Street name in Phoenix deemed "offensive"/stanton wants to change it (Scottsdale: to live, safe)

[SMG]

Originally Posted by Call

Invenereal means that one does not give a ****. Aeronautically invenereal means that one does not give a flying ****.

From this day forward, this term will be at the forefront of things I say. I thank you.

[MyNameIsBellaMia]

Originally Posted by stevek64

Homeowners fight Phoenix mayor's plan to change street name | 12NEWS.com

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...ge-street-name

Waste of time/money or something that should be addressed? I think stanton is there to listen to his constituents and the majority don't want this change. Plus isn't there more pressing matters/priories to be addressed in Phoenix?

Why don't you tell us the name of the street in question so we don't have to click on click bait links?

[ScottsdaleMark]

We've had ten pages discussing the name, Mia. And 12 News and US News are reputable sites, don't worry, you won't get infected with malware or whatever by clicking on the links.

[raindance maggie]

Originally Posted by Prickly Pear

I like seeing non-Native Americans determining what's offensive to Native Americans. Because non-Native Americans' opinions matter more than Native Americans themselves on this issue, obviously.

Just because it is a non-European centric word that is synonymous to the word b*tch, doesn't mean it's not offensive.

I already explained----
Squaw was derived from the eastern Algonquian language, and it doesn’t mean the b-word or anything else derogatory or vulgar. It means a woman. If you can’t accept this fact I don’t know what else to say.
This may come as a shock to you but why should anyone care if something is offensive to so-called Native Americans? Why are those people even called Native Americans but the rest of us aren’t? I was born in this country so that would make me a Native American too. Their ancestors migrated here from distant lands just like all of ours did.
Any kind of wrongdoing the white men did to those people has long been made up. They now have the same opportunity as everyone else to make something of themselves but many of them choose not to.
Go to any reservation and see how deplorable their living conditions are because they’re too lazy and unmotivated to change their backward ways.
Despite the dark history, it was still predominantly the white men-not the so-called Native Americans-who built this nation and made it the prosperous country it is today.

Originally Posted by Prickly Pear

Just a reminder, Barrow, Alaska recently changed it's entire town name to Utqiagvik, which was it's original name. That change went into effect on December 1, 2016 legally. I like how you guys are complaining about changing the name of a small road, yet an entire town was able to accommodate their people. Tell me, how did this town name change affect you? Or if you even knew or cared about it? Did you complain when Mount McKinley changed to Mount Denali?

If it's offensive to Native Americans, then they should change the name. It's that simple.

Apples and oranges.
Barrow is a small remote arctic town made up mostly of Alaskan natives, better known as Eskimo. Phoenix is a big city with maybe 2% of the population made up of these so-called Native Americans.
You’re saying the city should change a small street just to appease 2% of the population?
I’d bet money those 2% probably don’t even care about the term or the street. The mayor and his cronies are pushing all this politically correct hoo-hah just to appease their own kind.

[Archer705]

Haha I'm not in Arizona but there is a street in my city called Dick Street that has a woman's shelter on it.

[SMG]

Pretty busy throughfare in Michigan, Big Beaver Rd. Many women are probably hurt and self conscious every time they drive by it. Been there for decades, not going anywhere.

[Phil75230]

Originally Posted by stevek64

Or we can look at it as the control freaks/judge & jury types who tell everyone what is offensive or not and poke their business into those who live on this street who the majority say they don't want their street changed. You perhaps favor being told what to do by others in spite of something you don't want changed and say, "how high should I jump?". That's great, more power to you, but don't push your world view on others as your world view/way of looking at things are probably different/very different according to others as my examples of the definition of bit*ch and squaw clearly show.

Many words express more than just dictionary meanings. They also carry unspoken but obviously present undertexts not present in other words with similar meaning. Take, “h***y” for non-Hispanic White, “h**k” for rural, low-education whites. They’re not mere socio-economic descriptors, they carry the idea that these kinds of people deserve whatever rejection and degradation they get due to their group membership alone. Not castigated due to an actual wrongful or derogatory treatment or act by that person against another, but simply because of the presumption that the person *must* be that way. This is especially true of society already deems the term demeaning, yet they use it anyway. Don’t even ask me about all the times I grew up hearing “There’s blacks, and there’s n*****s” (I’m white non-Hispanic, for those who think it makes any difference).

