Some of my ancestors were killed by native Americans back when we were still a British colony, killed by native Americans using bows and arrows. The name "Archer" is emotionally distressing to me, so much so that I will not be able to work today. What about my feelings, damn it?

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the bad word they now call the "S" word.
Although ti's been shown to be obscure and unknown, it's as harmless as calling one a turd.
And FARK on a lark had a thread about it and nothing of strong sauce accomplished
The whites and the reds both went to their beds and tried to figure out Squamish

Rafe: Lots of people here missing the point entirely - shocking, I know.

It doesn't matter what the origins of the word 'squaw' are, or whether or not it's Oprah's fault it has negative connotations (disregarding the much older literary examples outlined by rufus-tfirefly above).

What matters is that many First Nations people, Algonquin and otherwise, take offense to the term. Trust me, I went to school with many Cree, Dene, and Lakota Sioux kids, among others, and let's just say they aren't fans.

So what's so difficult about avoiding the use of a term that has been established by its target group to be, in fact, offensive?

It's not about being "butthurt" or political correctness going overboard. It's about adapting our use of language to avoid unncessarily pissing off large groups of people. I think that's pretty easy to accomplish without limiting ourselves - this idea that somehow we'll run out of benign words is a laughable strawman argument at best.

In this particular case, I don't see an attention whore. I see a First Nations mother calling out a teacher for handing out an assignment (yes, a decidedly underwhelming one given the age of the student) that employs an outdated term considered offensive by the very group to which it refers.

I also see a teacher who clearly didn't work out the answer himself beforehand, but who realized his mistake and issued what appears to me to be a very sincere apology and immediately took steps to make amends.

So if all parties in the article seem to agree that this was a mistake - albeit a relatively minor one in the grand scheme of things - what's wrong with admitting that just might be the case?

Uh-oh.

Too many of you are being dumb squaws.

Mock26: Makh: I would be really pissed if my kid had that as homework. As covered here, it's crap math for a 17 year old and it leads to an ignorant phrase. This paper virtually teaches nothing and in fact, more things need to be taught to make up for the crappy paper.

Crap math for most 17 year old students, but it is very advanced for a 17 year old jock. I am actually surprised he did so well.

I suspect the crooked lines were drawn by him, and the rest were filled in later, by his parents.

What a squaw may look like:

Subby is wrong. The parents are right.

I'm so glad that more and more white people are waking up to the fact that some words are pejorative and hurtful. I'm also very glad that there are white folks out there who are refusing to train their children to be racists.

Seems to me subby belongs to the realm of unenlightened white people who get butthurt when they can't say any insensitive effing thing they want without being called on it.

This is the hope and change I've been looking for. A bit of silver lining to start my day.

Squaw is the new n-word? Double plus good!

Squaw is not the preferred nomenclature, Larry.

FriarReb98: And I'm sorry, but we as a human race need to stop getting offended at every goddamned thing.

I'm full-blooded injun and I agree, but squaw is a pretty bad one. It's not an issue of being offended, it's a safety issue. Folks running around natives saying that are likely to get knifed.

MissFeasance: That's math homework for a 17 year old?

This. Granted my memories of highschool math are fuzzy, but at 17 I feel like we were beyond basic arithmetic and BEDMAS rules.

Also, I like how he tried two lines without the ruler and then caved. I can just imagine him hunkered over the test trying to draw a straight line and finally saying "fark it" and then searching for a straight edge.

Chief Short Cake? Was she killed by General Purple Pieman?