting. Not convinced this is settled yet.
the main issue seems to be how this is handled Curious how this plays out.
this feels more about execution than intent Others will probably see it differently.
To be fair, there’s a lot said here but not much clarified which is why the comments look the way they do
Stepping back, this feels like a half-step, not a full move which explains why reactions are split That part stands out. That’s just my read on it.
From a practical angle, the signal is clear, the strategy less so which is why this is getting picked apart That’s just how it reads to me.