This can’t help but destroy the targeted group’s trust that society will see and judge them as individuals, not as a person with unflattering stereotypes of their group. It only reinforces in the targets mind that the deck is stacked against them, especially when silence from the majority is taken as acceptance of such attitudes, especially if many “otherwise nice people” tend to patronize them or use them as the “token _____ “. From there, it just keeps on getting worse, and, if taken far enough, outright bigotry and even oppression. That is how ethnic hostility gets started – as should be obvious from Trump’s blatant demagoguery against a whole plethora of others, and now we’re at the point where the nativists are coming out of the woodwork and expressing outright hostility and humiliation against others, and in a few cases even killing them.

All the “sticks and stones” approaches in the world will not change the fact that social acceptance of unflattering names (especially highly derogatory ones) more or less invites others to castigate the person as a second-class person at best, and to all the stuff I mentioned above.

No, rather than make the one’s subjected to castigation change their attitude and accept conventional definitions of “normal” and “respect-worthy”, why not the traditionalists take responsibility for their own acts and expressions toward others – especially since they themselves would not put up with such blatant disrespect from others who treat them this way.

Originally Posted by stevek64

As defined by Phil75230 of course what is acceptable or unacceptable?

This threat to free speech mantra is simply wrong. France, Germany, etc. have freedom of the press or to protest government policy, even with speech codes. It's not like they've turned into North Korean on account of it - or even China or Russia or Cuba. By that standard, we'd have to say Social Democracy and/or Democratic Socialism eventually leads to the return of the Soviet Union (economics shifting left relative to the US will always shift left - an unfounded assumption), or even that increasing social welfare spending inevitably will make all of us poor and/or lazy.

There's a huge difference between speaking up against language that degrades the essential dignity of another's personhood and merely making controversial claims about hot potato issues that clearly are not attacking the person or people who believe the claim being challenged. F.ex, a claim critical of Christianity or Islam or Atheism (so long as it's not hinting that believers are bad or disgusting in some way), or capitalism or socialism (ditto), is not an attack on the dignity of believers or nonbelievers. True, it may be highly uncomfortable to hear, but it doesn't constitute a personalized derogation of the believers or nonbelievers. Such speeches would provide actual useful information about the belief system. "H**k", "h****y", "n****r", and squaw do not do so. So when the government starts banning acts or expressions that provide actual useful information, then I'll start to worry.

BTW, your link Using the Word Squaw Respectfully actually makes the exact opposite point you're trying to make. At best, it only says that Native Americans themselves didn't necessarily use it negatively. It was whites who often used it negatively. If a street is in an overwhelmingly non-NatAm area, and had that ethnicity from the beginning, then that may be a sign using "squaw" for the name of a street is likely treading on thin ice.

[Call]

Phil, you took a lot of words to say two things, both of them wrong. One thing you say is that the words or phrases mean or imply what YOU say they mean or imply, not any of the other meanings or implications in common use. The other wrong thing that you imply is that YOU are the proper arbiter not only of what words mean, but what people should be allowed to express.

Who died and made you king?

[ScottsdaleMark]

Originally Posted by raindance maggie

Any kind of wrongdoing the white men did to those people has long been made up. They now have the same opportunity as everyone else to make something of themselves but many of them choose not to.
Go to any reservation and see how deplorable their living conditions are because they’re too lazy and unmotivated to change their backward ways.
Despite the dark history, it was still predominantly the white men-not the so-called Native Americans-who built this nation and made it the prosperous country it is today.

You're literally criticizing all Natives ("go to any reservation") and saying they're "lazy," "unmotivated" and "backward." All of them!

I personally think Natives are a people as valuable as any other. You disagree and therefore I certainly understand why you don't care at all about whether Squaw Peak is offensive to anyone.

[TempeAZnative]

IF they are going to change it then it should be renamed Snowflake Ln.