Honest

My roommate and I were talking Thursday night. She made a statement I wanted to verify, so I asked, "Really?" Her reply? "Honest Injun." All I could say was "uh..." as the knot in the pit of my stomach started to form. She quickly apologized, and said, "I guess you're the wrong person to say that to." (I'm 1/8th Indian, and a bit more in touch with it than most people would think a red-headed light-skinned girl would be.)

We had an interesting discussion on how many American Indians consider that word on par with the "N" word. She wasn't sure you bought that one. Well, dear, it's the truth. For me, it just makes me sick to my stomach. It was good to see her on the opposite side of the racial slur. See, the thing is, people don't realize that it is a slur, much like some people don't consider the "N" word to be a slur. It's all about exposure.

This reminds me of a professor I had my last semester of school. He is a great guy, and I like him a lot. However, during the course of the semester he told two jokes with the word "Injun" in the punch-line. The problem is, how do I (of all people) let him know that his comments were offensive. Even though who better to tell him? I think walking into his office, and sitting down and starting the conversation with, "So, I'm 1/8th Native..." wouldn't really be all that smooth. However, walking in as a pale-skinned red-head and not announcing that would be rather counter productive, as then I have no stakes in the comment.

Yeah, here's one I'd love to solve. As it were, if I could figure out a good way to approach that I still might consider dropping by his office and having a chat with him.